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Monday, February 12, 2024

A Tragic Toast to Christmas - wood alcohol deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.


More than 100 people died of a companionable drink in several towns and cities in New England on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1919, nearly half of them in the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts. How this came to happen, and even how it came to be forgotten are both intriguing aspects to the tragedy.


The story of the grisly incident of unknowingly ingesting poisonous wood alcohol and how it played out in one New England city might stand as a microcosm of the conflict created between the legal production and sale of alcohol, those who would prohibit it, and those who would do anything to profit from it, not only in the years up to 1919, but in the tumultuous decade that followed.


Sunday, January 28, 2024

Poet Jack Hayes' new work -- PRAYER WIND


Jack Hayes' recent volume of poetry, one of an ambitious three-volume project, is being published by Askance Publishing.  Prayer Wind is the first title, and is available at the Askance website, and also at Amazon and Kobo.

Here's the lovely description on the Askance website:


"Written through four difficult years, the poems reflect not only Jack’s personal journey but the hugely challenging times in which we all found ourselves. His words also reflect the cycle of the year and the pulse of nature with their inevitable highs and lows. Playful, deeply reflective, sad and joyful – Prayer Wind is all these and more.

"These are poems not to be hurried but to be read at leisure, to be savoured." 


Two earlier collections of poetry were featured on this blog previously, called The Spring Ghazals here, and The Days of Wine and Roses here.  Jack is a native Vermonter, now living in Oregon.  Read more about his journey here.  His voice is original, authentic, spiritual, contemplative, and bold.  Please have a look at the links here to get your copy of Prayer Wind.

Monday, January 22, 2024

Amherst Railway Society annual Railroad Hobby Show

photo by J.T. Lynch


This coming weekend, Saturday, January 27th and Sunday, January 28th, the annual Railroad Hobby Show hosted by the Amherst Railway Society comes to the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.  


It is the largest model railroad trade show in the United States, and a very enjoyable event not only for model railroad enthusiasts, but for anyone with a nostalgic bent of mind.  There's four buildings of train layouts, miniature worlds of exquisite detail.  Come have a look.

 

Learn more about the show here.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom,  HolyokeMassachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.


Saturday, December 2, 2023

Chicopee Falls mystery novel - THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED

 


I'm very pleased to announce my newest book -- the seventh in my Double V Mysteries series:  The Little Engine That Killed.

On this adventure, Juliet and Elmer take on a case tracking an about-to-be-released prisoner to recover the money he stole and hid years before -- but as usual, nothing is as it seems, there are more questions than answers, and danger increases with every twist and turn.  It's the Christmas season, 1951, and our intrepid duo, unlike Santa Claus, have a little trouble determining for sure who is naughty and who is nice.

Writing this book has been a special treat for me, because I chose the setting for this story in my own hometown -- Chicopee, Massachusetts.  But there's a twist to that as well.  The particular part of town where the story takes place is Chicopee Falls.  In 1951, that village was completely different than it is now, because in the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of it was demolished in an urban renewal project.  To write this book, I had to recreate not only a time, but a place that no longer exists.  All of the books in this series are a form of time-travel.  This one, The Little Engine That Killed, is especially so.

As you can tell from the cover, trains figure prominently in the story.  Coal does, too, but not just for the Christmas stocking.

Grab your copy in print or eBook here at Amazon, or a variety of other online sources including Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo and others!

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom,  HolyokeMassachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Monday, November 13, 2023

Reminder - Zoom talk on CHRISTMAS IN CLASSIC FILMS one week away!

 



Next week...A Zoom discussion on CHRISTMAS IN CLASSIC FILMS!

My Zoom presentation on my book Christmas in Classic Films is one week away!



The talk is being hosted online by Sal St. George and the St. George Living History Productions.  I'll be discussing several examples of how Christmas becomes the climax and resolution in several classic films, which are not really "Christmas movies."  


