and a thank you to our staff and contributors

by Barbara Van Reed, Editor

This is the very last issue of the Patriot, which has been covering the local news in Webster, Dudley, and Oxford for nearly 40 years. Although I have been associated with the paper for just the last two years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you, readers and newsmakers, the people who live and work in these communities, and know how much the paper has meant to many of you. I and all the Patriot staff will miss you.  

In this final “Letter from the Editor” I will talk about some of the people who have made the Patriot a newspaper that people wanted to read: our production staff, writers, columnists, drivers, and contributors, some of them operating behind the scenes.

This Letter from the Editor will be harder to write than any I've written in the last two years. I want our readers to know that we are as sad and disappointed as they are: The Patriot newspaper will be closing with a final issue next week. 

The Patriot newspaper was bought by a new owner on April 1 of 2011 to keep the weekly community newspaper alive—even though it had fallen on hard times financially. The Patriot competed with the Webster Times, which, once a subscription-based publication like The Patriot, switched some years ago to a requester model, distributing it free to anyone on request.

The Patriot kept the subscription model, allowing publishing to continue. However, it was now competing with “free,” and that is hard to do in a world in which many newspapers are struggling for survival. In addition, The Patriot had some issues with content published by the previous owner which contributed to the near-demise of the paper at that time as well.

Advertisers chose the Webster Times, with its larger circulation in Webster, Dudley, and Oxford and its much greater regional clout.

Two years ago, when I joined the paper, we began work on a new Patriot, one that would focus on the hard news of town boards and meetings, as well as news of the schools, society, sports, and the myriad of events the three towns hold every year. To do this right, we had to hire people, reporters and photographers to cover the meetings and events. We also built a website so that we could post stories as they happened, and hundreds of you checked it out every day.

Gradually, we started hearing from readers and residents that The Patriot had again become a newspaper that they looked forward to reading every week and that we were doing a great job of covering the towns’ news. We were proud of our work and expected the subscription numbers to increase and the advertising to follow.  But, it didn’t.  And so it has become economically unfeasible for us to continue.

There have been other factors at work too. The economy has been in a recession. Many advertisers have switched to other forms of communication with their customers: online display ads, websites, social media, emails, “groupons.” There is also the general trend that more and more readers are going online for their news.

We will publish the last issue of The Patriot next week, May 8, 2013. We will talk with you more then about all the people who made The Patriot a credible newspaper the last two years.

We believe that there can be synergy between a print publication and its online version. We plan to explore that possibility with our sister publication, the Yankee Shopper, which we will continue to publish.

Barbara Van Reed

Note to subscribers: we will begin issuing refunds after May 8. Please send us a message to let us know if you would like to have a refund, or if you would like us to donate the remainder of your subscription to the Hubbard Emergency Room fund, where it will be matched by an anonymous donor.

by Barbara Van Reed

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend a special awards ceremony at Assumption College to honor the recipients of the 2013 Thomas S. Green Public Service Awards. Four people are honored each year with this award, which is given by The Research Bureau to recognize selected municipal employees for their outstanding public service.

In the 25 year history of this award, and out of 84 honorees, only four have been public employees outside of Worcester, and this year there was a fifth: Commander Michael Masley, Jr., who seventeen years ago founded the Oxford High School Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC), and still heads it up today.

A private grief, a public response.

by Christine Anderson

The flip-top diary lay amongst my grandmother’s many trip journals. This one, the tiniest, fit in the palm of my hand. It was so old and –so, so curious. I began to read it and found that with equally small entries, Gram had marked the everyday work and the social times of Hawleyville, Connecticut in 1921, where my grandparents lived for a time after World War I.

In March Gram wrote:

Read Cap’n Warrens Ward. Neal and I went to Hydricks. H’s were here to supper—Made my quilt.—Worked until 5 pm. The next day she noted:  Hawleys went to Red Cross. Bubes here in pm and stayed for supper. Cut out my gingham dress.

All the while, I’m thinking to myself. Why this little diary? Why the notations of shopping trips, and visits back and forth, and endless washing and ironing, the wallpapering of rooms, and men going fishing or to the theater?

