New England Oddities

Tunnel Vision

The damming of the Nashua River to create the Wachusett Reservoir at the turn of the 20th century changed the face of Clinton, a mill town in central Massachusetts, forever.

Thousands of workers were employed during the construction of the largest hand-dug dam in history, which is still considered to be a remarkable feat of engineering. Businesses, homes and churches needed to be moved when the valley was flooded, as well as the 4,000 bodies in the local cemetery. A new railroad trestle and tunnel needed to be built to accommodate the relocation of the Central Massachusetts Railroad line.

Continue reading Tunnel Vision…

Buried Legends

Our perception of death has been accompanied by superstition and tradition since humans first implemented the practice of burial around 60,000 BC. Every culture throughout history has observed its own elaborate customs, both to keep safe the living and chaperon the dead to their next stop.

Our modern cemeteries are no less exempt from the vestigial residue of archaic myth. Combining an array of traditional elements – from a uniformity of layout (the feet of the decedents to the East and heads to the West), to gun salutes, bells, and headstones decorated with symbols ranging in theme from the cherubic to memento mori – is it any wonder that cemeteries have long been a source of both curiosity and trepidation?

Continue reading Buried Legends…

Words

Some of you may be wondering what the heck we’re all about.

Well, funny you should ask.

I can see no topic more fitting of my first post here on New England Oddities (long overdue, I might add) than a bit of an explanation – a mission statement, if you will. I am a firm believer in defining one’s terms. And in nearly no other field are so many diverse and colorful terms bandied about so indiscriminately – with irresponsible, reckless abandon, even – than when discussing the subject of, well . . . oddities.

First up, let us dispense with one of the more egregious offenders in our sundry lexicon of oddities – “Supernatural.” Breaking it down, we end up with super, from the Latin meaning “above, beyond, in addition to” and natural, meaning “now with no preservatives, lower MSG and 100% real cheese flavor” . . . or something like that. You get the point, I’m sure.

Continue reading Words…