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Your
SMITHFIELD
MAGAZINE
Volume 1, Number 9
April 2007
Meet the Mulherns
Smithfield brothers riding
high on local radio
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Substance Abuse A wake-up call
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Your
SMITHFIELD
MAGAZINE
Publishers/ Editors
Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.
Ron Scopelliti
Contributing Journalists
Harry Anderson
Terri Bozigian
Bruce Butterfield
Stephen Demers
Glenn Laxton
Dick Martin
Carol Monahan
Jamie Remillard
Lauryn Sasso
Patti Shaffer
Sales
Marie Broadfoot
Cynthia Cambio
Kathryn Sasso
Support
Nancy Christen
Christine Diggle
John Murphy
Your Smithfield Magazine is published once each month
by Smithfield Publishing Inc., and is mailed to some
9,500 households and businesses in Smithfield. The
magazine is free, though paid subscriptions are available
to those living out of town. Subscriptions are $25 per
year.
Mailing address: P.O. Box 481, Greenville, RI 02828
Phone: 401-349-4910
Fax: 401-349-4911
e-mail: [email protected]
Smithfield Publishing Inc. is located at 645 Putnam Pike
in Greenville.
All contents are ©2007, Smithfield Publishing Inc.,
unless otherwise noted. “Smitty,” the Your Smithfield
Magazine mascot, © 2006/2007 Catherine Jean DeMello.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without
written consent from the publishers.
Smithfield Publishing, Inc. does not assume any financial
responsibility for typographical errors in advertisements,
but will reprint that portion of an advertisement in which
the typographical error occurs.
Member of the Rhode Island Press Association, New
England Press Association, North Central Chamber of
Commerce, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Printed at Ocean State Offset, Warwick, R.I.
Contents
On the Cover
Smithfield natives (l-r) Kevin and Brian Mulhern have
forged a career in comedy and broadcasting, most recently landing at WHJY and Coast FM, in adjacent Providence radio studios. Read about their journey to Hollywood and back on page 6.
4
Charting a new course in learning
by Ron Scopelliti
6
Walking on air
by Terri Bozigian
12
As I Was Saying
by Laurence J. Sasso Jr.
14
The Substance Abuse Task Force
says: We want to wake people up
by Laurence J. Sasso Jr.
18
Oh my! I remember that now
by Harry Anderson
20
A Nerd’s Eye View
by Ron Scopelliti
38
What’s up with... Burleigh Briggs
By Laurence J. Sasso Jr.
40
A Taste of the Town
by Lauryn E. Sasso
44
At the high school, softball is
coming on fast
by Stephen Demers
48
A Smithfield Love Story
byGlenn Laxton
58
Citizen of the Month: David Day
By Laurence J. Sasso Jr.
From The Publishers
Last month we mentioned that there would be a big announcement about the magazine, and a few people expressed concerns that we would be changing our format or
our distribution. We can assure you that we are not changing either of these – we like the magazine the way it is, and
hope that you do, too.
The announcement is that in April, we’ll be unveiling
our new web site, www.yoursmithfield.com.
We’re starting off slowly and building it in stages, but
keep checking in as new features are added. We plan to
make the site an integral part of our operation, updating
it regularly, adding new features, and making it a hub of
information for our town.
Copies of our past issues will posted in their entirety as
Adobe PDF files, so you can read our articles anywhere
you go, even if you’ve left your magazine home. If you
forgot the address of that restaurant advertised in the November issue, just go to the web site, flip through the pages, and track it down.
As we get the site up and running we’ll be including
photo galleries, showcasing pictures that have appeared in
the magazine, and those that we couldn’t fit in, or couldn’t
get to before deadline. Eventually, you’ll be able to purchase copies of the photos through the web site.
We’ll also be including links to other sources of information within the town and region.
And, after several months spent realizing how clumsy
our current e-mail addresses are, we’ve created new addresses that are easier to remember. We’ll be publishing
our new addresses in next month’s magazine.
In addition to our big news about the website, in this issue we have a rich and varied array of stories about area
people and events that we think will please you.
Three of them deserve your very special attention. Every
month we try to offer a mix of reporting and feature writing, as well as photos and columns that provide a crosssection view of the community, the sort of combination
that might allow a stranger to have a pretty good idea of
what Smithfield is like just from reading it.
There is so much to be proud of and to ballyhoo, though,
that we sometimes forget that everything here is not perfect.
For instance, the story on page 14 about a new federally-funded grant for the Smithfield Substance Abuse Task
Force brings the community face to face with a disturbing
truth. Our otherwise superb town is among the leaders in
Rhode Island in the incidence of underage consumption
of alcohol.
The statistics are so troubling that Smithfield qualified
for a large grant to combat the problem. Accepting the
challenge by accepting the truth might be the first step toward fixing it. We hope that residents will heed the call
and get involved with the work of the task force as time
goes forward.
However, we also hope that the issue will be considered
in the context of the wonderful news coming from our
education system. The story on page 4 about Smithfield’s
being the first school system to partner with pioneering
undersea explorer Bob Ballard shows what high regard the
community enjoys among educators at the highest levels.
Also, consider the story on page 24 about the national recognition that the Old County Road School received for its
Title 1 program.
The schools couldn’t excel if the students didn’t. There
is so much that is right with the town’s efforts to provide
the youth of Smithfield with the best start in life imaginable. The way that they respond to the challenges suggests
that it is inconceivable the problem of underage drinking
can’t be met head on and defeated. As a community it is
time to step up.
We at Your Smithfield Magazine pledge to make our pages available to publicize the efforts of the Substance Abuse
Task Force and to use our presence to get out the message
about this critically important issue. Together we all can
make a difference.
Meanwhile, enjoy the reading and the website and shop
and trade with local merchants and service providers.
They are our neighbors and fellow townsfolk, and they
work hard.
Larry and Ron
Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 Charting a New Course in Learning
Smithfield High School hosts its
first virtual oceanography
expedition
By Ron Scopelliti
For one week in the beginning of March, the media center at
Smithfield High School had students and their parents glued to
three 46-inch video screens, gasping, gaping, and cheering as if
they were watching a fireworks display or an IMAX presentation. As children and adults held up cell phones to photograph
what they were seeing, it was evident that they were experiencing something greater than a fleeting visual spectacle. They
were experiencing the thrill of scientific discovery as it happened, live, before their eyes.
They were given this opportunity through a high-tech hookup between Smithfield High School and oceanographer Dr.
Robert Ballard.
Ballard, a veteran of more than 100 ocean expeditions, is
best known as the man who discovered the wreck of the Titanic. He also tracked down the wrecks of the German battleship Bismark, the “lost fleet” of Guadalcanal, and the American
aircraft carrier Yorktown, sunk during the Battle of Midway.
A 1977 expedition he led to the Galapagos Rift found hydrothermal vents that supported exotic ecosystems deep below the
surface of the ocean – a major scientific discovery.
From March 5 through 9, students and residents of Smithfield got their first taste of a new partnership between Dr. Ballard, the town, and the University of Rhode Island. Ballard, a
professor of oceanography at URI and president of the Institute
for Exploration at the Mystic Aquarium, chose Smithfield High
School as the first school in the world to receive a science console identical to that at URI’s Inner Space Center.
The console consists of three 46-inch plasma video screens,
and a telecommunications system that allows students to interact live with scientists in the field.
Speaking with Your Smithfield Magazine during the February unveiling of the console, Ballard said this system would
be the prototype for similar systems that would be installed
Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
nationwide. There were several reasons for choosing to start
the program in Rhode Island, including the state’s capability to
use the “Internet 2” (I-2) computer communications protocol in
its schools.
“This is the prototype,” said Ballard. “Rhode Island’s ahead
of everybody because they’re I-2. They’re the only state in
America that’s I-2, K to 12, so they’re stepping up to the plate,
as well.”
“Plus, it’s the Ocean State, plus, the new [National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration] ship of exploration’s
going to be based here, plus, we’re building the inner space
center here,” he added. “All the ducks aligned.”
He says that Smithfield was chosen as the first town to receive the system because of the administrators’ enthusiasm and
commitment to the project.
“They wanted to do it,” said Ballard. “They stepped up to the
plate, and that’s my kind of place.”
“I don’t want to push this on anybody,” he said. “You have to
want to do it, and they want to do it. I’ve got people stacked in
behind them though, that were just one nanosecond slower.”
Announcing the unveiling, school superintendent Robert
O’Brien stated “I have the same vision that Robert Ballard has,
and I’m just as excited about it. This technology is so natural
because it’s the way kids learn today. This will really engage
our students to learn about the oceans. After all, we are the
Ocean State.”
The equipment will be used to integrate oceanic learning into
the town’s curriculum for grades K-12, and the teachers have
already begun aligning the program with the state’s science
frameworks. Other disciplines, such as art and social science
will follow suit.
Smithfield students got their first chance to use the system
on March 5. For the next four days, they tagged along with
Ballard’s expedition to the Flower Garden Banks National
Smithfield High School recently became the first school in the
world to install a science console connecting them with oceanographer Bob Ballards Institute for Exploration at the Mystic Aquarium. Above: Smithfield School Department Technology Coordinator Ed Hill speaks to students from Old Counrty Road School as
they watch the progress of the Remotely Operated Vehicle Argus
along the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. (Your Smithfield Magazine
photo) Top: Students also had a live connection with the crew of the
research vessel Carolyn Chouest during the Gulf of Mexico expedition (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy)
Oceanographer Robert Ballard (on screen) fields a question from fifth-grader Cassandra Duffy of Anna McCabe School, via the newlyinstalled science console in the Smithfield High School Media Center. (Your Smithfield Magazine photo)
Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico, 115 miles of the
Texas/Louisiana coast.
Ballard coordinated the mission remotely, from the Mystic Aquarium, communicating with the scientists in the field
through a system like the one at Smithfield High.
In the Gulf were the United States Navy’s nuclear research
submarine NR-1, and the 238-foot support ship Carolyn
Chouest, towing the remotely operated, underwater research
vehicle (ROV) Argus.
The vessels explored coral reefs, brine seeps, mud volcanoes,
and other geological features on the sea floor, also searching
for Native American artifacts along the now-submerged ancient
shorelines.
A session on the penultimate day of the expedition found the
anticipation building among students, parents, and faculty as
the ROV Argus traveled methodically toward a mud volcano
on the floor of the Gulf.
Students from Old County Road School attending in the
morning arrived to see a rather barren seascape, as the Argus
transmitted images from 140 meters below the surface, just
feet off the ocean floor, illuminating the area with its onboard
lights.
“I expected the sea to be more crowded,” chimed a student
from Old County Road School.
Ed Hill, the school department’s technology coordinator, and
a longtime science teacher at the High School, reminded him,
“The ocean is a really big place.”
As the Argus moved along the children’s excitement came
through as they began seeing fish and coral formations.
“This is live video no one in the world has ever seen before,”
Mr. Hill told the children. “This is the real, true bottom of the
ocean.”
Continued on next page
P: 401.949.3755 or 401.270.8253 F: 401.270.8255
Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 Continued from previous page
Speaking briefly with the Old County Road School students,
Ballard told them “I’ve been on 120 expeditions, but this is
the first one ever that I’ve done through telepresence. So I’m
looking at the same console you’re looking at, but I have communications with the ship, and I can talk to the pilot. This is
really cool, because I can do much more exploring than I ever
thought I could.”
During an afternoon session attended by Anna McCabe
School students and their parents, the excitement built. Ballard
held a longer interactive session with the students, tracking the
progress of the Argus along with them.
“Periodically, I’m going to look over my shoulder to see if
that mud volcano’s coming up,” he told them as he began to
field questions from the students.
The students came to the event well-prepared. Teachers have
been attending workshops as the program developed, getting
students ready for the expedition. Fifth-grade teacher Deb Cote
of McCabe School noted that students have been doing background research on oceanography, and taking part in experiments that simulated mapping the ocean floor.
“We had children doing experiments that had to do with salt
mounds – how a salt mound is formed,” she said. “They also
read and discussed how coral reefs are formed.”
They came to their session at the High School prepared to
act as part of the crew, armed with observation sheets to record
what they were seeing, and questions for Dr. Ballard. The questions included queries about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on
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the sanctuary, the top speed of the Argus, and the eating habits
of sea turtles.
One student offered the question, “After this exploration,
what do you expect to accomplish?”
This gave Ballard a chance to explain the patience and hard
work behind the glamour of the big discoveries.
“You realize,” he said, “that we are collecting this data 24
hours a day, and no one can go ten days without sleep. So quite
honestly, no one has seen all the data. We’re going to bring it
back here to Mystic, to the Institute for Exploration, and we’re
going to look at all of it.”
“I want to ask you a question,” the explorer asked the students, “Can you identify the hat I have on my head?
He was answered with cheers as the children realized it was
a Smithfield Sentinels baseball cap.
The cheers continued after Ballard signed off and the Argus
finally reached the mud volcano, and the audience watched it
spewing gas from beneath the ocean floor, creating plumes of
mud.
Speaking after the event, Superintendent O’Brien said, “This
has worked just the way they hoped.”
“The reaction of the kids has been phenomenal,” he said,
though he noted that there is much more to come, including an
expedition Ballard is leading this summer to explore Phoenician shipwrecks in the Black Sea. The environmental conditions at the location have left the ancient vessels remarkably
well-preserved.
“He’ll come up with things that are unbelievable, said
O’Brien. “This is just the beginning.”
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Walking On Air
Radio personalities Brian and Kevin Mulhern
are serious about comedy, and their writing has
taken them from Rhode Island to Hollywood and
back again.
By Terri Bozigian
Everyone else was asleep when the telephone call
pierced the late night air at the Mulhern house in Greenville, and Brian answered it. The call was for him.
“Hi, uh, this is Jay Leno,” said the voice on the other
end. “I like your stuff. Do you do stand-up?”
Brian Mulhern recalls that night 18 years ago with a
smile and an extemporaneous Leno impersonation. He
also recalls his kid brother, who was awake by then, cutting into the conversation on another extension.
“Hi, Jay, how you doing? I’m Kevin.”
Kevin Mulhern continues the story with a laugh, impersonating himself as an excited 16-year-old before adding, “At that point, the conversation came to a screeching
halt.”
No harm done, however, because Leno--who was
filling in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show at the
time--bought one of the freelance jokes Brian had sent
him.
“I have the $50 check from Big Dog Productions
framed and hanging above my fireplace,” Brian says
about the sale, made when he was a Rhode Island College
Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
student.
Brian and Kevin Mulhern have been writing comedy
for sketches, radio, television, and film half their lives,
and the Leno deal is one of the few times they did not
work as a team.
Right now their full-time jobs are in Rhode Island
radio, Brian as co-host of the morning drive-time The Tad
and Brian Show on 93.3 Coast FM, and Kevin producing,
writing, and doing on-the-air segments for The Paul and
Al Show on 94 HJY in the same time slot. Clear Channel
owns both Providence stations, and the brothers work in
the same building on the same floor.
“We grew up just really liking shows like Saturday
Night Live, (David) Letterman, sketch comedy,” Kevin
says. In the mid-1980’s, their parents bought a VHS
home video camera, and the brothers started writing and
filming comedy sketches and giving the tapes to friends
and neighbors. “We would spoof commercials, parody
shows, create characters,” Brian continues. Neighbors
soon learned not to be alarmed if they saw one of the
brothers throwing a “body” off the roof of their house; it
was just the Mulhern boys with a stuffed dummy, staging
and filming a comedy sketch.
“We’re horribly embarrassed when watching those
tapes now,” Kevin comments. “But that’s good, because
it shows our progression.” The early videotapes served
Brian Mulhern
another purpose, too. “We didn’t realize it at the time, but
we were building up a reel,” Brian says. Eventually, their
portfolio of audio and video clips would take them all the
way to Hollywood where they would land jobs writing
comedy as a team.
Their break came in 1993 when Brian, then 23 and
working at HJY, sent a packet of clips to comedian Phil
Hartman of SNL fame. “It was a ‘sliding door’ moment,”
he recounts, alluding to the title of a Gwyneth Paltrow
movie that considers how split-second decisions can
change the course of a life.
Brian was watching Late Show with David Letterman
when Hartman came on to talk about plans for his new
prime time comedy, The Phil Show. Letterman asked if
he had a writing staff yet, Hartman said “sort of,” and
Brian submitted clips from his and Kevin’s videos, their
former cable television show, his radio work on HJY, and
Kevin’s on WRIU at the University of Rhode Island.
“If I hadn’t done that, our whole lives would be different,” Brian says, recalling the day soon after when his
parents called him at the radio station to say that “some
guy from Saturday Night Live just called and wants you
to call him back tomorrow.” It was Hartman, who said
the next day, “I really like your stuff.” That December,
the brothers met him in New York City on the set of SNL
before starting work as writers on The Phil Show.
When NBC decided not to include the show in its new
line-up, they maintained their friendship with Hartman
and continued to work on projects with him. “He took us
under his wing and encouraged us,” Kevin says. When
Joel Gallen, executive producer of The Phil Show and a
URI graduate, needed writers for the MTV movie awards,
he tapped Brian and Kevin three times-in `95, `99, and
2003. When Brian had an idea for a movie in `97 for
Hartman to star in, Hartman agreed to co-write it.
The news of Phil Hartman’s shooting death in May
1998, in what Los Angeles police called a murder-suicide committed by the comedian’s wife, devastated the
brothers. Hartman had just telephoned Brian the night
before to discuss their movie script. “He talked about his
great family life, he talked to me about priorities, and the
Kevin Mulhern
next day at work I learned he was dead,” Brian recounts.
