Duck, Duck

Thousands of yellow ducks, an estimated 7,000, went for a swim in the Nashua River this past weekend. 

No, these were not bathtub escapees. 

The Ducktober Derby was a planned swim event. The 3rd annual fundraiser event sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nashua West. For the past few months, members have been selling rubber duck sponsorships at $5 for a single rubber duck with discounts for multiple buys of a six-quack (6), quackers dozen (12), and flock (25).

Right on schedule at 2 pm on Saturday, the duck flotilla was released dumped into the Nashua River below our mill apt. Crowds gathered on the Main Street bridge and along the riverbank to cheer on the race entrants which silently floated to the race end, a barrier near the bridge. We noticed there were fewer onlookers than in previous years, a pandemic side effect.

Duck wranglers in kayaks rounded up the first 3 ducks that floated to the finish line and netted sponsors cash prizes of $2,500, $1,000 and $500. Our ducks were not winners (again this year). Monies raised from the duck derby will go to support local non-profit organizations.

Despite so many cancelled events this year, this one was a short, fun one enjoyed outdoors. All ducks were safely retrieved with no reported injuries.

Friday Funnies

Scarecrows are everyone this month, especially here in New England.

Yesterday's post included info about The Silent People, a very large group of scarecrows that stand in a field off a highway outside of Suomussalmi, Finland. These are not some of them. 

We won't be traveling abroad any time soon (like many others) and spotted this much smaller crowd of scarecrows at the Brookdale Fruit/Farm market in Hollis, NH. 

This is the season for scarecrows, pumpkins and hay bales. This farm stand had everything in season, including a giant hay bale figure with pumpkin eyes, acorn squash nose and a corn cob smile, who "posed" for a photo with Grenville.

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

There's a Duck Derby & virtual ArtWalk in Nashua, NH

Safest Crop in Chester

It's the time of year once again when scarecrows and pumpkin people increase the population of  many New England towns—Some more so than others.

Driving through the town of Chester, NH, is a leisurely drive most days, but since 2010 it's become a fall destination for many people, and this year, ourselves included. 

In a year of social distancing, this is an event which can be done from driving along Routes 102 and 121, but on busy weekends it's harder to slow down to see all these seasonal scarecrows that are anything but “standard.”

Chester is considered one of the oldest towns in NH. Every October, its population is temporarily increased by up to 1,000 seasonal residents. This quintessential New England village features many stately 18th and 19th century residences. Railroads bypassed the town later in the 19th century, and the lack of new development helped preserve the town’s appearance.

Town residents definitely have a sense of humor and a lot of whimsical creativity as hundreds of scarecrows can be seen throughout the town. Estimates place the current number at close to 1,000 as 100 new kits are sold each year since the project started a decade ago.

The Chester Historical Society (CHS) started the now traditional displays as a fundraiser, selling 60 scarecrows the first year. The project was the brainchild of  member Jackie Brown. Residents purchased the kits and created the very personalized scarecrows. Since then, the scarecrows have become a town tradition.

Each kit includes a painted burlap face and sticks to help the figure stand. No two faces are alike. Only 100 kits are made each year, but the scarecrow population keeps growing as residents add to their collections.

The CHS announces when the scarecrow bodies go on sale, usually the second Saturday in September. No advance orders can be placed and they sell out fast, usually before the end of the month. A purchase/donation is for a painted burlap head and wooden body frame.

Scarecrows are made by CHS members who create the kits at a “Scarecrow Sweatshop,” Some members cut out the scarecrow heads from burlap material, others paint faces, sew heads and then iron them. Jackie's husband, Don Brown, president of the historical society, creates the wooden body structures. The couple is also represented by scarecrows ↓.

Many figures take up seasonal residence along Routes 102 and 121, and many are congregated where three properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places — Chester Village Cemetery, Chester Congregational and Baptist Church, and Stevens Memorial Hall — converge. (The National Register of Historic Places is the U.S. federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for historical significance.) According to an online site, Chester may be the only NH town with listed properties occupying three of four intersecting corners. We were able to park, then safely walk to view a collection of scarecrows in this area, including some of the ones below.

Many residents spend much of the year planning the elaborate creations, each with its own story to tell. It's been reported that many people know what they’re going to do next year, even before the kits are available. Each year, residents change their scarecrow creation, with the exception of the historical figures and town heroes which they are encouraged to retain each year.

No two are alike, all are all responsible for slowing traffic and turning heads. Many figures represent historical and literary personages: George Washington stands guard over a cemetery where Revolutionary War soldiers are buried; Edgar Allen Poe stands with a copy of The Raven by the Chester Village Cemetery with a raven perched on his shoulder. Ben Franklin flies a kite.

