By Robert Chiarito

One of the wonderful things that separates New England from many other regions of the country is the clear delineation of the seasons. There are benchmarks that put a period, and at times an exclamation point, at the end of each time of year that are so telling that they leave no doubt as to what has just passed and what is next to come.

Easter means spring is here while Columbus Day tells us that fall is dwindling down into its winter hibernation. Summer announces its arrival gracefully with Memorial Day and bows out with a bang on Labor Day as we all try to squeeze in one more day on the beach or weekend on Cape Cod.

In Marion the end of summer is marked by a townwide Block Party, thrown each year by members of the Benjamin D. Cushing Post VFW 2425. The annual event has a long history in the town of Marion. Town elder Joe Zora Sr. said, "This thing goes back a long ways. I am 83 years old and this was a tradition before my time." Mr. Zora added, "It stopped for a while but about 20 years ago I went back through the history of the town and a bunch of us thought that this would be a good thing for the kids before they went back to school. So, we started this again and it has been a happening every year ever since."

This year found many of the members of the VFW Post wondering how much longer they would be able to sustain the event with many of its members now well into their 80s. In a show of support and appreciation for what the members of the Post have done for so long, a new generation of volunteers stepped up to the challenge of throwing the party and honoring this time-tested tradition.

This year the task of Chairman fell upon Steve Gonsalves. Mr. Gonsalves did himself and the members of the Post proud by creating a festival-type atmosphere that was inviting to people of all ages. "We brought in the plants to make the everything more festive," Mr. Gonsalves said, pointing to the dance area before adding, "It's nice, they soften the DJ stand and give the seating area a nice ambience. We also added the benches along the street so people could sit closer to the dancing. It all turned out very nice. This is a great group of people here and we wanted to be sure that everyone had a good time tonight."

By any measure it would seem that everyone who attended had a great time. A feast was served throughout the evening as a terrific array of food was offered including a variety of seafood and chowder, burgers and hot dogs along with gazpacho soup and other fine dishes. Many of the children in attendance spent the night running from the dance floor to the bubble slide and back again, filling up on cotton candy and baked goods in between. Adults socialized around the cocktail tent and took their chances on the raffle or simply sat and socialized under the canopy of lights that were strung in the trees along Spring Street.

Marion resident Thomas Shire seemed to take particular delight as he spun his cotton candy treats for the kids. As he made a huge bundle of cotton candy for a child he said, "There are two things we do here at this stand. We make cotton and we give everyone who wants it a copy of the Constitution of the United States and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. We do this so people can read these documents and make sure those men in Washington are doing what we elected them to do."

As the cotton candy treat he was making continued to grow, he continued his thought in another direction: "The other thing we do here is cotton candy. We make three sizes -- huge, gigantic and colossal. No one wants a small or a medium, right? Why not start out big and get bigger!" And with that, he darted across the lawn of the Marion Town House and handed the mass of sugar to a happily-surprised child. With a wink and a nod he said, "I love to surprise people with one of these."

This year's event was delayed by a day from its original date of Saturday, August 30 to the following evening as poor weather forced organizers to turn to the rain date. As dreary as Saturday was with its wet, gray skies, Sunday was beautiful with bright sunshine and brilliant blue skies. It was one final blast of summer before the kids returned to their studies and autumn leaves begin to fall.

By Kenneth J. Souza

I'm now the proud owner of an inch of land in Rochester.

Yes, you read that correctly. An inch of land.

The effortless transaction took all of five minutes from the comfort of my desk right here in The Wanderer office and cost a whopping $3.95.

A scam, you ask?

Well, I myself had strong suspicions, but after looking into it further I found it all to be quite legitimate.

Seems that a New York-based company named American Acres, Inc. bought an acre of property in Rochester way back in 1982 and now they're offering to sell it off -- one inch at a time -- for $3.95 per piece. If that sounds a little odd, consider that there are 6,272,640 square inches in an acre of land ... so once the company "sells off" every inch, they stand to profit to the tune of nearly $25 million.

Not bad for an initial investment of just $1,500.

After placing a call to the Rochester Assessors office, it was confirmed that American Acres, Inc. does, in fact, own a 1.10-acre parcel of land in Rochester located off Walnut Plain Road, with access along a 60-foot right-of-way on Estabrook Way. The parcel is listed as Lot 16D on Map 24.

While it may seem a bit unorthodox and unusual to to divvy up a one-acre parcel into over six million one-inch pieces, it is completely legal.

According to Scott Moger, CEO of the Manhattan-based American Acres, Inc., he was inspired to embark on what has become a 30-year novelty venture after finding a similar promotional item from his childhood.

"I remembered that when I was a kid Quaker Oats had a promotion that gave away deeds to square inches of property in the Yukon," Mr. Moger said. "My parents were moving from New York to Florida and we were cleaning out everything and I found my deed. I remembered how exciting it was for me as a kid. I did some research and found it was one of the most successful sales promotions ever created in the United States. The day they announced the promotion, some 20 million cereal boxes moved off the shelves."

With that in mind, Mr. Moger struck on the idea of purchasing at least one acre of land in each of the 50 United States and then offering them -- one inch at a time -- in a similar marketing promotion. Once he amassed the requisite 50 acres, more or less, he set out to sell his idea to other companies.

