Did you know that our very own Route 6 is the longest American highway ever created, spanning the entire United States mainland from Provincetown to Long Beach, California?

Author Joe Hurley could tell you all about it, and he will on August 13 at the Mattapoisett Free Library during “Behind the Scenes of Ten Million Steps.” Hurley spent nearly ten months of his life getting to know the people and places along the way on an intimate voyage across America that spanned about 3,600 miles from coast to coast.

Hurley, a retired newspaper reporter living in New Milford, Connecticut, never knew that Route 6, which runs through Connecticut as well, was the longest highway in the country. He discovered that fact during a “shorter” walk across Connecticut, discovering all the little towns he had never been to and writing a series about his journey. On a map, Hurley noticed Route 6 began in Provincetown and thought, “Wow. That’s a long way from Connecticut.”

“And then I looked to the west,” said Hurley during a July 29 phone interview. “And I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to walk the entire way from east to west?”

Hurley started his voyage in Provincetown, which is where the book begins – along with the realization that this would be no stroll in the park. The first few hundred of his ten million steps were already causing his feet pain. In just the fourth paragraph of the book, Hurley admits, “Sore legs and the fear of failure would be my constant companions on the journey, one telling me to stop and the other urging me forward.”

During Hurley’s author’s talk, he will describe what it was like to move alone through the country, town by town, mile by mile, day by day, and answer all those questions that, once you take a look at the book, you will find yourself asking, like, was he ever afraid for his life along the way, or worried that he might not finish the journey?

“There was a snow storm in Nevada, and it was one of the few times on the trip that I didn’t know if I was going to survive,” said Hurley. “I was a walking snowman. And for a 150-mile stretch, there were no cars, no town.”

Once the snow let up a bit and people started to move about, Hurley said every single car that passed him stopped to make sure he was all right, which is consistent with Hurley’s report that, all across the country, he encountered such friendliness and hospitality that he never thought he would find when he took his first steps.

“It certainly gave me a different sense of the people of America, especially in the Midwest,” said Hurley, describing his most significant discovery along the way. “They’re much more likely to come up to you and talk to you.”

Hurley said people are prone to ask him more about his personal journey walking Route 6 across the country than they are to ask about the places he saw and the people he encountered, which surprises him somewhat.

“It’s a people and places book in my mind,” said Hurley. During the book design process, Hurley said he had a different idea for the front cover of the book, which is a photo of Hurley walking, of course, with a long, stretch of hilly highway behind him.

“I wanted the cover to be something else,” he said. But his publisher said no. The photo Hurley wanted on the front cover became the back cover of the book, the majestic landscape of the White Mountains above Owens Valley in eastern California.

“They said, ‘The book is about you walking across the country,’” said Hurley. “But I think it’s more about the people and places. It’s strange that people don’t ask me more about the places and the people I talked to.”

The people of Mattapoisett left a lasting impression on Hurley, saying on page 17 of the book that it was the people that made his stop at the diner formerly known as “The Nest” most memorable. He describes in the book how one Mattapoisett resident helped find Hurley a hotel room for free because he had no place to stay that night.

“Apparently that’s the way things are in Mattapoisett,” Hurley writes.

If you attend the author’s talk on August 13, don’t expect the standard slideshow and prepared talk that Hurley gives to everyone at each stop along his book tour.

“When I started out it was a slide show… and that was okay, but it’s kind of restrictive,” said Hurley. He now passes out a copy of the book to each person in attendance so they can have the book in their own hands, free to follow along and flip through the book. “So, instead of slides,” said Hurley, “We go for a journey together through the book.”

The August 13 event begins at 6:30 pm and Hurley will have copies of his book available for sale. Preregister for the event with the library so that there will be enough books for the event and to purchase. Contact the Mattapoisett Free Library at 508-758-4171 and, for more information about Hurley’s book, visit www.route6walk.com.

By Jean Perry

There is going to be a very special dedication on Ned’s Point on Friday, August 8 to unveil a bronze plaque and a sitting bench in honor of Mattapoisett’s late Milton Silveira – a project in the making by one of Silveira’s young friends and fans, Alex Craig, a sixth-grader at Old Hammondtown Elementary School.

Alex’s mother, Julie Craig, said Alex has been busy collecting donations and consulting with Silveira’s family for months, and he is excited to present the bronze plaque before the people of Mattapoisett and to Silveira’s surviving relatives.

When in the third grade, Alex chose to represent Silveira in a presentation about famous people from Massachusetts. Alex reached out to Silveira, who was in his nineties when the correspondence between the two began, to learn more about the local National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) chief engineer.