“What that did to us... We loved this guy.”
Brian took a leave of absence from the radio station to
finish writing the movie. “I had to, I think more for my
mental health,” he says. Adds Kevin, who was writing for
a community newspaper and organizing a sketch comedy
group in the New York City area at the time, “My heart
wasn’t in it.”
Continued on next page
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They pushed through their grief, and writing offers
followed. Gallen called them for the `99 MTV show.
Brian--known to area radio audiences by the name “Brian
the Pharmacist” coined from a former job at Gregg’s
Pharmacy--returned to HJY, then moved to WRX in
“We’ve always been better when we’re
working together,”
-Kevin Mulhern
Providence to co-host Jaxon and the Pharmacist. He
invited his brother onto the show-“He’s quick with a
mike”-- and together they developed stunts like Kevin
sitting on a car traveling through a car wash and rolling
(with padding) off a truck at increasing speeds (he got to
35 m.p.h.). “When you’re trying to do something funny,
you lose all logic and common sense,” Kevin observes
Foot and Ankle Specialist
calmly. When FNX Boston bought WRX, Jaxon and
the Pharmacist moved to the Boston market and Kevin
joined them full-time as producer.
The call of comedy persisted, however, and in 2003
the brothers drove back to the West Coast. “I just felt,
even though I didn’t like LA--the commute, the noise-that I had to get it out of my system,” Brian says.
Writing jobs followed: the third MTV awards show,
bonus material for Friends DVD’s, Street Smarts for
Warner Brothers television. Kevin also did some standup. “There were jobs all over the place,” Brian says--including Rhode Island radio where his former boss at HJY
and WRX was now at 93.3 Coast FM. He returned to
Rhode Island for personal reasons and because “I got LA
out of my system--I knew I could do it.” Kevin, who was
getting married that fall, returned soon after.
The brothers are Rhode Islanders at heart. Growing up
in Greenville, they attended St. Philip School and played
youth league sports. Their dad Tom, who worked in the
banking industry, coached sports--basketball, soccer, and
Little League baseball. Their mom, Barbara, is a retired
Smithfield deputy tax assessor. Kevin attended Smithfield
High School, Brian the former Our Lady of Providence.
They graduated from state colleges.
No surprise, then, that they’re right at home with
Rhode Island radio. They like their co-workers and
the creativity their work affords them. They like writing comedy bits. They like talking to celebrities--Brian
interviewed his boyhood idol, Baseball Hall-of-Famer
and former Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk; Kevin covered
the L.A. opening of the movie Anchorman starring Will
Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Christina Applegate. Above all,
they like being a team. “We’ve always been better when
we’re working together,” Kevin says. “It’s a joy to work
with each other,” Brian agrees.
Through it all, they’re still walking on air--from Hollywood to home.
We’re moving, so you can, too.
When your feet hurt, you can’t
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401.949.3220
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you to visit us.
March 12, 2007.
10 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
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As I Was Saying
By
Laurence
J. Sasso, Jr.
Hard to let go
We find it hard to let go of things. As least many of us
do.
As a community we sometimes agonize over when it is
time to dispose of something and replace it with something
else. Historic buildings are a prime example.
Years ago we pretty much agreed that the Smith-Appleby
House in Stillwater was worth saving. After a major effort
and tireless fund-raising by a dedicated group of supporters over many years the historic structure was restored.
Today it is one of the area’s better known landmarks. It is
featured on the town website, listed as a tourist destination,
and visited by many for special events and programs.
The Resolved Waterman Tavern Ell, now known as the
Smithfield Exchange Bank is a different matter. The small
building next door to the Greenville Fire Station has become a lightning rod for controversy. Advocates striving
to save and restore it find themselves opposed by implacable opponents who want it razed.
The fact that the folks who decide such things have found
it possessed of enough significant value to place it on the
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National Register of Historic Places lends some weight to
the argument for preserving it. Those against keeping the
building say it has been neglected too long and that it is
located in a spot that is difficult to use. The eventual outcome of the debate remains to be determined.
It is worth observing, though, that our attitude toward
saving things or parting with them usually begins with our
individual inclinations. Some of us are savers. Some of us
are not.
History at its most fundamental level is personal. Probably half the attics and cellars in Smithfield harbor old uniforms from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the first
Gulf War. Or maybe not. Maybe there are more neatniks
and minimalists among us than we think and all they saved
was their combat infantry man badge or their beret.
It’s not easy for some of us to let go of the things that we
identify with passages in our lives. First communion suits
and dresses get tucked away in the cedar closet, and as the
classified ads sometimes attest, after once happy marriages
dissolve, nearly every bride has saved her wedding gown.
The loving descriptions of the dress, used only once, kept
in perfect condition, no stains, contradict the hard-headed
decision to sell the once cherished frock when the dreams
have turned to ashes.
Savers hang onto to strange things. There is the dish
grandfather last ate from, the watch he carried. There is
his cane left hanging by the back door when he needed it
no more.
Some of us can send to the rummage sale the carefully
inscribed book mother gave us at junior high school graduation, give away the Christmas present a wife or sibling
watched us open with such anticipation and delight several
years ago. Others add them to the growing pile of things
that give us meaning and document our life. Things we
cannot throw away.
Reason is a tenuous element in the struggle to strike a
balance. One English professor at a university not that far
away often wore the same flannel shirt with a torn pocket
and wispy, stray stains of paint on it. Surely it had some
special private significance, but no one dared to ask.
We get attached to shoes that carried us to the scene of
some small triumph or cleats that carried us around the bases. We hang onto skates that we wore playing high school
hockey. Some of us. Others long ago have consigned such
things to yard sale tables or the trash.
A minister recently offered a children’s lesson that illustrated the point. He had prepared several large boxes.
He wrapped them in brown paper and labeled them with
such inscriptions as THINGS, TOYS, and PROPERTY
etc. He then asked one youngster to hold the boxes as he
piled them up so high she couldn’t be seen. Then he asked
one of the other children to come forward and hug the one
holding the boxes. It was of course impossible. The les-
son was simple. You shouldn’t let things get in the way of
people, of being available to others.
Yet when it comes down to getting rid of the shirt you
wore to college graduation or the tools your father used to
fix things around the house or the gift your spouse gave
you for your first anniversary it isn’t that easy.
If we can’t decide on how long to keep the Christmas
ties our mother-in-law gave us, is it any wonder, then, that
it’s so hard to reach consensus on what village landmarks
we should save or give over to the inexorable grindstone
called time?
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 13
Substance abuse
task force says:
‘We want
to wake
people up’
By Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.
The Smithfield Substance Abuse Task
Force recently received some very positive news.
Owing to the terms of a federal grant
to the State of Rhode Island the town
will be receiving no less than $140,000
a year for the next three years to combat
underage drinking and drug use. However, there is also some very troubling
news for the community connected to the
grant.
Smithfield really needs the money.
Disturbing statistics compiled by the
state in doing a needs assessment to
determine which communities would get
SPRING
IS IN
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Home sales
are on the rise
and interest
rates are low
At last month’s meeting of the Smithfield Substance Abuse Task Force, members learned
that the group will be receiving a major federal grant to help carry out their mission.
The funding will vastly improve the task force’s ability to reach the community with its
message about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. At left (front to back) are Jean
Vickers, task force coordinator; Barry Sutcliffe, chairman; Peter Massaro of the Fire
Department; Kris Sarro of the high school art department; and at right (front to back)
Harold Hemberger CEO of the YMCA; Ron Manni of the Town Council and Tri-Town;
Donna Mann, social worker at the high school and elementary schools; and Martha Iachetta, student assistance counselor for the high school and middle school. (Your Smithfield Magazine photo)
funding revealed that this town has a serious problem, especially when it comes
to underage drinking.
“The good news is Smithfield qualified
for the [large amount of] money. The bad
news is Smithfield ranked fourth in the
state [in the incidence of underage drink-
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14 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
ing],” says Jean Vickers, the Tri-Town
Community Action Agency’s coordinator
of prevention services, who also coordinates the town’s Substance Abuse Task
Force.
The reason Smithfield qualified for
the money is due to the severity of the
problem here, she explained.
In reviewing the town’s ranking the
state looked at a lot of different criteria
and examined a wide range of data, Mrs.
Vickers notes. The needs assessment
took into account the health practices
questionnaire results from the 2005
School Accountability for Learning and
Teaching (SALT) survey. They also
reviewed arrest records, substance abuse
admissions to hospitals and health care
agencies, traffic stops, and traffic fatalities.
When all the numbers were added up
the outcome wasn’t good. Such an attractive and nurturing town in so many ways,
Smithfield has a major problem when it
comes to illegal, underage drinking and
to a lesser but equally concerning degree,
drug use.
“Smithfield is a more economically
advantaged community than many, but
that is actually seen as a risk factor,”
observes Mrs. Vickers. Affluent teenag-
ers have more opportunities to indulge in underage drinking
and drugs, and they have more resources to devote to those
pursuits, she comments.
“A lot of the issue is denial. The Smithfield community
doesn’t think it has a problem,” she adds. Clearly it seems to
have one though. The needs assessment compared all 39 of the
state’s cities and towns in making its decision about which ones
would receive funds. The top 14 would qualify. Smithfield is
near the head of the list.
When asked what he sees as the group’s top priority in light
of the study, Barry Sutcliffe of Bradford Sutcliffe Insurance
Agency, chairman of the Substance Abuse Task Force since
2006 said, “We want to wake people up”.
Apparently it will take some shaking to get the community
aroused, though. Both Mr. Sutcliffe, who is elected by the rest
of the task force to his post, and Mrs. Vickers who is the person
delegated by Tri-Town to staff the group, agree that the main
objective for the board will be to educate parents and townspeople to the extent of the town’s troubles.
In prior years the complacency might have even extended to
the Task force itself, confides Mr. Sutcliffe, who makes reference to meetings in the past when only three people showed up.
Today, however, things are very different, he says, reporting
that as many as 15 people, many of them in pivotal roles in the
town, turn out for the monthly get-togethers where strategy and
program development are discussed and plans and policy are
made.
Originally established as the Smithfield Youth Development Council (SYDC) in response to the 1988 Rhode Island
Substance Abuse Prevention Act, the SYDC was subsumed by
Tri-Town in 1997 after the then director Brenda Amodei approached them. The substance abuse prevention act had made
it possible for communities all over the state to receive funds to
address the issue of substance abuse. Joining up with Tri-Town
gave the program access to more funds via federal grants and
the like. However the annual funding for Smithfield stayed in
the area of $34,000 a year. The bulk of the money comes from
the General Assembly under the terms of the 1988 prevention
act, explains Mrs. Vickers.
According to Mr. Sutcliffe and Mrs. Vickers although many
worthwhile projects and activities have been undertaken, given
such a constricted budget the task force has not frequently
been able to generate sufficient awareness community wide.
Neither has it attained the momentum necessary to make large
enough inroads toward reversing the trends that put Smithfield
in the top tier of communities about to receive the new federal
grants. Now, however, the potential for a dramatic infusion of
funds could set the stage for a major surge in programming and
information dissemination.
It all began two years ago, explains Mrs. Vickers, when the
Rhode Island Department of Human Services wrote a grant application to the federal government and received $12,000,000.
Eighty percent of the monies are designated to go to direct
services in several Rhode Island cities and towns, she relates.
It is this provision that necessitated the needs assessment study
with the aim of identifying the 14 communities in the state that
are most in need of the resources.
After the analysis was done, Smithfield, it proved, was high
among those municipalities qualifying.
Mrs. Vickers says the smallest amount the town will receive
annually for three years is the aforementioned $140,000, but
given its ranking it could receive as much as $260,000, both
sums that could make a huge difference in the drive to raise
awareness and involve the various segments of the community
in the effort to confront underage drinking and illegal drug use
in Smithfield.
“Our budget was very limited before,” Mr. Sutcliffe states
flatly. “I’ve challenged our task force to really make a difference. Now we really should have the funds to make an impact,” he declares, adding “we have some really influential and
effective people on the task force now.”
Previously, however, the leaders of the task force say there
has been a fairly widespread apathy on the part of parents and
townspeople. Both Mr. Sutcliffe and Mrs. Vickers are quick to
praise such efforts as the annual chemical free post graduation
party at the high school, prom pledges not to drink or use drugs
and other awareness initiatives. However, they also cannot
ignore the fact that a study commissioned by the task force
in 2003-2004 revealed that Smithfield was far ahead of other
communities when it came to “transition rates.” These are the
statistics regarding the rate of change in attitude about behavior
related to substance abuse that occurs between middle school
Continued on next page
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 15
Continued from previous page
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aged students and high school aged students.
For example, in the 2003-2004 study, which drew on
earlier (but the same kind of) SALT data used to determine
Smithfield’s eligibility for the new grant funds, one statistic
was very alarming. It showed that while 77 percent of middle
school students saw smoking marijuana to be a great risk, only
42 percent of high school students viewed the drug that way.
That is a transition rate of some 35 percent. This compared to a
statewide average of 21 percent. Despite the presence of Drug
Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) programs and all the
other efforts aimed at adolescents something happens between
middle school and high school in Smithfield that dramatically
alters the attitudes of many of the young people in town.
Mr. Sutcliffe reveals a touch of dismay when discussing the
issue of community involvement aimed at addressing the situation. He cites a forum that the task force organized last March
to focus on the matters under scrutiny in the surveys.
“We were lucky if there were 35 people there,” he says betraying his frustration.
“I think it goes back to the problem that people just don’t
think there is a problem in Smithfield. When I was elected to
head the task force I challenged some of the key people in town
to get involved and many have. I asked them ‘are we going to
do something or just sit around and talk about it?’”
Mrs. Vickers echoes the sentiment, agreeing that participation in the task force’s activities has always been problematic,
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APRIL 10, 2007, 4:00 P.M. is the deadline for
individuals to register to vote, in order to vote at
the Financial Town Meeting.
Residents who will be 18 years of age on or
before the Financial Town Meeting, May 10,
2007, are eligible to register to vote.
Voter Registration forms may be obtained in the
Town Clerk’s Office, Greenville Library, East
Smithfield Library, or on the RI Board of Elections web site: www.elections.state.ri.us
Dianne L. Ady, MPA
Town Clerk
but she goes on to outline what she thinks must happen now
that substantial resources will soon be available.
She volunteers the opinion that “the goal once we begin receiving funds is to promote a community buy-in. We must get
parents involved [in larger numbers] and we must educate the
community to the issues.
“It has to be multi-domained, global. It cannot just be
students, just be schools, just be teachers, just be parents; you
have to get the message out through all the domains in the
community. It’s not enough to just tell the kids. My son has
been to the funerals of five of his classmates. Too many of our
kids are dying in town [from substance abuse related causes].”
Acknowledging the good work that has been done by the
group in prior years, however, she and Barry Sutcliffe hasten
to point out some of the many activities which the task force
has helped to facilitate over the years. They cite such endeavors
as the funding of police officers to be trained in the training of
servers of alcohol.
Mrs. Vickers points out that the training of alcohol servers
in this community is an initiative which has long been required
by local statute, and it preceded the statewide law requiring
it. Mrs. Vickers also mentions skating parties at the town rink
which promoted awareness, the All Star Program at the town’s
libraries, the training of task force staff and members in educational methods, the supplying of informational and educational
materials and the like.
The big difference now, though, is the vast amount of money
that soon will be arriving to carry out much more ambitious
programming.
“We’ve done a lot of good, but we’ve never had this kind
of money,” Mrs. Vickers notes. The challenge, she and Mr.
Sutcliffe both told Your Smithfield Magazine in separate interviews, will be to make the money count, to get the attention
of the entire community, and to set up programs that will last
beyond the end of the grant.
With that in mind the task force is seeking input from the
community and is always ready to welcome new members,
Jean Vickers says.
“If we save even one life, it will be more than worth it,”
Barry Sutcliffe observes.
To find out more about the work of the task force or to volunteer call Jean Vickers at Tri-Town at 351-2750, Extension 1137.
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Oh my! I remember that now
A short memoir about
writing memoirs
By Harry Anderson
Summers were always hot in our third floor tenement on
Bradford Street on Federal Hill. So, when my uncle Joe came
over from Sicily to live with us, my father bought a lot in the
woods off River Avenue. I was only a little girl when I went
with my sister to watch my father and uncle build a cabin in
the woods where for many summers my family would stay. It
was so nice and cool there. Today the woods and our cabin are
gone. Providence College is there now.
A resident of the Village at Waterman Lake wrote this snippet of a memory, although she was nearly blind (she could not
see the words that she scrawled with a black felt pen). “Blind
or not, I have to write my memories,” she says. “My family
wants me to.”
Here’s another snippet from a memory piece written by a
Village resident:
I was only nineteen in 1942 and married to Steve for a little
over three months. He was in the Navy based in Newport. We
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In the library of the Chalet at the Village at Waterman Lake Harry
Anderson talks over some ideas about the writing personal memoirs
with resident Phyllis Rodgers. (Your Smithfield Magazine photo)
knew, of course, that at some time he would have to go to the
war. His orders to report to the base in Biloxi, Mississippi,
came too, too quickly. He would undergo training for combat
and then be sent somewhere far away. I was very depressed,
but what could we do? There was an enemy out there that had
to be defeated, and it was Steve’s duty to help defeat it. His
loneliness showed in his letter from Mississippi, so much so
that I asked Pop (Steve’s dad) if I could drive his ’39 Chevie
to Biloxi. “You’re crazy,” he said. “But here’s the key. Good
luck.” The first night I was in Maryland and stayed at a cheap
roadside “cottage” (motels weren’t around then). Before turning off the light, I prayed for the courage to continue this journey and got into the bed, happy to know that I would be with
Steve in two more days, if my reckoning was correct.
