In search of cheap help

View of Pack Monadnock Mountain from Temple Mountain, on the eastern side of Sharon, N.H. Temple Mountain was the site of the privately owned Temple Mountain Ski Area from 1938 to 2001, when it was closed. In 2007, the state took it over and turned it into a park. The ski area’s proximity to Greater Boston made it very popular in its heyday, in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

— Photo by Ken Gallager

“I don't mind America becoming a Third World country. The weather is better in the Third World than it is where I live in New Hampshire. And household help will be much cheaper.”

P. J. O'Rourke (born 1947), American writer and satirist. He lives in Sharon, N.H. (population 352 in the 2010 Census.)

'De Wind is Op!'

“Whaleship D'Vergulde Walvis” ("The Golden Whale") passing the tollhouse at Buiksloot on the IJ River, north of Amsterdam, 1759, (oil on canvas), by Johanes de Blaauw, in the Kendall Whaling Museum (Sharon, Mass.) Collection. This is in the show “De Wind is Op! Climate, Culture and Innovation in Dutch Maritime Painting,’’ through May 15 at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The museum says:

“The exhibition includes up to 50 paintings, prints, and other artifacts from the museum's extensive Dutch collections. ‘De Wind is Op!‘ explores the work of the Dutch and Flemish Golden Age, themed around the wind, climate, and sea.

“The Dutch were pioneers in the genre of seascape painting, and the works in the museum's collection speak to a uniquely Dutch national identity. The Dutch were shaped by the sea, prospering as a maritime superpower through the 17th Century. One in ten men in the country was at sea at any given time, resulting in a country with an intimate connection to the ocean.

“At the same time, the demand for fine art was at an all-time high as collecting became popular. This created a surge of seascapes painted with refined compositions and exquisite detail, but also with reality kept in mind. There was little need or want to embellish the ocean when it was already larger than life to Dutch culture. ‘De Wind is Op!’ offers a unique portrait of national identity and a new perspective on the ocean.’’

Small town 'third places'

Post card from 1906 of Sharon street scene

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary’’ in GoLocal24.com

I got a pang when reading in The Valley News that another small-town local store that has acted as an informal community center is being absorbed by a chain. This is the Sharon (Vt.) Trading Post, a general store and gas station. It’s been owned for 32 years by a local couple – Rob and Cathy Romeo -- but they’re selling it to a chain of 50 convenience stores/gas stations, albeit a Vermont one, called Maplefields. Maybe that means prices will fall a bit – economies of scale – but so probably will service and commitment to the community, in the White River Valley, for which the store has been a central meeting place.

There are fewer independent establishments in small towns like the Romeos’ these days, and that’s too bad. All towns need “third places’’ – not work, not homes – to get together.

To read more, please hit this link.