Others are simply whimsical. The seasonal residents span decades and represent everything from pop-culture icons, to popular tv shows, classic movies, funny puns, and even horror. The front yard of one residence featured Marilyn Monroe, Little Orphan Annie, and Alfred Einstein

Not only have the scarecrows grown in number and creativity over 10 years, so have the number of Scarecrow Peepers who show up every October as well. It has put Chester, NH, on many fall road trip destinations. One year, the town was featured in an AAA story which drew visitors from many non-New England states.

Sometimes, you can go to a town’s online site and read about residents griping about one thing or another, not so in Chester, NH, in October where the town talk is usually about one thing — scarecrows. It’s happy and people are positive — that’s a very good thing these days.

Scarecrows stay up the entire month of October and go into hibernation after Halloween. By no means did we even come close to seeing all the scarecrows throughout the town’s 26 miles of roadway. We plan to start earlier next year.

 

The concept of scarecrow people isn't new. Many projects can be found throughout the U.S. and abroad too; it's also the name of a reggae band. For aficionados willing to travel (when they can), there’s a very unique scarecrow site along Highway 5 outside of Suomussalmi, Finland, where over 1,000 scarecrow-like figures, The Silent People (Hiljainen kansa) stand in a field. Created by artist Reijo Kela in 1988 these simple wooden bodies are made of bog-like material and straw hair and wear colorful clothing which is changed twice a year. 

The artist has never explained his purpose preferring that viewers come up with their own interpretations. A popular theory is that they represent those lost during a battle that took place during the Winter War of 1939-1940 between Finland and Soviet Russia.

Internet source

Motorists term the sight amusing or scary. The figures are constructed of peat heads covered in straw hair. The cross-shaped wooden bodies are draped with colorful clothing that is collected through donation and changed by the Suomussalmi Youth Workshop which maintains the installation.

 

For now, we plan to continue viewing local scarecrow installations. The downtown scarecrows are back along Main St, Nashua, NH, and will be featured in a future post.

A Castle in NH Woods?

(Very) former front entry of Castle Sherri

Many people regard their home as a castle, don't they?

And, while the chances of finding the remains of a "castle" in a wooded area in the Southwest corner of NH seems improbable, it's not impossible.

Exactly what we thought so after reading stories and seeing online photos, we set on a 90-minute day trip to an off the main road forest in West Chesterfield, NH, to locate what Madame Antoinette Sherri called her house, Castle Sherri — we succeeded in our quest.

Castle Sherri circa 1930s

As you can readily see, this wooded forest retreat, shown as it originally existed above, wasn't really a castle, but an elegantly proportioned house built by an eccentric NYC costume designer who is said to have entertained with lavish parties in the 1930s. It's most notable feature was (and still is) the stone spiral staircase which ascended to the second floor. This architectural detail remains a lone reminder of the house’s former glory days.

Finding this place was quite an adventure. We wondered how years ago guests ever made the  off-road trek into the forest. Our highway drive was followed by a turn-off then drive on gravel and dirt roads and we passed the forest entry at least once (maybe twice) then saw a sign for “Mme. Sherri Forest” in a small parking area. 

An information kiosk at the end of the parking area, before the start of the trail provided a wealth of information and photos. Many of these photos were from the Chesterfield, NH Historical Society and available on line. They have been included in this post for purposes of telling the very intriguing and interesting story of the who, what, where and when of this place.

After checking out the very informative information kiosk, we crossed a wooden footbridge then headed in the direction of the Madame Sherri Forest. Many years ago, this bridge was most made of stone as evidenced by the remains of a wall and stone posts. After a short walk in the woods, we saw the ruins, which can't be missed.

What's astounding is to see this massive, arched stone stairway that curves upward and ends in mid-air. These remains of what was a grand spiral staircase that ascended to the second floor was the most notable feature of a house designed by its owner, Madame Antoinette Sherri, for comfort and entertainment. Now, it's a deteriorating reminder of the former glory of this place.

Nearly 50 years after Madame Sherri's death, the legend remains. Whether or not the tales of her wild late-night forest parties are true is uncertain, as there's no one alive to verify the tales. Yet, they've provided great story fodder for many years that continues even now.

Who was the Mysterious Madame Antoinette Sherri?

Antonia De Lilas

Madame Sherri was born Antoinette Bramare in 1878 in Paris, and trained as a seamstress. Later she assumed the name of Antonia De Lilas changing her career to become a popular music hall performer. She sang and danced in some of the most well-known clubs in France.

Andre Riela & Madame Antoinette Sherri

In 1909, she met a man calling himself Andre Riela, an American-born conman named Anthony Macaluso, who had fled to Europe to dodge an extortion charge. He found work as an actor and dancer in Paris. They married in Puerto Rico returning to NYC in 1911. Macaluso was a fugitive, so an elaborate ruse was devised that he was the son of a prominent Italian diplomat. The ruse worked, they were accepted into NY society and Macaluso resumed dancing under the name Andre Riela. Antoinette opened a millinery shop on 42nd Street and designed costumes for Broadway productions and theatrical revues.

