COLLEAGUES REMEMBERED
BY DON DOUCETTE
We meet people of interest during our lives and then they are gone.
George Curtis of Plainville, Massachusetts was one of those people from my personal perspective – I did not know him well enough to be considered friends but knew him as a colleague having similar interests regarding local archaeology.
George was a friend of Doc Robbins from Attleboro who with other pioneers founded the Massachusetts Archaeological Society (MAS) including the former Bronson Museum here in Attleboro. Another of that group of pioneers was Doctor Bates from Bridgewater College and including many others with similar combined interests placed formal field archaeological studies on the map here in Massachusetts.
My part of this process was as a novice newcomer observing from the periphery as a volunteer field excavator at the Tobey Site in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
The Tobey Site excavation was a direct activity conducted by the local Cohannet Chapter of MAS and we met monthly at the Bronson Museum for related business, lectures and wonderful potluck suppers in a meeting room beside the main museum.
Enter George Curtis who attended these potluck meetings. George was not bashful about good food. Out of fondness, I might term George a character in his own right who marched to his own music.
A slight man in stature in advanced years, he’d appear quietly like a vapor – soft spoken and with unassuming steadiness melted into our gatherings.
Ponytail and beard and standing upright, George had the habit of wearing sandals without stockings year-round including the harsh portions of winter.
We hit a similar chord one evening at the Bronson when we discussed local history where George humbly described from his past one favorite observation which included his hometown of Plainville.
He lived along the higher ground in Plainville when there were fewer trees and he could see down into the entire Plainville Valley including the town center.
The thing George particularly enjoyed was watching the old steam trains puff-puffing out of Plainville beneath clouds of cadenced smoke which lingered above town and included the narrow ribbon of Ten Mile River – those trains puffed toward Wampum Corner in Wrentham and beyond.
Today, that same dormant rail corridor is being considered for recreational use.
Nostalgically, that singular special conversation with George has been devoted to personal memory…never to be forgotten.
Don Doucette
“Ten Mile River Rambles”