“Remoted - Hybrid” – Day 550 (Friday)

It was the United Way North Central Mass “Day of Caring” and it was pretty cool. I was barely under the tent to check in at the welcome breakfast when I saw two fellow bankers working at one of the tables. While checking in, I saw another friend who was helping with the breakfast. It felt great to walk into a crowd and see three people I knew immediately. That hardly ever happens. 

At the coffee station, a very nice and handsome man around my age poured my coffee for me and if I was any good at it, I might have thought to maybe flirt or at the very least start a proper conversation, but that thought didn't hit me about a half hour later and all I said at the time was “thank you.” No wonder I am tragically, perpetually single.

In the parking lot at Fitchburg Historical Society, a small group of other volunteers was waiting for the doors to be opened. One of the volunteers and I had the “you look familiar, I think I know you” moment and we realized we had been schoolmates. That was the cherry on top of the morning.

Teamwork  and archival tissue
got the textiles boxed.

In a room containing several rows of bookcases with City Directories, yearbooks, and all manner of bound books, Debra and I worked together to organize textiles in the collection, carefully layering items between archival tissue paper. There was an amazing lace dress from Paris with a tag dated 1917. There were table linens and doilies and various items from the estate of Eleanor Norcross, founder of the Fitchburg Art Museum. 

After boxing the textiles, we went through photos and memorabilia and slid loose photos into archival photo sleeves and protector sheets and set them into a box. It was interesting to see some of the things people donate. Some were “wow” and others were closer to “huh?” The weird fabric scraps and small roll of dress trim could have come out of the waste basket under my own sewing desk. There was visible progress to our work, which I always like.

Goody bag!

There was conversation and learning, which I always like. I knew Mummu’s apartment building on Rollstone was near “the Mason house,” a historic house, and today I heard a lot of fascinating info about Charles Mason. There were stories about the Fitchburg connections to Calvin Coolidge and a time capsule in the Upper Common.

There is even a Fitchburg connection to a president of Finland. Oskari Tokoi was Prime Minister of Finland in 1917, and came to Fitchburg in 1921. He became the editor of the Finnish language newspaper Raivaaja in 1922, and during the Winter War of 1939–1940, he was an active public voice for the cause of Finland. In 1970, Finland’s President Urho Kekkonen laid a wreath at the Oskari Tokoi’s grave in Fitchburg. Wow. I had no idea about this before today, but it’s fascinating. At the end of the shift, there was a goody bag. 

After that, there was a drive to the office-office and a meeting scheduled for 3:30. Who sets a product demo for 3:30 on a Friday? Seriously. The only product for which this would be acceptable scheduling would be food and beverage. Of course, nobody asked me. Worse, it ran a half hour over the scheduled time. I don't know which side of the transaction drove the schedule (us or the vendor), but this is exactly how to sour me on a product in one easy step. I've already forgotten almost every single thing covered in the demo.