2008 New Hampshire Primary

The 2008 New Hampshire Primary is history. Inevitably, the chattering classes will deconstruct the results and debate whether New Hampshire should keep its first-in-the-nation status. I'm biased, but I think the answer is Yes. We had a record turn-out of over 500,000 voters. We ignored the pundits and handed comeback victories to McCain and Clinton. We ignored Vermin Supreme. No, that's not my nickname for Mitt Romney. Vermin Supreme was an actual candidate on the Republican ballot.

One of the quieter successes was the way a group of amateur, New Hampshire photographers banded together to document the primary. The New Hampshire group on Flickr attended campaign events throughout the state and posted photos to the NH Primary Project. You can see a slide show of hundreds of these photos at the NH Photo Tour Blog or you can look for photos on Flickr tagged with "nhelection08".

Recently, New Hampshire Public Radio noticed all the activity on Flickr and commissioned some of us to visit the candidates' campaign headquarters on election night. The idea was to document the victory speeches, the concession speeches and the lesser known, uniquely New Hampshire moments, and post photos of all of the above to NHPR's web site.



NHPR dispatched me to McCain headquarters with my (ahem) colleagues from ABC, CBS and Fox News. It was standing-room-only. It was loud and crazy. It was lot's of fun. Considering I was at McCain's very first 2008 campaign appearance in New Hampshire last March, the victory celebration was very special for me. I felt like I had watched the whole story as it unfolded -- in person. I've collected all my campaign pictures in this Campaign 2008 Set. (You don't want to miss the photo of Vermin Supreme.)

In short, I am thrilled with the way Flickr enabled documentation and participation in the primary process. I commend NHPR for tapping into a pool of amateur photographers so they could provide a service to New Hampshire citizens. And I am sure there are lots of other examples of how organizations and individuals are pushing the New Hampshire Primary in new directions. It's not your father's New Hampshire Primary. It's an ever-changing process powered by serious and passionate people. Maybe that's the best reason for keeping it first-in-the-nation.

P.S. NHPR hasn't posted all of the election night photos yet. When they do, I will post a link.
 

White Album

You've probably heard about the record snowfall in southern New Hampshire over the past month. As usual, I've been out taking pictures. Here are just a few of my recent uploads to Flickr.

Mark Twain on Heaven

Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
-- Mark Twain

The beautiful statue above is near a headstone in the Mont Vernon, NH town cemetery. More...
 

Word Problem

Dave never rakes the leaves in his backyard until the day after Thanksgiving. His neighbor Norm's maple tree leans over Dave's backyard. Norm's maple is the last tree in New Hampshire to lose its leaves each Fall. This year an early snow covered the leaves in Dave's backyard. Then Norm's tree dropped its leaves on top of the snow. By Friday this will be a mushy, leafy mess. How many excuses does Dave need to avoid raking this weekend?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Enjoy the long weekend!
 

Tucker Brook Flows Again

Tucker Brook -- in Milford, NH -- was dry for about two months. We've finally had some sustained rain and the falls have come alive again. I shot this photo yesterday morning. It's an eight second exposure.
 

Milford Labor Day Parade

Here are some photos from the annual Milford Labor Day parade. Guess which of these folks are authentic presidential candidates.







There are more pictures on Tabblo too.
 

Make Your Own Caption

I was walking past Castro's Back Room in downtown Nashua this morning when I saw this guy dragging his cigar store indian out to the front of the shop. I snapped this picture as quickly as I could. I think it's a funny image, but it really needs a good caption. Can you think of one?

Waterfalls in the Souhegan Valley

I have lived in New Hampshire's Souhegan Valley for more than twenty years. For most of that time, I was unaware of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. These are not grand, attention seeking, drama-queen-type waterfalls. They are unassuming, yankee-type waterfalls tucked away in town forests and at the edges of farmers' fields. But they are beautiful just the same.

Here is a concise guide to the local waterfalls I've visited. It is a guide I wish I had years ago.