"I tried selling it the old-fashioned way around 1992," Mr. Moger said. "I thought it would be a great promotion. That's why I put it together. I didn't hit a home run, but I came close. Cracker Jack was very interested in putting a little deed inside every box, but that fell through. So I decided to put the idea aside for a while. When the internet started booming, I thought that would be the ideal way to sell this idea. I set up the website about two years ago and it's been doing very well ever since."

As if to stress the clear novelty of the notion, Mr. Moger notes how he tries to make light of the item on his website. Among the property restrictions listed under the "Frequently Asked Questions" section of the site is this disclaimer:

You cannot live on the land (hard to believe, huh?). You cannot make any improvements to, or develop the parcels. You must allow rights of ingress and egress over the parcels and very importantly, the deeds cannot be sold by the owner for a profit and owner shall not receive any income or derive any other financial benefits whatsoever from the parcels or any or all portions of the property.

"Most people are pleased to know they don't have any financial obligations -- it's clearly a novelty item," Mr. Moger said. "I do get questions quite a bit. I try to keep it light and make sure everyone knows it's light. I'd say 90 percent of the people who hear about it love it. Then there's 10 percent of the people who seriously ask: 'Why would anyone buy a one-inch piece of land?' Most people buy the deed to all 50 states. It's a bigger novelty to own."

Noting that American Acres, Inc. retains the full ownership of the overall parcel and, in turn, is responsible for paying all property taxes -- which Mr. Moger claimed was his biggest expense -- he still thinks offering deeded one-inch portions is a great and unique novelty idea ... not unlike the recent push to have a star named in someone's honor.

Of course, those thinking about spending $19.95 to buy the deed for all 50 states in an effort to give them the chance to vote 50 times for either McCain or Obama in the upcoming presidential election will be disappointed to learn that ownership of a one-inch undeveloped piece of land does not come with any voting rights.

"Technically you have to be a resident of a community to vote in town," said Rochester Town Clerk Naida Parker. "It has to be a house and it has to be their legal place of residence. Massachusetts General Laws stipulate you must have a residence ... and they're not going to be able to prove to me that they have a house on that one-square-inch."

"It's very exciting and it's been successful," Mr. Moger said. "I get comments all the time, saying how unique it is and how much they loved it. It's been gratifying."

The land is available exclusively at www.ownapieceofamerica.us and has been approved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for sale as a novelty item, not as an investment. For more information, you can also visit www.ownapieceofamerica.com.

On Tuesday, August 26 at 1:23 pm, Rochester Police received a call from an alarm monitoring company reporting an alarm activation for a home on Braley Hill Road in the 200 block. Moments later, police received a 911 call from a neighbor who heard the alarm and witnessed a white Dodge pickup truck fleeing from the scene of the alarm.

Rochester dispatchers immediately notified the surrounding communities to be on the look out for the white truck. A short time later, Freetown Police Sergeant Scott Rose and Officer Michael Connell stopped a vehicle matching the description.

On his way to work, the witness passed by the Freetown Police while they had the truck stopped and positively identified the vehicle as the one he saw leaving the scene of the alarm.

Rochester Police Officers Robert Small and Sergeant James Wassmouth responded to the alarm location and found that a break-in had occurred. The suspects had gained entry through a second floor window then triggered the alarm and fled without taking anything.

The Rochester officers then responded the scene of the vehicle stop in Freetown, spoke with the suspects, and arrested both men.

Christopher Mello, 22, of County Road in New Bedford and Tyler Fournier, 21, of North Hixville Road in North Dartmouth were charged with breaking and entering and destruction of property. Mello was released on $1,000 cash bail and Fournier, who was unable to raise bail, was held overnight. Both were scheduled for arraignment Wednesday morning at Wareham District Court.

A benefit in support of Tobey Hospital will be held on Friday evening, September 12. "Moby Tobey - A Whale of a Party" will be held under a tent at a private home overlooking the entrance to Sippican Harbor with magnificent views of the outer bay. The evening will feature an open bar, sushi and raw bar, catered buffet dinner and the twenty-piece internationally acclaimed Compaq Big Band.

A silent and live auction will be run during the evening. Over 50 auction items have been donated by area businesses and individuals including: a week get-a-way at an eight-bedroom home overlooking the intercoastal waterway in Beaufort, South Carolina; a reproduction Howard Miller grandfather's clock; a glass piece by artists Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg; a Charlie Parsons painting and plane ride over the South Coast; guided garden tours of homes on Converse Point including lunch; Patriots tickets and several day trips on Buzzards Bay donated by local yachtsmen.

Proceeds will be directed towards the purchase of a digital portable x-ray unit for the Emergency Room. This new technology will allow a patient in the ED to have x-ray examination bedside when too ill to be transported to radiology. The x-ray is then processed on a digitizer which allows the images to be sent over the hospital network directly to the radiologist for interpretation. Examination and interpretation time is cut from 45 minutes to approximately15 minutes. This improvement enables care and treatment to be initiated in a more timely manner, especially when minutes count.

For ticket information or to make a donation to the Emergency Room project, please call Nancy Edwards, Chief Philanthropy Officer at Tobey Hospital at 508-273-4364.

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