Paul and Dan, I'd like to hear your respective memories of the last time the DOR threatened to partition Wareham out of existence, parceling control of its real estate to surrounding towns.

"Re-appropriate"

Very scary...close then... close now.

Want to be part of Bourne, or Marion, or Rochester?

Keep going the way you are...and you will be.

I think Wareham will be saved whenever Wareham residents decide to save it.

My oft repeated remedy for Wareham's ills is short and simple: put Wareham Town Meeting online now, gavel to gavel, voting enabled. Now, not 10 years from now.

Harrythebarber wrote:

billw would make an excelllent Town Clerk!!

Because upon assuming office I'd refuse the pay and eliminate the position?

Town Clerks were integral to Wareham's English settlement, a time when most of its inhabitants were ig'runt illiterates.  In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is Clerk...

Wm Root Bliss, in Colonial Times on Buzzards Bay, 1889, wrote:

"They scorned punctuation in their writings, and in the use of capital letters they were all at sea.... no extravagance could be allowed in the use of the alphabet."

Last edited by billw (2011-05-09 17:55:49)

This says it all...reminds me of today:

"Others, who are nearing old age and who delight to recall the incidents of their early days in Wareham, are sometimes drawn back to gather up the ancient household relics

"The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door,"

the three-cornered arm-chairs, the brass warming-pan that drove the cold out of feather beds in winter, the spinning-wheel, the grandmother's sampler wrought in strange devices, — and to re-light their fire on their paternal hearthstone."


Bill...will you please send me the entire writing in a form I can print off?

I would appreciate it, Bill.

I am like a sponge for history, and even though I took days to read your link (I am a speed reader), it was because such important, historical significance must be absorbed slowly and with great satisfaction.

It is a fascinating writing and I would appreciate whatever you can do to send it to me. 

I consider that to be Wareham 101.

I hope my contribution for the History of Wareham is 102.

There are many others, including yourself, that can fill in Wareham103, from 1980 to the present.

A FREE history class on this site!!

I will continue tomorrow. We have been busy getting ready for my son to return home after 5 years in the Marine Corps.

Thank you, Dave.

The History of Wareham 102:

With the advent of Home Rule in the mid 1960's, the topic of conversation at the barber shops, and the grocery stores, and the hardware stores, and the restaurants was the idea of changing the form of government in Wareham from three full time Selectmen/Assessors to a three, five, or seven member Board of Selectmen with a professional Town Administrator, or Town Manager.

I must admit, that in 1968, after having bought my family homestead, at outrageous interest rates, and commuting to Boston 5 days a week, I was thinking that a "professional" form of government might be the best.

It was a decade or more conversation, with a conversion.

I was a businessman( a banker), and I knew that business functioned smoothly with the right personnel, so government should be run like a business, and everything would be OK.

I was naive.

I spent a year and a half in the local barber shops, the Onset VFW, and many eateries listening to, and debating the merits of the forms of government.

In 1969, I joined the Wareham Police Dept. I was a Vice President of Morris Plan Bank, and I had an ulcer. I was in charge of a huge portfolio of my bank, and I had NO idea what I was doing. I needed an education, and with the GI Bill, I could go to Bridgewater at night, three nights per week, and join the Police Department to work midnight to 8 A.M.

I was also a professional entertainer since the age of 6 (comedian-impressionist) and made good money on weekends in Boston.

My wife went to work at Tobey Hospital in the emergency room. She was a graduate of Boston City Hospital and was ready for anything.

My education was about to begin.

I was used to State wide and Boston politics. I worked with Kevin White, and Gov. Volpe, and Ed Brooke, and anyone else that needed help. I didn't care about Republican or Democrat, I just loved politics.

I was not ready or used to local politics n Wareham.

In those days, 1969 onward to 1979, the power of the Town lied in the Board of Selectmen.

There was no way you could be elected Selectman in Wareham unless you were born and raised in the Town, or at least served with many positions for 30 to 40 years.

If you wanted to find out about your REAL family history, run for Selectman. You would have found out ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.

I have told you the story of the first union negotiations with the Police Department and the BOS.

If not, I will.

I am still working on my son's return, so please excuse me. I will continue soon.

I would love to hear from anyone else who lived in those days.