Madame Sherri and Ziegfeld costume designs

By 1916, Antoinette wanted a new name to promote the business, selecting, House of Sherri after Madame Sherry, a French vaudeville act staged in NYC as a musical show. She and Andre became known as Mr. and Madame Sherri (the names Riela and DeLilas no longer used). The House of Sherri became known for elaborate and ornate costume designs for NYC productions, notably the Ziegfeld Follies. This was during Prohibition when people were going to shows, not bars. In the next eight years, the couple became very successful.

Charles LeMaire

During one of their biggest hits, Frivolities of 1920, Antoinette began what was to become a long-term connection with Charles LeMaire, a Chicago vaudeville pianist and actor who wanted a career in costume design. 

LeMaire moved to NYC in 1921 became Antoinette's protege and soon was working with Flo Ziegfeld. By 1925, his success took him to Hollywood where he was employed first by 20th Century Fox. LeMaire was later credited with convincing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create an Oscar for costume design. In a 37-year career and over 300 films, he earned 3 Academy Awards and 13 nominations. LeMaire later became Antoinette's financial benefactor. (She claimed that she had adopted LeMaire, which was untrue.) Yet, there’s no doubt that LeMaire's early NYC career with Antoinette led to his future Hollywood success.

Andre & Sherri in Puerto Rico after their marriage

In 1924, Andre went blind, then insane and died 3 years later at the age of 27. He was at least a decade or more younger than his wife and his early death devastated Antoinette. She designed costumes for a few years, sometimes with LeMaire before closing her NYC shop in 1930. Later, she spent summers visiting stage friend Jack Henderson and regularly attended his extravagant parties held in Chesterfield, NH, before deciding to leave NYC and permanently relocate to NH.

Castle Sherri as it once stood in West Chesterfield, NH

In 1929, she became a NH resident and by 1930 had purchased 600 acres of West Chesterfield farmland and forest on Gulf Road. By 1931, with LeMaire providing the finances, Sherri started building. She brought in stonecutters from neighboring MA and without blueprints or plans designed the house by walking the lot and putting down stakes. Local contractors reportedly found her hard to work with claiming she would hover and constantly change her mind, but the one-of-a-kind house was eventually completed.

Front entry steps then and now

The uniquely styled and named Castle Sherri resembled a French chateau of NH stone with a chalet roof and a Roman ruin with arches. Vintage photos show that the two and a half story house had a pitched roof, stone on the bottom, clapboard on the top floor and a top floor, surrounded by a wrap-around deck. The main floor had a large bar area between 2 trees that grew through the roof. Portraits adorned the walls. Furnishings included Persian rugs, a polar bear rug, Buddhas, player piano, Italian pottery and brocaded tapestries. Two upstairs bedrooms had mirror-lined bathrooms. The third floor was Sherri’s private quarters accessible only by the stone staircase running alongside the building. The cellar was a bistro/dining grotto with six tables covered with red tablecloths.

The stone arched stairway alongside Castle Sherri

The exterior staircase was hewn from ledge rock with stone flower boxes that once held red and white flowers with three rounded arches facing the front of the house. The main stairs were cut into the rock ledge and led to a massive red front door. 

The theatrically staged house was only used for entertaining; it wasn't her residence. She lived in a small run-down farmhouse elsewhere on the property. Well-dressed NYC male and female socialites and show business friends were reported to attend these summer events. Madame Sherri reigned and held court on The Queen’s Throne, a carved cobra-backed chair. She chain-smoked Fatima-brand cigarettes and proudly boasted of using a single match to light only the first one. She was known for making a grand entrances garbed in sequined gowns with a feather-plumed headdress or makeshift turban. Her costumes included strands of pearls and jewelry, most of which was stage paste.

1927 Packard of Madame Sherri

Madame Sherri's lifestyle became the talk of the area, most of which as farmland back then. According to online stories, she delighted in shocking merchants. Local lore is that she wore a large fur coat, with nothing else on and paid for everything in cash, pulled either from a garter belt strapped to her thigh or her cleavage. After buying a 1927 cream-colored Packard, she had its wheels painted bright red, hiring uniformed young men to chauffeur her around. She said that the car was built on commission for the Prince of Wales. (This wasn't true as the car had been purchased for $3,500 directly from Packard Motors.) 

Madame Sherri’s decline began shortly after WWII ended when LeMaire stopped sending funds that had subsidized her wild lifestyle for so long. Trying to remain afloat, she came up with many schemes, including turning the castle into a nightclub and selling mineral rights to the property. 

