Feneric ([info]feneric) wrote in [info]saugus,
@ 2005-05-20 23:48:00
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Current mood:optimistic

Time and the River

Do you have any interesting stories or photographs related to Saugus? The call has been made for content to be submitted for a new book about Saugus. It's being made by the same team (myself included) that created the original A Gathering of Memories: Saugus 1900-2000 and will be fairly similar in concept. As with the earlier book, proceeds will go to a scholarship fund.

The deadline for new submissions is just a couple of weeks away. While we'll read over anything we receive in that time period and possibly include it in the final book, we're particularly looking for content related to topics that were not well covered in the first book. We'd especially like stuff related to (in no particular order):

  • The Saugus lobstering industry.

  • Parks and playgrounds, especially some of the smaller neighborhood parks.

  • Any clubs and non-profit organizations not covered in A Gathering.

  • Saugus-specific products. (Anyone remember Alwinol?)

  • Random curious events like the time a helicopter had a forced landing behind Child World, or the time the military was blasting the Golden Hills underbrush with flamethrowers, or whatever.

Again, anything received in the next couple of weeks will be considered, but time is of the essence. The plan is to get the book out early enough for holiday shopping, and once the stories have been selected there's still a long process of layout, image processing, editing, proofing, printing, assembling, and finally delivered for local distribution. The first two steps are my tasks (through Saugus.net). The next two steps will be performed by a team headed by John Burns and Tom Sheehan. The next two steps will be handled by the Jostens company. I don't know yet who'll be doing the shipping.

Any stories that arrive too late simply can't be considered (regardless of how good they are) and this will probably be the final book project undertaken by this team. A Gathering sold out two printings and is now being considered for a possible CD release; it is expected that this book will also be pretty well received. If you'd like to see your words in print in a hardcover book that'll be read for generations, you have just a short time to get them organized.

P.S. if you haven't figured it out from the title of this article, the current planned title of the new book is Time and the River (not to be confused with Time and the Rani).


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[info]ochmoneks
2005-05-22 02:50 pm UTC (link)
hmm...perhaps there ought to be a chapter about the yekrutian explorers (complete with pictures)...

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Chapters
[info]feneric
2005-05-23 06:34 pm UTC (link)
I don't think the actual chapter layout has been fully decided yet... if there were enough accepted submissions pertaining to the Yecrutian Territories (the wilds along the Saugus/Melrose border for those not in the know) a chapter dedicated to them wouldn't be out of the question.

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Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2005-10-11 06:32 pm UTC (link)
We used Alwinol for dishes and laundry, floors and many other things. It was made by my grandfather Frank Evans Jr. and named for my Uncle Al!

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Re: Alwinol
[info]feneric
2005-10-13 05:20 pm UTC (link)

If you want to write up a quick story about Alwinol, let me know. While we've officially stopped accepting stories for the book, we are still taking things of particular interest.


I remember a particular old Yankee local distributor (who's name I'll withhold) who used to save money by using Alwinol for personal hygiene in addition to industrial cleaning...

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Re: Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2005-10-14 01:00 am UTC (link)
If you'll give me a couple days I'll ask Al himself if he would like the honor.

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Re: Alwinol
[info]feneric
2005-10-14 08:31 pm UTC (link)

Sure, definitely.

Also, I heard something to the effect that your uncle may know about a certain contest between two brothers to build houses on Central Street; one was the recently razed "Ghost Dog House". If he does in fact know about this story and was willing to write something about it, that'd also be something of interest.

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Re: Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2005-10-16 01:08 am UTC (link)
OMGosh! that LOOKS like the place in north Saugus that my dad used to refer to as the Old Homestead whenever we would drive up there past it!
I've got to send this to Uncle Al. I'll be back...

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Re: Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2005-10-19 06:48 pm UTC (link)
Yes, according to my uncle that house was his grandfather Isaiah Nason's house on Central Street Saugus. Isaiah built the house himself. The two brothers could be "Red" (Frank) and Ernie or Dick and Ed. He doesn't know anything about a contest. Great Grandpa Evans sold the property and moved to Gorham, Maine.

Uncle Al remembers peeking out of the two upper windows looking down onto the street and something about going up and down the walkway.

My Dad, Dick Evans sold Alwinol for the family and so since he is deceased, my mother offered to write up an article about it including what she recalls about the unique demonstrations at the Topsfield Fair.
~SJEB

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Re: Alwinol
[info]feneric
2005-10-19 07:40 pm UTC (link)

Supposedly your uncle's grandfather (and apparently your uncle's grandfather's brother if there was one) each built houses on Central Street at around the same time. If you're ever on that section of Central you'll see the other house -- they're both in similar style but one was field stone and the other stucco. The stucco one has a walkway going up to it; the field stone one (a.k.a. the Ghost Dog House) had a driveway going up to it. They both had the two upper windows.