Mr. St. George is an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer presenting programs across the U.S.A. specializing in Old Hollywood, and Motion Picture & Television history.  St. George Living History Productions has presented Zoom programs to thousands of viewers worldwide. Mr. St. George initiated Virtual Road Trips to Celebrity Museums and so far, those Zoom Road Trips have taken his audience to:

The Will Rogers Museum, The Red Skelton Museum, The John Wayne Museum, The P.T. Barnum Museum, The Mary Pickford Exhibition, The Lizzie Borden Museum, The Rosemary Clooney Museum, The It's a Wonderful Life Museum, The Clark Gable Museum, The Phil Silvers Museum, The Laurel and Hardy Museum, The Buffalo Bill Cody Center, The Ginger Rogers Museum, James Dean Museum, The Patti Page Exhibition, Edward Hopper Museum, The Yogi Berra, The Donna Reed Museum, and much more.

The event is scheduled for Monday, November 20th at 10:00 a.m. ET.  Please join us for a fun discussion on some of your favorites -- and perhaps a few you would not have considered to be Christmas classics.  Here's the login info below:

Time: November 20, 2023, 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82238652855?pwd=dWV4OGdERWIzQy9KKzROY0wvSWRiZz09


Meeting ID: 822 3865 2855
Passcode: 731986

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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/khK5PZZgT 

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom,  HolyokeMassachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Mapping It Out - THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED - Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts


The next book in my nostalgic mystery series, THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED is set Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, in December 1951.  Though the characters and events are fictitious, the locations mentioned in the story did exist in this manufacturing village.  But no more.  This novel seeks to recreate a time before the Urban Renewal movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s drastically changed our urban centers; in the case of Chicopee Falls, wiped out most of it.  Some of the streets are gone now, and some whose directions are diverted and altered, but the more profound difference between then and now are the buildings on those streets that went under the wrecking ball.


Other aspects of the story are easier to distinguish on a map.  Above we have a 1946 topographical map by the U.S. Geographical Survey that shows a deep green area on the bluffs across the river from Chicopee Falls and other areas that were deeply wooded long before they were changed to suburban neighborhoods in the 1950s and 1960s.  A great place to dig a hole and hide stolen money.  If you really wanted to.

The "landing field" at the bottom of the map is the old Springfield Airport, the home of biplanes and the innovative GeeBees long before it became a shopping center.  For some, a field of dreams.

The railroad following parallel along the river figures prominently in the story.  That's not there anymore, either.

There's lots of trains in the book.





Here's a closer look at the setting in the web of streets of Chicopee Falls from a 1912 atlas that also figures into the story.  

Turning back time is a fascinating prospect, and one I've enjoyed very much in the writing of this mystery.  I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

I'm hoping to have The Little Engine That Killed published in November in eBook and in print, and I'll keep you up-to-date as we get closer. 

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom,  HolyokeMassachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Matchbooks as clues in THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED - Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts

 


Matchbooks as clues in the upcoming --
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED


The next book in my nostalgic mystery series set in New England in the post-World War II era takes place in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, in December 1951.  Though the characters and events are fictitious, the locations mentioned in the story did exist in this manufacturing village.  But no more.  This novel seeks to recreate a time before the Urban Renewal movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s drastically changed our urban centers; in the case of Chicopee Falls, wiped out most of it.

                                                         

It was also a time of lots of smoking, as you see here in the several images of matchbooks from businesses in Chicopee Falls in 1951 that pop up in the novel.  It's funny for us today, perhaps, to think of even a bank offering matchbooks to its customers, but in an era of a widespread smoking habit, it was perhaps a good way to advertise, as handy, and more useful than a business card.



I'm hoping to have The Little Engine That Killed published in November in eBook and in print, and I'll keep you up to date on the particulars.  

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I'd like to share with you the wonderfully silly cartoons by my twin brother, John, on a variety of products such as mugs, T-shirts, and more, over at his Redbubble site.  Here's a link to his shop:  ArteAcher23 with more items being added every month.  Here's a cute black cat, enjoying having an enormous piece of candy corn all to himself.  Get your mug, shirt, apron, or whatever in time for Halloween!



 

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

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