For twelve years I have listened to memory pieces (as I call
them) written and read by people winding down their lives in
retirement communities. Believing that there is a need in us
to tell our stories, I had the idea to start up a memoir writing
group at the Village at Waterman Lake here in Smithfield. Its
activities director, excited by the idea, gathered about seven
residents to come to the first meeting. That was on a Tuesday
afternoon in 1994.
To tell the truth, I had expected the activities director to
terminate me after four or five sessions. Memoir writing was an
idea gone bad, she would say. To the contrary, the group grew
to fourteen; and they were writing memory pieces – three typed
pages on average – with much enthusiasm.
Activities directors apparently network, because word spread
of the success of the memoir writing scheme at the Village at
Waterman. Calls for me to start up groups came from The Seasons (East Greenwich), The Villa at St. Antoine’s (No. Smithfield), The Village at Hillsgrove (Warwick), and Temple Torah
Israel (Cranston). Then there were the visits to Block Island
and to Darien, Connecticut, to advise directors of elderly affairs
how to set up a memoir writing program.
What began in Smithfield has spread afar. My belief that we
want to tell our stories seems to be a fact. Indeed, some of us
with the funds and a lack of confidence in our writing skills
– who yet want our stories told – can sign up with a ghost
writer to get the job done.
Speaking of a lack of confidence in our writing skills, that is
one of two formidable hurdles that I must help people to leap
over. “Look,” I say, “pick your audience . . . perhaps a son or
daughter, a grandchild. That’s step one. Step two, focus on a
particular subject, and that can be anything from a Christmas
morning when you were a child to a vacation trip with your
family, to moving into your first house. Endless are the subjects.”
“But . . . I can’t write!”
“Sure you can,” I answer. “All you have to do is imagine the
one you’ve picked to hear your story is sitting with you. Then
be conversational. Let your pen be your tongue. You’ll see. The
words will come, and before you know it, you’ll have filled
one, or two, or three pages.”
The second formidable hurdle to be jumped over is the
delusion that nothing in their lives had enough importance to
be worthy of being retold in writing. Nothing more upsets me
than to hear this. Every single life has importance, worthy to
be recorded by the written word. That is a personal credo, and
that has been my motive in my retirement years to inspire the
elderly to record their memories.
I was six years old. I lived in Austria with my mother and
father. I was a happy child. But we were Jews, and the Black
Shirts were one by one taking away our neighbors. One night
Mama woke me and said to get dressed and said we must go.
It was cold outside and snow was on the ground. My aunt and
uncle and two cousins were there. Papa and Uncle whispered,
and then waved us to follow them. We came to the rail yard and
dogs were barking behind us. The Black Shirts were coming.
Everyone was across the tracks and into the woods except
Mama and me. My foot got stuck in the rail. Mama could not
get it loose, and she screamed. I hear her scream every night.
Every memory piece I have heard evokes emotions such
as Sylvia’s remembrance of her terrifying moment. Some
pieces make me chuckle, such as Aaron’s. A cow farmer in the
Catskills near Grossinger’s Resort, he remembers instructing
Jimmy Durante in how to milk a cow. Many memoirs chronicle
historic moments; such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, the
great hurricane of ’38, the death of FDR. Most of the memory
pieces, however, give personal accounts of courtship, family affairs, school days, vacation trips. Many are larded with
colorful details of yesteryear: a trolley car, fish mongers and
icemen and ragmen, the Outlet Company’s Santa Clause, Sears
& Roebuck’s “wish book.”
My husband and I went to Mexico to live for one year in a
provincial village east of Mexico City close to the mountains.
A real estate agent showed a house that was for rent. The place
was filthy, and my husband said, ‘No, no. This isn’t appropriate.’ The agent responded, ‘But, senor, Maria comes with it.
She is yours.’ Maria, a beautiful dark-skinned woman came
when the agent whistled. My husband stuttered, ‘But . . . But . .
. My wife?’ ‘This is Ramon.’ Then he said, ‘The last Americans
to rent this house for one month stayed for six months.’
We laughed and laughed at this one. Some others, however,
evoked tears.
I had to come up with an idea to lift the spirits of my three
young sons who were terribly depressed after the death of their
father. So, I visited a neighbor whom I knew had a cottage on
Bailey’s Island up in Maine to inquire about the possibility of
renting it for a week. She and her husband were very sympathetic, not only sacrificing a week in July for us to say in their
cottage but also refusing to charge rent. . .
On the last night of our enchanted week on Bailey’s Island,
I followed the boys down the path to the dock where Ziggy tied
up his skiff. Ziggy’s lived all of his fifty or so years of life on
the island, lobstering for a living. He’s a kindly man with soft
blue eyes set into a face as weather beaten as the old lobster
pot which I was sitting on as I watched the boys whoop it up on
the dock. Ziggy had just tied up and was transferring the day’s
catch from wooden barrels on the deck of his boat into plastic
bins. The boys helped.
When the job was done, Ziggy said something that made the
boys laugh. It was good seeing them laugh. He put his long
arms around them and squeezed them. Even Peter, Junior, age
16, let himself be hugged. Behind them on the horizon where
Casco Bay meets the sky, the biggest, brightest orange full
moon was rising. Still too angry to pray, I wept and wished my
dear Peter were there with his sons on Ziggy’s dock.
I feel deeply privileged to be privy to these outpourings of
memories that heretofore had been untold. More than that, I
am thankful to fate for granting me the knack of eliciting from
these people who were in the denouement of their lives their
buried stories. It must be noted that all but one of the authors
of the snippets of memory pieces that I have cited have passed
away.
Harry Anderson of Glocester is the retired chairman of the
Mansfield, Massachusetts High School English Department.
Besides being a writer and conducting memoir writing gatherings, he also leads book discussion groups, notably one at the
Harmony Library which has been going for 12 years and has
read more than 170 books.
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invites you to worship with us on
Sundays at 9:30am
at 100 Farnum Pike, Smithfield
We are handicap accessible
Sunday School for children
is held at the same hour
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A Nerd’s Eye View
By
Ron
Scopelliti
Professional writer
on a closed course
Don’t try this at home. I’m a trained professional with
years of experience. Writing a column without the proper
training can result in serious physical and psychological
injury.
I’m sorry for starting a column like that, but I’ve been
remiss in not doing so sooner. You can’t be too careful
these days in protecting yourself from liability. If you’re
presenting information to the public, you need a disclaimer, and this is obvious in TV commercials.
I challenge you to find a commercial that doesn’t have
lines of text running along the bottom at regular intervals
throughout the ad, explaining that what you’re seeing is
dangerous, impossible, an exaggeration, available only
by prescription, or only applicable if you sign a two-year
service agreement.
This column does not require a prescription, and there
is no two-year service agreement required. If there were,
I’d have to include a disclaimer to protect myself should
I run out of column ideas or be driven to excessive consumption of alcohol through the writing of said column.
(Note: Comic depiction of alcohol abuse is not an en-
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dorsement. Please drink responsibly and always have a
designated driver; seek medical help if anyone orders an
Alabama Slammer)
Car commercials are notorious for their disclaimers, like the Toyota ad where they have a custom-built,
thirty-foot high, football-field-long, steel see-saw to test
their full-size pickup. They warn viewers not to try this
at home. I’m personally not inclined to try this at home
because the apparatus would be bigger than my home and
more expensive than my home. (Note: see-saw and home
values are estimated. Home values may fluctuate based
on the real estate market; see-saw may go up or down
due to gravity)
You may think I’m joking about writing being dangerous, and feeling the need to put disclaimers in my
column. But I’m already worrying about the response
Toyota might have to my previous paragraph. If you’re
putting something out in print, you have to constantly
worry about getting sued. That explains why I substituted
“Alabama Slammer” for the brand name beer I had originally used.
Do you see where it’s getting us? You can’t pick up a
coffee cup without a disclaimer on it, warning you that
your coffee may be hot. At Starbucks, the cardboard sleeve
they give you to protect your hands from the heat has a
warning that your coffee may be hot. If you throw caution
to the wind and take the sleeve off, there’s an identical
warning on the cup itself. It’s only a matter of time before
scientists find a way to actually imprint a warning in the
coffee, defying fluid dynamics and Brownian motion to
protect us from ourselves.
I’m glad, at least, that the coffee companies haven’t
gone the same route as drug companies, hawking their
latest product and following their sales pitch with a litany
of potential problems. Something like: Side effects may
include slaking of thirst, cessation of drowsiness, and a
craving for biscotti. Those visiting Starbucks may become disoriented and believe that “tall” is synonymous
with “small.” Call your doctor if you have a latte that
lasts more than four hours.
I can see a future where the number of disclaimers I’ve
thrown into this column becomes a necessity rather than
a repetitive joke. Works of music, drama, and fiction may
soon need disclaimers included throughout. Just like the
Ford Edge commercial has to remind viewers that a car
cannot really travel on two wheels along a four-inch ledge
on a rooftop, the next Superman movie may need to run a
disclaimer along the bottom of each flying scene, noting
that all flying sequences are simulated. The next Star Trek
movie may warn viewers: “Simulated starship on closed
course; Always obey local traffic laws. Do not exceed the
speed of light.”
It will eventually work its way across all arts. The next
production of Romeo and Juliet may note that “all suicides are simulated and for entertainment purposes only.
No actors were harmed in the production of this play.”
Poetry anthologies will point out that Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening may lead to hypothermia or loitering
charges. The lyric sheet to Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder
Road will warn that “your results may vary” when you
tell a girl “You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright.”
Is it too late to stop the trend?
Maybe I’m being alarmist. Maybe a world of disclaimers run amuck isn’t hovering just around the corner. Maybe I’m extrapolating a trend just for the sake of extrapolation (don’t you hate it when that happens?)
But if you see this column as a slightly distorted reflection of reality, and consider the slightly distorted view
through your car’s passenger-side mirror, I say there’s a
parallel, and therefore warn you:
Observations in this column are closer than they appear.
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Cory Beety nabs
regional motocross
championship
Eleven-year-old has been riding
cycles since he was 4 1/2
By Ron Scopelliti
At an age when many are looking forward to becoming
champions in their favorite sports, one Smithfield seventhgrader has already achieved that status. Eleven-year-old Cory
Beety recently took the spring championship in the New England Motocross Association’s 65B division. The popular form
of dirt bike racing is famous for it’s high-flying jumps, and
Cory is perfectly happy in the air or on the dirt.
According to his parents, Cory started riding motorcycles at
4 ½, and would have started sooner if it were his choice.
“We said, ‘when you can ride your bike without training
wheels, then you can ride a dirt bike,’” recalls Cory’s father,
Todd.
Cory soon began running pee-wee hare scrambles, a form
of motorcycle competition that keeps the bikes mostly on
the ground. He then moved on to BMX (bicycle motocross).
Though it relies on pedal-power, the sport gave Cory a glimpse
of the air time he would soon become accustomed to on a
motorcycle.
Mother Karen recalls, “I said to my husband, ‘I think he likes
the air.’”
The transition from BMX to motocross brought a couple of
benefits, says Cory.
“Motocross is faster and more exciting,” he says. “And in
BMX you only get to go around the track once.” Motocross
races are usually divided into two segments (called motos),
each of which lasts about 5 laps (ten to fifteen minutes).
The sport requires a full-time commitment, not only from
Cory, but from his family.
Last year, he raced in 65 and 85 cc classes, so-named because of the engine-size of the motorcycles. He required a race
bike and a spare for each class. This year, he’ll race exclusively
on the larger bikes, and his racing stable will consist of two
85cc KTM machines.
“This is a very big expense,” says Karen, noting that the
commitment also includes a camper, and a truck to pull the
22 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
Cory Beety displays the trophy he received for winning the spring
championship in the New England Motocross Association’s 65B division.
camper and carry the motorcycles.
“A new washer and dryer comes second,” she says. “The
bikes come first. It’s all about the motocross.”
There is also a significant time commitment, with races every
week from spring through fall. The race weekends, however,
offer a family atmosphere that’s enjoyable for the parents as
well as the racers.
“It’s like going camping every weekend,” says Karen. “You
might have one weekend a month off.”
“We’ve had good friends that Cory knows and hangs with,”
she says. “We know them well and we hang with their parents.
It’s like going camping every weekend. We all put the campers
together at the track.
“We all bring out the food, and the kids are playing – we just
have a lot of fun.
“You’ve got your family, you’ve got your friends, and then
you’ve got your motocross family,” says Karen.
The closeness is evident when riders are injured.
“We’ve seen some kids airlifted out,” Karen says. “We’ve
seen friends taken out in the rescue.”
When this happens, she says, the families come together,
“tag-teaming” to take care of brothers and sisters as the parents
accompany their rider to the hospital.
Though Cory hasn’t suffered any injuries in motocross,
Karen says that some parents ask her how she can let her son
take part in a potentially dangerous sport. “I say, ‘How can you
let your child out the front door?’” she responds.
She admits, though, that there are times when the nerves set
in.
“I’ve seen him take one crash,” she says, recalling how
he cart-wheeled off the bike before hitting the ground. “I
screamed.”
Cory, however, got back on his bike and continued running
so he wouldn’t be listed with a DNF (Did Not Finish) in the
point standings.
“He wanted to finish that race,” she says, noting that referees
will go out of their way to protect overzealous riders, pulling
kids off the track if they appear to be riding injured.
“These organizations are great for the kids,” she says. “He’s
met a lot of friends from all over New England. They all help
each others – they’re a bunch of nice kids.” She feels that their
mutual involvement in a sport that’s outside the mainstream
forms a bond.
Cory points to an example that took place when he went
to South Carolina to train with older riders during Christmas
break.
“One kid, he barely knew me,” Cory says, “but he took a
whole day of riding out just to show me how to do stuff.”
Cory says he’d like to go pro one day, and would like to stay
in racing, rather than crossing over into the “freestyle” stunt
competitions that have become popular in the past few years.
He says he would also prefer to stay away from indoor racing.
“I like to stay outside,” he says. “The tracks are bigger, and
the jumps are more stretched out. So if you don’t clear something, you still have time to gain to get to the next jump.”
Asked what he likes most about motocross, his answer is
simple and straight to the point:
“Just the fun of it,” Cory says.
Spring has Sprung at
The
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in North Scituate.
Easter is Sunday, April 8th and our
greenhouses are overflowing with
Easter Lilies • Tulips • Hyacinths
Daffodils • Hydrangeas
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Open daily 9:00am-6:00pm
Open Easter Sun. 9:30 til 12:00Noon
The Country Gardener
Top: One of the trademarks of motocross racing is “big air,” and
Cory gets plenty of it here. Center: taking the checkered flag at the
end of a race in Connecticut. Bottom: Cory is known for his “holeshots,” beating other competitors to the first turn. Here he leads the
pack off the starting line. (photos by Karen Beety)
617 Greenville Road (Rt. 116)
N. Scituate 647-2208
Visa & MC accepted
Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 23
Old County
Road School
Makes the
Grade
Elementary school
receives national
honor
By Ron Scopelliti
Earlier this year, one of Smithfield’s
elementary schools received a national
honor that speaks not only to its dedication to academics, but also to its connection with the community. Old County
Road Elementary School, was named a
distinguished school by the National Association of State Title 1 Directors.
To those outside academia, it may
not be immediately apparent what this
honor means, but a conversation with the
school’s principal, Jill Barnhardt, makes
it clear that Old County Road School is
serving a unique function in our school
system, and doing it well.
The school, which currently has 240
students from Esmond and Georgiaville,
is the only school in the town taking part
in the federally funded Title 1 program.
Principal Barnhardt explains that Title
1 is targeted at lower socio-economic
groups, with the aim of improving reading and math skills.
According to the RAND Corporation,
a non-profit think tank, “many children
from disadvantaged backgrounds fail to
meet grade-level expectations on core
subjects.” Educational assessments for
grades 8-12 show that some 50 percent
of children from disadvantaged backgrounds score below basic levels in reading and math.
Old County Road School falls under
the Title 1 program because of the demographics of the student body.
24 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
Alicia Gibney, substituting for Old County Road Elementary School reading specialist
Julie Russell, works with students (l-r) Kelsey Safford and Kimberly Major. The school
was recently recognized for its efforts in the federally-funded Title 1 program which focuses on improving reading and math skills in schools with higher percentages of students
from lower socio-economic groups. (Your Smithfield Magazine photo)
“This is a school with a lower socioeconomic background,” says Barnhardt,
“It’s all based on the percentage of the
students that participate in the federal
free and reduced lunch program.” 40
students from the school (16.6 percent
of the population) qualify for free or
reduced lunch.
Built in 1957, the building served
as the town’s Junior High School until
1976, and the opening of a new building
which is now the Vincent J. Gallagher
Middle School. Barnhardt has been at
the school for eight years. Her immediate
predecessor was current school superintendent Robert O’Brien.
Schools with a high incidence of poverty have school-wide Title 1 programs.
This is not the case at Old County Road.
Some 49 students at the school receive
Title 1 services in reading and/or math.
“We’re a targeted-assistance program,” Barnhardt explains, “so we
identify the children who need the most
assistance academically, and we gear all
of our Title I funding towards providing
support for them.”
