Here are brief thoughts on recent happenings in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region.
Readers with long memories will recall Candy Stripers: those early-teenage girls who proudly donned a red-striped pinafore and helped out at the (then) Franklin County Public Hospital, assisting nurses with small tasks and earning big smiles from patients. Candy Stripers may be a thing of the past but that’s still a great age to introduce young people, both male and female, to a medical career.
Soon, a new nursing simulation lab at Franklin County Technical School will do just that, expanding on Franklin Tech’s existing health technology program and providing students in all four grades with the means to pursue a certified medical assistant degree, “one of the most in-demand jobs in the medical field and in Franklin County,” noted Superintendent Richard Martin.
It is also the first rung on a potentially lucrative career ladder that students can continue to climb via Greenfield Community College while they work.
It’s great news for drive-in theater devotees that longtime owner Mitchell Shakour chose like-minded buyers for the Northfield Drive-in, which straddles the state line with Winchester, N.H.
New owners Steve and Julia Wiggin of Northfield have lived next door for about 20 years. “It’s literally right in our backyard,” Julia Wiggin said.
Husband Steve cherishes childhood memories of going to the drive-in with his parents. It sounds like they’ve devised numerous strategies to meet health and safety guidelines, such as one vehicle per post, one movie per night, and (alas) no tailgating, lawn chairs or kiddie playground, at least for the time being.
They also have some new ideas: Remember carhops? The Wiggins may revive this tradition as a way of taking concession orders from vehicles and bringing snacks out to patrons.
The theater may also be the site of graduation ceremonies. Now that would be a graduation to remember.
“We are all trying to figure out how we can do this,” Julia Wiggin said.
It looks like the future holds more “magical movie moments under the stars,” as Shakour puts it, for its many fans.
July’s Green River Festival is the latest and biggest festival to take a rain check on 2020. It joins a dispiriting list of “not this year” cancellations thus far including April’s River Rat Race, the Greenfield Bee Fest, originally scheduled May 23, and the Bernardston Gas Engine Show and Giant Flea Market, which traditionally anchors the Memorial Day weekend.
The loss of these events delivers a financial blow to towns and organizers that reverberates through a chain of entertainers, exhibitors, restaurants, motels, campgrounds and food vendors, and sucks the fun out of spring and summer for attendees.
While some things have been moving online, it’s hard to replicate on a screen the joy of bumping into old friends. “Coming together and seeing friends at the Gas Engine Show is what will be missed the most,” Rev. David Neil of the United Church of Bernardston said.
Organizers vow to return in 2021.
“Next year will be bigger and better,” promised BeeFest co-chair Sandy Thomas.