“They struck up a friendship,” said Ms. Craig. “And after Milton died last year, Alex wanted to do something for him.” And because Milton loved Ned’s Point, Craig said, it was decided that a bronze plaque honoring Silveira should be placed at the site beside the sea, along with a bench dedicated to Silveira.

Alex said he never got to meet Silveira in person, but their phone conversations made a lasting impression on the boy.

“I think he was a really great man and that’s why I’ve been doing this whole project,” said Alex. He said Silveira’s sister helped design the plaque. “It’s a pretty big plaque … and it’s just a great little biography about him and it has a little picture of a shuttle on it,” said Alex. During the dedication ceremony on Friday, Alex said he is going to tell the Town about who Silveira was and why they should remember him.

“It was so nice to hear Alex and Milton have these conversations over the phone,” said Craig. She added that it was a great experience for Alex, and she is pleased that Alex has chosen to pursue this gesture of respect toward Silveira.

Silveira oversaw the development of the Little Joe II, an unmanned space launch vehicle. He also contributed to other programs, including the Apollo mission.

“We just think Mattapoisett should know about [Milton],” said Craig.

Silveira was born in Mattapoisett in 1929 and graduated from Fairhaven High School. He died July 11, 2013 after 36 years of service for NASA.

“I’m very proud of Alex,” said Craig. “And it’s really unbelievable how much support the community has given.”

The dedication ceremony on Friday, August 8 at Ned’s Point is scheduled for 11:00 am. Alex, his family, Silveira’s family, town officials, and members of the community will all gather to honor Silveira’s legacy.

By Jean Perry

With the arrival of ‘Back To School’ marketing in the mail and on the television, my mind wanders back to a time when thinking about going to school created happy excitement in my little girl brain. The most memorable had to be entering first grade.

In September 1958, I left home for good, so to speak – I started First Grade at Sippican Elementary School. I don’t remember my teacher’s name, but I vividly remember it as a lovely day resplendent with sunshine and my young Mother holding my hand tightly. She delivered me to the classroom door where she imparted some words to me that made her face look very earnest and a little scared. The words I can’t recall, only her face frozen in time. In the next frame of memory, I’m seated at a desk that fits me just right holding a fat pencil and excited about the box of fat crayons waiting inside the desk. No more just a little kid following my mother from room to room, I was now a student.

Returning home that afternoon, I found Ma was upset with me. Why, I wondered. I hadn’t been home long enough to get into trouble. What I had failed to do was cry. Other little kids had cried, begging their mothers not to leave them. I had simply and joyfully smiled and waved good-bye. Ma apparently was expecting confirmation of my neediness for her. What she failed to appreciate was that her job had been to prepare me for independent living. Poor Ma would continue to lament decades later, “…you were glad to get away from me, you didn’t cry when I left…”

Having turned seven years old the previous January, I was one of the older students in the class but certainly not the smartest. At home, I’d received the most rudimentary thread of education. I knew the alphabet, how to count to fifty, and could spell my name out loud. Writing it would have to be mastered quickly because others already knew how to do this and so much more.

In those years, little girls still rarely wore trousers or slacks. Skirts and dresses dominated the scene as acceptable female attire. I preferred dresses with big fluffy bows in the back that bounced along as I skipped. Unfortunately, those bows were a menace that made sitting difficult. I sat in my first classroom chair very upright and very quiet. Those were also the days when children didn’t speak in class unless called upon, where corporal punishment was anticipated for the smallest infraction of silly rules, and where little girls lined up first in front of little boys.

One thing Ma did teach me was how to sit properly while wearing a dress. It was important to smooth the backside with your hand as you bent into a seated position. Over and over we had practiced at home. She impressed upon me the importance of making sure that my ‘panties’ weren’t seen by little boys. Pressing ones knees tightly together and never crossing ones legs was the rule. I found this difficult when my feet usually didn’t touch the floor when seated.

Politics were deeply entrenched in classrooms across America. These were the days of atomic threat. Remember ‘duck and cover’ procedures? How those survival skills were drummed into our little heads. At least once a month the siren would blast through the building and all the children were instructed to scramble onto the floor, crawl on hands and knees getting under the desk. I, however, was much more concerned that little Tommy might see my panties as I skedaddled for cover. There I was with my right hand straining behind my backside to keep my dress from riding up. I feared exposing innocent eyes to my pink undies. Were we traumatized by all this talk of a bombs falling on our school? I don’t know. I was primarily concerned about my underwear being seen and for that I am forever scarred.

