Scouts Honor

As a youngster and all the way through high school, I was a Girl Scout. Thanks to two aunts: my Aunt Mary and my Aunt Eleanor, we Souza girls were introduced early on and loved each moment. If you were a Boy Scout, you probably experienced the same thing.  For some reason, my brother was never a boy scout.  I do not think they were as active in the Village.  I started as a Brownie, graduated to a regular scout and then in high school was a junior high scout.  I am a senior scout today, but a different kind. My Aunt Eleanor passed away too soon.  My Aunt Mary, although living in different states, continued her leadership all the way up to leader recruitment.

Juliette Gordon Low founded the American Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia in 1912.  We live only two hours from Savannah and have often walked by her victorian home, now a museum. The following two you tube videos give a nice history for those of you who would like to enjoy it.  There are over 50 million girl scout alumni in the world today,  Remember Girl Scouts selling cookies house to house? I bet you do not have to guess hard to know that
 mint chocolate cookies account for 25% of all sales.
 During WW2, the scouts sold calendars
instead because of food rationing

but started up again right after the war.
 Girl Scout cookie sales began in 1917 in Muskagee, Oklahoma.

It is fascinating to see that the Taunton scouts were founded not long after, 1913 or 1914.  The first Taunton troop was at the Winslow Congregational Church in Taunton.  That was a seed troop as eventually the entire Eastern Massachusetts council flowed from them.  The following link is a good little summary of that history. The article honors Mary Powers, 

a long time leader in Taunton Girl Scouts.

http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/x872935652/Taunton-Girl-Scouts-celebrate-100-years-honor-Mary-Powers?zc_p=1

My first scout memories were of our meetings at Fuller School.  Could not be more convenient. This is yours truly, it look like in our house on Blinn's Court in around 1947 . Get a look at that beautiful radio console on your left.  I must have been around 7 or 8 years old.
 Sorry about the poor quality....that is how old I am!!

Thanks to Pinterest, especially Michelle Smith, where I found these girl scout pins
 that we attached to our scarfs.
 Badges were worked for and earned.

I remember that we took a school bus to Camp King which was located
 near the E. Taunton airport, where we had day camp.

 We wore scarfs around our waists from which we  hung

the tin cups we drank from.

Overnight camp was not as frequent and was at Camp Merriwood.  I cannot find much on that except that apparently it is a housing developement area today.  The red spot seems to be where the camp was located, generally.  Camp Merriwood is listed on the net, King is not.

I used this photo previously when I wrote of front porches, but once again, here we are , I am on the upper left, my sister Kathy on the far right and little sister Mariellen with our dog of that time, sending us off.  All on the front lawn of our homestead on School Street in the Village.

A neighbor gal in the 

middle went with us to camp, too. 

This is a vintage photo of a girl scout overnight camp somewhere, they probably all were alike. We did all the campfire stuff, including s'mores, of course.  I think we just had tents, but that may be an incomplete memory.

Later, as a junior scout in high school, our troop went by bus to Washington D.C. to tour the buildings and monuments.  That must have been in 1956 or so.  We stayed at a Girl Scout hostel there, probably in nearby Virginia.  I wish I had photos...

Perhaps at least one reader will?

As I researched uniforms and such for this post, well, let me just say there is little resemblance to those uniforms of the 50's.....  I hope that the values and experiences remain the same. 

This and that memories

Since writing the past few posts, more postcard photos have become available through the Facebook page I'm From Taunton.  I am sharing them here.  

They are very exciting, giving us more of a peek into the past.

The first is proof positive of two things: one, there is the famous carousel to the left of the entrance to the Sabbatia Lake Park back in the 20's and 30's and perhaps beyond.  Second, there are the trolley tracks we were so sure brought people to enjoy the park on day trips.  This is an awesome photo

and we thank Dave Melanson for sharing it.

These next photo is of the Taunton Green. cobblestones and all.

The red building left is a bit of a mystery.  There is some thought that there was

an opera house in Taunton, might this be it?  Clearly seen is the building on the corner of Court St.

This photo thanks to Dave Melanson also.  What would we do without our collectors?

Someone must have kept these postcards safe over the years.

Another photo with horse and buggies and horseless carraiges.

Thanks to Joseph L. Lequin for this winter scene postcard.

The next one is from 1931.  A Christmas Green photo.  Of interest is the fact that the above

red building we spoke of is gone, and construction is under way for the Post Office still

there today.  A trolley is seen on the right, as well as a diner along the Green.

