The Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library held a week of festivities to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Events ranged from playing with bubbles on Tuesday, August 18, with Mr. Vinny the Bubble Guy, to playing with antique cars on Thursday, August 20, with auto expert and resident Richard Cutler. A special ceremony took place on Saturday, August 22.

            Forty-two people attended the Saturday event. Seventy people came for Mr. Vinny’s Bubbles, and 15 attended a Car Show and Tell, according to Library Director Kristen Cardoso.

            “The anniversary has special meaning to me both as the current director who loves this library and as a librarian who is proud to be in the field and in a state with a vibrant and long history of public library service,” Cardoso said. “I started planning for it back in 2025 because I wanted to make it as big and memorable as possible.”

            Cardoso noted that the library launched special, limited-edition library cards featuring a pen drawing of Plumb Library in April. In April 1976, Dorothy Plumb’s gift of the library and the land it would be built on was accepted at Town Meeting. Cardoso began posting stories and photos from the Plumb archives in April, posting one every Thursday until this week of festivities.

            “I did this to generate excitement for the big celebration and to highlight all the amazing people who have made Plumb Library the thriving community center that it has been over the years and still is today,” she said. “We also chose August 22 because it honors both the dedication of the Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library on August 18, 1976, and the dedication of the Rochester Free Public Library on August 19, 1876.”

            The Saturday, August 22, event included citations and congratulations from a host of dignitaries, as well as a plaque dedication presented by Connie Eshbach on behalf of the Rochester Historic Commission.

            Joseph H. Plumb, an avid reader and published author, dreamed of opening a free public library in Rochester. After he passed, his wife Dorothy donated money for a new library, which had been housed in a small office at the town hall.

            With over 19,000 books, DVDs, other resources, and items on display, the library “may be small but there’s so much to love,” Cardoso said.

            Debby Conrad from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners said that libraries are used more now than in the past because they offer digital and modern services that make information easily accessible. As Andrew Carnegie said, “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people.”

            Conrad praised Rochester for having residents who understand this truth and have worked to establish and expand library services for their town.

State Senator Michael Rodrigues said the library is the “heart and soul of every community.” He has helped support the library by creating a new space for a Teen Room.

            State Representative Mark Sylvia stated the library is an “important piece of fabric for the town, and like the COA, it has the same good vibe.”

            Town Administrator Cameron Duran shared how much he adores working with the library, as it is a very special place because of the people who make it up.

            “Only three people with limited resources make magic happen every day,” Duran said.

            Those three, besides the director, are Jen Frasier, who wears many hats, including circulation and technical services librarian, catalog, desk, and book club, and Fuchsia Haskell, youth services librarian.

            “That’s one of the things I love about the library: how it brings people of all ages together to learn from each other,” said Cardoso. “I feel that, overall, our 50th anniversary celebrations were a resounding success, and I can’t wait to see what the community comes together to do at the library in the next 50 years.”

By Ann Marie Dunn

            There was barely room for another sailor at the Mattapoisett Museum on Saturday afternoon.

            A standing-room-only crowd of 72 packed the museum on August 15 for an afternoon of maritime music, history and humor with the New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus.

            Led by director Tom Goux, 15 members of the 24-voice chorus took the audience on a musical voyage from Boston to the Caribbean and Jamaica, across the Atlantic to England, and eventually back to New England.

            With the country marking its 250th anniversary, Goux used the music to trace some of the history and traditions that crossed the Atlantic and helped shape America.

            Many of the singers performed from memory, accompanied by an upright bass, fiddle, two guitars and accordion.

            The musical journey included “Good Morning Ladies All” before heading south to the Caribbean and Jamaica. From there, the chorus crossed the Atlantic to England, where Union Jack flags appeared along with English eating and drinking songs.

            Then came “Cape Cod Girls,” whose verses poke fun at Cape Cod towns and their inhabitants, bringing plenty of laughter from the audience.

            The performance also demonstrated the communal nature of maritime music. During one song, all 15 voices came together with the refrain, “The devil takes your soul.”

            Audience members joined in throughout the afternoon, but they needed little encouragement when the chorus began “Sloop John B.” The familiar song quickly became a singalong, with voices from throughout the packed museum joining the chorus.

            Back in the United States, Goux turned to the events leading to the American Revolution.

            Goux told the audience about Rhode Island sea captain Abraham Whipple and his role in the 1772 attack on the British customs schooner HMS Gaspee, an act of colonial resistance that came nearly three years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

            The Gaspee had run aground in Narragansett Bay while pursuing another vessel. A group of Rhode Islanders organized by merchant John Brown set out in longboats, with Whipple placed in charge of the operation. The men boarded the British vessel and later burned it.

The incident helped intensify resistance to British authority in the years leading to the Revolution.

            The chorus then brought the afternoon closer to home, singing a chantey crafted in honor of New Bedford’s whaling history and the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey.

            The New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus is a volunteer musical group associated with the historic schooner. Its repertoire draws from the work songs, ballads and maritime music of sailors and fisherfolk from North America, the Cape Verde Islands and the British Isles.

            But the final song of the afternoon carried a more personal meaning.

            For an encore, Goux told the audience that the chorus would sing “Rolling Home” in memory of a longtime member of the group who had died just a few weeks earlier.

            After an afternoon filled with humor, history and audience singalongs, the mood in the crowded museum shifted as the chorus honored one of its own.

            They ended, fittingly, with “Rolling Home.”

By Jeanne Hopkins