“Right now, the Title 1 funds provide
one-and-a-half teaching positions to the
school,” she says. “It’s the equivalent of
a full-time reading teacher, and a halftime math teacher.
Taking part in the program are Math
teacher Dorothy Ainley (whose position is half funded through Title 1, and
half funded through the school district),
reading teacher Kristen DeAmaral, and
reading teacher Julie Russell, who is currently on maternity leave.
The services provided by these teachers are highly varied. They can include
one-on-one sessions with students, group
work, and co-teaching with the classroom instructors. They also work with
the classroom teachers doing common
planning and professional development.
“One of the big things that the Title 1
teachers do is they help classroom teachers assess students,” Barnhardt notes.
“The federal funds also provide us
with funding for professional development for the teachers, funding to run parent programs, and funding for materials
and supplies used in the programs,” she
adds.
“Probably the thing I’m most proud
of about our Title I program is, if you
walked into a classroom, you wouldn’t
be able to identify who is a title I student,
who is a special education student, and
who is a general ed student,” Barnhardt
says. “The way the funding is arranged,
we have the flexibility for our teachers to
work with anyone who needs it.”
One recent development made possible
partly through the Title 1 funding, is Old
County Road School’s Literacy Closet
– a large collection of reading material
in a small room on the school’s second
floor.
The Literacy Closet has been in the works for the past three
years. Working with classroom teachers, they pulled together
books that were already in the school, and then added to them
each year, using combined funds.
“We have hundreds and hundreds of books,” Barnhardt
says. “We purchased a lot of the books in there with the Title 1
funds.”
The reach of the Title 1 program, however, extends beyond
the classroom, and beyond the walls of the school, into the
community.
“One of the key pieces of the Title 1 legislation,” says Barnhardt, “is that we try to involve families as much as we can.”
This year, for example, the school hosted a “First Day”
program, inviting all the parents to come to school with their
children on the first day of classes. They attended a wholeschool assembly, and then visited each classroom.
“We felt like it was a huge success,” says Barnhardt.
Later this academic year, they will invite all families of
incoming kindergarten students to come into school for a story
time.
“It takes away a little bit of that anxiety,” says the principal.
During the summer, staff and faculty volunteer at the East
Smithfield Public Library to have summer reading storytimes.
They usually take place twice a week, with teachers bringing
stories and activities.
“They volunteer to do that, just to keep that home/school
connection going through the summer,” says Barnhardt.
Further strengthening the connection between the school and
the nearby library, Babs Wells, one of the children’s librarians,
comes to storytimes at the school once a month, and also takes
part in a story time for incoming kindergarteners. “Miss Babs”
also comes to a whole-school assembly at the end of the year
to help promote the summer reading program, and inform the
children of the library’s summer calendar of events.
“We have a really nice collaboration with them,” Barnhardt
says of the library.
Asked if she thinks the school’s Title 1 status has helped
forge a bond with the surrounding community, Barnhardt says
“I think it’s added to the connection,” noting that the programs
are things they would probably like to do anyway.
She notes, however, “It gives you a little more initiative to
get out there and make those connections.”
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Owners of Tribute Auto want to boost charities
Giving something back is goal of business couple Todd and Kim Walker
By Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.
Todd Walker almost never sits down. When he talks he paces
back and forth seeming to draw ever more energy from moving
in a tight circle while his ideas pour out. He appears tireless.
Kim, his wife and business partner, sits nearby providing
a seamless counterpoint to his passionate remarks. Together
they are explaining their plan to create a climate of community awareness about the importance of supporting charitable
causes. If Todd can inspire in others the enthusiasm he seems
to have in abundance it’s hard to imagine him failing.
In business three years, the couple own Tribute Auto Sales
and Spa in Esmond. At the end of this month on April 28 they
will host their first annual car wash for a cause. One hundred
percent of the proceeds will be given to the Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation, they emphasize.
“We like the idea of paying it forward,” observes Kim, with
a reference to the Kevin Spacey film which was about doing
good deeds for others because you have been the recipient of
good deeds yourself.
The car wash will be their first effort as a business aimed at
raising money for a cause. It won’t be their first personal effort,
though. Todd is reluctant to talk about it, saying the work they
do is not about personal glory, but each year for some time
now, he notes that he and Kim have raised between three and
five thousand dollars for charities.
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The staff and a host of volunteers will be on hand April 28 when
Tribute Auto Sales & Spa holds a car wash to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Todd and Kim Walker, owners of the company,
say it is the first of what they envision will be an ongoing series of
annual charity events at their place of business. (Your Smithfield
Magazine photo)
Now they want to use the growing recognition of their business to generate even more support for worthy causes.
“We’re finally at a point where people know of the quality of
the work we do and will come in [and support this] because of
that,” says Todd.
“You look for ways to improve yourself, your business, and
the community in which you run your business,” he adds.
The couple has planned not simply a car wash, but a fun
event. They will have food, raffles, and entertaining activities.
They, their staff, and a host of volunteers will be on hand to
make sure that the results of the car wash are what they term
“deluxe.” “We want to do something like this at least once, maybe
twice every year,” Kim explains.
The beneficiary of their fund-raising won’t necessarily
always be the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. They envision
working with the community and perhaps other businesses and
individuals to call attention to and raise money for a variety of
good causes.
The proceeds of this first annual car wash and fund drive will
be given to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation because Kim has a
friend whose child has the disease.
“In the future, though, the cause we choose doesn’t even
have to be related to someone we know,” she says.
According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation the illness is an
inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive
system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States
and some 70,000 world wide. A defective gene causes the body
to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs
and leads to life-threatening infections. It also obstructs the
pancreas and blocks natural enzymes from helping the body
break down and absorb food.
In the 1950s few children afflicted with cystic fibrosis lived
long enough to attend elementary school. Today, due to medical advances many people with the disease can expect to live
into their thirties, forties, and even beyond.
Kim reflects on this and comments “When you hear that the
life expectancy is in the thirties . . . I look at our staff who are
in their early twenties and I think . . . .” Her voice trails off.
Todd interjects, “If you can’t give of yourself, what is the use
of being here [on earth]. What are you doing? Where are you
going?”
The couple is asked by a reporter how they became so committed to doing charitable deeds.
“When people say you are really nice, we like the way you
treated us, it’s a tribute to our families, our parents. They raised
us well,” Kim says. “They taught us the value of giving to others.”
In fact, the couple explains, they named their business Tribute Auto Sales and Spa in honor of their late mothers, Mary
Kelly, Elizabeth Jane Walker, and Todd’s grandmother Mary
Simon. “It’s a tribute to them,” Kim remarks.
The Walkers are hoping for a large turnout on April 28. They
are, Todd assures, ready to handle as many cars as show up.
“I hope to do a minimum of 100,” Todd declares, “but I’d
like to do 200.”
Everything they bring in will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation they promise.
“If people come in and pay by check we want them to make
it out directly to the foundation,” Todd notes.
Kim adds, “We’re scheduling the event two weeks or so
in advance of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Great Strides
[fund-raising] walk in May so the money can funnel into that
effort.”
The foundation reports that since the first Great Strides walk
in 1989 more than $180 million has been raised to support
research and care programs.
There are more than 80 chapters of the Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation across the country. It also supports more than 115
certified cystic fibrosis care centers nationwide.
According to its website it is “one of the most efficient organizations of its kind,” claiming that in 2005 nearly 90 percent
of every dollar of revenue raised “was available for investment
in CF research, care, and education programs.”
“Sometimes the car business has a negative reputation,” Kim
says. “We want to change that.”
“One customer at a time,” Todd joins in.
He then points out that he and Kim want to network with
customers, other businesses, community organizations and the
like to foster an atmosphere of giving and helping.
“We want to network. Some day I would like to have the
Tribute Foundation. I want to help as many people as I can.”
Todd muses.
“We want to do fund-raisers that everyone can feel a part of,”
they both agree.
Then Todd offers one final thought about the upcoming car
wash, “Everyone should come. It will be cool.”
The Tribute Auto Sales and Spa First Annual Car Wash will
be held Saturday, April 28 at the company’s premises, 293
Waterman Avenue, Smithfield. All of the $25 donation will go to
the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Hours are 10-4. Event includes
food and a raffle and other activities for the family. The rain
date is Saturday May 5. Phone 349-4406.
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Ernie LaMontagne
Meetings
Bryant University
President’s
Cultural Series
Presents
Eguie Castrillo
Thursday, April 12
Concert at 7:30 p.m.
Janikies Theatre
Alumni Achievement Awards
6 p.m., Koffler Rotunda
Percussionist Eguie Castrillo is a native of Puerto Rico
who has played with Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval,
Jennifer Lopez, and many others. Castrillo and his
18-piece orchestra are a tight, energetic ensemble that
will get the pulse racing with a sizzling mambo program.
Castrillo and his orchestra will perform following the
presentation of Bryant University’s Alumni Achievement
Awards.
Call (401) 232-6595 for information or to charge
tickets by phone.
A limited number of free tickets are available
to Smithfield residents. Call (401) 232-6595 to
reserve tickets (maximum of four).
This performance is brought to you in conjunction with the Alumni Achievement Awards. Call
the alumni relations office at (401) 232-6377 for
more information on the Alumni Achievement
Awards.
This event is sponsored by The Pawtucket Times
and The Woonsocket Call.
28 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
Monday
April 2
Smithfield School Committee Meeting
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Smithfield High
School Media Center, 90
Pleasant View Ave.
Tuesday
April 3
Smithfield Town Council
Meeting
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike.
Smithfield Town Council
Meetings can be viewed on
the Wednesday and Saturday
following each meeting at 6
p.m. on Cox Cable Channel
18.
Wednesday
April 4
Smithfield Housing Authority Meeting
Time: 3 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Housing
Authority, 7 Church Street
Smithfield Conservation
Commission Meeting
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Leo Bouchard Conservation Center, 225 Pleasant
View Ave.
Thursday
April 5
Smithfield Probate Court
Time: 9 a.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
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Saturday
April 21
Town Hall closed at noon
for Good Friday.
Smithfield Planning Board
Site Visits
Time: 9 a.m.
Location: Various – see
agenda
The Smithfield Planning
Board is doing monthly Site
Visits on Saturdays for planning board applications. See
agenda for locations.
Tuesday
April 10
Monday
April 23
Friday
April 6
Annual Public Budget
Hearing
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Smithfield High
School, 90 Pleasant View
Ave.
Monday
April 16
Affordable Housing Advisory Committee
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike
Tuesday
April 17
Smithfield Town Council
Meeting
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike
Wednesday
April 18
Sewer Authority
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 2nd floor conference
room, 64 Farnum Pike
Thursday
April 19
Smithfield Land Trust
Meeting
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike
Smithfield School Committee Meeting
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Smithfield High
School Media Center, 90
Pleasant View Ave.
Zoning Board of Review
Meeting
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike
Thursday
April 26
Economic Development
Commission Meeting
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike
Soil Erosion & Sediment
Control Meeting
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike
Smithfield Planning Board
Meeting
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Smithfield Town
Hall, 64 Farnum Pike
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Calendar
Sunday
April 1
BINGO at the Smithfield
Senior Center at 1:30 p.m.
Doors open at 11 a.m. Lunch
items can be purchased from
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 9494590.
POETRY READINGS with
readings by the Stone and
Plank Group, 2 to 3:30 p.m.
at the Greenville Public
Library. Program is free and
open to the public. Winner of
the teen poetry contest will
be announced. Also, “Open
Mic” forum for aspiring poets
to read their works and get
pointers from the members of
the Stone and Plank Group.
949-3630.
‘COMPANY’ presented by
the Providence College’s
Department of Theatre at the
Angell Blackfriars Theatre,
Smith Center for the Arts,
Providence College. Performance of the Tony Awardwinning musical comedy
begins at 2 p.m. Performances
will also be held on Friday,
April 13 and Saturday, April
14 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday,
April 15 at 2 p.m. Tickets are
$10, $7 for seniors, and $5
for students. Call 865-2218
for more information or for
reservations.
Tuesday
April 3
YAKOV SMIRNOFF – travel
with the Smithfield Seniors
to the Garde Arts Theater in
Connecticut. Enjoy a fourhour stay at Foxwoods, with
casino package. Cost $52 per
person. For more information,
call Karen at 949-4590.
SMITHFIELD VIKINGS
registration to be held at
Smithfield High School Gym
from 6 to 9 p.m.; and Saturday, April 7, from 8:30 a.m.
to 12 noon. Registration fee
is $85 per person, $120 per
family. Cheerleading, call
Bonnie Marra at 231-0549.
Football, call Mike Montella
at 640-4062.
NIGHT OF THE RISING
STARS annual dinner hosted
by the North Central Chamber of Commerce at 5:30 p.m.
at Lombardi’s 1025 Club.
Tickets are $45. For tickets or
further details, call the North
Central Chamber at 349-4674,
or visit www.NCRIchamber.
com.
Wednesday
April 4
LET’S DECORATE EGGS,
for ages 6-10, at the Greenville Public Library, at 4
p.m. Bring a half dozen
hard-boiled eggs to decorate
and the library will provide
the rest. Call 949-3630 for
details.
SCENE IT? FOR TEENS at
the Greenville Public Library
at 4 p.m. Lights! Camera!
Action! Young adults between
the ages of 11 and 17 are invited to the library to play the
challenging, multimedia trivia
game. Call 949-3630.
ART IN THE AFTERNOON
for children in grades 2-4 will
be offered every Wednesday
at the East Smithfield Public
Library, from 4 to 5 p.m. To
register, call Michael Cardin
at 231-5150.
HOMEWORK EXPRESS on
Thursdays, from 2:30 to 4:30
p.m., at the East Smithfield
Public Library. For children
in grades K-8. For further information, contact children’s
librarian Babs Wells at 2315150.
Friday
April 6
GAME DAY on Fridays, from
2 to 4:30 p.m., at the East
Smithfield Public Library.
Play a board game, bring a
STEPHEN ROY POWER EQUIPMENT
146 Putnam Ave., Johnston 231-8210 • Mon.-Fri. 8am-5pm, Sat. 8am-1pm • www.stephenroypower.com
BUILT STRONGER TO WORK FASTER.
ZERO-TURN RIDER RZT 42
• 42” flating twi-blade 3-in-1 mowing deck
• 17 HP* Kohler® CourageTM OHV engine
• Dual hydrostatic transmissions
• Pivoting front axle with large caster wheels
• Patented SmartJetTM high-pressure deck washing system
• Ergonomic lap bars with super-soft grips and dampers
*As rated by engine manufacturer
ZERO
INTEREST*
PAYMENTS
FOR 12 MONTHS
SALE 2,599**
$
Zero-Turn Rider RZT 50 and RZT 54 with Kawasaki
engines available. (RZT 50 shown - $2,999**)
®
HEAVY-DUTY ZERO-TURN RIDER Z-FORCE® 50
• 50” floating triple-blade deck with foot pedal deck height adjustment
• 23 HP* Kohler® Command® V-Twin OHV engine
Dual hydrostatic transmission
• Heavy-duty pivoting and greasable steel front axle
• 1.5” box fully welded steel frame
• Patented SmartJetTM high-pressure deck washing system
ZERO
INTEREST*
PAYMENTS
FOR 12 MONTHS
SALE $3,999**
Additional models available - Z-Force® 44 with
Kohler® engine and Z-Force® 60 with Kawasaki®
engine.
PREMIUM KOHLER® ENGINE
Provides extended durability and quiet performance.
HEAVY-DUTY GARDEN TRACTOR GT 2542
• Heavy-duty shaft drive
• 42” heavy-duty twin-blade mowing deck
• 20 HP* Kohler® Command® V-Twin OHV engine
• Cast-iron transmission with heavy-duty hydrostatic pump and
spin-on oil filter for long life
• Tighter, 20” turning radius
• Patented SmartJetTM high-pressure deck washing system
ZERO
SALE $3,199**
Additional models available with 44”, 50” or 54” decks.
SHAFT DRIVE
No belts to slip, stretch or break.
friend, or make a new friend.
231-5150.
Saturday
April 7
EASTER EGG HUNT to be
held at East Smithfield Public
Library at 10:30 a.m. For
children ages 2-4. To register,
contact Babs Wells at 2315150.
NATURE ACROSS THE
CURRICULUM workshop
offered at the Powder Mill
Ledges Refuge, 12 Sanderson
Road, 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon.
Attendees will interactively
participate in two standardbased nature lessons or
activities per subject area. All
activities will be aligned with
current science GSEs. Fee is
$10 per person. Registration
is required. Space is limited.
Call 949-5454.
WATCHING WOODCOCKS
– SUPPER AND SAUNTER
at Audubon’s Powder Mill
Ledges, 12 Sanderson Road,
5:30 to 8 p.m. Evening begins
with soup and salad supper
and an introduction to the
Woodcock and its mating
flights. Evening continues
outdoors either at PML or
Audubon’s new Newman
Refuge in North Smithfield.
Program will be postponed
in the event of rain. Program
Fee: $15 member adult, $7
member child; $20/non-member adult, $10/non-member
child. For details or reservations, call 949-5454.
Easter Sunday
April 8
SUNRISE WORSHIP service
will be held at 6:30 a.m. in
the church yard at Georgiaville Baptist Church, 100
Farnum Pike. In the event of
rain, the service will be held
indoors. Easter breakfast will
follow in the church hall.
Morning Worship will be
held at 9:30 a.m. with special
music by the choirs. For more
information, call 568-4412.
Monday
April 9
WATERCOLOR CLASS
offered at the East Smithfield
Public Library at 6:30 p.m.