Love the cars.....  Thanks, Carol O'Connor Soares.

There will be more great photos in the next Post.  I love looking at such photos as it

gives me a look into what my grandparents and parents saw in their day.  Brings them closer,

I have done extensive genealogy studies on my grandparents so this ties it all together.

Taunton in when it was quite something....I experience just the tail end of it all.

Meandering Along the Taunton River

It is wonderful to receive more information about the long gone Sabbatia Lake Park in Taunton. I hope to get more photos in the future and we will come back to this again.  For former Tauntonians, you may be interested in an invitational Facebook page.  Once accepted and registered you can participate in a great nostalgia dialogue.  The page is well administered and does not allow advertisements or personal information other than sharing nostalgia in photos, comments and stories.

 It is delightful. Look for  I'm From Taunton on Facebook.

There is another "cool" subject in Taunton history: the  Taunton River.  Once you start researching, it is fascinating to read of its importance all through Taunton history.  Forgive me the number of websites linkages I allude to, but the subject is unending for a former Tauntonian.

We are talking early 1900's and earlier, no doubt right back to the Native Americans who inhabitated Taunton.  There is a good website about many aspects of the river at this site.

                                        http://www.tauntonriver.org/history.htm#2

From that site, I gleaned that:

   "Various cultures made the Taunton River central for their people.  There are remains of historic sites such as Native American trails (especially the Wampanoags who called it 'The Great River') , river crossings, settlements, remains of colonial grist mills, ship building yards, industrial iron works as well as paper and textile mills.

The River played a central role in battles between the Wampanoags and colonial settlers in the historic King Phillip's War in 1675, statistically considered one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. History.

The Taunton River flows for approximately 40 miles from the (beginning of the mysterious Hockomock Swamp) confluence of the Town and Matfield Rivers in Bridgewater, MA and continues through the towns of Halifax, Middleboro, Rayhnam, City of Taunton, towns of Dighton, Berkely and Freetown to the confluence of Mt. Hope Bay to the City of Fall River and town of Somerset.  

In 2009 the Taunton River advocates won designation as Wild and Scenic. This is important, as the website article quoted below explains, to protect it from the federal government allowing permits and funding which would endanger the River.  Historic cleanup has occurred to date. The River hosts the largest herring run (a symbol of Taunton) with up to 2 million fish swimming upriver annually.  When we were kids the herring run was a must see for all of us families each year. This vintage postcard from http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=photos+of+the+Herring+Run+in+taunton,+ma&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8dates dates back to 1911 --- and today the herring still run!!! 

There is a fine slide show of the event at the following link.   

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2009/04/decadeslong_fight_to_protect_t_1.html

  The River is the cornerstone of a 562 mile fresh water system providing essential services such as water filtration, flood protection and recreation to 38 towns.  Rainbow smelt, striped bass and bluefish enter it to feed. It is home to the rare Northern Redbelly Cooter turtle and the rare Brindle Shiner Fish as well as the river otter, 45 other species of fish and many species of shellfish, 154 types of birds including 12 rare types, mink, grey fox and deer.
              http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2009/04/decadeslong_fight_to_protect_t_1.html

Relating to the importance of the River to industy in Taunton I found this interesting. Though it has taken years to clean-up the river, there is little doubt that it was once the lifeblood of the city for the jobs in provided early immigrants as well as the way supplies came in to Taunton.

We can date the photograph below at around 1907 by researching the
history of Staples Coal, Co.

That company was incorporated in 1888 and was still going in 1930
when someone researching their grandfather on Ancestry found him working there at that time.  The company had 6 tugs and 22 barges and shipped coal from as far away as Cuba.  They had coal silos on Dana St. in Taunton adjacent to railroad tracks.  The advent of oil heating put an end to companies such as this.  That is just a bit of researching one can do into the history of the Taunton River.

   It is obvious from these old postcards that the river was once well utilized for recreation as well as industry.  How far we have come when now we have to work so hard to bring these waterways back to their pristine conditions. Still various waterway alliances are working to do just that.

         

There is a book written by Tauntonian Timoth Brown "On the Taunton River in Taunton, MA - a Journey down the River and Back in Time" which looks to be an interesting historical 

read on the River.

                                    Taunton even had its own Boat Club once upon a time....

what a lovely buccolic photograph.

When I said I was going to meander, I surely did just that didn't I?  I also promised that when I began this summer series, saying that summer is just for that.  Meander along with me with more of your thoughts and photos....there is surely so much more to share about this subject.