A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

I really should get back to the core site of this URL once in a while. The main pages were, of course, the initial part of my domain. I tried to separate resume-type information into various categories for web pages. I first started that process back before many people knew about web access. Some of the original keystrokes were made fifteen years ago! Even at that time, the ease of putting material online, meant that I ventured far beyond what would've been possible with a paper-based resume.

Now, I blog. In the last four and a half years, I seldom, if ever, visit those pages. They are in dire need of a makeover, but as most action occurs in the form of blog entries, I wonder why I should bother.



If I decide to update those pages, I can link to some data from this blog. That might just give a reason to proceed. For example, after the photo from the day before yesterday, I moseyed over to the 'Youth' section. As I grew up in New Hampshire, it might not be a bad idea to place a link on that page for the Sunapee label for information from over on this side. I like creating links to other things found on this server. It makes a ... well ... web of information about my favourite subject. It's always all about me, isn't it?

Labels: blogging, Sunapee

I couldn't think of much to share today. The fact I went to Wal-mart for niacin and kitchen sponges or filled up with $1.19/litre gasoline is hardly newsworthy. I also didn't feel much like creating an April Fool's trick. The photo above looks foolish enough.

It was obviouly taken at the old school in Sunapee, New Hampshire. I believe this was in a classroom on the second floor. During on year, it was a homeroom perhaps with Miss Davis. Since we hadn't moved to the new building in Lower Village, I'd say I would've been a freshman. I don't know who took the photo or why.

Labels: Sunapee

This weekend I got a message from Bret. He's the premiere reason that another buddy, Joel, and I were able to run a summer arcade business in my hometown of Sunapee, New Hampshire. Those were the years right after we'd graduated from high school. Bret was recently asked to write up a story for a locally-published magazine. Of course, in 2008, the request was to record the significance of those activities in a historical perspective. By a strange twist of circumstance we have separately all ended up as residents a few hundred miles of each other but near the other ocean. Bret's email was to ask whether Joel or I had any quotes to offer.

I have, on occasion, difficulty remembering what I had for dinner on the previous evening, so I am skeptical about how much I might be able to add to events of thirty years ago. I did a few searches on the Internet to see if I could locate any photos which would help to remind me of Sunapee Harbor in that bygone era. The only pictures, I could dig up were those which I'd contributed to the Internet myself. I modified this picture which Bret had once taken. It was originally in Kodacolor but all but the yellow dye had faded; therefore, I converted it to black and white.



It shows the most important part of what I can recall. The picture does show a young Joel and me. A significant aspect is that another classmate, Sherry Simms seems to be hard at work with maintenance too. She would not have been a paid employee but was among the others who simply wanted to hang out. During those summers of operation we offered such a place for many of the kids in town too. In those days the school system or town offered fewer programs to occupy youths' time. We were left to our own devices. Luckily, Bret saw the need as a business opportunity. I don't think it was as much about the money as a way provide a fun atmosphere for not only the three of us. We gave many Sunapee residents, who were under twenty, a reason to come up to the harbor.

Labels: Bret, Joel, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

For how many years have we now had email? It hasn't been all that many but the impact can certainly still be strong.

I'm not so much thinking of work-related messages, but those that come in from the Internet from people who were from former aspects one's life. Once in a while, along with those automated reminders that my credit card statement is online or other official-type business, I get real email. Again, most of the crap received from my sister wouldn't count as it contains no new information. Hers tend to be those pass-it-along messages of a supposedly profound nature.



I am trying to highlight the times when a real message comes that provides interesting information from a friend or acquaintance. I got one just this morning from a school pal. Candy, on the left in the photo, started schooling with me when we were in elementary grades. We continued right through high school and eventually both received teaching certificates from the same college. I hadn't heard from her for years but it was easy to catch up. How interesting to hear about the family and their goings on. How great to hear about recent vacations too. Here's a quote that might not be too common in any messages you received today.

"A 100 x 25 foot barn addition of ours collapsed under the heavy snows and ice. Four cows were trapped, but with help managed to escape and are now healing."

I'd not mind getting more messages from others. Even if they're sent out in bulk and have the type of information that yearly Christmas newsletters used to contain. Go ahead, drop me a line.

