I clinched CT/MA/NH 32 on Saturday

[jon daly]

My wife and I took an all day roadtrip and went up 32 north and came back down south mainly via NH/MA/CT-12.

There were a lot of mill towns on 32 and  a lot of ancestral history for me. My dad was born in Willimantic, his dad was born in Stafford Springs and HIS mom was born in Athol, Mass. We stopped at a Mr. Mike's Mobil/c-store in Athol and there was some twenty-something guy taking out the trash. as I used the facilities. My wife told me that he was eyeing my old style CT front plate with the white lettering on a blue background.



I was digging the pay phone that they had on the side of the store.



I asked him if it was still in use. Alas, he said, "it hasn't been working in a decade."

I told him how my great-grandmother was from the town.

"It was probably a better place back then."

The architecture didn't convince me otherwise.

On the brighter side, we had a couple of Nathan's hot dogs at a place called Weenies in Barre, Mass.. Also, the late summer scenery was great in some of the villages we passed and in the forests and fields we passed.

[Rothman]

Athol is indeed the brunt of many jokes made by other communities in western MA.  Still, I thought I noticed some development through there on MA 2 the last time I drove by.  It was best known for trailer parks and a skydiving site.

[Alps]

I am also eying the classic plate. I dig.

"Athol - it's when you say it with a lisp." (half a lifetime ago quote)

[jon daly]

^That plat turns heads occasionally.

I expected 32 to go further into Keene than the town line. That was a small disappointment. On the whole, 32 is, imo, prettier than 12. It goes through more villages and a few of the downtowns seem vibrant; which isn't really the case on 12; although I think there was a festival in Leominster. I noticed that New Hampshire seems to treat 12 as more of a thoroughfare and 32 as a picturesque scenic route. 12 was wider and straighter around Fitzwilliam. This makes sense because 32 doesn't pass through many major towns in Mass. while 12 goes though Fitchburg, Leonminster, and Worcester.

It also passes through Webster and my morbid curiosity wanted to see the tornado damage. There was at least one wrecked building on 12 that I saw. 12 goes further into New Hampshire than 32 (although, I think NE-32 went up to Sunapee) so I wasn't interested in clinching it. To save some time, we traveled some of the southbound leg on I-190 and I-395. I don't think that I've been on I-190 south in years. Why does it have green shoulders?

With breaks and a little bit of house-hunting near Killingly, Conn. It was about eight hours on the road and a blast.

[Rothman]

If you had gone down 32A, you could have seen the abandoned town of Dana.  There are still pockets of bitterness over the Quabbin.

(Boston PD used to have jurisdiction over the Quabbin until saner minds prevailed and turned it over to Staties)

[jon daly]

If you had gone down 32A, you could have seen the abandoned town of Dana.  There are still pockets of bitterness over the Quabbin.

(Boston PD used to have jurisdiction over the Quabbin until saner minds prevailed and turned it over to Staties)

I have gone down 32A in the past.

Speaking of bitterness with Boston, this is also Shays's Rebellion country. I've been on the other side of the Quabbin and US-202 around there is signed Daniel Shays Hwy. And we've also been on MA-9. My dad took us to look at the dame when I was young and I've stopped there as an adult.

[jon daly]

PS - Weenies served RC products. I haven't been hunting high or low for them, but it was the first time that I saw RC in a looong time.

[bob7374]

If you had gone down 32A, you could have seen the abandoned town of Dana.  There are still pockets of bitterness over the Quabbin.

(Boston PD used to have jurisdiction over the Quabbin until saner minds prevailed and turned it over to Staties)

When I worked for the MWRA, who has jurisdiction over the Quabbin, in the 1980's, I came across a whole box of special police badges used when the then MDC, the predecessor agency that once controlled the metro Boston water and sewer systems, hired officers to visit the towns that were later engulfed by the reservoir. When I inquired if I could keep one I was told that they might still be valid and if I wore one I could be charged with impersonating a police officer.

[Rothman]

Heh.  I worked with a town official from Belchertown and their police department got annoyed with the Staties from the Quabbin always following them to calls, no matter if they needed the help or not -- large and small.

[jon daly]

I told my mom that I drove up through Athol. SHe thinks that the Quabbin made economic matters worse for Athol by making it more difficult to reach. I'm not so sure. MA-32 and MA-2 and US-202 were already there. I'm not sure if there was a more direct route from Athol to anywhere through the Quabbin towns.

[Rothman]

It is an interesting suggestion.  It isn't like another major road would have been built through those towns.  Still, there really isn't a direct way to get to Springfield or the City from there, although MA 2 certainly provides a connection to points east.

It wasn't like the towns were metropolises, either.

Hard to picture how it would be any different from, say, Hampshire County west of Northampton.

