I am going to think about fathers this weekend — my father, who worked in the public schools in Worcester for 35 years, and his father, who was a Worcester cop, and then a detective, which enabled his son to become a schoolteacher and me, his grandson, to become whatever it is I am, and I will thank god they lived in a day before the lucky-sperm legacy brigades decided that public employees didn't have real jobs that paid real money or anything. (My Dad also got a boost from a big-government program called the U.S. Navy, a really, really big government program called World War II, and a big government program called the G.I. Bill.) Without that, I might not have been able to make a living in the Private Sector. Thanks, boys.Charles P. Pierce
An aside:
I've always enjoyed the grim and ignoble circumstances of Worcester's founding.
1673—First settlement of Plantation of Quinsigamond
1674—First Indian Land deed. Purchase price was 12 pounds, 2 coats and 4 yards of cloth for 64 square miles of land (sounds fair)
1675—Settlement abandoned because of hostile Indians (surprise)
1684—Second attempted settlement. Name changed from Plantation of Quinsigamond to Worcester
1702—Settlement again abandoned (just wasn't worth the trouble)
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