It would be great if your mother could write up such an article. The sooner the better, of course; we've already started assembling all the pieces together. The Topsfield Fair story sounds good, and of course any anecdotes involving local usage of the stuff would go over quite well, too.

Also, there's also a little discussion about the new book on the Saugus Forums in the saugus.soc.talk newsgroup. Some of the people involved with the project who may not be following these comments do read that forum, and you're of course welcome to join in there, too.

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Re: Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2005-10-20 12:54 pm UTC (link)
Thank you for such interesting information. I really know very little about this side of my family. Just to clarify my error, it wasn't Evans that sold the property and went to Maine as I wrote, it was obviously Nason. I'd be interested to know how you came to know about the stucco house as I'd never heard about it. I'll try to get the article to you ASAP. This is fun! I will look into the forum etc., too.

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Re: Alwinol
[info]feneric
2005-10-20 05:38 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, Nason agrees with my memory. I grew up in the stucco house myself, and my parents were told a little bit about the Nasons by the people they bought the house from.

It's a pity the stone house was razed; both houses are listed in the Saugus Historical Commission's Inventory of Historic and Cultural Resources, but I don't think the Commission has a really good history of them. They do have quite a few pictures though of the stone house that were submitted to them before it was destroyed.

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Re: Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2005-10-21 06:37 pm UTC (link)
Uncle Al says that Isaiah Nason built the house in winter and he and his family including his little daughter Josephine (my Grandmother)lived in a tent on the property as the house was being built. Brrrr!! Agreed that it's a pity it's gone now. My mother is emailing the alwinol story to me today or tomorrow. How do I get that to you? Do I just post it right here or is there an address you want me to send it to?

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Re: Alwinol
[info]feneric
2005-12-17 05:40 pm UTC (link)

Sorry I missed this comment earlier; there are more recent entries about Time and the River now on this blog and on the Saugus talk forum and I've not been checking this one as much lately.

Anyhow, you can e-mail it directly in to webmaster@saugus.net with a subject of "Time and the River" and it should get to the right place.

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Re: Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2006-08-30 12:23 am UTC (link)
This is very interesting. I grew up in the fieldstone house,
(a.k.a. the ghost dog house). I lived there from 1952 thru
1971. My parents bought that house from the estate of one,
Mrs.Stevens. She was a widow,her husband having passed away
at a rather young age. They were childless and she she lived
alone in that house for many years. I believe he had been an
engineer at the G.E. They had that house built somewhere around
1905-1910. The property had been a farm. There was a barn that
Dad took down,a stable,the garage and another stone out building.
Originally 8 acres plus land across Central St my Dad sold the
property to Hollett Real Estate in 1971.

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old pictures
(Anonymous)
2005-11-23 06:24 pm UTC (link)
I have an interesting old photo taken in Golden Hills in the 40's I think, that shows a pretty good sized home made ski jump for skiiers to decend, land, and then ski right on to the frozen lake. There are several skiiers in the forground of the picture which was taken by someone standing on the ice of Griswald Pond, otherwise known as "Second Lake". If you are interested in seeing this picture call me.
Donna 781-665-7703

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Re: old pictures
[info]feneric
2005-11-23 10:55 pm UTC (link)

Sure, we'd definitely be interested.

Please also see the more recent postings concerning Time and the River both more recently in this blog and on the Saugus forums:

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Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2006-05-14 04:26 pm UTC (link)
My grandfather, Frank Evans invented Alwinol. I remember as a little girl going up to the office with my grandmohter.

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Re: Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2006-08-13 11:40 pm UTC (link)
Hi. Which of my cousins is this? I am Leslie. Remember going to the plant and helping with the capping of the bottles? There were thousands of caps in boxes and there was a conveyor belt. Remember "helping" Gram in the office?

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ALWINOL
(Anonymous)
2006-08-09 12:49 am UTC (link)
MY GRANDFATHER WAS THE INVENTOR OF ALWINOL AND I WAS JUST CURIOUS HOW YOU CAME TO KNOW ABOUT IT? MY GRANDFATHER WAS FRANK EVANS. DO YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION YOU CAN SHARE WITH ME MY NAME IS JENNIFER EVANS

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Re: ALWINOL
(Anonymous)
2006-12-18 12:20 am UTC (link)
Wait, it was my Grandfather invented Alwinol

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Alwinol
(Anonymous)
2006-08-13 11:38 pm UTC (link)
My grandfather owned Alwinol. What would you like to knnow?

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