To register, contact Michelle
Colicci at 231-5150.
Greenville’s Best Kept Secret
Tuesday
April 10
SOROPTIMIST, a service
club comprised of professional and business women,
to meet at East Smithfield
Public Library at 6:30 p.m. To
register, contact Terry Moretti
at 232-3115.
Thursday
April 12
MEDITATION AND WAND
CRAFT offered at the East
Smithfield Public Library,
from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. To
register, call Maxine Paquette
at 231-5150.
Friday
April 13
THE INCREDIBLE EDIBLE
LANDFILL presented by
Audubon Society of Rhode
Island, 12 Sanderson Road,
from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Suitable
for children 7 and over. Learn
in a fun way about where
your trash goes by building
an edible version of a landfill.
Program Fee: $10 member
child, $12 non-member child.
Call 949-5454.
Sunday
April 15
WINE TASTING DINNER
TO BENEFIT the Avon Walk
for Breast Cancer at Chester’s
Restaurant, 102 Putnam Pike,
Glocester, 4 to 7:30 p.m.
Wines from around the world
supplied by Christy’s Liquors. $45 per person. Tickets
available at the restaurant, at
Christy’s Liquor, 1184 Main
St., Chepachet; or by calling
Diane Couture, 232-7228.
Saturday Evening Dinner Specials
Come in and check out our
dinner specials
Beer & Wine Available
21 Smith Avenue, Greenville 949-7390
Hours: Monday-Wednesday 10:30am-3pm
Thursday, Friday & Saturday 10:30am-9pm
949-HOME
www.andersonsparn.
An Independent Member Broker
WATERFRONT BEAUTIES!!
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Waterfront on Slack’s Pond! Attractive 2
BR Cape with expansion for additional
2 br’s and bath on 2nd level. This sunny
bright home has new roof, new windows,
gutters and furnace. large dock for boat, entertaining or fishing. Reduced $414,900.
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Waterfront on Waterman’s Lake! Own your own
year round retreat. Large DEM approved beach
in cove with privacy for swimming and boating.
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car garage and potential for inlaw or guest apartment. Asking $749,000.
136 Aldrich, Glocester:
Waterfront on Waterman’s Lake!
Location at a great price! Energy efficient home with year round views,
sliders off living room to deck. 2 beds,
1.5 baths, open floor plan, dock and
more!!! WOW!! $419,000.
Calendar
Monday
April 16
BUTTERFLIES: HABITS
AND HABITATS, for ages
6-10, at the Greenville Public
Library, at 1 p.m. Children are
invited to register for the slide
show presentation of Eastern
butterflies by Jerry Schneider,
inventor of the Butterfly
Game. Tee-shirt craft will follow the presentation. Children
may bring their own heavycotton white tee-shirt or purchase one for $4 at the show.
To register, call 949-3630.
FUNKADELIC 60’S PARTY
for ages 1-17 at the Greenville Public Library, from 2
to 4 p.m. Bring a t-shirt to
tie-dye. While waiting for the
dye to set, test yourself with
trivia, listen to music, and do
other activities relating to the
1960s. Call 949-3630.
Smithfield Senior Center at
949-4590.
Tuesday
April 17
THESAURUSLY SPEAKING, a brown bag lunch
program, presented at the
Greenville Public Library, at
12 noon. This contest will
see if participants can name
popular songs, shows, and
movies based on phrases that
are synonymous with their
titles. For details, call 9493630.
TUESDAY NIGHT BOOK
CLUB meets at the East
Smithfield Public Library,
from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. To
register, contact Bethany Mott
at 231-5150.
Wednesday
April 18
MICHAEL AMANTE at
the Log Cabin in Massachusetts. Meal and show $86 per
person. For more information or reservations, call the
PLANTING STRAWBERRY
PLANTS, for ages 6-10, at
the Greenville Public Library,
at 10:30 a.m. Children can
learn about growing strawberries, and then plant their own.
Call 949-3630 for details.
MAXWELL’S BACK at the
Greenville Public Library,
from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. for
ages 6-19. Max, the visiting
pet therapy dog, loves to have
children read to him. Small
groups will be scheduled to
read for 15 minute sessions.
949-3630.
BUTT PILLOWS, a fun craft
program for young adults, is
being offered at the Greenville Public Library at 1 p.m.
Bring in an old pair of jeans
to use, cut, sew and decorate,
to make a pillow. Call 9493630 for more details.
POET-TREE ACTIVITY,
for school-aged children, at
the East Smithfield Public
Library, from 1 to 3 p.m. To
register, call Babs Wells at
231-5150.
Thursday
April 19
TEACHER WORKSHOP:
VERNAL POOLS offered by
Audubon Society of Rhode
Island, 12 Sanderson Road,
from 1 to 4 p.m. Learn about
what a vernal pool is, who
lives there, and what can be
done to protect them. Portion of the workshop to be
held outdoors. Program Fee
is $15 for members, $20 for
non members. Adults. Call
949-5454.
HOT STUFF GLASS ETCHING for young adults between
the ages of 11 and 17 at the
Greenville Public Library, at
2 p.m. Various glass objects
and some stencils will be
provided by the library. To
register, call 949-3630.
Half a Century of Caring Service!
Family Owned and Operated
for Over 50 Years
Centrally Located
Preplanning Available
Elliott Robbins Funeral Home is family owned
and operated. People in the Northern Rhode
Island area have known the Robbins family
since 1948 as providers of friendly,
personal, and sensitive service.
Elliott M. Robbins Funeral Home
2251 Mineral Spring Avenue, North Providence • 231-9307
R O B B I N S
SINCE 1948
Geoffrey D. Greene, Director • Jennifer L. (Greene) Fagan, Director
www.robbinsfuneralhome.com
TEEN NIGHT OUT at
the East Smithfield Public
Library, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Students in 6th grade and
above are welcome to join
for teen talk, book talk, and
friendly and fun-filled conversation. Refreshments will be
provided. To register, contact
Babs wells at 231-5150.
Friday
April 20
PRE-SCHOOL STORY
TIME featuring “Around the
Pond: Who’s Been Here?”
presented at Powder Mill
Ledges Wildlife Refuge, 12
Sanderson Road. Program
times are 10:30 a.m. and 1
p.m. For ages 3-5. Program
Fee: $4 member child, $5
non-member child. Call 9495454.
TUNES AND TALES FAMILY FUN, for families with
children ages 3-10, presented
at the Greenville Public
Library, at 10:30 a.m. Laugh,
sing and play along with storyteller/musician Anne-Marie
Forer. Babies, toddlers, and
older siblings are welcome.
Call 949-3630.
Saturday
April 21
PASTA SUPPER FUNDRAISER, sponsored by the
Greenville Public Library
and the Smithfield YMCA, to
be held at St. Philip’s Parish
Center, at 6 p.m. Silent auction and family-rated hypnotic stage show featuring “The
Sleepster.” Tickets are $15
for adults and $7 for children
under 10. For information,
call 949-3630.
Sunday
April 22
MILITARY WHIST at the
Smithfield Senior Center at
1 p.m. Price is $5. Refreshments available after the
game. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling
949-4590.
Tuesday
April 24
LIBRARY RESEARCH
WORKSHOP FOR HOMESCHOOLERS at the Greenville Public Library at 11 a.m.
Children between the ages
of 9 and 17 will learn how
to use the various electronic
databases the library subscribes for them to use for
their projects. Call 949-3630
for more details.
Thursday
April 26
SHARE-A-STORY BOOK
GROUP at the East Smithfield Public Library, from
7:15 to 8:30 p.m. Children
in grades 4 and 5 and their
parent(s)/caregiver(s) are
invited to come to the library
and share their thoughts
about a book they have read
together. For further information and the title of this
month’s book, contact Babs
Wells at 231-5150.
Saturday
April 28
GARDENING WORKSHOP, for all ages, offered
at the East Smithfield Public
Library, from 11 a.m. to 12:30
p.m. To register, contact Babs
Wells at 231.5150.
Sunday
April 29
THE HISTORY OF MILLINERY: 1850 – 1950 program
featured at Greenville Public
Library, from 2 to 3 p.m. Ms.
Elsie Collins will present a
lecture and display of period
and original reproduction
hats, spanning 100 years.
Program free and open to the
public. For more details, call
949-3630.
Monday
April 30
POETRY READING by Elsie
Collins at the Greenville Public Library, from 7 to 8 p.m.
Free and open to the public.
949-3630.
Don’t Be Fooled
By Gimmicks!
• If you’re offered $100 off or a free set of glasses,
you’re probably being charged too much to begin
with!
• We offer quality lenses at reasonable prices with
personalized professional service
• New prescriptions filled
• Present glasses duplicated
• Same day service in many cases
• Eye exams on premises by
Dr. Dennis Forman, O.D.
By appointment on Wed. & Sat.
• Most third party payments accepted
Collins Optical
Northern R.I.’s One Stop Optical Center
3 Commerce Street, behind A&W, Greenville
949-5330
Barry Collins, Lic. Optician
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10:00-5:00, Sat. 10:00-1:00
World-Class Wines
from Your Neighborhood Liquor Store
10% Off
Wine Cases
Mix and Match
Imported and
Domestic Liquors
Wines and Beers
Kegs
Party Needs
Ice Cubes
Mac’s Liquor Mart
200 Pleasant View Ave., Rte. 5, Smithfield • 231-3980
Crossword
Solution on page 59
Nails • Waxing • Fades
The Family Haircutter™
A Full Service Salon
VOTED #1 HAIR SALON 3 YEARS IN A ROW
We would like to welcome Joy DiPietro to our staff
Full Head Foiling starting at $65
with Joy only - with mention of this ad
Gift certificates always available
Senior Citizens’ Day
Tuesdays
with Jackie
Call for details
We Do
Up-Do’s
For All
Occasions
Paul Mitchell • Matrix
200 Pleasant View Avenue, Smithfield
231-3125
Open Tues. & Fri. 9-6, Wed. 2-6, Thurs. 9-7, Sat. 8:30-3
34 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
CLUES ACROSS
1. At all times
5. Am. National Standards
Institute (abbr.)
9. Sew loosely
14. A female operatic star
15. Rings
16. CO ski resort
17. Copyread
18. Narrow escape
20. Savor
22. Block
23. Fixed charge
24. Oxford Un. College est.
1870
26. Bowls
29. South Dakota (abbr.)
30. High craggy hills (Old
English)
34. Succulent plants for
purging
35. Political action committee
36. Pitches
37. ____ritan: generous
helper
38. Native western people
39. Lowest point of a cut gem
40. A pool of standing water
42. Atomic number 56
44. Gets to one’s feet
45. X 2 = German spa city
48. Slang for raincoat
49. The queen of the gods
50. Brings together
54. Near misses
59. Virginia: 1st English
offspring
60. Yemen capital
61. Manner of speaking
62. Lake __, one of the Greats
63. Arboreally trapped
64. Ova
65. Chemise
CLUES DOWN
1. German river
2. See (Latin)
3. The quality of being
morally wrong
4. Makes legally valid
5. Curved structures for
support
6. Nothing
7. Artist’s protective
garments
8. Published
9. City in NW Switzerland
10. Residue of something
burned
11. Health resort
12. Tera-electron volt (abbr.)
13. Point between northeast
and east
19. Falloff
21. ____ible: reasonable
25. And, Latin
26. Georgian seaport
27. Having winglike
extensions
28. More tender or painful
31. Opaque gems
32. Tall perennial herb of
tropical Asia
33. Sings in nonsense
syllables
37. Mass killings at The
People’s Temple
39. ____berry: red acidic fruit
41. Charlotte’s Web’s White
42. Assail verbally
43. Timepiece having hands
44. Makes somebody laugh
46. In front of
47. Month (abbr.)
51. Scarlett’s home
52. ____ Idle: Python star
53. Try to locate
54. Central Time (abbr.)
55. Household god (Roman)
56. Characterized by unity
57. Car engineer’s group
(abbr.)
58. Liquefied natural gas
(abbr.)
Business Bio
Danny’s Appliance
If you need to update or replace your appliances, you need
to visit Danny Santos at Danny’s Appliance. The Santos family
has been in business since 1970, when Danny’s father Danny
Sr. and his mother Roberta began the company. Throughout its
37 years history Danny’s Appliance has continued to grow and
expand its offerings at the same time it has made buying appliances affordable and easy for all.
This area is served by Danny’s Appliance II on Putnam Pike
just over the Johnston-Smithfield line. However, the big news
this month is that on April 7 Danny’s Appliance is having the
grand opening of their third store at 1668 Warwick Avenue in
Warwick.
It will be well worth the trip to see the store and meet Danny
and 92 PRO-FM personality Davey Morris, who will be helping celebrate the opening of the new location. There will also
be the chance to win a free trip to Las Vegas and enjoy a great
party too. Wow.
Of course any time you visit Danny’s Appliance you’ll say
“Wow” because you will find the kind of bargains and service
the company is known for. Offering a wide range of brand
names, they sell stoves, refrigerators, washers, driers, trash
compactors and more. Remember, the hot weather is coming
and Danny’s carries a full line of LG air conditioners. In addition, they offer complete 24 hour emergency service on all the
products they sell. Danny’s Appliance also services all major
appliances and commercial equipment, including commercial
refrigeration and central air-conditioning systems, whether they
sold them or not.
Anyone visiting any of Danny’s Appliance’s branches will
find a wide selection of new and used appliances for sale,
including many brand new “scratch and dent” items that sell
for as much as 40 percent off the regular retail price. These
appliances carry a full factory warranty and the blemishes are
normally so minor as to be undetectable. Through the years
Danny’s has had thousands of customers who enjoy these savings and they are very satisfied.
In addition to the warranty on new products, Danny’s Appliance gives a 90 day warranty on re-conditioned items too, and
they also promise free same day delivery anywhere in Rhode
Island. Danny’s Appliance II is located at 59 Putnam Avenue in
Johnston. The phone number is 233-2244. Call or visit today.
Danny’s Appliances
1 Log Road
Smithfield
Gem Rastelli
233-2444
Sales
Sales &
& Service
Service
New,
New, Used,
Used, Scratch
Scratch &
& Dent
Dent Appliances
Appliances
•• Variety
Variety of
of stainless
stainless appliances
appliances
•• Same
Same Day
Day Delivery
Delivery
•• 33 Locations
Locations
NEW
NEW STORE:
STORE: 1668
1668 Warwick
Warwick Ave.,
Ave., Warwick
Warwick 463-2800
463-2800
59
59 Putnam
Putnam Ave.,
Ave., Johnston
Johnston 233-2244
233-2244
263
263 Academy
Academy Avenue,
Avenue, Providence
Providence 351-0510
351-0510
ASPHALT PAVING & SEAL COATING
TRUCK &
AUTO SALES
Retail
Wholesale
Reconditioning
1 Log Road
Smithfield
233-2444
APPLE VALLEY OIL
Let Our Family Keep Your Family Warm
We Do Things The Old-Fashioned Way
ESTABLISHED 1987
NEW DRIVEWAYS INSTALLED AND REPAIRED
Crack Filling • Line Striping
Residential • Commercial
232-0795
www.NULOOKINC.com
Call us for a price quote
Family owned and operated
24 hour service • Automatic delivery
Heating assistance
Everyday LOW prices!
949-0252 R.I. Petro Lic. 138
We
care about
our
customers
Business Bio
Ever After
Tucked away in an unassuming building on Pleasant View
Avenue in Smithfield is a hidden kingdom, where fairytales
really do come true. Just like walking through the wardrobe
doors and into Narnia, a step through the doors of Ever After
Kingdom of the Imagination leads you into another world.
“Taking an idea that a child has and expanding it is our
goal,” says Maria Sangiovanni, owner of the creative play and
learning bookstore.
A pirate adventure, a princess ball, a tea party in the garden,
or a joust with knights are just some of the “Let’s Pretend” that
takes place at Ever After. At the Lets Pretend Story Hours, children can dress up, if they like, into their favorite costume, jump
on a magic carpet, and hear a wonderful story. Each week, the
children enjoy a story based on a theme, and create a unique
craft.
Or how about puppets? Ever After has its own theater with
many kinds of puppets for children to express their ideas.
And speaking of expression, there are creative play and
movement classes for Mommy and Me with musical instruction from Miss Maria or local music teacher Saskia Schulte.
All-inclusive birthday parties mean that parents can host and
enjoy the party with their children. All the finer details, set up,
and cleanup are handled by the Ever After staff.
The small staff makes for personalized service. The birthday
Daily Storyhours
Art & Music Programs
Royal Birthday Parties
Registration for the next session
of Kingdom Kids Let’s Pretend!
storyhour session begins April 2nd!
128 Pleasant View Ave. Smithfield
www.everafterkingdom.org 349-4889
Simply Elegant Flowers
Fresh Arrangements
Roses
European Gardens
Silks
Chocolates • Topiaries
231-4310 • 10 Cedar Swamp Road, Smithfield
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parties are both charming and affordable – Maria and her staff
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Sudoku
Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid,
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Solution on page 53
Your Smithfield Magazine, March 2007 37
What’s up with . . .
Burleigh Briggs
By Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.
It almost seems easier to say what’s not up with Burleigh
Briggs than to report what is. He’s that active.
A member of the Town Council from 1990-94 and again in
1998-2002 Mr. Briggs, a Democrat, was also vice president
of the panel twice. He had the opportunity to be president but
turned it down.
