Loyally provincial

Juniper Point (once called Butler’s Point), in Woods Hole. The tower room of the house built by Daniel Webster Butler sticks out through the trees at center right.

— Photo by ToddC4176 

 Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

I had a great-great grandfather named Daniel Webster Butler (1838-1907) who, after making quite a bit of money as a manufacturer in Boston from about 1860 to 1880, retired to his native Falmouth, Mass., and built a big house (which is still there) in its village of Woods Hole. He filled it with nice stuff. A cousin of my father asked Mr. Butler’s daughter Virginia: “Did Grampa Dan {as he was called in the family} travel all over the Orient to get all these beautiful objects and furnishings?’’

“Heavens no,’’ she answered. “He would never leave Woods Hole.’’

(But he might have enjoyed traveling by the World Wide Web, whose founder, Timothy Berners Lee, was married for a while to a Butler descendant.)

Dan Butler (left) with friend at the Pickwick Club

Dan Butler was also well known in the village for membership in the “exclusive’’  Pickwick Club that as far as can be determined, had no more than three members and met in an old fishing shack.

Steel BBs

 How to Lose an Eye

BB guns are not toys. Getting hit by a BB  in the eyes can permanently blind you. Consider that as you follow this  maddening Providence police story, whose latest iteration can be seen in GoLocalProv.com.

 I remember the stupid BB gun fights in the woods of my hometown by 12-year-old boys in the ‘50s. I assume that their parents actually bought them!

Weekend Training

The MBTA is maintaining surprisingly good Providence-Boston weekend train service despite COVID. Use it when you can, say to go to games, shows or plays. I do. Car traffic is intensifying again.