Labels: Internet, Sunapee

I'll admit I can remember Pong on a home TV. Yet, as mentioned in my eJournal and images before, most of my game playing experience occurred when friends and I ran an arcade during the summers of my college days. That was the late 1970's and early 1980's. I remember shooting at tanks from inside a virtual world of vector graphics in Atari's Battlezone. This would've been the original, stand-up cabinet where the player looked through a periscope. I knew that even thin green lines in 3-D sure seemed to beat out the coloured, but flat, images on the Pacman machines.



For years and years after that I didn't play games.

I did toy with an original xbox which is still in a closet here somewhere. We used it to play DVDs for a while and I spent a few hours impressed with Voodoo Vince.

Today, I spent most of the morning looking at trailers for the Sony PS3. This time things seem right for a fit to the Onkyo home theatre sound and the 42" Toshiba LCD. Although I'm thinking about buying one primarily for playing Blu-ray movies, if it's all connected, I will probably end up exploring a few game titles too. The Playstation 3 isn't known for having many good games at present: however, I expect the number will increase through 2008.



Yikes, we've gone beyond basic, wire frame graphics in the last 28 years, haven't we?

Labels: Bret, games, Joel, PS3, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

I was uptown this morning as I had an appointment at the dentists' office. As long as I was already up near 6th and 6th, I walked from the mall to the city library. The collection of DVDs is growing but the discs seldom seem to sit on the shelf for very long. It seems as if hundreds are checked out and returned daily. I picked up Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist (2005).

DVD covers are fairly tricky. They never mention the date on the front cover. I've also noticed the old B&W classics always sport colourful images on the front. This is a tad deceptive, if you ask me. That said, a black and white flick can appear sinfully seductive if care is taken in the restoration and transfer processes. One nearly needs a magnifying glass to see the aspect ratio and sound mixing on most DVD cases.

As long as I was heading to the check out, I also grabbed Lassie -Come Home- (1943) from the shelf too. I popped it in the DVD player upon arriving home. I like something on while I sit at the computer.


I'm with Sandy in Wendell, New Hampshire in the mid-1960's

It seems as if I picked the movie that started all the Lassie-mania It was in colour. This was the version with Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor as mere kids. I found myself truly watching the television much more than my monitor. It started off a little hokey, but had its moments. I don't want to offer a spoiler but, guess what, the dog makes it back to Yorkshire! I'm sure I got emotional only because I probably remember the US television series as a youngster, or it may have been because my childhood dog was a collie. I'd challenge the butchest of you to make it through to the end credits without a least rubbing your eyes a little.

Labels: movies, New Hampshire, Sunapee

What a blustery day! I'm happy there's no class today due to it being a 3-day weekend for many businesses in Canada. The rain and wind started in the middle of the night. The noise woke me up. Even our gas fireplace blows out from the force and angle of the wind. Although it's mid-morning it hasn't let up. So, it is a suitable day just to hang around and watch DVD's, review email, and blog.

Last week, when I discussed games, I talked about old-school arcade machines. I even located an Internet photo of Xenon, the pinball machine for that entry. And wouldn't you know that Bret was able to scrounge up an actual photo from Sunapee, NH! Here's a scanned image from the Harbor Gameroom circa 1980.

Labels: Bret, games, New Hampshire, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

Earlier this morning, I was looking at the my eJournal and images page which showcases my games label.

I guess I'm now old enough to be a little nostalgic.

I hear about game titles like BioShock in popular media but I've never been much of a first-person shooter. Although it must be said that I had a 22 rifle as a teenager. I even became quite good at skeet shooting with a 12-gauge. These were real life situations with family though. I just cannot seem to get too excited about buying into any of the modern gaming consoles. In fact, my old, original XBOX actually sits in a box.

I was a happy, however, to re-visit an old link I had entered in September 2003. It pointed to www.flippers.com. It seems to be a local Vancouver company and although the guy's no stunning web designer, it's the content that I found so very appealing.

As mentioned here previously, two high-school friends and I had an arcade in our little hometown of Sunapee, NH decades ago. It was the industry's turning point from mechanical to electronic. Pacman, Space Invaders, and Galaxian were fun to play but there was nothing better than the selinoid-thumping, electro-mechanical sounds of a real pinball machine.

I'd own a vintage example today were it not for a 725 sq ft apartment and the $2000 to $3000 price tag for an average setup. I bet it'd be much more for a mint conditon Bally Xenon. After all, that suductive female voice coaxing a player to "try a tube shot" could catipult just about anyone back into one's adolescence. And how much is that worth?