None of these worked out and by the late 1940s, Madame Sherri was indigent, relying on neighbors for food, firewood and transport. The Packard sat idle on her property. She spent time in VT before returning to NH in the spring of 1959 to find that the house had been burglarized and trashed and the front door ripped off. Madame Sherri fled from the house and never returned, moving into a nursing home in Brattleboro, VT. 

Three years later, disaster struck Castle Sherri again in late October 1962, when a fire ravaged it reducing it to the stone foundation visible now with collapses since then. In July 1963, Charles LeMaire foreclosed on the property. It later sold to local resident Ann Stokes who finalized a sheriff's sale purchase in October 1965, on the same day Madame Sherri died at age 87. For years, Stokes kept the legend of Castle Sherri and Madame Sherri alive by promoting concerts, performances and parties within the house ruins. In 1992, Stokes donated 488 acres of Madame Sherri Forest to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests which protects it today. There are numrous walking trails and no admission fee to hike or visit the ruins. 

Remains of Castle Sherri now

While the arches remain a favorite destination, the years and New England weather have taken their toll. As seen above, shifting and cracks can be spotted in the arches stone work. There are no handrails or columns on the steps and climbing them is strongly discouraged now. 

Our plans did not include climbing upward. We were just happy to have found and to explore the ruins and amazing staircase. However, I read that for years, visitors would ascend the stairs and claim to have seen the ghost of Madame Sherri. Bebes! who was rumored to exclaim to her arriving guests, Mes cheres! Please enter and enjoy yourselves!

Madame Sherri is buried in meeting House Cemetery, Brattleboro, VT. LeMaire died in 1985 in Palm Springs, CA, at age 86 after enjoying a career that was far more successful than that of his former mentor. The Packard auto sold for $7500 at auction in September 1963. Sherri’s farmhouse residence was later condemned and torn down. 

This was a longish post (as usual) but the subject matter was very interesting. And, if you live in New England or can visit NH some future time, a trip to find Castle Sherri would be well worth some time and effort. Grenville and I agreed the site was one of the more interesting ones we've seen on a day trip. But, it's not the last; this week a friend shared info about another castle site in neighboring MA, and it's on our list for a future day trip.

My apologies to fellow bloggers as I have not kept up with your posts on a daily basis. Some days (more than one), I spend way too much time preparing a post. Also there are other interests which grab my attention span, which is short enough. However, I always try catch up with your recent posts by the weekend. Thanks for your visits and comments on my own posts. All comments are read and are very much appreciated. I know that you have other interests as well.

A Foggy Day . . .

Not in London, this was the view from our apartment in Nashua, NH over the weekend.

A recent series of unusually warm days ended when the overnight temps dipped into the 40s

A Foggy Day (in London Town) is a popular song with music composed by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film, A Damsel in Distress also starring George Burns and Gracie Allen. It was loosely based on the 1919 novel of the same name by P.G. Wodehouse. Astaire recorded the tune for Brunswick Records and later in 1937 his recording reached number 3 on the day's popular song charts. In early 1938, it charted again when Bob Crosby and his orchestra, with songstress Kay Weber, had their version reach number 16. 

The song's full title was in reference to pollution-induced, so-called pea soup fogs that were common in London caused by the burning of coal. The song has become a standard recorded by numerous performers including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday Charley Mingus, Percy Faith, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Michael Bublé, Sarah Vaughn and Shirley Bassey (to name a few).

A foggy day in London Town 

Had me low and had me down 

I viewed the morning with such alarm 

British Museum had lost its charm …

Despite Saturday's foggy start, we enjoyed a great weekend with seasonably cool and sunny daytime highs in the mid-60s and nighttime temps in the high 40s.

And I leave you with this thought, never mind the October Halloween and November Thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S. There's only 80 (shopping) days left till Christmas as many stores have already started reminding everyone. These images were taken a couple of weeks ago.

Orange is In . . .

Happy 🎃ctober, everyone.

Yes, it's the color of the month on this downtown Nashua building and it isn't because orange is a seasonal color. This Main St building looks like it's right "in season," but the reason isn't to be decorative.

Still, it did look like it was all covered up just in time for the fall season and this new month.

The reason is far more serious. This orange mesh covering is protection not just for the building  but also pedestrians below. A couple of weeks ago some of the brick facade fell off onto the sidewalk. There were no reported injuries either to the building's occupants or passers-by. The barriers were put in place first, the mesh followed a few days afterwards. 

The arrow above shows where some of the bricks had come loose and fallen off. As of this week, the covering was still in place and we were wondering if a large pumpkin face will be added, especially since those cones look like candy corn. 

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone.

Going to a couple of free outdoor concerts this weekend

We toured a NH "castle" & post to follow