Cowboy Chuck and the Happy Rangers - Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts

It all takes place in a fictional town called Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts...

Well, no.  Chicopee Falls is a real place, but the radio station, WCFS in this sleepy burg is fictional.  Here is where happens a slice of World War II intrigue...and comedy.

This is, by the way, a two-act play I'm talking about, written by me and performed by people all over this great land (well, bits of this great land, anyway) who should know better, but don't.  If your community theatre, or college, or high school, or middle school drama club is looking for a swell comedy that takes place during a live radio adventure show (during World War II), or just looking for a comedy that takes place in Chicopee Falls...or just likes the name, Chicopee Falls (it has a ring to it), then this might just be the script for you. 

It's COWBOY CHUCK AND THE HAPPY RANGERS!

Here's a synopsis:

The time is December 1942, the setting is a radio station where "Cowboy Chuck and the Happy
Rangers," a children's adventure program featuring hero Cowboy Chuck, his best gal, his sidekick, the villain, and the announcer all wrapping up an episode. When the station manager informs them this locally-produced show is about to make its nationwide debut and Life magazine photographers are coming to do a story on them, they are thrilled, but not about having to wear the outrageous western costumes chosen for them.

Behind the scenes, however, trouble is brewing, as the actor playing the show's villain, who is actually an undercover FBI agent, discovers that the station owner is a Nazi sympathizer and the new script they are to perform coast-to-coast contains coded secrets on national security about to be broadcast to the enemy.  The confused cast, the bumbling sound effects man, the prim organist, the show's bickering husband-and-wife team of writers all work together in true bumbling, patriotic Cowboy Chuck and the Happy Rangers can-do fashion to foil the bad guys.

It's published by Brooklyn Publishers and you can get your script here.  No need to send in any box tops.

Model Railroad Show - West Springfield, Massachusetts

Trains are only part of the fun for the model railroad enthusiast.  The imaginative detail of the accessories to that little world -- buildings, people, autos all illustrating the busy lives in the tiny towns.  There's a lot to feast your eyes on when the model railroader melds his imaginings with yours.

This weekend is the annual Amherst Railway Society's Railroad Hobby Show held in West Springfield, Massachusetts on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition.  An enormous show spread out through four buildings on the grounds, it is a feast for the eyes and a joy to the young at heart.  Over 25,000 people visit the event every year.  Huge train setups continually race around miles of track, and vendors fill the buildings with every imaginable facet of this hobby.  For more information, have a look the official website here.

One Horse Open Sleigh - Sturbridge, Massachusetts

 

 

Sleight rally at Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, Massachusetts, 2011.

Exhibition in memory of Ann Lynch Beebe & Rita Kulig - Massachusetts

The Wilbraham Art League is hosting an art show in memory of Ann Lynch Beebe and Rita Kulig.  An exhibition of the work of these two artists will be held in the Brooks Room at the Wilbraham Public Library.  The opening reception is this coming Sunday, January 4, 2015 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. The exhibit will continue through the month of January.

The Wilbraham Public Library is located at 25 Crane Park Drive, Wilbraham, Massachusetts.  For more information, have a look here at the websites for the Wilbraham Art League, and the Wilbraham Public Library.

Christmas Feasts and Department Stores - Massachusetts and Rhode Island

It is ironic that in spite of the much bewailed commercialism of our modern Christmas holidays, we also have a nostalgic love for those enormous and elegant department stores of days gone by which fed us on the glamour of tinsel, garland, and our hearts' desires in gift wrapping.  Before there was there was the charge card or the debt, there was the escalator.

From Forbes & Wallace in Springfield, Massachusetts:

Providence, Rhode Island had Shepard's:

But if you were shopping for Christmas dinner, the First National chain in 1937 had prices that couldn't be beat, if you had a job.

But in 1941, with the U.S. only recently at war, a last celebration before the separations and the wartime shortages set in -- and Christmas dinner was truly at feast at Springfield's, Sheraton Hotel:

Thank you for time-traveling with me this year.  Best wishes to all who celebrate for a Merry Christmas, and to all a most joyous and peaceful New Year.

Gifts for the reader with a passion for New England

Holiday gifts for the reader with a passion for New England:

 The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts

Non-fiction - A collection of articles and photos of the Civil War - era arms plant famous for the Ames Sword, as well as the first bronze statuary foundry in the United States.  Available in paperback or eBook.

 Beside the Still Waters - novel.

When the Quabbin Reservoir was created in central Massachusetts from the 1920s through 1930s, four entire towns were dismantled and the citizens were forced to leave their homes, their history and their heritage.  This is the story of those "survivors" of the Swift River Valley.  Available in paperback or eBook.

 Meet Me in Nuthatch - novel.

The poignantly comic story of a fictional town in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts which, in order to survive, adopts a plan to attract tourism by turning back the clock to 1904.  The past is not as cozy at it seems, and the future has a familiar ring to it.  Available in paperback or eBook.

 The first three novels in the "cozy" Double V Mysteries Series -

Cadmium Yellow, Blood Red

Speak Out Before You Die
and
Dismount and Murder

It is 1949, and the post-war era is a difficult adjustment to recent ex-con Elmer Vartanian, who partners with Hartford socialite, heiress, and aspiring artist Juliet Van Allen -- for their mutual survival when both are knee-deep in trouble.  Their relationship grows, and so does their knack for finding themselves in the thick of trouble.  New England in the post-World War II era is the setting for this series of mysteries.  Available in paperback or eBook.

States of Mind: New England - non-fiction.

A collection of essays from this blog on the history of New England, with some 200 photographs.  Available in paperback or eBook.

Valley Radio Reading Service - ValleyGivesDay.org

This Wednesday, December 10th is Valley Gives Day - set aside to raise money by and for nonprofit groups in western Massachusetts.  Please visit this website- ValleyGivesDay.org - to choose among your favorite worthy organizations.

This is my own special plea on behalf of the Valley Radio Reading Service, which broadcasts daily the reading of local news and entertainment material for subscribers who are blind or vision impaired and have no access to this information from any other source.  The readers who sit before the microphones are all volunteers.  Your donation will help defray the cost of broadcasting.

Thank you.