Labels: games, New Hampshire, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

I was working on cleaning up my email this morning. You know how things can collect if one neglects staying on top of them. Even though Google Mail gives copious storage, I'm not one to archive just anything. The fact I seldom save messages with large attachments is probably due to the fact it was not common in the old days. I could now go into great detail why it's best to keep email data on the Internet rather than on one's hard disk, but I'll take on that topic in a future entry.

Consequently, because of my aversion to attachments, I had marked one email for clean up but hadn't gotten to it. It arrived from my second cousin who I've not seen since childhood. Marti is a bit of a family archivist and was named after my mother. She scanned several pages of photos and attached them to a message sent to me. That was a long time ago, probably at the beginning of the year. Finally, today I copied off the photos and deleted the message. Those scanned images included the one here.

It is my mother as a young girl. I was trying to figure out where it was taken. I think it may have been on Upper Main Street in Sunapee, NH. That building looks like what was called the Community Store when I was in high school. I believe it has all been torn down. If that was indeed the location, I hope mom had good braking ability on skates. Upper Main Street is very steep. The street runs up to Sunapee Harbor. Most people don't think of having to travel up to a lake, so that bit of geography often confuses visitors and summer tourists.

Labels: Google, Mother, New Hampshire, Sunapee

As I was driving home in the evening yesterday, I was struck by how two new high-rise apartment buildings are changing my neighbourhood's skyline. Within a single block two sites are under construction. The Point, a twenty storey residential tower with some ground-level commercial space is nearly ready for occupancy. Another huge project is directly behind the New Westminster Police Station (formerly the Federal Post Office) building. The rise of its multiple storeys has been very quick. These accompany many other new buildings presently under construction or in the planning stages. I enjoy seeing the continuing modification of the local environment. This summer we will have lived in this city for just eleven years but have seen vast change.

I can't help but contrast this with my quick drive through Sunapee, New Hampshire last month. Other than Mitch Latva's grand residence up on the hill in Georges Mills, not much looked different than thirty years ago.


Although 'The Point' in New Westminster is nearing completion,
a year and a half ago it was nothing but a very big hole in the ground.

Labels: New Hampshire, New Westminster, Sunapee

This week's page contains a number of photos from the previous week's trip to New Hampshire. I thought I'd round out Saturday with another. Here's a recap of a road trip on February 12th.

We travelled to Concord and then up I-89 to the New London exit. Next, we drove through George's Mills and into Sunapee. The town was cold as a strong wind was blowing. Soon, we followed Rt. 11 and then went on Rt. 103 past the house of my youth to the Mt. Sunapee ski area.

After, we drove through Newport and down Route 10 to the city of Keene. We took a scenic bypass visiting Stoddard NH, a town where my grandmother had a summer cottage. When we eventually walked around Keene State, it was still very cold and windy. (A big big dump of snow occurred on the following day.) I thought it was interesting to see how much my old college campus had changed. I got a BS in Education at KSC. Of course it have changed a lot as I first lived there in the fall of 1977. In the past thirty years, the state has obviously put a lot of money into the college system. Certainly no money has been sent by this alumni though!



After walking around the campus for a half hour, we left and ate a a Friendly's Restaurant. It was then a quick trip back Route 202/101. We didn't stop to see what was going on at the office of The Old Farmers' Almamac in Dublin.

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

We're back at the hotel for a little rest. Last night we returned to the hospital and found my dad playing bingo. We chatted for a while then came back to the hotel with a little booty from a supermarket. After eating, we slept for about ten hours.

This morning, it was nice to shower and stumble down for a SuperStart PLUS breakfast. Then hearing that it was going to be mostly sunny, decided to drive around NH. There seems to be a big storm brewing that might dump quite a bit of snow on Wednesday. Therefore, it made sense to go today. I wanted Jay to see where I grew up. So we headed to Concord and walked around the State Legislature. Then we took I-89 to the exit for Sunapee. It didn't take much time to drive around the harbor, Lower Main Street, and out to Wendell. Well, the area used to be called Wendell back when there was a post office there. It's about 3 miles from town. Some things have changed but not a great deal. As Mt. Sunapee glistened so brightly we took a trip there and watched all the skiers sliding down the mountain, many of them on their butts.



After, we went to Newport but decided not to eat at Village Pizza although it was in the same place it was in the 1970's. The town's department store apparently couldn't complete with Claremont though as it was empty.

