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Local Color #10 (2008 Edition)

"We only had one real travois and that one was old and worn and another one that some of the older boys had made from two old sleds. The real travois would take us all the way to Manning Field, the homemade one usually stopped somewhere by Seymour’s house; that’s the one I usually got to ride on."

From "The Long Ride" by Guy Carey, Jr., Warwick, Massachusetts

"Out to sea, passing Asbury Park, New Jersey one night, the great ship Morro Castle caught fire. It burned for several nights and days, with a great loss of life. A tugboat had secured it, but during one night the line parted."

From "My Epiphany" by Edward Chandless, Easthampton, Massachusetts

"We landed in Le Havre, France and from there moved on to a staging area called the Cigarette Camps as they were named after popular brands of cigarette’s then: Camel, Lucky Strike, Old Gold, etc. From there we were assigned to different places in Germany."

From "Growing Up in Chicopee, Massachusetts" by Francis Desmaris, Chicopee, Massachusetts

Local Color #10 is available for $12 (plus $5 shipping and handling) until the print run is sold out. It can be purchased through PayPal below, or by sending a check made out to Local Color to:

Local Color
PO Box 116
Montague, MA 01351

Local Color #9 (2007 Edition)

"I quickly put on my coat, leggings, hat, and mittens and went out into the very early New Year's morning to parade up and down 77th Place, tooting and whistling and banging as the sun came up. I was probably the most disliked child in the neighborhood on that morning."

-from "New Year's Memories" by Maggie Moriarty, Warwick

"My father wore a long white frock and a cap. Very soon, with tender words and sufficient ether to cause the animal to sleep, it was secured to the table with its belly uppermost. The skin was properly prepared. My father did his hand scrub at the kitchen sink."

-from "My Father the Veterinarian" by Peg Folgmann, Shelburne Falls

"Big bands were broadcast while dancing continued. I am with the top DJ from the station, 'Friendly Freddy.' That was strange because his real name was Richard."

-from "WHYN Radio at Mountain Park" by Henry A. Strong, Holyoke

"Never had I seen so many people; and all seemed to be going in different directions."

-from "The Long Train Ride" by Wanda Hilliker, Greenfield

"As his work day drew to a close, I was permitted to walk up South Park Avenue in Hanover, New Hampshire to meet him walking home from Dartmouth College's heating and electrical plant, where he had been hired in 1920 to be its chief engineer."

-from "William Henry Moore" by Ruth A. Walker, East Longmeadow

Local Color #9 is available for $12 (plus $5 shipping and handling) until the print run is sold out. It can be purchased through PayPal below, or by sending a check made out to Local Color to:

Local Color
PO Box 116
Montague, MA 01351

Local Color: The First Five Years

"Some of my favorite war stories involve the effort to train a lot of pilots fast during World War II. This wasn't just a program to teach a bunch of young men to solo in a couple of weeks, but an effort to produce highly trained professional pilots to take millions of dollars' worth of hardware, and sometimes several men, into hell and back."

-"Night Flying" by William R. Fitzgerald, Ashfield

Local Color: The First Five Years was published by Haley's Publishing in Athol, Massachusetts in 2003. It includes The Stories of Our Lives, Local Color 1-5, and 36 previously unpublished stories. Authors were people who then resided in Western Massachusetts or who had lived in Western Massachusetts a significant part of their lives but had relocated. Only three authors from the original volumes were not reachable to give permission to have their stories printed in this collection. The stories tell about life in the early twentieth century, including descriptions of wash day, the hurricane and floods of the mid 1930s (which, without Doppler radar, were a complete surprise), holidays with family, World War II (from ration coupons to following a serviceman across the country during basic training) and more.

Local Color: The First Five Years is available for $20 (plus $5 shipping and handling) by using PayPal below, or by sending a check made out to Local Color to:

Local Color
PO Box 116
Montague, MA 01351

It is also available on Amazon.com.