Growing Up in New Ipswich Project

When I was posting the photos from the New Ipswich Historical Society, I was approached by several long time residents who told me stories about growing up in New Ipswich.  At the time I was thinking it might be fun to record the stories as part of an oral history. Just recently I learned that Earl Somero was interested in a program to celebrate the Finnish traditions in New Ipswich and was happy to attend a meeting to discuss how we might proceed to capture our recent history.  It was nice to sit in the air conditioned library because it was so hot outside.

How hot was it?

It was so hot that the Finns took a Sauna to cool off

Credit - Carl Toko

Carl Toko, the mayor of Smithville know quite a bit about New Ipswich

Earl Somero has plenty of stories about our old town meetings

Sharon Rosenfelder showed us how Oiva had taught her to pick blueberries.

Doing some research for this project

I moved to New Ipswich in 1975 and was immediately impressed with the idea of having roots in a place. I am a boomer who lived in post war housing in Stamford Connecticut. It was all torn down to build a high school in the late 1950s. The entire landscape has been reshaped. When I first moved here I was amazed to see buildings built in the 1800s in use and people telling stories about the early days. Hopefully we can capture some of those to share.