Then I thought rather than retracing any steps we'd go down Route 10 to Keene, NH. For another trip down memory lane, we went via Stoddard, NH. My grandmother had a summer cottage and as kids we used to spend time there during summers. After finally getting into Keene, we stopped and walked around my old campus at Keene State College. It must be twice the size it was when I attended. Yet, come to think of it, I did start there 30 years ago this upcoming September! We ate a very late lunch at a Friendly's Family Restaurant.

We came back via 202 and 101 to Manchester and were here before 5:00 pm.

We'll spend this evening in my dad. He seems to be in very good condition. There's no indication that his right side had been weak. He is pretty good at remembering things. I had no idea he knew how old I was even before any stroke. He told me I was 47. I suppose it's possible he did a little 'homework' before my arrival!

Labels: New Hampshire, places, Sunapee

The e-doors are closing on a bit of history.



My decision to stop working on the high school email directory was a bit slow in coming. Sometimes we, as people, continue things merely because we are used to doing them. My volunteer work on the Virtual Sunapee Reunion website lasted over eight years. That is quite a chunk of time. The site was started the year the Monica Lewinsky scandal hit the newspapers. A current senior at the SMHS was in fourth grade. More frighteningly, should I live to be 80 years old, these eight years will represent 10% of my life.

I appreciate all those who've participated over the years. I'm most pleased with those of you who used to update regularly. Lastly, a special word of thanks must go to the free hosting offered by the folks at www.nhvt.net.

---

I'd also like to take a moment to add the members who were current as of the final day of operation. They are:

2000-2006 Julie Bradford, Sasha Chait, Ashley T Esclavon, Dan Gonyea, Julie Heath, Kat Hudkins, Jolene Menard, Katrina Taylor

1990-1999 Joseph Abraham, Michael Abraham, Mindy Atwood, Christopher Barrett, Christine Frederick, Jaime W Godin, Matthew Hanson, Craig Heino, Lisa Kelley, Dustin Laro, Michael Murgatroy, Carrie Joaquin-Ocampo, Jennifer Oles, Steven Oles, Jennifer W Peck, Diana Perry, Matthew Simmons, Dan Smith, Pete Stevenson, Kate Sullivan, Megan J Williams

1985-1989 Beth Alstrom, Matt Andrus, Catherine I Ayer, Michele Couitt, Heidi C Currier, Kristi Curtis, Karen C Gates, Rebecca M Goetz, Wendy Lippincott, Dean Miller, Wendy S Sommers, Brette Twardosky, Sandy S Warren, Shelley P Wells

1982-1984 Lynda Lee D Addonizio, Maureen M Brandon, Theresa C Brush, Brenda E Cabral, Kim Cousens, Donnie Duling, Gary Gagnon, Angel G McAllister, Billie L Medoff, Carrie "Bali" Smith, Ellen K Wirta, Michele N Wood

1980- 1981 Michael Ansart, Jim Britton, Wendy Britton, Scott Dickinson, Liz I Hoar, Joseph Internicola, Lee Ann B Maroni, Dale Morrow, Annie C Potash, Kathy B Ross, Andrew Trombley, Mark Wirta

1978-1979 Randy Buswell, Janet G Butler,Cindy M Chaves, Kent Dickinson, Tim Fortier, Carl Gissler, Renee G Lecaroz, Aaron Simpson, Lynne B Thomas, Allison D Touchette, Daniel Trombley, Bob Wagner

1977 Paul Appleby, Marla Binzel, Christopher Ellis, Candy W Fuller, Dennis Hurd, Richard Kelly, Mitch Latva, Joanne N Menard, Marion C Quintas, Sherry Simms, Susan N Stocklan, Joel Thomas, Donna A Timme, Bret Wirta, Cindy B Yeager

1970-1976 William Boyce, Steven Butler, Charlotte S Clay, Robert C Ferguson, April W Freeman, David Fuller, Will Odell, Leslie Powers, Gail H Raymond, Susan Sargent,
Joanne A Stevens,

1940-1969 Bob Buswell, Chester Cheney, Charlie Colcord, Jim Cooke, Jerry Hackett, Patricia P Kosowicz, Linda C Nutting, Arthur Partridge, David Rich, Ellsworth Ruggles, David Tompkins

FACULTY Laura Davis, Anna Duke, Bill Gauthier, Karen Gosselin, Ken Greenbaum, Frank Hammond, Daniel Hudkins, Richard C Leone, Wendy Nolin, Alan Peterson, Patricia Rude.

Thank you all!

Labels: Bret, Joel, New Hampshire, Sunapee

On Monday, I included a Google Earth screen capture of Jay's house in Sri Lanka. If plans go well we should be there in about a month. We've yet to purchase air tickets yet though.

