Lee Historical Society
Newsletter
Vol. 7, No. 1
January 2010
Lee Historical Society, Inc.
P. O. Box 170
Lee, MA 01238
www.leehistoricsociety.homestead.com
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We hope everyone had an enjoyable Holiday Season. It is hard to believe that the Lee Historical Society has been going strong since 2003. During the late part of 2002 and into 2003 a group of area residents met each month with visions to form a historical society in the Town of Lee. This group’s task was to set up by- laws and a constitution, acquire incorporation status for the society, gain a non-profit 501 C 3 status, and find a pro bono lawyer to help us do these tasks.
Steve Cozzaglio was elected our leader and spokesperson. He secured John Graziano, of Hunter & Graziano to be our pro bono lawyer and we were on our way.
On December 11, 2003 in the old courtroom at Memorial Hall, we held the first Annual Meeting. The first step was electing a Board of Directors. We started off with a board of six members; Marion and Douglas Leach, Mary and Henry Holt, Ethel Noonan, and James DiMario. Next came the election of officers; Steve Cozzaglio was our President, with Gary Allen the Vice-President, Mal Eckert, Treasurer and Nancy Rinsma, the Secretary. We decided to rent a post office box, set up the fees for membership and I volunteered to try to start a newsletter.
This is the first issue of our newsletter of 2010. We have not missed a month since the first newsletter in February of 2004. We are now up to nine board members, and have closed out 2009 with 109 members, including seniors, families, individuals, businesses, lifetime and honorary memberships. We have had several profitable fundraisers and have been able to hold “Program Meetings” about every other month, which are free and open to the public. I think that we can say that along the way, we have also had some fun. We are still looking for a place to hang our hats and call home and hopefully that will come soon. The Lee CDC has been kind enough to let us use space in their Route 102 warehouse where we can keep our equipment and records and some of our collectibles. Other are stored in member’s homes but we feel that one day in the foreseeable future, we will have a place to display the historic items of Lee.
This month, on January 14th, the Society will conduct a business meeting for board members, officers and any interested members at 6:30 p.m. in the old courtroom of Memorial Hall. The location of the meeting has been changed from the Senior Center at Crossway Village to Memorial Hall because the Town of Lee needs the Senior Center’s space to hold an important meeting. Starting in February and every other month we will be back to the Senior Center.
NEW MEMBERS TO WELCOME:
Locker Room Sports Pub, 232 Main Street, Lee, MA 01238
CONDOLENCES:
The Lee Historical Society offers condolences to the family of longtime society member, Pauline “Bobbi” Pollard, who passed away on January 8th.
DO YOU NEED TO RENEW YOU MEMBERSHIP?
Members who have had their memberships expire on 12/31/2009 need to renew for the year 2010. If you are not sure when your membership expires, let us know and we will look it up for you.
Recollections VII
By U. S. Navy Retired Commander Vic Mottarella,
A native of Lee
(Continued from the December – 09 issue)
The Gooney Bird Flight
I was assigned to a flight with seven other aviators including my buddy Votolato. As I recall our instructor for the entire tour at Miami was a Lt. Moore. One of the seven was a Naval Academy graduate – he was Lt. Commander Walker who was new in the flying business. None of us particularly liked him because he was a stuffed shirt with no sense of humor, especially around us lowly Ensigns. He went on to better things and eventually was promoted to Vice Admiral. Another pilot was Ralph Danes. I remember him because he had a great sense of humor, was very friendly and was considerably over weight. This contributed materially to his hilarious laughter. The instructor told us it was customary for the flight to have some kind of name and he left it up to us to pick one. After some deliberation Ensign Chapman (a former enlisted man) came up with the Gooney Bird name. No one else had a better idea so the Gooney Bird idea stuck. I had never heard of a Gooney Bird. Chapman explained that he had observed several of these birds on the island of Midway. He mentioned that they were so named because of their crazy landings. He said every Gooney Bird landing appeared to be a simulated crash. I hoped that this idiotic name would not become an omen for things to come! All radio calls to the control tower and to other pilots in a flight were preceded with Gooney Bird followed by a number corresponding to the position the pilot was assigned in the flight. For example, Gooney Bird one would be the flight leader.