The Patriot Newspaper is pleased to publish the first in a series of guest essays called the Purple Patriot Project. The Project encourages citizens to participate, to engage in conversation, and to find solutions.

by Christine Anderson

Our president is taking his second term message on the road.

In A People's History of the United States, activist and historian Howard Zinn wrote about the courage and convictions of average people that changed our country’s story.

Our president and this election have done that in many ways.

But if we want to be patriots, it’s time we evaluate our allegiances and ask Congress to do the same.

What does he need from us?

If you voted in the presidential election, you might think, as I did, that “my job is done.” We’ve been in the trenches of this recession: the loss of equity in our homes, joblessness, and the repayment of student loans –you know the list.

But after the Inaugural Address and the State of the Union speech, did you get the feeling that you were asked to contribute something more? maybe get some work done? make things better?

When John F. Kennedy asked what we could do for our country and beyond (Peace Corps)—or when military drafts have been answered, or a volunteer Army fulfilled, people of all ages met those challenges. I believe we are also asked to respond now with greater citizenship: to be more engaged and informed—and to think and express ourselves better. Just as we need to educate ourselves through schooling and training for better jobs—maybe we also need to attend boot camp to become more than simply voters. 

We can’t individually solve our country’s thorny issues. But we can take responsibility for what we think—and how we say it—to become citizens who will be heard. Discussion that can go the distance requires educated foot soldiers who can tell our representatives in Washington what we expect from them: less sniping and more willing debate. And results.

Sound like a lot of work? Maybe. But it could be a whole lot of fun. And the Internet allows all of us to become better informed, depending on how we use it.

First. Take your own patriotic pulse: Ask yourself: Am I an individual first and a citizen second? Am I conservative, liberal, in between? Do I regard self-reliance, community, or both as my core values? In school, what teacher inspired me? In what was I encouraged by a relative or friend? You might start right there. What did they teach you? What matters most? Make the list.

Tune in:
Sit quietly with these questions: What are my passions, and what are my biases? If I could support or create something, what would it be? Jobs? A push for tax reform? A small business or non-profit? If I own a gun or guns, can I give up my position on gun control in favor of discussion about gun safety? Will I use those words?

Tune out. Try a media fast. Reduce the frenzy of too much information. Re-introduce clarity. Watch news that discusses issues fully. Seek opinions and their opposites. Avoid sensationalized reporting. Search for the most trusted reporting on the web.

Talk nice. Your senators and reps are inundated too with news and Twitter feeds, emails and spam 24 hours a day. My suggestion? Don’t rant. Being polite however, they and their staff suggest the following: Email or write your concerns and sign your name. If you do forward something, however, carefully consider its source so that it is representing your true position and add your ID/identifier. And most important, if you send letters which require answers, be sure you are writing to the person who actually represents you.

Put your boots on.
Get educated about today’s issues. Join us in the conversation. Suggest solutions. Become engaged. Because to be better citizens—and new patriots—we need to kick things up a notch.

by Barbara Van Reed

I’ve known Phil Smith for more than ten years, but it wasn’t until he came over to my house one sunny summer day a couple of years ago with camera in hand to take some pictures of my flowers, that I learned he’s a photographer at heart. And not an environmental engineer, as I had thought.  Later, after seeing many of his pictures, it became clear that he’s both: an environmental photographer as well as an environmental engineer.

Phil’s photographs were on exhibit at Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster last month and he visited  there one Saturday afternoon to talk about them. His themes are “pretty much anything under the sun,” he said, “literally and figuratively.”  A recurring theme, though, is moving water. “It’s challenging to take an artistic shot of rivers and streams,“ he explained, pointing to a photo of sun-splashed water finding its way down the rocks in the Douglas State Forest. “It’s peaceful,” he continued. “I try to bring a little of the outside, inside. But you never know until later if you’ve captured it.”

“My dad gave me his old Minolta SRT1 camera when I was a teenager, back in 1980, and I was hooked. I still have that camera. I have to give him credit; he saw that I was interested in taking pictures, and he never asked for it back.” And Phil never stopped looking around his environment for scenes to photograph.