Today, I thought I might include the center of what I shall always consider my home town. Although there's no satellite image from thirty years ago, apparently not much changes in Sunapee, New Hampshire.



I chose this image from an altitude in which you could see Lower and Upper Main Street. A bit of Sunapee Harbor is to the right. (The actual lake is about nine miles long and is surrounded by several other towns.) Both schools are visible. The smaller white roof near the town's name is the elementary school and the larger white image to the left of the image is Sunapee's Jr./Sr. High School. The major roads include Route 11 running off to the left and 103B which heads south in the center of the image.

Labels: Google, New Hampshire, Sunapee

Here's a screenshot of The Virtual Sunapee Reunion.



For many years, I've been keeping track of alumni from my former high school. The VSR site itself has a blog that helps to track changes. Each person can add text and photos to a customized page. Keeping things running also involves sending out monthly newsletters. I do this so that I can determine those participants who abandon an email address without informing me.

I'm surprised by how few people create web-based materials. Most of the world are just consumers I guess. Every once in a while I'm reminded that my combination of skills are, indeed, rare.

It is a bit odd, I manage this site even though Sunapee, New Hampshire is more than 5,000 kilometers from here. It all boils down to the fact we all use the same Internet!

Labels: Internet, New Hampshire, Sunapee

One grandfather died when my mom was a girl. My father's father passed away when I was three or four years old. Yet, I did grow up knowing both grandmothers.

My maternal grandmother, whom we called Nana, worked as a telephone operator for years. She was affected by the technological development of Ma Bell. First, she worked locally. Then, she had to travel to the next town for work. Finally, over her time with the one-time monopoly, she ended up commuting quite a distance from Sunapee, New Hampshire. These changes occurred because of the development and regional addition of call-switching equipment.

This photo and small article were part of an in-house publication at a time close to her retirement. She was working in Claremont, New Hampshire in 1969. As well as Nana and a very scary Santa, I am in the photo with my sister, a cousin, and a neighbour girl. You may click the image to load a very hefty PDF copy of it.

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

If you've ever followed this blog before, you know that it does not contain news. I don't comment on news either. I think people who have nothing better than rehash current events, should get out of the house and do something.

This might lead you to believe that the blog is simply a diary of day's events. Well, that wouldn't be quite right either.

The entries in my eJournal and images contain my ideas and very often my past. It's nice to have experience enough to share. Honestly, some personal blogs run towards the 'what I had for dinner and what I think of my boss' variety. Good for them! We all must learn to accept what we see in the mirror. Their lives aren't boring to them, I'm sure.

For me, this space is definitely vanity press. After all, I have lots of things to recount. In keeping with that thought, I had a few extra minutes yesterday. I'm not working again until the mid-fall courses start up at the end of October.

As I've been rattling on about images all week, now's not the time to change. I was searching the photo suitcase for something to scan and feed to flickr. It may someday contain a complete database of my personal images. It's really an intriguing concept. Some year I will command, "Network, find me an image of us in front of Buckingham Palace during the September we travelled to London." Will it be able to locate a photograoh from 2005?

I came across a black and white photo in very poor condition. It had no dates but the words: George, Dennis, and Bill were written along the front, lower edge. I suddenly remembered about FRESH AIR KIDS. I was, of course, only about four years old in the photo, and didn't know much about the program except for George. Thankfully, in this day and age, a Net search can provide a background to most topics. I located information on The Fresh Air Fund. I wonder where George is now.

Labels: Flickr, New Hampshire, Sunapee

Mr. Ken Greenbaum, went to Sunapee, NH with a freshly minted teaching degree. At a mere 22 years old, he ended up teaching 5th grade. I was a student in his 5th grade class in 1969/70. Now the 11 years between our ages are't nearly as much . . . at least as a percentage. (If that's not mathematically correct, then blame him for my weak skills.)



I met Ken and his wife in Vancouver yesterday. They had come to town a few nights early. At 5:00 pm they departed on a Princess cruise ship bound for Alaska. Although they had seen much of the city because of a whirlwind tour on Sunday, we walked to Gastown. I'd like to thank the Greenbaums for picking up the cheque for lunch at 'The Spaghetti Factory'. The next time they're in town, it'll be my treat.

Labels: Alaska, New Hampshire, Sunapee

This is a scanned black and white shot taken with one of my first cameras. This was Mt. Sunapee in the very early 1970's. The view was from my bedroom window at the time. After living here for so long, all mountains back east look much smaller than I remember!