Formation Flying
The next seven flights involved formation flying and included from two to eight airplanes. We started with two Hellcats and gradually increased to eight including the instructor. On one morning, after we had gained the confidence of the instructor, he took us over Miami Beach flying from north to south at very low altitude where we flew in parade formation at less than a quarter of a mile from the numerous luxury hotels. I was on the left side and the formation looked impressive as I looked up at the hotels we were passing. The skill we learned in formation flying would form the basis for all succeeding missions. The basic flying unit in the Navy is the section involving two aircraft. A division involves four planes and finally a squadron is about sixteen.
Aerial Gunnery
Aerial gunnery is what being a fighter pilot is all about and we all looked forward to this phase of training. A total of twenty-five flights were dedicated to aerial gunnery. Each pilot would take his turn as tow pilot with a second pilot escorting as a safety pilot. The target, consisting of a nylon sleeve, was attached to a long cable that was in turn attached to the towing Hellcat. In order to avoid dragging and damaging the sleeve on takeoff the tow line was coiled up on the runway slightly ahead of the tow plane – as the plane approached flying speed with full power the pilot would climb sharply and yank the sleeve off the runway. Each firing pilot was assigned different colored bullets that had been dipped in fresh paint and not fully dried. The idea was for the ammo to leave some colored residue as it penetrated the sleeve. We flew four different types of firing runs with three of them involving flying a pattern shaped similar to a figure S. The fourth was an overhead run where you attempted to approach the target going straight down and at a 90 degrees angle from the path of the target. The three similar types were called low sides, flat sides and high sides. Low, flat and high meant the relative position of the firing plane in reference to the target. The pilot would start his firing run from slightly ahead and abeam of the target. The goal was to arrive at the firing point with flight path at 90 degrees to the target and at a range of thousand feet. The purpose of passing the target at 90 degrees was to minimize the length of time you might be exposed to firing from an enemy aircraft. The distance to the target could be estimated by the view of the target in the gun sight. The six 50 caliber guns were located wide apart with three in each wing and were adjusted so that the ammo would cross at a point 1000 feet ahead of the airplane. It was not easy to get hits on the target because you were in and out range in less than one second – besides this, you had to have the correct lead angle to compensate for the speed of the target. The biggest challenge and the most fun were the overhead runs because in this case the plane accelerated continuously while in the vertical dive. This resulted in a great change in rudder trim and made it very difficult to hold the correct aim point in the gun sight. You approached the target from the opposite direction and then rolled the plane on its back and commenced the run from about 2000 feet over the target. The relative position of the target to your position was critical when starting the overhead run. All gunnery was performed in designated areas east of Miami over the Atlantic. During all the above gunnery runs I managed to keep my head above water and in most cases scored better than my contemporaries. As mentioned before none of us liked Lt. Commander Walker. On one occasion while eating breakfast in the officer’s mess Votolato mentioned to me that if Lt. Moore, (the instructor) did not award him better marks for the previous days shooting than the marks he awarded to Walker, Lt. Moore would hear from him. The next voice Votolato heard was that of Lt. Moore asking him if there was something he wanted to say. Little did he know that Lt. Moore was nearby eating in the same mess. This was one of Votolato’s most embarrassing moments!
Bombing
Prior to the start of any bombing activity we participated in three angle calibration flights. The purpose of these flights was to get some practice in estimating the proper angle of dive for each of three different dive angles. Each dive angle required a different point of aim (or lead point). Each had to be compensated for airspeed because airspeed at point of release will vary directly with the dive angle. A steeper dive will result in a faster airspeed and thus will require less lead to hit the target. We practiced with 30 and 45degree dive angles for bombing and 20 degree dives for strafing runs. The angle of dive for strafing runs was shallower and was not as critical as for bombing due to the added velocity caused by the 50 caliber bullets. Very little lead angle was necessary in this case and it was much easier to get hits because you aimed almost directly at the target. An angular grid was manned on the ground from which the exact angle of each dive was read out by radio to the pilot. We performed numerous dives for each dive angle and eventually were able to estimate and accomplish a dive with a variance of plus or minus a couple of degrees from the desired angle. We only flew two strafing flights since this exercise was relatively easy to master. We flew a total of seven bombing flights over targets laid out on the ground in the Everglades. The targets were circular grids and the distance of each circle from the center was known. A bull’s eye was seldom achieved but after considerable practice I managed to keep most of my hits reasonably close to the bull’s eye. I learned that it was important to know the wind direction and velocity prior to releasing the bomb and to alter the aim point, accordingly, by these effects. Lt. Moore circled the target at an altitude of about 500 feet and called out the impact point of each hit by clock code and distance from the bull’s eye. The drops were miniature 5 pound bombs in which was inserted ten gauge smoke detonators. Each plane carried six bombs in a cluster attached to either the fuselage or the right wing. To release a bomb you depressed a small button on top of the stick with your right thumb.