Phil’s childhood years were spent in Seekonk, Mass., and upstate New York. College brought him to Bridgewater State, then  it was on to grad school at the University of Toledo (Ohio), where he earned his master’s degree in geology. His working career started in Chicago and moved him back to Massachusetts in 1999 and to Douglas in 2002.  He worked for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 to 2009 and today does environmental consulting in the private sector.

“I took some photography courses in Chicago, and tried to push to a career. But you know what they say about not quitting your day job. So I thought about photography as being my retirement gig.

“In the meantime, it’s been my creative outlet. I’m not really sure why I enjoy doing it. I like to create images that I can enjoy and that other people can enjoy. If I could make a living doing photography, I’d leave the consulting work in a heartbeat.”

Most of Phil’s photographs are of outside places. They include cityscapes, skylines, buildings, and harbors as well as the forests and falls. Lately he’s also been doing some studio work. as it provides a more controlled environment. A photographer in Milford gave him the studio equipment, and Phil set it up in his garage.  One of the photographs on display at the bookstore was a triple picture of a flower in progression from budding to blooming to drooping, against a black background. “To do that outside would be tough,” he said.

The studio also allows him to experiment with portrait photography, something he would like to do now professionally as a sideline career.  

Phil uses a Nikon digital camera ninety percent of the time. He does do some work with film, and wouldn't part with his film camera, but calls the quality of digital “awesome.”

Photography has taken up a lot of Phil’s spare time the last few years, and he’s trying to get his name out there now. I asked him how he priced his pictures. “I’m still feeling my way through that,” he said. “I look at the marketplace, for one. The price is also a function of how much work went into making the image, plus the matting and the framing.” One of the photographs on display at the store was a geranium against a black background, priced at $40.

I liked a photo he had of the John Brown house in Providence in winter because the skeletal trees around it gave it a spare but grand feel. Another was a contrast between old and new: the old Worcester City Hall with a new modern taller building behind it.

Joanne LaLiberte of Webster was also at Booklovers’ looking at the photographs. She pointed to one of a storm over Vineyard Sound, and saw in its furious clouds the face of a wild creature with hair flowing and arms extended outward. I could see it too, once she pointed it out. Phil was astonished. “I never saw that before,” he admitted, surprised by the image.

It shows that just as with painted art, photography can evoke impressions unique to the viewer.

Phil’s photos are on display and available for purchase at Fresh Air Flowers in Douglas, and you can check out some of his galleries on his website at www.philsmithimages.com.

Old meets new in Worcester, MA

John Brown House, Providence, RI

by Barbara Van Reed 

“I think there are a lot of people who'd like to write a book and get published,  and would like to know how to do it.” says Ken Amidon, who himself has just published his first novel. Ken, who lives in Northbridge, is now making the rounds of libraries and book clubs to talk about “Stray Threads,” a mystery/romance set in Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in 1977. His next personal appearance will be at the Oxford Public Library on February 7.

Ken’s career has been that of a freelance business writer for corporations and trade journals and he continues to do that. He has also written some short stories and memoir pieces, as well as a play adaptation. Writing a novel had been in his plans for ten years, but a plausible plot line eluded him. Finally he decided to set aside the time do it, following writer Ann Lamott’s advice to just “create the characters, and they will tell the story. It sounds silly, but that's what I did and it worked,” he said.

He patterned the protagonist Tim Roper after himself at age 27, and lets that character and the others tell their story. He wrote the book using the third-person voice or point of view, which he says forced him to write a lot of conversation, intended to show, not tell, how things happen. “The characters rule,” he says. “They drive everything. I stay out of their heads, and let them talk.”

In his library presentations Ken talks about the writing aspect, creating the characters, and the process of actually producing a finished work. His audience may grill him on one or both, again, he said, because they want to know how it’s done.

His writing process included two friends, neither of them a writer, who read the chapters three or four behind as he was writing them. They would tell him if the characters were true or not, and whether the story line compelled them to continue reading.

One of them, his neighbor, a bartender, actually became a character in the story. Others of his friends and family may recognize themselves in the book as well, he said.