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

Last month, I mentioned that a former teacher of mine would be passing through Vancouver in August. I do hope to run into Ken and his wife before they jump on their cruise to Alaska.

Mr. Ken Greenbaum was my fifth grade teacher in Sunapee, NH. That was back when I was smart and he a new teacher. I must have seen him a few times since 1970, but I do know that it has, quite literally, been decades.

This made me wonder who'll be more surprised by our future encounter. We have both undoubtedly changed a lot. So, I ran to that box that my dad shipped to me last week and found this school photo taken in Grade 5. This is what Dennis, as a cub scout, looked like in 1970.

Ken will not find anyone who looks much like this nowadays!

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

Last week, I had a message from Bret commenting on Star Wars Episode III. He recalled watching the original with a gang at the Claremont Drive-In Theater during the summer of 1977. We were newly minted high school graduates and were amazed by the authentic looking star ships. Additionally, I remember it as the first movie (and illegal copy) I ever saw on color, video tape back at Indian Cave Lodge in Sunapee, NH. --- Long live Betamax!

Jay and I must've been the only ones in the known universe who'd not been sucked into all the hype for the final installment. My advice, to those who camped out in order be among the first to get a ticket, would be they should've chilled out. It was a rainy Wednesday, and there were only nine other people in Cinema 13 of 16 in Coquitlam. Famous Players is not even breaking even for electricity in the state-of-the-art, stadium seating venue with such a meager crowd. Maybe if they reduced prices, more people would arrive and they'd actually make more money. Okay, that's fodder for another blog entry someday.

I was quite impressed with the movie. Critics had painted it as dark but I had no complaints. It was especially gratifying seeing it end with a scene nearly the same as one which had started it all back in 1977. The circle of six is complete and I thought things wrapped up well. Nothing in the movie prevented me from believing it couldn't have happened before the first, although movie technology has improved and 28 years have passed.

The only problem occurs when you jump back out to reality. The actress, Natalie Portman, who played Luke Skywalker's mother was born four years AFTER the first film was released. Time travel, a traditional theme of sci-fi, did not even feature in this series, did it?

Labels: Bret, movies, Sunapee

Now I know the reason that I looked fit in yesterday's photo with my grandmother. Apparently as a teenager, I exercised! I lived about three miles from town. For the years before a 100cc Kawasaki, peddling was a major way of getting to school, Sunapee Harbor, or to friends'. I could've ridden the school bus but that was just too uncool.

As I took a photo, I obviously liked this bicycle a lot. Prior to my 'ten-speed' I can remember that my folks had bought a black, 3-speed Raleigh for me. This white bike was much better because it didn't have coaster brakes. A chain guard might have been useful in the days of bell-bottoms though.


This image must have a date approximately the same as the past two.
I am guessing around 1972. This was also scanned from a slide.

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

It started the summer after high school graduation. The Soo-Nipi Shoppe at Sunapee Harbor, NH was created for tourists. We provided space in, what is again called, The Anchorage. To fill a small room, we collected handicrafts from locals and sold on a commission basis. During that first year, we oversaw a few pinball machines and a jukebox in an adjoining room. In subsequent years, the whole business morphed into The Harbor Gameroom.

Labels: Bret, Joel, New Hampshire, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

As a youth, I lived in a small town with a year-round population of 2000. To be more accurate, I lived nearly three miles from downtown Sunapee in a suburb called Wendell, NH. So in reality, I grew up near several hundred people. The amazing thing about that area is how similar it looks today. Not a lot has changed in the past forty years. Thomas Wolfe was probably right. Maybe I can't go home again, but it's nice to know if I did that it'd still look the same.

We've now lived in British Columbia coming up on nine years. That's the longest I've stayed in one place since becoming an adult. New Westminster is relatively small, as far as municipalities go, with a population of around 55,000. Yet, it is in the middle of the urban Vancouver landscape.

Here, things don't stay static for long. The photograph above was taken in the rain yesterday. The front building shows where we rented upon arrival from Dubai. We stayed on Agnes Street for two years. Now, across the street, the entire slope is being readied for the construction of new highrises.

Labels: New Hampshire, New Westminster, Sunapee

There are all sorts of tricks that can help to drive guests to a blog. Some I avoid. Yet, I find that Google and MSN Search keep pretty accurate tabs on my site. This accounts for many strangers who visit.