(Continued to the February – 10 issue)
The Lee Historical Society thanks Bob Gangell for the items donated to the Society.
Request:
Who remembers the Greenock Inn?
The Society is gathering information on the Greenock Inn, which stood on the corner of Franklin and High Streets. The original Inn was destroyed in a fire about 1908 and then rebuilt and destroyed in the early 1940’s. We would like to find out if anyone remembers the Inn, why it was destroyed; as a fire, dead owners, economy, deterioration or whatever. It seems like everyone in Stockbridge is related to or knows someone who worked at the Red Lion Inn. How about the Greenock Inn? Please help us find out more,
Officers of the Lee Historical Society for the year of 2010
President – Gary W. Allen – 413-243-2140 or garywallen@earthlink.net
Vice- President – Ethel Noonan – 413-243-
Treasurer – Mal Eckert – 413-243-1797 or MalEckert@msn.com
Secretary – Bambi Johndrow
Board of Directors of the Lee Historical Society
Marion Leach/2010William Clarke/2010Mary Morrisswy/2011
William Clarke/2010Mary Morrisswy/2011Peg Biron/2011Josh Hall/2011Matt MacNyar/2011
Josh Hall/2011Matt MacNyar/2011JoAnn Zarnoch/2012Maria Hopkins/2012Robert Kelly/2012
Maria Hopkins/2012Robert Kelly/2012Immediate-Past President and Board Member – Stephen Cozzaglio
Society Historian – Charlotte Davis
Newsletter Editor – Mal Eckert
The Society is always looking for articles and small pieces of information to print about Lee.
If you have anything that you would like to share with our readers or any questions that some one might know the answer to, please let us know. Please let the Society know if there is a specific subject that you might be interested to hear about as we are all interested in leaning more about the history of Lee.
A little history about Sullivan Station:
Sullivan Station was originally built as a railroad passenger depot in 1893 by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Prior to this construction, passengers boarded and disembarked from a tiny wooden building across the tracks. The inconvenience of having to walk across the tracks to get to the village was one of the reasons for seeking a new structure.
Lee merchant and contractor, Thomas Heaphy, convinced Wellington Smith, a prominent resident and paper mill owner, to represent the town in meetings with railroad officials in Boston. When the new depot was approved, the construction contract was awarded to Heaphy himself. It remained the Lee Depot until 1971. The structure, then in the possession of Penn Central Railroad, was used as a line office.
The real estate was purchased from Penn Central Railroad in 1975 by the present owner. The building was used to operate two businesses, Barritt Oil Company and Iron Horse Reality until 1980, when it was decided by the family to take on the task of a painstaking restoration job. Enthusiastically, the depot was turned into a restaurant called Sullivan Station which opened September 11, 1981.
The Lee Historical Society has the following items for sale. Any one of these would make a great gift for an out of town friend or relative.
(1.)Picture Packet – Six, 8” x 10” colored prints of “Old Lee” for $10.00 each or 3 packets for $25.00, plus $2.50 if they need to be shipped.
Picture Packet – Six, 8” x 10” colored prints of “Old Lee” for $10.00 each or 3 packets for $25.00, plus $2.50 if they need to be shipped.(2.)Refrigerator magnets – (approx. 2” x 3”). Three are of old street scenes from the early 1900’s and one is an “Entering Lee” replica sign. They are $3.00 each or buy a set of three of your choice for $7.50 with no shipping charges.
Refrigerator magnets – (approx. 2” x 3”). Three are of old street scenes from the early 1900’s and one is an “Entering Lee” replica sign. They are $3.00 each or buy a set of three of your choice for $7.50 with no shipping charges.(3.)Cookbook – “Boiling Water” – a 400 recipe cookbook, put together by the ladies of the society for $10.00, plus $3.50 if shipped.