“I never wanted to be president, but today I’m a little sorry I
didn’t go for it,” he reflects. His service on the Council was the
capstone of a lot of other involvement in the community over
the years.
Long dedicated to the development of youth sports in town,
Burleigh was one of the original founders of Girls Softball
in Smithfield and was instrumental, with the assistance of
Bob Bateman, Barry Dana and former Recreation Director
Bill Nangle, in starting the annual Fourth of July Firecracker
tournament in the mid-1980s. The tournament has been a major
fund-raising event for the program ever since. Briggs was also
instrumental in seeking and obtaining grant funding to refurbish and expand the Whipple Field athletic complex where the
Girls Softball League plays.
He has been connected to the league since 1975, when he
was pressed into service as a coach. “I was a reluctant coach,”
he says with a chuckle. “They needed coaches, so I did it. The
next thing you know it became a labor of love.”
Apparently, he was pretty good at it too. That first year his
team only won a game or two, but over the next five years his
squad went 80-6. He still hears from former players and every
so often he gets invited to one of their weddings, he reports.
In addition to the girls softball program Mr. Briggs has also
been active in CYO basketball, he is a volunteer for Meals on
Wheels and also volunteers with the Smithfield Land Trust, a
body he helped to bring into being when he was on the Town
Council. Beyond the borders of the town he also donates his
time to the soup kitchen at the Mathewson Street Methodist
Church in Providence, and he is a past president and member
of the board of directors of the Providence Gridiron Club. He
also is on the board of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program in
Woonsocket. Several years ago he was inducted into the Smithfield Heritage Hall of Fame.
More about the Land Trust later, but first a little background
on this very vigorous 75 year-old.
A native of Providence, he was named after his grandfather
Briggs whose name was actually Burlington but who people
called “Burly.” His family took the spelling Burleigh from the
famous baseball pitcher Burleigh Grimes, the last hurler legally
allowed to throw the spitball, who went on to become a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Burleigh’s father was a Providence policeman and Burleigh
wanted to follow in his footsteps.
“I always wanted to be a cop,” he declares. “My father was
a cop. He rode a horse in the Beer Hill section of Providence
38 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
Here, checking for his mail Burleigh Briggs likes to tell visitors
about his combination granite lamp post and mail box. The unusual device was created from a part of the foundation of a house
in Livermore Falls, Maine. It was installed by his neighbor Arthur
Schofield. Mr. Briggs is a lover of history and the outdoors. (Your
Smithfield Magazine photo)
in the Manton Avenue area. He broke up speakeasies during
Prohibition.”
Burleigh got his wish. He was accepted onto the force in
Providence and almost immediately began making a name for
himself as a savvy young police officer.
Walking a beat in South Providence and some of the tougher
parts of the city, he soon was making arrests that eventually
earned him more than 20 departmental citations.
“I was fortunate to be able to make a lot of good arrests. The
vast majority of them were felony arrests,” he notes.
He had the distinction of making the first drug arrest in the
city of Providence by a uniform officer. Thinking back on it, he
observes: “Boy have drugs gone from there [to what we have
today].”
Mr. Briggs’ successes as a beat patrolman allowed him to
move up to detective in less than three years. Throughout his
time on the force he drew assignments that saw him involved in
some major cases including gangland slayings, organized crime
wrong-doing, and serious auto theft investigations. He confides
that he fired his weapon in the line of duty “more than once,”
and shows a photo from his collection of personal memorabilia
of a fatally wounded criminal being carried from the scene of a
shoot out to which he responded.
He says that he really loved his job, mentioning that “police
work comes very easy to me,” but as a family man with young
children he found the salary difficult to live on. So, after nine
years on the job, having gotten acquainted with insurance work
during his investigations of auto thefts, he got the chance to
greatly improve his income by going to work in the insurance
industry. He was offered a position with All State and he took
it.
The company sent him to Chicago to learn the business, and
he explains that the company took a comprehensive approach
to the training. Burleigh calls it “the full 360.” He recounts how
he was sent to learn through extensive on the job instruction,
spending time actually working in auto body shops, upholstery
shops, and the like.
When he was finished he was assigned
to the task of appraising, but after awhile
it became clear to his employers that his
background in police work made him more
valuable in the area of claims investigation.
So that became his role. He worked for the
company for 26 years.
During fifteen of those years Burleigh
got to keep his hand in police work too.
He served as a part time special officer for
Smithfield, to which he moved almost 40
years ago. (The community was familiar
to him from boyhood visits to his parents’
friend Jack Holmes, who lived in the same
area near Georgiaville Pond where Burleigh
moved many years later and still lives).
As for taking the post of a reserve officer
here in town, Burleigh confesses “I couldn’t
get it [police work] out of my system.”
He tells a reporter that he drew details to
“maintain law and order at [the one time local nightclub] Gulliver’s and other local hot
spots.” It was, he points out, the era when
the drinking age in Rhode Island had been
During his nine years on the Providence Police Department Burleigh Briggs earned more
lowered to 18, an act he feels was ill-conthan 20 commendations. He was involved in a number of high profile cases and saw his
ceived, many teens being unable to handle
share of action. Here he surveys a stolen car that crashed during a pursuit. (Photo courthe responsibility for drinking sensibly. It
made police work at the clubs challenging at tesy Burleigh Briggs)
times.
“I was a big time early supporter of Deerfield Park and Island
He mentions that “One of my last arrests as a Smithfield
reserve [came when] I was working at a nightclub. I observed a Woods [the office park area now occupied by Fidelity Investcar pull up in the back of the building. The driver didn’t get out ments].”
As a long time advocate for preserving open space he is
and he was acting suspiciously. He seemed to be assembling
pleased
with the evolution of the town’s Land Trust and dosomething, perhaps drugs. I called for back up, looked into the
nated
his
personal time to their efforts. His life-long interest in
car, and saw he was loading a gun. I reached in and grabbed
promoting youth sports and recreation in the community is also
him and observed that he had another loaded gun on the conreflected in his backing of the development of Deerfield Park.
sole. We arrested him.” The action led to another commenda“When I look around at Deerfield Park, Whipple Field, and
tion for Briggs.
all
the land acquired by the Land Trust, I’m very proud of
Although he retired from All State in 1993, he has never rethat,” he states quietly.
ally stopped working.
Burleigh and his wife Claire love living in Georgiaville near
“I was retired for all of two weeks,” he laughs. “I had been
the
lake, he says. The couple has four children: Jean Patton,
working since I was seven or eight when I began peddling
Patricia
Briggs, Elizabeth O’Brien, and Leigh Briggs.
papers. I couldn’t sit still.”
The family is looking to see how Burleigh will mark the
So he went into business for himself doing investigative
Continued on page 60
work related to auto accidents. Much of his effort is devoted to
locating witnesses or perpetrators who have “disappeared.” He
says somewhat dryly, “I tend to be able to find them. I’ve been
doing this all my life – chasing the bad guys.”
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Not all of his work is limited to automobile cases, either. He
reports that recently he reunited two children with their birth
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He continues, “Everything I do in life is based on my experience as a young policeman in Providence. It was like my Ph.D.
in public service.”
The reference to public service brings the conversation back
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to the Land Trust. It was the issues of conservation and ecoRental space available
nomic development that compelled Burleigh Briggs to run for
public office.
Your Smithfield Magazine, March 2007 39
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Easter feasting is
fed by tradition
“In your Easter bonnet, with
all the frills upon it
You’ll be the grandest lady
in the Easter parade.
I’ll be all in clover and
when they look you over
I’ll be the proudest fellow in
the Easter parade.”
--Irving Berlin,
By Lauryn E. Sasso
The Easter holiday, much like Christmas, is a celebration that has many
associations in both the religious and
secular worlds.
The Christian festival of Easter which historically is linked quite closely
to the Jewish observation of Passover - is
commemorated in both the Catholic and
Protestant churches, and in both Western
and Eastern Christianity, though some of
the specific traditions differ from culture
to culture. For Christians, the holiday
is the celebration of the Resurrection,
Judy Kay (l) and her sister Lee Tucker (r) demonstrate the elaborate German-Swiss Easter egg coloring method they learned from their grandmother Barbara Bentz Suter. They
share the recipe in this issue. Looking on is Lee’s sister-in-law Diana Tucker, who offers her
grandmother’s secret for making Easter bread. (Your Smithfield Magazine photo)
and formerly was the most important
part of the religious year (Christmas has
recently overtaken Easter in popularity,
quite possibly because of the secular
festivity of the season preceding it).
In researching the origins of Easter,
you will encounter in the second century
bishop Melito of Sardis, near Smyrna
who wrote what is called the Paschal
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40 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
Homily. This homily is now one of the
oldest existing references to Easter, and
it seems to indicate that by the second
century, the holiday had already been
around for many years. The Paschal
Homily is written in very stark and direct
language, though it is also very beautiful.
One section of the homily that discusses
the resurrection is as follows, “….I am
your ransom, I am your light. I am your
savior. I am your resurrection, I am your
king…”
Today, the religious traditions surrounding the holiday take many different
forms. For Roman Catholics, Easter
is part of a larger celebration called
the Octave of Easter, which begins on
Easter Sunday and ends on the following
Sunday, with each day in between also
being celebrated using Easter Sunday
rites. The roughly month and a half prior
to Easter is reserved for the celebration
of Lent. The Lenten season is a time for
performing acts of penance and charity, and those who choose to observe
Lent often opt to give up items or habits
that are considered indulgent. Easter is
known as a time of great joy and blessing
by various religions, and is often a time
for new members to be baptized into the
church they have chosen. For Christians,
it can also be a time for the celebrations
of Holy Communion and Confirmation.
The secular traditions associated with
Easter are also many and varied. There
is, of course, the Easter Bunny. This
popular American and European creature is supposed to hide brightly colored
Easter eggs for children to find on Easter
morning. Children may go on organized
egg “hunts,” and often receive Easter
baskets with several eggs inside. Another popular tradition is the decoration
of Easter eggs in the days leading up to
the holiday.
Some Scandinavian countries, however, provide us with slightly more obscure ways in which to celebrate Easter.
Norwegians, in addition to coloring their
Easter eggs, enjoy solving murders as
an Easter tradition. Television stations
show murder mystery program marathons, newspapers run mystery stories,
and milk cartons are even printed with
mystery puzzles on their sides. Finnish
and Swedish children paint eggs as well,
but they also go from house to house
with pussy willow branches and are
given candy. Wikipedia.org notes that
“this is a result of the mixing of an old
Orthodox tradition (blessing houses with
willow branches) and the Scandinavian
Easter witch tradition.”
Much closer to home, several Smithfield residents have graciously agreed to
share their family traditions and recipes
for this month’s column. Lee Tucker, a
longtime resident, has offered the recipes
various members of her family have used
for years for Celery-Carrot Saute, Cole
Slaw, and a Lemon-Lime Roll Cake.
In addition, she has also divulged the
method that she and her sister, Judy Kay,
were taught as children for making traditional German-Swiss Easter eggs.
Diana Tucker, who lives with her
husband Jim on Waterman’s Lake, and
who is Lee’s sister-in-law, revealed the
secret of her grandmother Carrie’s Easter
Bread. Each of these recipes has been
an integral part of the Easter celebrations
in this extended family for years. In
celebrating with food, they are following yet another widely practiced Easter
tradition. Many different cultures serve
specific foods on Easter. For instance,
in Finland, a spiced malt porridge called
mämmi is often served with milk and
sugar, American children often find
jellybeans and chocolate eggs in their
Easter baskets and in many Slavic cultures, families decorate beautiful Pisanki.
Pisanki are eggs created using a process
similar to that of batik printing, using a
series of dye baths and layers of wax to
seal in the colors. These eggs date back
to pre-Christian pagan groups, but over
time became associated with the Christian Easter Egg.
Lee Tucker remembers making a
complicated type of decorated egg
with her family ever since she was a
young girl. She noted that, “Easter in
our family has always revolved around
Church and family dinners together. One
German-Swiss tradition that our Mom,
Ruth Suter Kelley, and my sister Judy
Kay and I have continued with our own
families, began for us with our paternal
grandmother, Barbara Bentz Suter teaching us to decorate eggs for Easter using
onion skins to dye the eggs which were
delicately wrapped with fresh greens and
strong fine string.
“As children, Judy and I can remember
being sent outside to gather long blades
of grass that grew by the brook that ran
alongside our yard; and any leaves from
daffodils that sometimes were in bloom
at Easter. Now, we use parsley bought
at the market; and instead of saving
onion skins throughout the winter like
our grandmother did, we go to the local
grocers and clean out the onion bins for
them.”
She hopes that this traditional way of
egg decorating will be part of her family
for many years to come, and added “We
Continued on next page
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 41
Continued from previous page
have continued the ritual of decorating our Easter eggs this way
with our own children every year and hope they will carry on
the tradition with their families. Easter really wouldn’t seem
like Easter without the remembrance of being together to do
the eggs this way. It always brings back happy memories,
especially for Judy and me. We know our Grandmother would
be pleased that we still carry this tradition on.”
Lee, and her husband John and have cultivated many traditions surrounding Easter. In addition to the aforementioned
eggs, she also shared the recipes for several other items that
often show up on the Tucker Easter table. These recipes come
from a variety of women within Lee’s family (along with one
“contribution” from Dinah Shore), and she noted that “Our
Easter dinners have always been joint efforts and kept simple.
The menu usually includes baked ham with an orange marmalade glaze, creamed asparagus, baked potatoes, cole slaw and a
carrot-celery saute finished with at least one dessert. Recently,
we’ve had a lemon-lime cake roll that my daughter, Amy
Tucker Hicks has contributed. The cole slaw recipe is one
from my mother-in-law, Anna Tucker and is always a favorite. The carrot-celery sauté was from a cook- book written by
Dinah Shore back in the 70’s.”
Diana Tucker, who is Lee’s sister-in-law (she is married to
John’s brother Jim), and who teaches seventh grade mathematics at Ponaganset Middle School, is of Italian heritage. She
also has fond memories of traditional Easter foods often made
in her home. One of these recipes was handed down from her
grandmother Carrie, and she mentioned that “When I was a
little girl my Grandma Carrie would always make all thirteen
of her grandchildren Easter Bread in the shape of chicks or
rabbits, and the round Easter Bread for our parents. We all
looked forward to our Easter treat! I have many fond memories
of spending Easter dinner together with my parents, siblings,
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The tradition of
making Easter Bread [a tradition in many Italian families] has
continued over the years and even though Grandma has been
dead for 24 years, her loving memory lives on.”
The connections to the traditions we experience in our youth
can be deep, and often lay the formative groundwork for how
we continue to experience holidays as an adult. As Diana notes,
“Easter just wouldn’t be Easter without Grandma Carrie’s Easter Bread.” But whether you choose to celebrate Easter with
religious observance, secular traditions, or a combination of
both, there is something elemental and ritualistic about creating
the same food year after year as part of the celebration. Hopefully you will all enjoy these recipes, and perhaps they will
grace your table not simply this year, but for years to come.
Anna Tucker’s Cole Slaw
3 lbs cabbage shredded
1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
2 C sugar
Combine & bring to a boil:
1C oil
2 Tblsp celery seed
1C vinegar (cider)
2 Tblsp sugar
2 Tblsp salt
Pour over chopped vegetables & marinate overnight.
Celery-Carrot Saute
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
Clean and slice the carrots. Strip any tough strings from the
stalks of celery. Slice thinly on a slant with a sharp knife. Split
wider, pale ends lengthwise. Mix with carrots.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy pan. Add carrots and celery.
Keeping heat high, stir and fry about 2 minutes. Add 1/3 cup
boiling water, about ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon sugar.
Cover tightly. When water boils, turn heat low and simmer
until tender but crisp (7 to 10 minutes). Add a tablespoon of
butter, if you wish, but you really don’t need it. Serve at once.
Serves 6.
Amy’s Lemon-Lime Roll
(Amy thinks it originally came from Good Housekeeping
magazine about 10 years ago - it’s easy, delicious and low
cal/fat.)
1 ¼ cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup lime juice
1 egg yolk
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 package angel food cake mix
confectioners sugar
1.
In saucepan, whisk granulated sugar and cornstarch
until combined. Whisk in lemon juice, lime juice, egg yolk
and 1 cup water until blended. Heat mixture to boiling over
medium heat, whisking constantly. Boil 1 minute, whisking.
Remove from heat; stir in butter. Pour lemon mixture into medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cool.
2.
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease bottom of 15 ½ x 10
½ jelly-roll pan. Line pan with waxed paper. Do not grease
waxed paper. Prepare angel food cake mix according to
package directions. Spread batter in jelly-roll pan. Bake 20
minutes or until cake is golden brown.
3.
Sprinkle top of cake with confectioners’ sugar to
evenly coat. Place clean cloth towel and wire rack over top of
cake and invert cake in pan; cool completely.
4.
When cake is cool, run small metal spatula around
sides of cake to loosen from pan. Remove pan. Peel off waxed
paper and discard. With metal spatula, spread cooled lemon
filling to within 2 inches of edges. Starting from a long side,
roll cake without towel jelly-roll fashion. Place rolled cake,
seam side down, on long platter. Refrigerate if not serving
right away. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
Grandma Carrie’s Easter Bread (Makes 2 loaves)
6 c flour
2pkgs yeast
1/4 c warm water
1 c milk
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
1 tsp salt
3 eggs (beaten)
2 tbp vanilla
1/2 c citron
1 tsp annisette
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch pans. Melt
yeast in 1/4 c of warm water & set aside. Beat warm milk &
butter together with salt & sugar. Add 2 c flour and mix until
smooth. Beat in eggs & yeast until smooth. Add remaining
flour and flavorings and mix until soft dough is formed. Place
on table and knead for 15 minutes. Shape into ball and let it
rise in a greased bowl, covered for 2-3 hrs. Punch down. Make
2 balls & let rest.