And I discovered, quite by accident, another way to increase traffic. Last week, I blogged a list of ex-colleagues and . . . voila . . . a fair number showed up because they had googled themselves!

So, here is another list. These are people who graduated with me from high school in Sunapee, New Hampshire. It's true; there aren't many names because my town was very small. This little list is the whole kit and kaboodle. I copied all names from a reunion planning document mentioned in last Saturday's eJournal entry.

Ann Spear Pillsbury, Bernice Ross, Bret Wirta, Candy Winn Fuller, Carol Abbott, Catherine Harold, Christopher Ellis, Cindy Beal, Cindy Nichols Walker, Crystal Gareau, Dennis Hurd, Donna Ashford Timme, Fred Gallup, Gifford Swanson, Joanne Nutting Menard, Joel Thomas, Kathy Touchette Balch, Kim Seale Chartier, Kris Englestad Kayser, Laura Carroll, Lori Collins Preston, Marion Collins Quintas, Marla Binzel, Marty Wiggins, Mitchell Latva, Paul Appleby, Richard Kelly, Ricky Morse, Sandy Hale Bailey, Sharlene Doxter, Sherry Simms, Stephen Buswell, Susan Nielsen Stocklan.

Labels: Bret, Google, Joel, lists, New Hampshire, Sunapee

The breadth of the Internet continues to rapidly expand as historical text and photos are added to online collections.

Places from my pre-Net past seem to be slowly coming online. This morning, I was thinking about the town of my childhood. It's a place I've not visited since the summer of 2002 when I returned for my 25th high school reunion. Yet, I can still remember marching in the town's bicentennial parade as a Cub Scout. The east coast of North America has twice as much recorded history as life out west.

I was trying to locate specific information dealing with the history of Sunapee, New Hampshire. The town boasts a lake which was a tourist destination from the late 1800's. Well-heeled New Yorkers and Bostonians used to come up by train and then shuttle around the 9-mile lake in steamships. The era extended well into the 1930's until the Great Depression hastened the end of the big hotels.

The accompanying top photo was from a postcard of the Ben Mere. This property is in the premier location perfectly aligned for a view of Sunapee Harbor. Today, as you can see, the land has green grass, a bandstand, and parking lots.

I am trying to find out when the old, Ben Mere was torn down. Additionally, I'd be interested in learning any details about it. This blog gets quite a lot of traffic from Internet searches, so I'm hoping that someone will write to me about this topic. I think it is important to have some of this data online as well as in the Abbott Library!

Labels: Internet, New Hampshire, Sunapee, train

I didn't know it'd take much time to get my web materials ready. Being away from a computer for several months will make the upcoming trip more of a vacation. However in preparation, I've had to make notices and change file locations. (Darn, as my home PC will be turned off for the first time ever, I cannot leave web materials running from here!)

As an example, I needed to write a notice at the Virtual Sunapee Reunion, a site which I've been running for more years than I care to count!

<--- Click Here

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

Even from a distance, the web allows people to connect and keep up. I started and have run an email directory for many years now .. from 5000 kilometers away from the town mentioned in yesterday's entry.

Click here ----> The Virtual Sunapee Reunion.

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

I grew up in New Hampshire in the small town of Sunapee.

The little state is one of the original 13 colonies yet produced only one U.S. president. However since 1920, due to the first-in-the-nation primaries, lots of potential presidents have run around the state in an attempt to the enter the Oval Office.

The town of Sunapee, as I learnt as a tot, roughly meant, the lake where geese visit. This was in the Algonquin Indian tongue, but in the Internet age, you're most likly read about Sunapee as the location where Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of the rock band, Aerosmith met. Yes, they did play at my high school once but I was too young to attend.

I accidently googled my way to a link which includes a fan's many pictures in a virtual tour of the area. Click the picture below to visit page one [THE LINK HAS BEEN ABANDONED:

Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee

You know there are deals just too good to pass by. Sears advertised an extra ten bucks off pairs of in-line skates and I just couldn't help but to spend a little to save some.

How hard could skating be? I am Canadian now, so be it on ice or pavement, I should have acquired the skill by osmosis, right?

The weather today is excellent. It seems as though there's a high-pressure area over us that reminds the weather prognosticators of a summer pattern. It is also Good Friday and therefore a vacation day for most workers. What a great day to walk to the New Westminster Quay and strap on the new devices.

