A month ago, while searching for archival newspaper articles about the original library in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I tucked away a few extra Berkshire Eagle newsclips from the 1960s.

Three specific opinion pieces caught my attention, not only because they were written by immediate family members, but because the topics shone such a light on their personalities and interests.

Let’s start with Dad.

First, let us point out that Dad‘s name was Harold, not Harvey. (Oh, how I wish I’d come across this while Dad was still alive. We’d have chuckled about “Harvey” for months.)

Bravo to Harvey … err, Dad … for providing positive feedback. Anyone in customer service knows that people far prefer to complain. And to the mayor! Mrs. Smith certainly had good reason to gripe, though. I wonder if she ever got her $6.15 (which is nearly $51 in today’s dollars).

Can’t say I remember the incident referred to in Dad’s letter to the Public Works Commissioner. I do recall something closer to Mrs. Smith’s situation, though, late one night. Let’s just say if you weren’t wearing boots, you weren’t allowed to step off the bottom cellar step. And the smell of bleach stung our eyes for days. I don’t recall anyone having “a sense of humor” that night!

Next, we hear from Mom.

As we’ve already established, Mom loved Halloween. And she was a purist. When the town decided to move Trick or Treating off of the actual holiday for the first time, just the thought of it brought out Mom’s inner (good) witch:

And finally, oldest brother Harry has his say:

Harry is retired and lives in Maine. He and his wife, Linda, are naturalists and active environmentalists.

Gary and I still chuckle remembering Dad telling us, during one of our last visits with him, about Harry and Linda’s latest project. They were studying for their certification as naturalists for a local nature preserve and one of the steps was to capture and examine owl droppings to record what they’d been eating. Dad wasn’t sure about all the poo-ticulars, but was so pleased they were enjoying themselves in the process, and staying true to their interests and beliefs.

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