Does anybody know who the woman in the bathing suit standing in front of the Cobbett’s Pond Volunteer Fire Dept. truck could be? I am quite sure the truck is parked on Community Beach because I can see the lake behind the truck. The photo is double exposed but it gives you an idea of what this Volunteer Department on Cobbett’s Pond was all about. Dick Ford explained to me that Chief Harris had an alarm in front of his cottage. If there was a fire you knocked on his door and he would turn on the electricity to the alarm for you.
So I was asked whether I had ever heard of the Cobbett’s Pond Volunteer Fire Department, and I actually had not even though there is quite a bit of information in Rural Oasis about it. Dennis Root was good enough to track down and copy a photograph he had of one of the trucks for me. It’s a little double exposed but you get the idea. It looks as if it is parked on Community Beach in this photograph. Does anybody know the girl in the bathing suit posing in front of it?
Rural Oasis says, “In 1954 a group of summer residents at Community Beach on Cobbett’s Pond started the “Cobbett’s Pond Volunteer Fire Department.” The leader, Richard (Dick) Harris, made a canvass of that area of the pond seeking funds to purchase a second hand fire truck. He visited every camp owner in his area and succeeded in Collecting the sum of $411.50. Of this money $200 was used to purchase a second hand 1923 American Lafrance fire truck which had belonged to Belmont, Massachusetts department. The rest of the cash was used to buy new hose and the necessary material for restoration. However, this truck did not prove too successful for its use was limited to a very short distance from the pond. In 1956 it was sold by James McKeon to a group on Beaver Lake.
A new group of volunteers was then formed and a new truck was purchased. This was a 1946 Chrysler oil tank truck. Many hours were spent converting it to a fire truck. Most important was the installation of a booster pump and new hose which could send water 175 feet. Much of this work was done by Doug Marshall, George Hughes, Fred Marquebreuck, Dick Harris, and Harry Pearse who was a member of the Malden, Massachusetts, Fire Department. Sirens were installed at various locations, these donated by James McKeon. A truck siren was donated by Ollie Lalumiere and a hose reel by the Wakefield, Massachusetts, Fire Department, with valves and piping installed by Dick Harris.
A charter was drawn up and Dick Harris was named chief, Walter Lalmiere, assistant chief, William Benkoski, captain, and Gustaaf DeVits, first lieutenant. During the summer months there was always the danger of a serious fire and on more than one occasion small blazes were kept under control until the regular fire trucks arrived, no doubt preventing the loss of one or more summer homes. This group remained active until 1968 when it was disbanded and the truck was sold.
Happy Labor Day Weekend. Wide Ranging Sentiments on Work
John H. Dinsmore wheeling in the hay – Gate-keeper at Windham Depot – Stone masons laboring on Searles gate
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
And prosper the work of our hands—
O prosper the work of our hands.” Psalm 90:17
“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you; that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” Thessalonians 3:10
Draupadi said: “The Devatās desire him who offers worship and works hard. They do not like him who loves to sleep and is lazy. The hard working person gets great praise from them.”
“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity.”
“One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive, for the person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician, for if he doesn’t do his job, diseases are rampant.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your professions is what you’re put on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.” Vincent Van Gogh
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much higher consideration.” Abraham Lincoln
“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.”
“The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work brings you and the world’s need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get.”
“Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?” W.E.B. Du Bois
“The best way to find yourselves is to lose yourself in service to others.” Gandhi
“Originality and the feeling of one’s own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle.” Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Work and family are at the center of our lives, the foundation of our dignity as a free people.” Ronald Reagan
“The basic goal of labor will not change. It is— as it has always been, and I am sure always will be — to better the standards of life for all who work for wages and to seek decency and justice and dignity for all Americans.” George Meany
My people are destroyed because they lack knowledge of me. Hosea 4:6
America in 2021 disdains labor, as our country is now totally controlled by the MIC, financial interests and the FED, the big investment banks, investment houses, multi-national corporations and supra-national organizations ushing in their green new deal and great reset. Mass illegal immigration further depresses wages. For God’s sakes, we make almost nothing useful…how is that a sign of national greatness? Republicans can be accused of being deaf to the needs of labor, but the Democrats used to be the champions of labor, and now just provide weak lip service. If Taiwan is invaded by the communist Chinese we have no source of semi-conductors. Ford and G&M just announced they are shutting down assembly lines because of a lack of supply of chips. What would happen in a war, hot or cold. In case you’re not aware, World War II started because the United States attempted to cut of Japan’s access to raw materials. This is why they attacked Pearl Harbor…because the cold war had begun in the 1930’s. Without Lithium the Green New Deal is just a bad joke. Most all of the ingredients of pharmaceuticals are manufactured in China; does that not give you pause? How the heck could we ever fight a war without a manufacturing base? Why have our politicians (on both sides) left us defenseless against our enemies? Why do they hate us so? Why do they disdain small business, the working man-woman, farmers and soldiers? Because the politicians love themselves first, and the people and swindles that make them the biggest bribes and investment profits! Decent Americans…the working people be damned!
They couldn’t even bring themselves to honor the soldiers fallen in Afghanistan in the US House of Representatives. There are reports that the identity of the terrorist bomber was known, his location was known, and there was a drone lock on him before he blew himself up killing and maiming the American marines. And why was the “Profile in Courage” Harris; “They’re not going to pin this sh__ on me,” posed in front of a statue of Ho Chi Min in Viet Nam, a humiliating juxtaposition, at the very moment the debacle in Afghanistan was taking place…” Optics that are just too awful and odd to be coincidence. And now Americans are being held hostage in Afghanistan; Biden and Harris are vacationing and campaigning, while Afghanis and their kidnapped child brides are being welcomed into our country. Could it really be any worse than this?
Windham NH History 