I’ve been a big fan of Bruce Henderson’s Newton Photo Scavenger Hunt posts that have been running every week on Village14 throughout this summer.
That inspired me to take on a little project this weekend. The vast majority of everything that gets posted on Village14 is “of the moment”. People posting about, and commenting on whatever issue is on people’s mind’s today. Mixed in with it though are posts like Bruce’s Scavenger Hunts that will be nearly as interesting a year from now as they are today.
I’ve just added a new menu item at the top of the page – “Timeless V14”. I’ve collected posts that came to my mind in these categories.
Newton Photo Scavenger Hunt – In the summer of 2020 Bruce Henderson published five photos every week of curious, odd, or mysterious objects that can be seen from a public place in Newton. The contest ran all summer. If you read down to the comments you’ll find where each of the objects are.
April Fools – April Fools stories have been an annual tradition for years on Village 14
In Memoriam – tributes to notable Newton citizens who have passed away
Newton History – Interesting local history tidbits
Odds and Ends – Misc posts that someone may want to come back to. Please send links to your favorites and I’ll add them.
Enjoy and feel free to send me ([email protected]) links for anything you think should be added
Great idea – thanks, Jerry!
Thanks Jerry. Revisiting the April Fools pranks is great fun, especially the one that netted this newspaper article.
@Gail Spector – That same day John Rice was also featured in another story without his knowledge
Thank you so much for doing this Jerry! I ended up down a rabbit hole, finding this fascinating tidbit of Newton’s history:
http://whshistoryproject.org/depression/2009/06/20/monte-basbas/
“I’m talking about government. I had to fire my street commissioner when I was the mayor. I had to fire my election commissioner who was a member of my Masonic Lodge and a good friend of mine. I had to fire the building commissioner. Why? I said to the building commissioner, we’re building three schools, a new high school and three junior high schools. I don’t want to hear or see any contract overrides. This is what we decided on. Let’s do it. My friend David Cohen in Newton now he’s talking about a two hundred million dollar high school. They tell him they want him to quit. He’s not going to run for re-election because he wanted to spend too much. I like David. He’s a hell of a nice guy. He’s a good representative, a good alderman, but the trouble is you got to tighten your belts. So I said to my building commissioner “I don’t want to see contract overrides”, and they all came in. I called him in and I said… I won’t tell you his name [laughing]. But you know something, I said, “I don’t want to fire you ’cause if I fire you your reputation goes bad. People would know I fired you. I’ll accept your resignation.” I got his resignation. Now the election commissioner was a good, now I say was a Masonic friend of mine… of my lodge. And I said, “Arthur, you’re always down at the pub in Newton center. When you come to City Hall, your briefcase gurgles. You and I know why. It’s got booze in there. You can’t do that.” So finally I said to him, “I don’t want to fire you, Arthur. You’re a good friend of mine. And I like you very much. I’ll accept your resignation.” I waited a couple, didn’t get anything. Finally I sent a cop down to the pub that he hangs out with a letter of resignation for him to sign, and he signed it. My street commissioner was a great guy, a colonel in the Air Force. And I said “Mac, you’re a fighter pilot so I can relate to you.” Our relationship was very close. “But you’re not running a department. I get down here. One of the guys gets four or five yards, and every guy is driving filling up their gas tank with city gas. Another guy running a chicken coop in one of the city lots.” I said, “You can’t do that, Mac. You don’t know what’s happening in your department.” And again I said to him, “I don’t want to fire you I wish you’d resign.” He said, “I’m not going to.” I said, “Mac, do me a favor. Talk to the city solicitor. I could fire you. I’d prefer not to fire ’cause I don’t like the idea of firing ’cause I don’t like having you say ‘I was fired.’ Talk to the city solicitor, and tell me what you want to do. You tell me what you want to do.” He comes back and says he’d like to resign. Then he resigned. Now that’s running a department. And I talk about management, municipal management.”
Great stuff Bryan. It’s interesting that it was recorded as part of a Wayland High School oral history project. Mayor Basbas must have moved to Wayland in later years.
I’d love to see a similar Newton oral history project get off the ground. If there are any Newton high school students or teachers listening, I’d be happy to help get that off the ground. You can reach me at [email protected]
That’s a great idea Jerry. And I can’t wait to use the euphemism “your briefcase gurgles” in practice someday.
From his telling, it didn’t sound so much like a euphemism as a literal truth. 🙂