Lower Purgatory Falls



Location: Off Purgatory Road, Milford (map).
Height: Approximately 10 feet.
Directions: See the Purgatory Watershed Conservancy page for directions. There are directions to both the lower falls, pictured above, and the upper falls. The upper falls are nice, but the lower falls are more accessible.

Tucker Brook Falls



Location: Tucker Brook Town Forest, Milford (map).
Height: Approximately 10 feet.
Directions: See the Tucker Brook Town Forest page. The Savage Road entrance is closest to the falls.

Old Reservoir Falls



Location: Off Isaac Frye Highway, Wilton (map).
Height: Approximately 25 feet.
Directions: From Nashua, take Route 101A west to Route 101. Continue west on Route 101 to Isaac Frye Highway in Wilton. Go 1.5 miles north and park where stream runs under the road (this is just before Putnam Road). You can park at the mouth of the dirt road on your right. Walk .25 miles down the dirt road to the falls. The road is private property, but the owner welcomes visitors. Just be quiet, considerate and carry out your own trash.

From the Milford Oval to the Oval Office

If you are a regular listener of NPR's All Things Considered, you'll be hearing about Milford, NH for the next several months. As part of their presidential primary coverage, the show's producers decided to focus on one town in New Hampshire. And they've decided to focus on Milford. As reported in the first segment on March 22:

In many ways, Milford is emblematic of New Hampshire: It traditionally votes Republican, but has many independent voters, or "undeclared voters," as they're called in New Hampshire. Milford voted for George W. Bush in the general election in 2004 and 2000; it went for Bill Clinton in 1996 and for George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Check out the link above for the full story.
 

Spring in New Hampshire

Spring has sprung. I've got the photos and a poem to prove it. The poem is by Robert Frost, once a resident of New Hampshire and, I imagine, often inspired by scenes like these.

See my Tabblo>

How to Make Snow

First, set the outdoor temperature to -38F. Then, boil one pot of water ...

Video courtesy of the Mount Washington Observatory.

There are lots of other Mount Washington videos on YouTube. I think my favorite is Wind Sledding.
 

Sunrise at Odiorne Point

This week was school vacation week in New Hampshire. On Tuesday my son and I drove out to Odiorne Point in Rye to take pictures of the sunrise. To be honest, I'm not a morning person. I don't see many sunrises, but this one was incredible. See for yourself on this tabblo:

See my Tabblo>

Franklin Pierce, 1804 - 1869

"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men."
-- George Eliot

Last week, the U.S. News magazine cover story was The 10 Worst Presidents . The article ranks New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce as America's fourth worst president. This of course is just the latest such poll, but Pierce is a perennial "favorite" on 10 worst lists. President from 1853 to 1857, he was a Northern Democrat with Southern sympathies. He supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which effectively repealed the delicate Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Missouri Compromise had, for thirty years, regulated the expansion of slavery in the western territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act "established that settlers could decide for themselves whether to allow slavery". The results were guerrilla warfare in "Bloody Kansas", an emboldened pro-slavery faction, and eventually, the Civil War.

In a way Franklin Pierce is a symbol of nineteenth century New Hampshire's ambivalence toward slavery. Although there were no slaves in New Hampshire in the early 1800s, by Pierce's time the growing New Hampshire textile industry depended on a steady supply of cheap cotton. Many New Hampshire citizens, indeed much of the North, seemed willing to turn a blind eye to slavery in the South as they reaped the economic benefits from afar. But in 1856, possibly because of the disastrous Kansas-Nebraska Act, New Hampshire voters demonstrated a profound change of heart. Abandoning the Democratic platform, they backed John Fremont of the newly formed Republican party. Fremont was strongly opposed to slavery. Of course, Fremont lost to James Buchanan, but in 1860, New Hampshire voters again backed a Republican, this time a man named Abraham Lincoln.