Divide each ball into 3 pieces & roll each piece into a cylinder
18 in long. Braid 3 pieces together. Place each braid into a 9 in
round pan, joining ends together. (Optional - Add hard-boiled
egg(s) into the middle) Let rise for 1 hr. Brush top with egg &
water mix.
Sprinkle the top of dough with colored sprinkles. Bake in 350
degree oven for about 30 minutes.
Tucker Family German-Swiss Easter Eggs
First, prepare an area to do the eggs. We usually spread
newspapers out on our kitchen table and have scissors, parsley, brown eggs, and a spool of fine strong string. I think we
still use the same spool of string used by our grandmother,
and then mother. To wrap the eggs, you need to select some
parsely or celery leaves; and hold the egg while wrapping the
greens around the egg trying not to hold the egg too tightly, for
obvious reasons. Then take a long piece of string and wrap the
greens onto the egg, knotting it at one end with a “tail” on the
end to help lift them out of the pot. You need 1 or 2 large pans,
each about 6-8 qt. size. Put some salt in each, a good pinch.
Then put a lot of onion skins into each pot (about ¾ the size
of the pot), this helps to cushion the eggs as well as dye them.
Lay the wrapped eggs on top of the skins and add enough
water to cover the eggs. Put about 2TBS. of cider vinegar into
the pot. That helps to set the dye from the skins. Bring to a
light boil, and simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Remove the
eggs with a slotted spoon running each one under cold water.
Remove the strings and greens. Rub the finished eggs, using
some wax paper and shortening on it to give them a little sheen.
The end product is always different, but beautiful. Each egg
has a natural fossil design in browns and yellows. They look
pretty as a centerpiece in a basket with Easter grass.
With the month of May comes Memorial Day, and with Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer. Picnics and cookouts are a popular way of celebrating the occasion, and for
our May issue, we at Your Smithfield Magazine want your best
cookout recipes. Do you make a killer potato salad? Are your
burgers the best on your block? Are your baked beans the envy
of the neighborhood? Please send us your favorite recipe for
cook-out fare, along with an anecdote about its history in your
family. Submissions must be received by April 15, and may be
mailed to: P.O. Box 481, Greenville, R.I. 02828 or emailed to:
[email protected]
Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 43
At the high school softball
is coming on fast
By Stephen Demers
Since Smithfield High School’s softball program made the
transition from slow-pitch to fast-pitch five years ago, the
program has compiled a 41-23 record and made four straight
playoff appearances. As Coach Tony Torregrossa and his
players prepare for another season, they are looking to win the
program’s first fast-pitch state title.
Last season the Sentinels compiled a 13-1 record during the
regular season, but they fell victim to Toll Gate High School
in the winner’s bracket finals. The loss was certainly a disappointment, but the nucleus of the team returns intact for the
2007 season. Coach Torregrossa returns eight out of nine
starters from last year’s squad, including his pitching ace Jessie
Reniere.
Reniere, a senior this year, pitched every game last year for
the Sentinels. During her high school career, she has proved
trouble for opposing batters and has helped solidify the Sentinels as a pre-season favorite. “She is one of the hardest working athletes I have ever coached,” said Torregrossa.
The rest of the Sentinels starting line up includes seniors
Brittany Annunziata, Meghan Di Cenzo, Alexandria Gerlach,
“She is one of the hardest working athletes I have ever coached,”
says Smithfield High School Softball Coach Tony Torregrossa of
senior pitching standout Jessie Reniere. (Your Smithfield Magazine
photo)

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ANOTHER PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE!
Question: What do you think of the curriculum that we provide?
"We came from another preschool where the structure and focus were more like a k-12 school. I was anxious
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that I love so much, You are caring and very nurturing, yet you promote independence and learning. The play
and exploration components of the curriculum balance nicely with everything else you do. The academic
content is delivered in a way that promotes discovery and fuels the curiosity of students. The themes work
really well too, with corresponding activities. I feel that my son is growing in so many ways because of your
curriculum- he is learning letters, how to write and hold a pencil, but he is also learning to be honest, thoughtful,
polite and conscientious. It is great!" Laurie, Mapleville, mother of 4 year old
44 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
juniors Briana Moretti, Kim Gerlach, and sophomore Ashlee
Martin. The final starting spot will be won in pre-season practices.
The Sentinels also have a second pitcher on their roster this
season. Freshman Cassie Acciaioli helped Gallagher Middle
School reach the state finals last year, and she will be heavily
relied upon in the future for the Sentinels. “She will get some
innings and should be ready for next year,” said Torregrossa.
As a slow-pitch program, the Sentinels were extremely
successful. They won three state titles during the program’s
history, but the popularity of slow-pitch soon waned. During
their final season of slow-pitch in 2002, they were only one of
sixteen high schools in the state playing the game. As of this
year, the slow-pitch program no longer exists in Rhode Island.
The fast-pitch and slow-pitch games are extremely different. “Fast-pitch is a pitcher-catcher game. Slow-pitch forces
defense, because everyone hits the ball,” said Torregrossa.
Coach Torregrossa feels many factors contributed to the successful transition that his program made, including the middle
school and JV teams. He believes it is important to construct a
program, not just a team. “You don’t win at any level without
anything else being partially responsible,” he said.
The Sentinels will open up their season on April 4th against
North Providence, one of four new teams competing in Division II-North. West Warwick, Burrillville, and Ponagansett are
the other new teams. Defending D-II champions, Toll Gate and
Cranston West, moved up to Division I.
As the Sentinels prepare for the upcoming season, they
are looking to stay competitive and challenge for a fast-pitch
softball title. Coach Torregrossa knows that he is lucky to have
such a group of dedicated players on his team.
“I’m very fortunate to have athletes that work hard, put time
in, and do anything you ask them to do.”
Stephen Demers of Smithfield is sports editor for the Bryant
University student newspaper The Archway. He is a graduate
of Smithfield High School, where he was editor of the student
newspaper, Our 2 Cents. He recently became a contributor to
Inside Lacrosse Magazine.
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Your Town,
Your Turn
Summer of ‘75
To the Editors:
Mr. Sasso’s column recently related some monumental
metaphysical observations concerning a rogue tire at the corner
of route 44 and Austin Ave. Growing up in Smithfield, I realize
that there exists a special relationship between the rest of the
world, and the residents of my chowdery Yankee hometown.
Coming of age in that peculiar Rhode Island setting, was a
truly unique opportunity, and there are many events, places,
faces, and memories that compose a vast reservoir of pure
thought, reserved respectfully for those of us displaying a dysfunctional sense of humor. I don’t drop names, but you know
who you are.
Accordingly, the events that transpired during May and June
of 1975 were to be forged forever as benchmarks of late twentieth-century civil disobedience in the Town of Smithfield.
One of the trends during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s,
was the appearance of large changeable letter signs along route
44. More specifically, the cinema and the Club 44 restaurant,
Letters Welcome
We welcome the chance to put your views
into print, in our Your Town, Your Turn feature.
Send your letter to the editor to
Your Smithfield Magazine, P.O. Box 481,
Greenville, RI 02828, or e-mail it to
[email protected]. Please be sure
to include a phone number where we can reach
you if we have any questions.
“Smitty”
46 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
among others.
On a memorable Saturday morning, during a trip to Benny’s,
which was then located near the fire station on route 44, my
mother, father, and myself witnessed a remarkable sight. As
we were viewing the usual specs, I noticed that the dinner specials advertised at the restaurant were not at all pleasing. What
was advertised was not food at all, or for that matter, something
that should ever come in contact with casual dining.
Although the subject matter was disgusting, we all broke out
in instantaneous laughter.
The further we drove west on 44, the better it got. Even by
today’s standards, the subject matter was obscene. The films
playing at the cinema captured the same outrage and deviance
someone had given the dinner specials.
I secretly admired the conspirator(s). Although this act was
in no way original, it more or less captured a loss of innocence
theme, an inevitable breaking point that was festering to burst.
Moreover, you have to admire the perpetrators’ persistence.
Although the mastermind obviously knew of the criminality
involved, it appeared that this new sense of interactive art was
begging to be “fooled around with”.
The act was repeated several times with different themes during the next few months. I’m not sure whether the artist was
eventually caught, or the novelty just wore off. Did he come
up with the anagrams spontaneously, or were they planned
ahead of time, with malice and forethought?
I remember I was twelve, Nixon and Vietnam had just gone
down, and Elvis was still alive. And for all of us who had this
dysfunctional sense of humor, this was important!
Respectfully,
Jonathan Dobson
Palm Bay, FL
We would like to recapture some of the
stories
To the editors:
Friday October 12, 2007 will be the 100th anniversary of
the dedication of the Georgiaville Baptist Church building. A
committee has been formed to plan some special events and a
service of re-dedication which is set for Saturday, October 13
at 2 p.m.
Also scheduled already is a special musical program to be
held in the church sanctuary on Sunday, September 23 at 4 p.m.
The program will be performed by the Praise Chorus from the
Phillips Memorial Baptist Church. Mark your calendars now
and plan to attend these special events. More details will also
be coming on these and other programs.
The present sanctuary of Georgiaville Baptist Church
(formed in 1837 as the Georgiaville Free Baptist Society) has
been a meeting place and a reminder of God’s presence for
people for 100 years.
Since the founding of the church, record-keeping has not always been a priority and many stories of faithful witness, work,
and fellowship have been lost. As we celebrate this important
milestone in the life of the church we would like to recapture
some of the stories from the past.
Members, former members, and friends of the church are
asked to help in the compilation of a book of memories. Please
share with us a story from your past association with the Georgiaville Baptist Church. It may be from your own involvement
or a story your parents or grandparents told to you. Every story
is important. You don’t have to write a book – just one or two
memories from the past.
Also, if you have a picture or two or an old newspaper photo
or article pertaining to your story, please consider loaning it
to us to copy for the Book of Memories. Please be assured all
photos and clippings will be returned to you. Written stories,
photos, and newspaper clippings should be forwarded to the
church by May 14. The memory books will be distributed at
the October 13th service of re-dedication.
You may mail your story and/or materials to: Georgiaville
Baptist Church, P.O. Box 17474, Smithfield, R.I. 02917 or
e-mail them to [email protected]. You may also call Celine
Bell at 949-1655.
As we look forward to sharing this special anniversary with
the community, we thank you for all the help you may give.
Sincerely,
Celine Bell
10 other committee members
also signed this letter
Smithfield
I am grateful for the opportunity to serve our communities
in the General Assembly and I look forward to working with
Senator Fogarty to encourage my colleagues to contribute to
the cost of our health insurance as an issue of basic fairness and
fiscal responsibility.
Sincerely,
Tom Winfield
State Representative
Greenville
U.S. Mail on the
World Wide Web
Dear Editor:
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be done at www.USPS.com at a time that is convenient to the
customer, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You can ship a
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than 24 services available through the Postal Service website,
Continued on page 53
Sharing the expense
Dear Editor:
With so many people talking about the health care benefits
received by Rhode Island legislators, I wanted to take the time
to let you know where I stand on the issue.
Since first winning election to the General Assembly in
1992, I have donated my legislative salary to local charities
and causes here in our community. I own a small business,
one which allows me the time and the opportunity to engage in
public service. It isn’t always easy, because time spent away
from my business means that work isn’t getting done. But it is
a sacrifice I make because I believe in giving something back
to the community in which I live, work and socialize.
Over the years, I have taken the health care benefit offered to
legislators because I approach the job of being a State Representative as a full-time task. The session may end in July, but
I work for the citizens of my district all year round—responding to constituent problems, researching matters of concern
to Smithfield and Glocester, and tracking a range of state and
local issues.
However, I support the proposal put forward by Senator Paul
Fogarty to have all recipients of that benefit contribute their
fare share toward that expense. Every other state employee
pays a 10% co-pay for their health care and there is no reason
legislators shouldn’t be doing the same and tightening their
belts when the state is in the midst of a budget crisis. Whether
this legislation passes or not, I have already begun to pay the
state for that 10% share of my health care benefits and will
continue to do so.
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 47
A Smithfield Love Story
By Glenn Laxton
Battles raged throughout the East during the Revolutionary
War, yet the leaders managed to find time to relax at places like
Hacker’s Hall on South Main Street in Providence.
General George Washington had first visited Providence on
April 5, 1776 and, working closely with General Jean Baptiste
Donatien de Vimeur, Count de Rochambeau and his regiments
and the Marquis de Lafayette, secured liberty and justice for
all.
The stories about the revolution are familiar to many but the
drama that unfolded when Rochambeau’s son Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, Vicomte de Rochambeau first laid eyes
on Betsey Whipple of Cumberland is little spoken about or
remembered.
He had come to America as aide-de-camp to his father when
the French fleet landed at Newport with 44 vessels and 5,000
men on July 11, 1780. Traveling around the state, he
first saw her when she was dismounting from her horse at the
Friend’s Quaker Meeting House along the Great Road in the
part of Smithfield which later became Lincoln. That dismounting rock is still there as is the Friend’s Meeting House which is
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48 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
The Arnold House today, looking much as it did when Betsey Whipple was courted by the Count de Rochambeau.
used for worship services.
Later he saw her dancing with General Washington at a party
given by his father at Hacker’s Hall, the magnificent social
gathering place. Truly a belle of the ball, Betsey was asked to
sit at Washington’s side during this and similar events.
Betsey often visited her uncle, who lived in what was then
part of Smithfield in a large house where Eleazer Arnold and
his family resided. The house sits today on Great Road in Lincoln and is occupied by another family who open it for tours.
She enjoyed the frequent visits of the 21 year old officer and
the two, although chaperoned, began a romance.
Imagine the sight of this young, gallant and decorated soldier in his Bourbonais uniform riding up to that house on his
magnificent black charger, Le Duc. The young count couldn’t
keep away from Betsey nor she from him and a romance soon
blossomed as bright as the vale lilies they planted in her uncle’s
garden.
In 1782 the war was all but over and the French troops were
returning from the British surrender at Yorktown. It meant
they would soon sail for France and that included the young
count. Rushing to Betsey, he asked her to come with him where
they would be married. Reluctantly she declined after word
had reached her that the count was supposed to marry another
woman as part of an arrangement that would join two highly
respected families in France. Her Quaker nature would not
allow her to become part of a breakup regardless of how the
count felt about it. Sadly, they parted and the French troops left
Providence on the way to Boston and then across the Atlantic.
They never saw each other again.
Two days after the troops moved out a messenger came, with
a gift, to the Arnold house where Betsey was staying. It was
Le Duc, the black charger the Count had ridden throughout the
war. Attached to his mane was a note:
“ Thou canst not return LeDuc for his master is far away. I am
leaving him in thy care while life lasts...Adieu forever.” The
note was signed Donatien-Marie Joseph de Vimeur Rochambeau.
Betsey cared for the animal for the rest of its life, even spoon
feeding it porridge when it could no longer stand.
Young Rochambeau continued in the military, once spending nine years in a British prison. He was killed in the Battle of
Nations in October, 1813 at the age of 59.
Betsey lived for another 65 years dying at the age of 96 on July
30th, 1847. She had never left Smithfield, a portion of which
became Lincoln in 1871. Nor did she leave Cumberland, where
her will is still on file at the town hall. She was buried with her
parents and sister beneath a shady tree at Swan Point Cemetery
in Providence overlooking the Seekonk River.
In her will, which she dictated in 1832 and which was recorded at Cumberland Town Hall on September 6, 1847 shortly
after her death, Betsey mentioned several family members to
whom she gave small amounts of money. She also wrote about
Sally Collar “who was brought up by me” and given “the sum
of $25 to be paid her by my said executrix within one year of
my decease.”
In 1976 the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission selected the
romance of the Count and Betsey Whipple as the theme for its
float, with a replica of the Eleazer Arnold house and the two
young lovers watched over by Mr. and Mrs. Arnold. It was
entered into four major parades that summer and won first prize
in all of them.
The mounting stone, just as it was when Betsey was helped
onto her horse by the young the Count de Rochambeau in
1780.
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 49
Business Card Directory
SUSAN SMITH
Independent Beauty Consultant
19 Concord Street
Greenville
949-5232 • 241-3578
[email protected]
www.marykay.comssmith130
Continental
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Alice T. Blair, CTC, President
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20 Cedar Swamp Road, Smithfield
232-0980 (800) 234-5209 Fax (401) 232-0470
www.continentaltravelagency.com • License #1259
Skates • Skate Sharpening • Accessories
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A Unisex Salon • Walk-Ins Welcome
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3 Austin Avenue, Greenville
Ron Rathier
Tenor Soloist
Voice and Piano Lessons
233-8287
[email protected]
50 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
115 Pleasant View Avenue, Smithfield • 233-2408
Hours: Tues. 12pm-7pm, Wed. 12pm-8pm, Thurs.-Fri. 12pm-7pm, Sat. 10am-5pm
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401-231-6767 fax
[email protected]
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Your Smithfield Magazine, March 2007 51
Business Card Directory
ROACH HOME IMPROVEMENT LLC.
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52 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
Business Card Directory
JOHN E. TUCKER
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Registered Piano Technician
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Letters
Continued from page 47
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 53
Personal Favorites
It is quite a leap
from the frozen
tubs of artisan ice
cream that are his
signature at Powder
Mill Creamery to
the frozen wilds of
Alberta and British
Columbia, but Bill
Abramek can often
be found in those
Canadian provinces
skiing where others
rarely venture.
