How I remember old Mendon. I have not seen Nipmuck Part since I was ten years old when my family moved to Georgia with one of the first "Yankee" mills to move south. I am 81 now so what I remember has been aged for 71 years. I remember my first airplane ride from the Mendon Airport. Yes, Mendon had an airport. Actually an air strip. Well, maybe a grass field just off the Uxbridge / Mendon road. I was five years old at the time because the barmstorm pilot required that all passengers must be five years old before they could go up in his open cockpit biplane. The flight schedule was simple - Saturdays and Sundays on warm dry days. Return trip was to where you took off from. I remember when we climbed into the front cockpit and the pilot got into the rear seat, that I was afraid that the pilot would not be able to see when we was going. When we go aloft and looked down I asked my father, "Is God up here?". Or at least that is what he told later. Actually I don't remember saying anything. At Nipmuck Park the thing I remember best was the merry-go-round. It had a slotted arm that was loaded with metal rings. If you stood on the edge of the wheel and held on to one of the vertical poles (and you were tall enough) you could stick your hand and perhaps snag a ring. If the ring was brass you got the next ride free - a wonderful prize. If the ring was plain old metal, you were suppose to throw it into a bin that had a big mesh bag to catch it. Then the rings were loaded back into the arm. The brass rings were bright and shiny so grabbers and spectators could see when a winner was in the slot. I believe that the streetcars quit running to Mendon in the late twenty's or early thirties when a flood on the Blackstone River took out the bridge and tracks that were never replaced. Since I remember these things from seventy years ago so well, how come I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning. Don Barnes - Winston Salem, NC P.S. My grandmother was an Albee from Horse Corners

Hi Don: It's great that you do remember the "good old days"! As to what you had for breakfast - it probably wasn't anything you particularly liked, and thus why waste good memory time on stuff you don't like. I remember my grandmother telling me about the "rip" that they had for sledding! Much more fun than a toboggan or even a regular sled. She said the "rip" was faster with a good coating of wax on the runners. For those of you like me who don't think there is anything but coffee ice cream - put some chocolate pudding with it! Great stuff! Of course now in my case - being diabetic, I can have the sugar free chocolate pudding, but somehow, just two spoons of coffee ice cream isn't worth the planning like the Pentagon does for the treat. Forget the sugar free ice cream - worse than nasty. When I was talking about Old Cemetery in Mendon, the "barn" is supposed to be the original, and it is rumored that George 1 Aldrich was the original owner. Also, in Old Cemetery, just down over the hill is a large rock that has a plaque in memory of George 1 Aldrich. It is not known if he was buried in Old Cemetery or not, or just where he was buried. There are old very nice stones in Old Cemetery, and of course there are those that are broken, need to be repaired, and some dug up and reset. Many stones are missing, and some are no longer able to be read. Very sad, as the cemetery is small, yet certainly worth the while to do some serious repairing and renovating. I can remember walking in waste high grass/weeds some years back just trying to get to Rev. Grindall 2 Rawson's grave, and in the rain to boot! At least now the cemetery is mowed. There used to be a road that went off from Blackstone Street where Inman Hill Road is. I think it went at one time all the way over to Quisset Road which then goes out to Providence Street. I thought I heard my grandmother talk about a dam there of some sort, and also a swamp. Does anyone know about that? I didn't travel down that way from either end for fear of getting myself stuck or some such thing. Out both Blackstone Street and Providence Street, big homes are being built. Beautiful, but I still prefer the open meadows and fields, and the woods where there were woods. Still it is progress I guess. To think of all the old mills all over that are going to rack and ruin that could be utilized for many things. Sure it is costly, than building new, but if some of these mills are on the historical register, then perhaps federal monies could be gotten to renovate. Just think- they could be used as schools, housing for the elderly, and condos. Mendon's library is small, and certainly needs more room. A nice mill would be ideal. Thinking of this, the Mendon Historical Society will have the record room open I think this summer for research. There are some very interesting items that are in the museum, and many records that were in the museum are in the process of being moved to the records room. I also understand that some books have been purchased to go into the record room. The are some very old account books for lack of a better word, that in my opinion are a "goldmine" of information. A good project would be to get those transcribed and bound so they could be better utilized, and preserve the originals. Regards, Alison Franks Archivist, Rawson Family Association