[SectorZ]

I love that plate. Reminds me of my grandparents and a few aunts cars with those plates. They all left by the mid-90's so I don't recall if they had those straight through to then.

32 in Mass was a fun road to bicycle on for me when I lived in Fitchburg. The stretch in Royalston, from MA 68 to the NH border, was easily the worst state-maintained road until it was overhauled circa 2009. Athol can be the brunt of jokes, but its actually a really nice town to live in, and if you've got a good job out that way what you get for a home is insane relative to east of the Worcester hills or the Springfield-Greenfield corridor.

[jon daly]

I dunno,Rothman. I'm not from there. Would people have driven from Dana, Enfield, or Prescott to Athol to shop?

Work is something my wife asks about when we take these country drives. "Where do these people work?" My guess is some have long commutes like I do.

[Rothman]

Who knows.  Shutesbury people make the slog into Hadley.  Belchertown developed some over the past twenty years, maybe there.

Too many variables.

[Dougtone]

You can take a short hike down the old road from Gate 40 off of MA 32A and explore the old town of Dana, Mass. They may have done their shopping in Athol.
https://albanyhiker.blogspot.com/2018/02/ghosts-on-quabbin-abandoned-town-of.html

[Rothman]

I have my own pictures of Dana...somewhere.  They're from the mid-1980s.

[jon daly]

A coworker mentioned that he's aware of Athol primarily due to beer runs from Umass 25 or so years ago. IIRC, he said the packies were open later there to compete with New Hampshire.

[Rothman]

A coworker mentioned that he's aware of Athol primarily due to beer runs from Umass 25 or so years ago. IIRC, he said the packies were open later there to compete with New Hampshire.

Huh?  I was in Amherst in 1993 and there were packies much closer than Athol (Shoot, Liquor 44 in Hadley, just for starters).  What a ways to go just for beer.  Weird.

[jon daly]

I think that he said that the hours were different. But I recall driving up to East Longmeadow because the Connecticut packies closed at 8; while Mass. let them stay open until 11.

Obiter Dicta: I was legal in Vermont well before I was legal in Conn., because they kept the drinking age of 18 past 1985.

[Duke87]

I have seen a couple of those old-style CT plates on cars within the past few years and the question I have is... how do you do that legally? Is it simply a matter of having held onto one of your old plates and swapping the official front one out for it?

The plate itself being ### Mxx dates the registration to 1997 or so, which IIRC is about when the last of that design would have been produced.

[jon daly]

I lost my newer front plate due to some drunken tomfoolery years ago and have used my old one ever since a cop stopped me for not having a front plate. I've been stopped once or twice by police since then for minor things, but they never mentioned the plate.

At some point around 1980 it was okay to not have a front plate in Connecticut, so I recall a lot of novelty plates like "Ask me about my grandchildren," or "You bet your dupa I'm Polish." I'm not sure when they went back to the old two plate rule.

[sparker]

I am also eying the classic plate. I dig.

"Athol - it's when you say it with a lisp." (half a lifetime ago quote)

There's an Athol in northern Idaho right off US 95 (at the ID 54 junction).  Been through there several times; if you're a railfan en route from Sandpoint to Spokane, you generally get off there to follow the BNSF main that "beelines" from there to Opportunity, east of Spokane.  Be that as it may, having stopped in various stores in town, the preferred pronunciation there is "ath'-ull", rather than the version with a long "O" that elicits chuckles.  The latter is reserved for truck drivers who "jake brake" in town when they have to make a quick stop at the perpetually busy railroad crossing.     

[jon daly]

Sparker! Always good to see you.

I was looking into this a bit last night. Athol did lose a rail route to Springfield to the Quabbin; as well as MA-21.

[DRMan]

A coworker mentioned that he's aware of Athol primarily due to beer runs from Umass 25 or so years ago. IIRC, he said the packies were open later there to compete with New Hampshire.

Huh?  I was in Amherst in 1993 and there were packies much closer than Athol (Shoot, Liquor 44 in Hadley, just for starters).  What a ways to go just for beer.  Weird.

I was at UMass in the 80s (graduated in 1986). Packies in Massachusetts weren't allowed to be open on Sundays, but an exception was granted if they were within a certain distance from the NH border. Thus, the nearest open packies were up around Athol.

I also remember a legend that there was a pharmacy in Northampton that was allowed to sell booze on Sundays if it was for "medicinal purposes".

[hotdogPi]

I was at UMass in the 80s (graduated in 1986). Packies in Massachusetts weren't allowed to be open on Sundays, but an exception was granted if they were within a certain distance from the NH border. Thus, the nearest open packies were up around Athol.

Isn't Greenfield closer (as well as the smaller towns of Montague, Gill, Northfield, and Bernardston)?