Cookbook – “Boiling Water” – a 400 recipe cookbook, put together by the ladies of the society for $10.00, plus $3.50 if shipped.(4.)“Historical Lee” – a tribute to the late Betty Dennis. A seventy-three page book containing the articles that Betty wrote between April 1971 and August 1977 that appeared in the Penny Saver. Price is $10.00, plus $2.50 if shipped.
“Historical Lee” – a tribute to the late Betty Dennis. A seventy-three page book containing the articles that Betty wrote between April 1971 and August 1977 that appeared in the Penny Saver. Price is $10.00, plus $2.50 if shipped.(5.)“Third Strike”- a book, the last of three written by Ralph W. Smith that was published in 1984. It contains stories of people and tales of earlier days in Lee. The price is $15.00, plus $2.50 if shipped.
“Third Strike”- a book, the last of three written by Ralph W. Smith that was published in 1984. It contains stories of people and tales of earlier days in Lee. The price is $15.00, plus $2.50 if shipped.(6.)Commemorative Mugs.
Commemorative Mugs.(a.)a 2008, #1 in our series, mug with a replica of Memorial Hall embossed on the side.
a 2008, #1 in our series, mug with a replica of Memorial Hall embossed on the side.(b.)a 2009, #2 in our series, mug with a replica of Central Fire Station embossed on the side.
a 2009, #2 in our series, mug with a replica of Central Fire Station embossed on the side. These mugs can be purchased for $10.00 each, plus $3.00 shipping or both
mugs for $18.00 and $5.00 shipping.
Please send me (amount)______________of (item/items)__________________________
Enclosed is my check for (no cash please)______________________________________
Name_____________________________________________________________________
Address___________________________________________________________________
City_________________________State_______________Zip________________________
Mail to:
Lee Historical Society
P. O. Box 170
Lee, MA 01238
Please support our “Business Members” that support us.
Bartini Roofing CompanyBen’s ShopCharles Flint Antiques
Ben’s ShopCharles Flint Antiques290 Pleasant Street68 Main Street52 Housatonic Street
68 Main Street52 Housatonic StreetLee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Lenox, MA 01240
Lee, MA 01238Lenox, MA 01240Greylock Federal UnionQuality PlusL. V. Toole Insurance Agency
Quality PlusL. V. Toole Insurance Agency47 Main Street260 Chestnut Street195 Main Street
260 Chestnut Street195 Main StreetLee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238
Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Sullivan Station RestaurantPaperdilly, Inc.Dresser Hull Company
Paperdilly, Inc.Dresser Hull CompanyRailroad Street74 Main Street60 Railroad Street
74 Main Street60 Railroad StreetLee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238
Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Robert M. Kelly, PaperhangingKelly Funeral HomeThe Jonathon Foote 1778 House
Kelly Funeral HomeThe Jonathon Foote 1778 HouseSouth Prospect Street3 Main Street1 East Street
3 Main Street1 East StreetLee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238
Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Morgan House Restaurant & PubLee BankDevonfield Inn
Lee BankDevonfield Inn33 Main Street75 Park Street85 Stockbridge Road
75 Park Street85 Stockbridge RoadLee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238
Lee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238Hunter & Graziano P. C.Locker Room Sports Pub
Locker Room Sports Pub10 Park Place232 Main Street
232 Main StreetLee, MA 01238Lee, MA 01238
Lee, MA 01238How about becoming a member to help support our Society? Do you have an out of town friend or relative that might enjoy our newsletters? Sign him/her up as a member.
Student Membership - $5.00Senior Membership (one person over the age of 65) - $5.00
Senior Membership (one person over the age of 65) - $5.00Business Membership - $25.00Individual Membership (one person under the age of 65) - $10.00
Individual Membership (one person under the age of 65) - $10.00Family Membership (All members of one family living at home) - $15.00
Please circle one:Student Senior Individual Family Business/Corporate
Student Senior Individual Family Business/CorporateName_______________________________________________________________________
Address_____________________________________________________________________
City____________________________State__________________Zip____________________
Telephone____________________Email___________________________________________
Is this a renewal membership?__________
Would you be interested in serving on a committee?__________
Or helping out at one of our fundraisers?____________________
Lee Historical Society
P. O. Box 170
Lee, MA 01238
