Here are some brief thoughts on recent happenings in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region.
Many readers are nostalgic for a place most of us never even visited: the recently demolished Bernardston bar and nightspot known as The Hollywood. Its name alone seems tongue-in-cheek for such an unprepossessing structure. But back when it opened more than 70 years ago, the Hollywood Cafe, with its wooden bar and fieldstone fireplace, was homespun cozy. It was originally part of Sunset Motor Courts, long since demolished. An old postcard from the early 1950s shows cabins and rooms that beckoned motorists along state Route 5. Decades later, a poster out front proclaimed “Bikers welcome.” Derided by some as “a dive,” the Hollywood nevertheless had its niche in the community. Bernardston resident Robin Davis recalls as a kid sitting in the field to watch the people dancing and listen to the music. She even worked there briefly: “We used to do lots of benefits here. They had community meals for people who didn’t have any place to go on the holidays.” John Remillard of Bernardston recalls a mural painted by an artist as a way to pay off his bar tab. Town Coordinator Louis Bordeaux told the Recorder, “I’ve been shocked by the nostalgia for the place.”
Every town had its Hollywood and/or its locally-owned cafe, and a few of them even remain. You know where they are. They’re worth a visit.
Little by little, life as we knew it returns, sort of, with the reopening of salons, seasonal ice cream stands and bank lobbies.
Many formerly well-coifed residents are still sporting their overgrown pandemic locks as they await their turn for appointments at busy salons, which were allowed to reopen — with restrictions — last week. While they were closed, employees were hard at work becoming “Barbicide-certified” to learn how to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That means lots of changes in the salon experience, but it should also ensure a measure of comfort for anxious clients.
Similarly, “ye old ice cream stand” looks a little different this summer, as reported last week. Visiting your local creamee is no longer a simple little excursion to enjoy with your family. Like salons, the owners and staff of ice cream stands have spent weeks earning the go-ahead from local boards of health to reopen. Mask-wearing for all is de rigueur and social distancing rules prevail. If all this seems incompatible with eating a creamee, you’ll just have to try it. Apparently, customers are willing to go along. “Knock on wood — right now, it’s working,” Manager Beata Bielicki at 5J Creamee in Whately said. “Everybody is ready to do something different.”
Banks and federal credit unions, too, are reopening their lobbies to the public for the first time since closing in March. In the interim, customers have been able to access drive-up tellers, ATMs and online mobile banking, and some of us have become newly adept at transferring funds between checking and savings accounts with a click of the mouse. Banks, of course, have an historical antipathy toward mask-wearing visitors, so when you show up, you will be asked to pull down your face covering briefly and give your best “security camera smile” to verify your identity. Apparently, for both banks and the latest smart phones, mask-wearing and facial recognition are incompatible.