Bill, 58, who with his wife Alison has been running
the ice cream shop on Waterman’s Lake for 12 years, is
an inveterate outdoorsman. At the mention of skiing he
will bring out a catalog and begin explaining the special
equipment needed to trek up the unspoiled mountains
where he likes to ski across virgin expanses of snow and
through untouched stands of trees. It is a much different
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54 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
sport than the more conventional down hill or alpine skiing most people know about.
“I call it skiing the glades,” Bill says with undisguised
enthusiasm.
The sport – some call it all terrain skiing - requires its
own kind of skis, ones that have a special bottom surface
or “skin” that allows the wearer to move uphill without
sliding back. It also calls for special boots and bindings
that can be positioned at the different angles necessary
for going uphill and then cross country or downhill.
“I do a lot of skiing in British Columbia,” he notes,
ticking off the names of destinations that would be
familiar to other aficionados, but might sound exotic to
the uninitiated. He mentions places like Kicking Horse,
Whistler, and Panorama in British Columbia, and Sunshine Village and Lake Louise in Alberta.
When the seasons change Bill shifts his focus. “Flyfishing is my other big sport,” he declares. Asked where
his favorite spot is, he answers that he will fish anywhere
but in Rhode Island and proceeds to extol the virtues of
fishing in New Hampshire and the Berkshires. “They are
excellent and they afford a quick visit,” he says.
He also grows rhapsodic about the pleasures of angling
on the Gaspe Peninsula in Canada. There are, he reports,
23 “beautiful, crystal clear streams coming out of the
mountains.” They’re full of trout and salmon, he adds.
Besides skiing and fly-fishing Bill enjoys piloting sail
planes and gliders. He holds a glider pilot’s license, he
notes, explaining “I learned to fly gliders in Wasserkuppe,
Germany.” Clearly, world travel is one of his favorite
activities too.
When he’s not fishing, soaring above the ground, or
skiing across snow fields Mr. Abramek might be found
hiking in the mountains, snorkeling or scuba diving in
any number of locales. He also enjoys boating. “I love
sailing at Bitter End Yacht Club in the British Virgin
Islands,” he remarks.
At home in Smithfield he spends a lot of his free time
working on his property, a good-sized estate in the more
rural part of town. He says he gets a lot of satisfaction
from cutting wood, improving the landscape and just
walking around on his land with his dog or his family.
“That’s my other passion,” he confides.
He and Alison have three daughters. They have been
pleased to raise them in town in a country setting. The
children are Elizabeth, 25, Meredith, 22, and Sarah, 21.
If you can catch him indoors you might find him either
cooking, playing the piano or pouring over maps. He says
he is always on the look out for undiscovered places to
visit, seeking, as he terms it, the “road less traveled.”
“I get so much enjoyment out of reading maps,” he
comments.
As for his other indoor pursuits, he points out that
he studied music in college, honing his talents at the
University of Albuquerque, Tahoe College, and the Berklee College of Music. He won’t say which style of music
he prefers, claiming instead that he likes everything.
When he moves from the keyboard to the kitchen he
is equally universal in his explorations and his tastes. He
tries a wide variety of dishes and cooks mostly to please
himself.
“When I’m cooking I’m not in competition with anyone . . . well maybe just myself,” he observes, adding
“I just like to cook.” He does take pride, though, in his
creativity.
“It’s like the ice cream [at the creamery]. We all know
how creative we are with that.”
When pressed to name a favorite food he ponders the
question awhile and replies a bit surprisingly that he
really enjoys a “good old-fashioned fish and chip dinner
with salt and vinegar . . . . that and, of course, my wife’s
cherry squares. They’re decadent.”
While it might seem like Bill Abramek has already
done a lot of the things a man might hope to experience
in a lifetime, he doesn’t seem ready to slow down any
time soon.
He has been making beer as a hobby for his whole
adult life and harbors an ambition to some day turn his
avocation into a business. “One of my dreams in life has
been to have a bona fide beer hall, a beer garden,” he
says.
He isn’t finished hiking and climbing mountains either.
“Before I check out of this world,” he declares, “there are
two mountains I want to climb.” He won’t name them.
The peaks are previously un-hiked, he notes, and he
wants to be the first to do it.
Kids’ Zone
Your Smithfield Magazine, March 2007 55
At Trinity – ‘A Delicate Balance’ demonstrates poise
Review by Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.
Trinity Repertory Company’s set for A Delicate Balance
confines the players at the same time it defines the play. This is
as it should be. The people in A Delicate Balance certainly are
confined by their lifestyle and defined by its material reality.
The 1966 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Edward Albee
was on stage at Trinity Repertory Company from February
16 – March 25. The press opening came too late to publish a
review in the magazine last month. Kevin Moriarty directed the
piece.
Set in an upper-middle class house in a fashionable suburb, A
Delicate Balance, as the title implies, requires some careful attention to equilibrium. The well-furnished and decorated home
is soon recognized as the box which the characters find it impossible to think outside of. It reflects their lifestyle and values
at the same time it contains them and limits their options.
Before anything happens on stage it is apparent that the
people who live in this space are not going anywhere willingly. It is the material expression of what they hold in highest
regard, the outward manifestation of a lifestyle that has crystallized around them and which may mean more than the life they
are trying to live within its margins.
Not far into the play the dialog confirms that no matter what
the people who reside in this place suffer, they seem to have
tacitly agreed that leaving is not an option; adapting to the
circumstances is how they cope. The British would call it the
stiff upper lip response.
At the center of the household are Agnes and Tobias. Their
relationship is teetering in the sort of equipoise that the title of
the play suggests. Agnes, who has views and opinions on everything that matters and some things that don’t, keeps things
focused whether anyone likes it or not. “I shall keep this family
in shape,” she declares at one point, underscoring precisely
what she perceives her role to be.
Also, she observes, “both joy and sorrow work their wonder
on me slowly.” It reflects her belief that it is her self-appointed
job to keep things centered, to avoid the extremes.
Tobias, buffeted and reticent, struggles to put an agreeable
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Angela Brazil (l) as Julia and Anne Scurria as Claire appeared in
A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee, directed by Kevin Moriarty,
at Trinity Repertory Company last month. (Photo by T Charles
Erickson)
face on things, even when he is acutely troubled by the necessity to do so. While Agnes strives to keep things balanced,
Tobias works overtime to be a predictable element in the equation.
Complicating things mightily is the presence in the home of
Agnes’ sister Claire. Acerbic and brittle, Claire has perpetuated
the sibling rivalry she has apparently always shared with Agnes
even though she lives with her and Tobias at their pleasure.
Alcoholic and angry at the world, Claire is one of those people
who believe candor and bluntness trump the social virtues. She
is like a resident Greek Chorus of one, always ready to counter
the efforts of those around her to maintain appearances and
preserve the peace. At times her frankness is tonic and refreshing. At other times it is cruel and ill-conceived.
Into this matrix of domestic waspishness come Agnes’ and
Tobias’ daughter Julia, who in her mid-thirties is returning to
live with them after her fourth marriage begins to implode. Add
the unexpected arrival of Harry and Edna, lifelong friends of
Tobias and Agnes and the cast is complete.
Perhaps most intriguing is the provocative, but never
explained, reason this couple gives for inviting themselves
over to stay. Almost matter of fact in their delivery, Harry and
Edna say they were sitting at home alone when they suddenly
became frightened. The feeling was profound enough that they
couldn’t remain there by themselves. So they packed their
bags and came to move in with Agnes and Tobias. In fact, they
tell them they will sleep in Julia’s room, the same room she is
intending to re-occupy.
The situation proves to be the catalyst that sets in motion a
chain reaction of deeply charged encounters among all the parties. Beneath the surface of carefully nurtured routines – cocktail hour rituals, meal planning, club dates – we discover there
are serious emotional scars. Profound pain over the loss of a
son has permanently frozen the marriage of Tobias and Agnes.
The daily mannered minuet of surface behaviors is what sustains their ability to go on with the charade.
Just under the veneer, though, there is frustration over Tobias’ past infidelity, the guilt and regret that attend it, and the
quandary of how to deal with Julia’s messed up life. Harry and
Edna, their oldest friends, interject their own opinions about
Julia and Claire, who continues to snipe and harp at every
target of opportunity that comes into her ken.
Under the cool skin of the piece much repressed passion,
anger, and hurt is exposed, but in the final analysis for all the
heat that is revealed A Delicate Balance smacks more of the
hothouse than the fires of passion and ambition.
It is tempting to seek evidence that the 40 year old play is
dated, but one would have a challenge to find the proof. More
justifiable might be the charge that it is contrived and that finding can make it feel dated even though it mostly sounds fresh
and contemporary.
Like Albee’s much more famous play Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf, A Delicate Balance suggests a time – the midtwentieth century – when drama often concerned itself with
examining the way people chose to conduct themselves in the
framework of family and peers. It is as much about how people
choose to live and why they are living the way they do.
A Delicate Balance is more than anything about the effort to
come to terms with life by defining the role a person must play
in the context of his or her peer groups and networks. Albee’s
method is to probe for the discovery of truths by playing off the
effects of the era’s accepted social norms and behaviors on the
characters as they submit to them. At the same time they gradually reveal the real passions, fears, and anger they repress in
order to conform. These were major social issues half a century
ago.
To create a situation within which to explore these paradoxical forces, some writers in the 1950s and 1960s brought their
characters together the way a scientist conducts an experiment,
introducing them to a controlled environment sequentially
and setting them in motion to collide with one another. This
somewhat transparent and artificial device makes A Delicate
Balance feel a bit force fed if anything does.
Yet, when all is said and done, it is a play which lingers not
lightly in the consciousness. We are, it seems, all fraught with
contradictory impulses, caught between our outward selves and
the secret person that yearns inside us to be vindicated and set
free from the imperatives of our culture. In A Delicate Balance
Albee makes us see and understand this very well.
The wonderful set for the Trinity production, complete with
carefully framed family photos on the end tables, was designed
by Michael McGarty.
As the iron-willed Agnes, Janice Duclos, though cast against
her usual type of character, was entirely credible and convincing. She makes it clear how difficult it is to be the glue that
holds the family together and suggests how much it is for her
own sake as much anyone else’s.
Timothy Crowe offered a powerful performance as Tobias, suggesting the man’s torments and vulnerabilities while
maintaining his tenuous glib grasp on the requirements of his
position in the family and in society.
Anne Scurria played Claire. Her portrayal was right on,
capturing the vitriol and the vinegar but also the suffering, the
dolor and the rue involved with being the truth teller.
William Damkoehler and Cynthia Strickland, husband and
wife in reality, played Harry and Edna. They succeeded in conveying the kind of rational presumption that masks irrational
anxiety. By nonchalantly acting as if their sudden intrusion into
Agnes’ and Tobias’ home is as normal and ordinary as borrowing a cup of sugar, they blur the boundaries between accepted
social conventions and the disarming revelation of unexplained
paranoia. The unquestioning reception they enjoy from Tobias
and Agnes brings into focus the contrast between common
courtesy and uncommon compassion. Damkoehler and Strickland maintained a perfect counter-point between their utter
neediness and their refusal to be apologetic or abject. Their
willingness to be annoying, even aggressive despite creating
an enormous imposition was communicated with consummate
adroitness.
Finally, Angela Brazil was superbly self-contained, if a bit
self-limiting in range as the troubled Julia.
Note: With the press opening coming after Your Smithfield
Magazine’s deadline, this review must fall into the category
of an appreciation after the fact. I hope that readers will not
find it an exercise in frustration to read about a play that has
closed. We publish it because we believe the production had
substantial merit and justified the above commentary. We
would appreciate your views on this.
Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.
Contact me at [email protected]
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 57
April 2007 Citizen of the
Month – David Day
By Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.
Sometimes it must seem as though there isn’t enough day for
David Day.
“I’m an Energizer Bunny kind of guy,” observes the Senior
Center meal site volunteer and Meals on Wheels delivery driver. “I plan to just keep going until the battery quits,” he adds.
Mr. Day, 66, is a familiar face to visitors at the town Senior
Center and to the people on his Meals on Wheels route. He not
only delivers the meals to shut-ins, he often gets in early and
helps prepare the food “for the road.”
He also volunteers in the kitchen whenever there is a special
event or party at the center.
“I’m the kind of person that it doesn’t matter what they ask
me to do,” he declares.
A resident of Greenville for 30 years, Mr. Day originally
came to Smithfield from Auburn in upstate New York, a community that is home to the Willard Chapel, an extremely rare
example of the work of Louis C. Tiffany and Tiffany Glass and
Decoration Co. It is the only complete and unaltered Tiffany
chapel known to exist.
Smithfield held its own charms for the now retired textile
industry plant manager, though, and Mr. Day is happy to live
here with his wife Susan. The couple has three children, David,
Jeffrey, and Melinda, who is better known as Mindy. The
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58 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
Several mornings a week David Day can be found in the kitchen at
the town’s Senior Center where he volunteers at the meal site and
delivers meals on wheels to a regular route of clients. Helping out is
a life-long habit, he says. (Your Smithfield Magazine photo)
children grew up here and excelled in youth and school sports.
David and Mindy were outstanding athletes at Smithfield High,
Jeffrey at LaSalle.
Mr. Day, who worked 60 hours a day in his job, had been a
Boy Scout leader back in New York state, but here had little
extra time for volunteering when his family was younger.
He did, though, coach Little League baseball in the community here, and notes that “if I wasn’t coaching it was taxi
service [for the kids].”
After he retired, however, it wasn’t long before he began
looking for something to do to make himself useful.
Earlier in his life he had been a very active member of the
Kiwanis Club in New York. There he took on the challenge
of organizing and running teen dances at a pavilion on Lake
Owasco, one of the Finger Lakes. The events drew between
1000 and 1,500 young people to the dance hall every Saturday
night. The youth who came out to hear the live bands and to
dance were charged $1 each in those days.
“We made a ton of money at a dollar a head. All the money
was turned back into projects for the kids,” he explains.
With this history of donating his time and energy as part of
his experience, it probably isn’t surprising that after he retired
he gravitated to volunteer work.
“I got kind of bored doing nothing,” he says. One day he
dropped in at the Senior Center and offered his services. As a
result he was put to work in the kitchen. Soon it progressed to
helping prepare and deliver the meals on wheels.
Today, David does three regular shifts at the meal site at the
Senior Center and he also drives a route bringing the meals to
shut ins. Typically he gets there early and helps out any way he
can, he says.
He is not averse to doing clean up or washing the dishes,
pointing out that “no one fights me for the [job of doing] the
dishes.”
“It has been our pleasure for one and a half years to have
Mr. Day as part of our volunteer staff at the Smithfield Senior
Center,” says Director Janet Prairie. “David commits himself
on a regular basis whether it is packaging meals on wheels,
food preparation, serving meals in our dining room, dish-washing or delivering meals to our homebound whenever needed,”
she adds.
As a delivery person for the Meals on Wheels program
David is also a potential lifeline for the shut in people who
cannot get out of their homes. Besides bringing these residents
a healthy lunch he, like his fellow volunteers, often serves to
keep an eye on the elders.
“There have been people when I get there where the door’s
open and nobody is home.” In those cases he calls the center
and they place a call to the police department to check in on the
resident.
“Like so many of our other volunteers David portrays that
type of caring individual that we now depend on to serve and
bring happiness to others. His hospitality, good humor, and
touches of modesty do not go unnoticed,” comments Mrs.
Prairie. “I know his thoughtfulness is felt among the staff and
members of the Senior Center.”
Asked if he could identify the origins of his charitable outlook on life, he simply remarks, “I’ve always been a doer. Even
as a kid I just went out and shoveled the sidewalk just because
it needed to be done.’
Each month during 2007 Your Smithfield Magazine will profile a Citizen of the Month. At the end of the year readers will
be able to vote on the Citizen of the Year from among the 12
people profiled. The Citizen of the Year will be featured on the
cover of the January 2008 edition. Your Smithfield Magazine
will make a donation to the charity of choice for each Citizen
of the Month – this month’s donation will go to Woonsocket Senior Services which coordinates Meals on Wheels for northern
Rhode Island. Please send us your nominations for Citizen of
the Month right now. Mail nominations with supporting information to Your Smithfield Magazine at Box 481, Greenville,
R.I. 02828 or e-mail them to [email protected].
com or call us at 349-4910.
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What Do You Want To Read?
If there’s a story that you
think needs to be told, we
would like to hear about it.
Your Smithfield Magazine is
always open to suggestions from
the readers. Call 349-4910
or e-mail Larry or Ron.
Their addresses are larry@spi.
necoxmail.com and
[email protected].
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Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007 59
Briggs
Continued from page 39
observance of his 75th birthday. When he
turned 70 he climbed Mt. Washington
in New Hampshire, training for weeks
by hiking up Whipple Hill carrying a
backpack full of weights. He had commemorated other birthdays with bicycle
tours in Holland and the like.
“I have varied interests. I don’t want to
let any of them go,” he says.
Left: Burleigh Briggs as he looked after first joining the Providence Police. Above: When
President Lyndon B. Johnson came to Rhode Island Burleigh Briggs was one of the Providence detectives chosen to help guard the Chief Executive. Here he is (front) shown with
a secret service agent during the visit. (Photos courtesy Burleigh Briggs)
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60 Your Smithfield Magazine, April 2007
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