Cheshire Chatter
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Cheshire Chatter November / December 2020 Cheshire Council on Aging P.O. Box 507, Cheshire, MA 01225 Carole’s Thought’s The foliage this year has been beautiful. When the sun shines on the different colors, it truly feels like someone is painting brilliant colors across our gorgeous Berkshires landscapes. Although we are all craving for a little bit of normalcy, the Cheshire Council on Aging is operating in a different kind of normalcy. Lunches continue to be helpful to 18-23 seniors a day. Marie and Don offer hot meals received from Berkshire Elder Services with a few minutes of chatting. Old school chums have reconnected, new friendships made, and many laughs are shared each day. The monthly lunch calendar can be seen on the COA Facebook page with reservations required. Donations of $2.00 are appreciated. When the center reopens, you will be pleased to see new tables and chairs in the main room. Six round tables have been purchased in order to enhance ease of conversation between diners. The stage curtains are being repaired by our professional quilter/sewer, Betty King. The front offices have been repainted, decorated, and organized. One office will be designated specifically for individuals seeking virtual medical connections. A camera will be connected for professional viewing and consultations. Blood pressure cups, an oximeter, temperatures will be taken with a forehead device for accuracy and tracking will be in place. General information regarding notices regarding the Corona-19 Virus will also be available. Thanks to Margaret, an avid reader, we have been fortunate to offer her donated books in our mini outdoor library. To date we have given away more than 25 books. Ten, 10-pound boxes of meat have been distributed to seniors received from Berkshire Elder Services. Thank you, Carol F. Preparing the van for scheduling rides is in process. As soon as we have drivers who have met the criteria for BRTA van drivers, we hope to be up and running. Dependent on the Pandemic numbers decisions will be made accordingly if only medical rides will be available. In closing, the holiday season will soon be upon us. Children love the excitement of the season. For some, the holidays are difficult times due to memories, thoughts about those that have passed on, being isolated, and challenging winter weather. May this be the year we all work towards being kind to others, work at making new traditions, and always being grateful for what is. We are a part of societal changes – let’s be positive and motivated to practice good health and safety practices. Cheshire is a true community. We care about our neighbors and want everyone to be comforted with a phone call, a visit, or a plate of cookies. Please remember that the Cheshire Pantry offers emergency food. Just call Carole at 743-9719. This too shall pass. Tomorrow is another day. Keep smiling. Carole An Inventory of My Mother’s Pockets Her apron hangs on the kitchen door, Slack as a snake skin emptied of its occupant. She is gone. Gone to the home that isn’t a home. The memory morgue. The apron pocket gapes, a hungry mouth. In it I find: 3 pills she forgot to take, Cookie crumbs, A comb entangled with grey gossamer strands, A brown newspaper clipping of my dad’s obituary, A broken safety pin that failed it’s mission, Her house key that opens the door She will never enter again. I fold the apron carefully and place it In the cardboard box marked Save. An Original poem by retired Williamstown resident Rose Oliver A HIGH-FLYING LIFE Ed “Moose” Skowron When Ed “Moose” Skowron was a boy growing up in Cheshire, it was “perfect” he says. There was freedom to roam, to ride your bike to different neighborhoods, play on landmarks now gone - the two huge World War I cannons in front of the Cheshire school, the slag piles from the closed ironworks on furnace hill or the open foundation of the old Camel Restaurant on North Street. Ed first lived in a house just over the river in Scrabbletown, owned by Leo Willette, which was the former office for the Furnace Hill Ironworks. His family later moved to a small house across from the Baptist Church and a stone’s throw away from the home of his best friend Wilbur Chase on the corner of Wells Park. Ed went through Cheshire school and then to Adams High School on Liberty Street in Adams, graduating with the class of 1953, the last class to do so. High school students moved on to the new Adams Memorial High School on Columbia Street in Adams the following year. When Ed was a fourth grader, or thereabouts, at Cheshire School he recalls