All of the campaigns for mayor, City Council, and School Committee have been going on for a LONG time. We’re now down to the final days and the closer we get, the more agitated everybody seems to be coming. Look no further than the comments here on Village14 over the last few weeks if you doubt me.
So here’s a plan. This Sunday, the Newton Conservators are running their Aqueduct walk. They do these a few times a year and if you’ve never been, you should. It’s a wildly different view of the city. Newton is trisected by the Sudbury and the Cochituate (pronounced (koch-i-twa’-tee). The two aqueducts and the Charles River form a triangle. Each of the aqueducts have walking paths on them and they thread their way through the city, behind the streets, behind the houses, and much of it is very beautiful.
So Sunday afternoon at 2 PM, starting at the Starbucks in Waban, take a few hours off from all the campaigning, take a deep breath, and go for a five mile walk on some beautiful terrain of Newton that you’ve never seen. Your host will be the world famous trolley car thief Henry Finch from the Conservators. He’s a fountain of information about the aqueducts, the Newton Conservators, and trolley car larceny.
Go to NewtonConservators.org or 617-964-4488 for more info. I highly recommend it.
Wait.
koch-i-twa’-tee?
You’ve got to explain that one Jerry!
@Terry Malloy – That’s what I was told
How do people who aren’t resurrecting Native American pronunciations say it? I’ve been going around say Co-cheh-chew-it for years and nobody has ever corrected me.
@KarenN – Yes , that’s pretty much the only way I’ve ever heard it pronounced around here. As it says (a little more specifically) in that post – (koch-it’-u-it or co-tit’-u-it) seems to be how everyone around here pronounces it.
From the commercial, Carling Black Label, brewed on the shores of lake
Cochcituate. Karen. Is correct.
Similar in pronunciation as Scituate.
@Jack leader – yeah I’ll go with the beer company pronunciation … unless the original pronunciation of Scituate was (skitch u ‘a tee)
Mass. is home to
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg – try that one in one deep breath!
Karen is correct. There is a section of Wayland called Cochituate and it is pronounced as she indicated. Also probably confusing things a bit more it is mispelled in the blog entry with an extra “c” after the h. Sounds like a nice journey though!
@NewtonHighlandsMom – Thanks, fixed.
Jerry: The old Yankees I grew up with in Newton used to pronounce another famous Native American street and location in Newton as QUINNAUBQUIN.
I love the aqueducts! I also wish it were possible to cross the T tracks intersecting the Sudbury aqueduct near the Eliot station. There is a similar situation at Houghton Gardens in Chestnut Hill, where crossing is permitted – how did that come to be? could the same thing be done here?
@Newtoner – Yes, I would love to see that too. I’d have guessed that the MBTA would never allow a pedestrian crossing for safety reasons, but as you point out the Houghton Gardens crossing works just fine. A crossing at Eliot should be even less of a concern since it’s right outside the station and trains are moving slowly there with good sight lines.
@Newtoner. That opening across the tracks on the Sudbury Aqueduct was an well trafficked opening for pedestrians and bicyclists when the Boston and Albany trains ran on the Riverside, and the opening continued for several years after the MBTA trolleys started using the rail line. The MBTA fenced it off when I was away in the Navy and Washington during the early to mid-60’s and it’s clear they did it for safety reasons. Probably just as well because we used to play softball games in a small field we dubbed “the hole” that ran right next to the aqueduct. The goal of every player was to park a ball over the tracks because whoever was retrieving it would lose precious time looking both ways to make certain that a train or later a trolley wasn’t approaching. There were one or two close calls when a retriever failed to look before bounding across. A safe crossing there now would attract a lot of walkers and bicyclists.
@Bob: Nice piece of history!