As strange as it may seem, I never really spent time on ice skates as a New Hampshire kid. I do remember that one of the town road ploughs used to get out on Sunapee Harbor on years of sufficient ice. It’d dig down and create a rink. I wonder if that still happens. I am sure I spent a few days skating with school kids at rinks in Kuwait and the UAE; not necesarily the first places one would consider taking up ice skating.

Regardless, the process today surely wasn't like riding a bicycle. In order to move well one has to be on a smooth hard surface. The problem with that is when one falls, it also occurs on a smooth hard surface!

My ankles hurt. I only fell down once but there was enough of an audience at the busy Quay today. Practice will make perfect so I have to promise not to let 'em sit in the closet.

.
For some reason I just had to include this
song by Melanie. I guess this goes to show
my age as I thought of this song before
Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi.

Labels: New Westminster, Quay, Sunapee

A person could read any blog from the beginning. However, if there happens to be any logical development in the topic, then it occurs in reverse chronological order. For example, here's a recap of the last few days:

Last Friday, I mentioned that I had brought my camera to BCIT.

So, on Saturday, I showed a picture taken in the computer lab.

On Sunday, that led me to consider the music at the beginning of the PC era.

Yesterday, I spent some time discussing the movie, TRON, from that time period.

Now here's the current connection: The movie, TRON, contained arcade games as an important aspect of the plot. This has led me look around for a picture of the gang who brought Pacman to the Harbor at Sunapee, New Hampshire. Look at the friends in the picture who began The Harbor Gameroom. Thanks to Bret Wirta's endless business acumen, Joel Thomas's engineering aptitude, and the good fortune of the arcade boom, we created a summer business during my college years.

Although the building no longer exists, our business is kept alive in memory. Our large roof sign now sits in the Sunapee Historical Society.


"Come Play With Me .... at the Harbor Gameroom". That's what
the t-shirts used to say and it was accurate for the hundreds of local
and visiting patrons. I'm in the back. In the first row, Joel Thomas
is on the left. Bret Wirta appears in the middle and his brother, Mark
Wirta is on the right.

Labels: Bret, camera, games, Joel, New Hampshire, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom

Last night, I sent out the regular monthly newsletters. They are related to the alumni from my high school and the site that I created and maintain. The names on the email reminded me of last summer when I returned to Sunapee, NH and attended our 25th reunion. Thankfully, the Internet had provided a means for getting hold of many of the former classmates.


Hey, Lori would NEVER make rabbit ears in a photo, right?

Labels: Internet, New Hampshire, Sunapee

I got a message from Michael Ansart the other day about the death of singer/songwriter Warren Zevon. You see during my college days, a group of three ran an arcade in our small town in New Hampshire. The Harbor Gameroom was a hangout for not only summer visitors but also for the local youth in our tourist town of Sunapee. In that arcade there was a jukebox that burned the favorite tunes of those times into our brains. During the summer of 1978 one of those songs was Zevon’s Werewolves of London.

Here’s a recent email exchange:

Michael Ansart: For some reason as soon as I heard the news, I felt the pain from old bruises sustained in a cardboard "pizza disk” fight at the gameroom.

Dennis Hurd: Thanks for the news. Okay, Bret ... what was the number on the jukebox?

Bret Wirta: All this ol' brain remembers is N4. Was that Main Street? Love is Like Oxygen?

Mark Wirta: Why couldn't it have been the Heart sisters instead. Would have given me some measure of satisfaction for having to listen to Barracuda every time that Bungay kid had an extra quarter.

Dennis Hurd: You mean the jukebox used quarters? I remember just opening a little door, reaching inside, and hitting ...

Michael Ansart: Years ago I saw Warren Zevon in a small club, I went in just liking his music, but came away with a bit of admiration for the man. He was three songs into his first set, when this loud group of approx. 8 entered the club and made a big deal with the club staff. Essentially demanding that they set a table up for them near the front of the stage. The club staff, trying to avoid a scene complied. Between songs, the loud and most obnoxious of the 8 repeatedly tried to talk with Zevon. Right in the middle of one song, Zevon simply stopped playing and turned to the audience and said, “Did you ever notice how the f#$*ing a*^holes who are up front at a show, are the ones who care least about the music?” Then he announced to a semi-stunned crowd, “I’m not going to continue until this table is empty” Then to wild applause the club staff escorted the table of 8 to the door. Ever since that night, I always enjoyed listening to Zevon a little more.

Labels: Bret, games, music, New Hampshire, Sunapee, The Harbor Gameroom