Ken started writing just before Christmas in 2011 and finished the following March, averaging three or four hours of writing a day. That seems like a short time, but it wasn’t always straightforward. “Some days I would wake up and would have no idea what I would write.” The story evolved and changed too, as he went along. For example, he brought in a new character in chapter 13, introducing a parallel, unconnected story line that would eventually converge with the main story. Later he went back and inserted that character into chapter 3.

When he had written the ending, his reading neighbor, still three chapters behind, predicted the outcome. “My neighbor was right, it was predictable.” Ken changed the ending then, and thinks the book is better because of that.

The next step, editing, was painful, said Ken. “I had to cut a lot, had to have every action and conversation reveal something about a character or drive the plot. I ended up cutting out a lot of things.”

Publishing the book was the next challenge. Ken had joined the Worcester Writers Collaborative, a group which talks about book production, and he decided to self-publish as a result. “Going the traditional agent/publisher route requires two things: time and money. And who knows how long I’d be writing letters and getting rejections. I'd heard the horror stories.” He also didn’t want to pay to have it published by a “vanity press.”

Ken had initially thought he'd publish Stray Threads as an e-book, but after hearing about the print-on-demand option at the Collaborative, decided to explore that route. He used Create Space, an Amazon subsidiary, to produce the book as a paperback. The quality of the book is very good, he said. Stray Threads was published last November, just in time for Christmas gift giving. Amazon included it in its Black Friday special books sales program. He has sold some hundreds of copies already, primarily by word of mouth.

He’s had some good feedback from readers. The book has had 12 critical reviews; all but one gave it five stars. “I’m not looking to make a lot of money,” he says. “I just want to write something that people will like.”

He’s pleased to have learned about every aspect of writing and publishing a novel. He did everything himself, except for the cover illustration. That was done by artist Lindsay Ruane, also a Northbridge resident. “I told her what the story was about, and she just nailed it.”

Ken and his wife Suellen have been Northbridge residents for 22 years and have three adult sons. Ken grew up in Northboro and Worcester, went to high school in Pennsylvania, and graduated from Umass Amherst.

What’s next? Ken is well underway with a sequel, which will have the same cast of characters.              

Meanwhile, he will continue to make the rounds of libraries and book stores, talking to readers and would-be writers. He’s scheduled to be in Westboro and Clinton later on this month. “People have heard about the book and are calling me,” he said.

Ken will be at the Oxford Public Library on Thursday, February 7 at 7:00 p.m. Stray Threads can be purchased online at amazon.com and at Booklovers' Gourmet in Webster.

by Barbara Van Reed

Mark Marzeotti wears several different hats and his newest is president of the Webster-Dudley-Oxford Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Mark officially became the president on January 8, succeeding Cheri MacKinney, after serving as  its vice president.

This is a hat he will be wearing for the next two years and with it comes a mission to maintain the now-positive budget numbers and increase awareness of the Chamber's goals and functions. He hopes to increase the membership significantly.

Mark talked with us last week about the membership numbers. They have stayed basically the same in recent years, something he thinks is partly based on the economy. “If we had 200 members last year, we may have 200 this year, but 25 of them will be different: 12 may go out of business, five decide not to renew, three or four relocate, and so on.”

But there’s more to it.

Craig Brouwer recently introduced me to the world of TROGS, the trolls Gesmine and Jasmine, whose world stretches from Putnam, Connecticut, where they were born, to their faraway planet Tile-Plex, where they plan to stay because of “all the violence and graphic nature of humans and the evil sins of people” on Earth.

When Craig talks about Gesmine and Jasmine you can tell he lives in their world with them, as well he should. He created them and has depicted their world both in books and in art.

Here’s how I came to meet Craig. His mother, Lianne Miller, called to tell us that they had just opened an in-home art gallery at their house on Woodstock Ave. in Putnam. Called Dakota Art Gallery, it exhibits all of Craig’s artwork: paintings, sculptures, woodcarvings, and mobiles.  I didn’t really know what to expect, not knowing a thing about Craig Brouwer or his art, and so I went to visit.