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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 impr...

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulder in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.  Mending Walls by Robert Frost (snippet) The New Ipswich Historical Society sponsored a presentation by master stonemason Kevin Gardner who spoke about the  history and technique of traditional New England-style dry stone walls. The Granite Kiss is an interesting title which describes having a stone crush a finger. As Kevin spoke he pulled stones from two buckets and created a stone wall New England stones are not uniform in shape, size or composition The wall takes shape In 1871 the government took a survey of fences. New England has enough to circle the earth several times. Everywhere you walk you see them. Kevin spoke of other books, this one is out of print The completed wall Questions from the crowd

The Finnish folk music duo Vellamo returned to New Ipswich to perform a concert at the New Ipswich Library. Joni Tiala plays guitar for Vellamo Pia Leinonen songwriter and vocalist Appreciative Audience Ollie sighting    www.poltrack.net