In his own bumbling manner then, Franklin Pierce achieved the opposite effect he intended. The Missouri Compromise was a devil's bargain that tried to preserve the union at the expensive of protecting slavery. Pierce's support of the Kansas-Nebraska Act tipped the balance in favor of slavery. Without condoning Pierce's policies, we can thank him for speeding up the inevitable: Civil War and Emancipation.

We're All Americans Now

The Granite Town, a history of Milford, NH, includes lots of interesting tidbits of small town life. This one recently caught my eye:

A human interest event that occurred [in 1913] was the death in October of "Jimmy the Reb," whose real name was Edward T. Bartol. Born in Louisiana in 1842, Bartol had served on the Confederate side in the Civil War ... He had lived in Milford for twenty-five years when he died and had no relatives in the South to claim his body. Two local Civil War veterans' organizations, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Sons of Union Veterans made arrangements for his funeral and burial ... The two organizations placed a gravestone to mark the resting place of Milford's only Confederate veteran. A Confederate flag was placed on the grave one year, but there was some objection to this, so eventually an American flag and flowers were placed there each Memorial Day.

I took the picture above this weekend. Apparently, to this day, veterans' groups still place an American flag on Bartol's grave.

Henri Renaud, 1890 - 1957

It's been seasonably cold in New England this week. Daytime temperatures are stuck in the teens and twenties. When the wind picks up, it numbs faces and sends people scurrying for cover. I say it's about time. Although I've enjoyed this mild winter as much as anyone, there's been something missing; a figurative cloud hanging over us. The cold weather this week has set things straight.

Believe it or not, one of the things I've missed is cold weather running. I realize most people don't understand the attraction of running outside in the cold. When I run during the day at work, people question my sanity. I could try to convince you we cold weather runners are an incredibly hardy lot, a cut above the rest, but I'd be lying. After all, most of us depend on layers and layers of high tech clothing to stay warm. Compared with Henri Renaud, we are pampered pretenders.

A hundred years ago, Henri Renaud could be seen running through the streets of Nashua, New Hampshire on cold winter nights. Still in his late teens, Henri was employed as a mill worker by the Nashua Manufacturing Company. Since he had to be at work by 6:30 AM and didn't get home until after 6:00 PM, he had to train at night. After a meager supper, he would hit the streets. I'm guessing he did so in all kinds of weather. I know he didn't have the benefit of the high tech running clothes we have today. People must have thought Renaud was crazy -- until he entered and won the 1909 Boston Marathon.

Although Henri Renaud must have trained through the cold 1909 winter, the weather on race day was a different story. According to the April 20, 1909 edition of the Nashua Telegraph race day was hot:

The temperature rose to 97 degrees, with the sun melting tar in spots. Ninety-one of the one hundred sixty-four entrants did not complete the distance, and nine men who led at various times during the first twenty miles all dropped out. Renaud was in fifty-third place in Framingham, twenty-eighth at the half way mark, and third after twenty-four miles. But, after he passed his last two opponents, he turned on the burners and won by almost four minutes.

In an interview Renaud said:

"When I started I was nearly choked with dust, but when we got going a little, I did not mind it so much. I ran my own race and refused to be coached by anybody, for I knew just what I could do and how fast I could run the distance. Some fellows wanted me to drop out, as they said I was all in when I reached Wellesley, but I am an American for speed, and a Frenchman for gameness, and I guess that will hold them for a while."

Remarkably, the city of Nashua has largely forgotten Henri Renaud today. There is no monument, park or school building with his name on it. He is well known in local running circles, but I think his story, if it were better known, could be an inspiration to everyone in the area. Despite working long hours during the day and unfavorable training conditions, he worked hard at his sport. Despite hot temperatures on race day and doubters on the sidelines, he ran his own race and won the Boston Marathon. Henri Renaud is an unsung local hero. Perhaps he is an American hero.

For more on Henri Renaud, see Allan Rube's Henri Renaud page.