hearing the sound of an airplane landing close by in the field belonging to the Martin family. A relative of the Martins, a doctor would fly in for a week or so to visit and use the field as a landing strip. Ed bounded out of school as soon as possible and ran to see that plane, sitting under the wing for hours, dreaming of flight. His first ride in a plane was at age 4 when his father took him to North Adams and they flew in an old double wing barnstormer with an open cockpit. Ed is quite sure he remembers his father holding him out to see the sights below as they flew over North Adams. During high school Ed worked at Lamb’s Garage, where he acquired his nickname “Moose” after the famous Yankee first baseman Bill ”Moose” Skowron. Ed wasn’t so much of a Yankees fan as his employers were, but the name stuck. Earning $.50 an hour- making $15 a week total at Lamb’s, Ed learned that you could go to the airport in North Adams and for $11.50, an hour’s worth of flying time with an instructor could be arranged. So, his flying career began. After high school Ed joined the Air Force and, as the situation in Vietnam escalated, he soon jumped at the chance to go to flight training school and began his storied career as a highly decorated Air Force pilot. Being shot down on his last mission and dangerous rescue in the Bay of Tonkin makes a gripping story in his Chapter 16 entry for the book “Friday Pilots “. His successful post military career as a Lear test pilot for jet aircraft followed until retirement. A side job taking aerial photographs professionally has also been his business for many years. Ed‘s is remembered, during the 1950s, by some Cheshire residents for his flying prowess as he flew jets he was testing out of Westover Air Force Base at steeple top level to say “Hi” to his parents and friends in the Baptist Church neighborhood, tipping his wings side to side so that everyone knew it was Ed . Once, flying over at nearly treetop level, his sister was so startled that she dropped the dishes she was washing in the family’s kitchen. After the military Ed and his wife Margery Chase, his high school sweetheart, lived in Tucson, Arizona and raised their family. He still resides there and visits Cheshire every summer to stay at his home on Cheshire Lake. Now after 52 years of flying Ed doesn’t pilot anymore. But he continues his photography in his retirement and has belonged to a group called the Friday Pilots who gather regularly at a Tucson restaurant to meet with men who share the love of flying and whose biographies include military, commercial experience and even space flight. A book “Friday Pilots” was compiled about the members of the group, each chapter written by one of the pilots. In his chapter Ed recounts his flying career exploits and harrowing combat experience, and movingly documents his early years growing up in Cheshire. Names and places are mentioned that should evoke nostalgic memories of those who can recall many of them from the 40s and 50s. Ed has served his country and his hometown proud. *Note: A copy of the book “Friday Pilots” is available at the Council On Aging office at the Community Center. Please contact Carol if you’re interested in borrowing it. The neighborhood kids at Ed Skowron’s 9th birthday party on 06-09-1943 Back Row: Wilbur Chase, Bob Newton, Solomon Cole, Jr., Dave Negus, Fred Gale, Front Row: Kay Skowron, Richard Negus, Bob Dorgan, Ed Skowron, Nancy Cole. A visit to Avignon is a remembrance of a trip to France made by an elderly Cheshire resident many years ago. She very kindly allowed us to reprint her story here. AVIGNON A Monday in Mid-September The train from Les Arc to Avignon arrived late in the morning. My hotel was a charming, small, family-owned establishment on a quiet side street off of the busy main thoroughfare. I spent the afternoon exploring. In the main square, Place de l'Horloge (Bell Tower Square), there was a wonderful, two-story carousel. Decided to leave a climb to the ramparts of the Palace of the Popes until the next day. When I returned to the hotel in the late afternoon, I asked the owner to recommend a restaurant nearby where they served local cuisine. He gave me directions to a bistro he said was owned by a couple and specialized in local dishes. He suggested that I not go until about 7:30. Although already hungry, I managed to wait until 7:20. As I opened the door, a man who had been reading a newspaper, rose, smiled and said "Seul?” I answered “Oui.” I was about to tell him that his place had been recommended by Monsieur --- when a door in the back opened and a woman came rushing out yelling, “Nous devons fermer.