I loved lunchtime. Most of the time, I brought a ‘cold’ lunch from home in a cherished Dale Evans lunchbox. Oh, that smell when the lid was popped open and the scent of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Wonder Bread (wrapped in waxed paper) along side a shiny apple wafted towards my olfactory senses (I learned that in fifth grade science) – ambrosia!

Smells punctuate my memories, including those from the first grade. Clay, paste, crayons, chalk, floor wax, mimeographed papers – this is the pungent past that floats in the air as I write. Oh, and the smell of sick … some little kid was always throwing up. Yuck.

My first first grade teacher is memorable only as a vague image of an unsmiling woman with a passion for rote learning techniques. We recited lessons like good little parrots or else.

Midway through the school year, we moved back to Onset (fluctuating between Marion and Onset denoted various phases in my parent’s marriage). At Onset Elementary School, I was installed with Mrs. Pie. Her very name evoked a pastry shop of goodness. And she was true to her name. Mrs. Pie was lovely in her crisp dresses and professionally coifed hair-do. Tall with gentle eyes and soft demeanor, I could listen to her voice all day and never tire of it as some kids did. One little girl I met in class would become my lifelong friend. We both recall Mrs. Pie like a fresh slice of sweetness served to us during first grade classes.

I was curious what other people remembered from this pivotal jumping off point in one’s life. No matter how old the respondent, nearly everyone had something they could recall about first grade.

Ana told me that she came from a Portuguese-speaking home and that up until the age of four she didn’t speak at all. She was completely dependent on her mother for everything so that entering an English-speaking first grade class was horrible. Speaking only Portuguese (at a time when bi-lingual education was not offered), she was unable to communicate with the teacher or the other students. She begged her mother not to make her go to school. Everything about the experience of being sent to school was difficult, including having to wear homemade clothing. Yet she survived and by second grade had made friends and was plugging away at English, a language that still feels new to her all these years later.

Bev came from a home where educated females were not an anomaly. She was given freedom and access to paper and writing implements, but more importantly, access to information. At home with a mother and grandmother who were both teachers, she received the equivalent of a full board-certified education. Thus, she recalls she was in the eighth grade before a teacher said something that she didn’t already know. Amazing.

Krissie’s experience was one from a Dickens novel. She said and I quote, “My teachers … honestly should not have been allowed near children. I went to Lutheran grade school, and I SWEAR that several of those witches were concentration camp matrons, left overs from WWII.” (LMAO)

Charlotte shared, “Mrs. Phinney was not warm and fuzzy but all right. One day, we had to think of words beginning with the letter ‘H’ and I asked her if we took the ‘C’ off my name would that be a word and she told me NO!” Charlotte would have to wait years to learn why the teacher reacted that strongly.

Anne (she was in Mrs. Pie’s class the year before I was) was thinking about her mother while skipping around the playground picking a handful of dandelions to take home as a surprise. Unfortunately, that was when she learned she was allergic to them and ended up being sent home with swollen eyes and no flowers for mommy. Bummer.

Emily clearly recalls her first grade teacher, Miss Studee, as ‘the year of the wedding planner.’ Studee debriefed the students frequently about her upcoming nuptials with everything from the colors she had selected to the type of cake to the honeymoon venue. Emily was enthralled. When they celebrated the end of the school year, Emily’s class had a pretend wedding reception with the girls wearing tiny wedding veils and the boys donning faux cummerbunds. For Emily, it was a dream come true. Her favorite toys were her Barbie dolls. She regularly married them off to the Kens in her collection.

Sarah said her strongest memory was witnessing a kid’s throwing-up episode that then caused her to reflexively do the same. The teacher was kind and calming as she walked the children to the nurse’s office. I think teachers must have a high level of tolerance for the smell and sight of bodily fluids. (Sarah is planning a career in psychiatry).

Danielle (Sarah’s older sister) shared that she remembers hatching eggs to chicks and how interesting it was to watch the process. (She is heading to URI to study chemistry, then matriculating into other studies with the ultimate goal of becoming a dermatologist).

And last, but not least, from the one male who responded to my dragnet, Paul said that all he remembers other than being surrounded by Nuns (with an equal number falling between the good and evil varieties) was peeing his pants and his older brother being conscripted to take him home posthaste.

For me, first grade was the beginning of seeking, questioning, learning. Today I find myself feeling just as optimistic and excited about the future as I did in 1958. I believe that the best days are waiting to be experienced, yet – I do wish I could feel Ma’s hand tightly holding mine just one more time. I cry now that she’s left.

By Marilou Newell