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Welcome to the Class of '58 Web Site

There have been 93,350 homepage hits since this site was created September 6, 2008.


From the March 12, 2024 issue of the Springfield Reporter.


This is the 2024 Town Plan for Springfield


A major intersection redesign in the Springfield area that will be ongoing for several years.


Truly the end of an era. Historic tie to Springfield’s affluent past to be demolished. Thanks to Tom Chase, SHS '57, for the heads up.

Now it begins.

You can keep up-to-date with the demolition of J&L Plant #1 here.

From the January 18, 2022 issue of the Springfield Reporter.

425, Almost Gone!

This photograph is courtesy of Bob Flint and SRDC.  It really gives you an exceptional view down the valley.  In the foreground are the former front offices of J & L and the white roof at the far end is LBL Fabricators in the butler building.  The next white roof is “J & L Plant 2.” Beyond that is the John Deere building.  On the other side of Clinton Street is Jake’s Market & Deli, the “tech center” turned Police Station, Bryants Chucking Grinder Company, and at the end is the Springfield Waste Water Treatment facility.

This Month in Springfield History:  From the January 14, 1926 Reporter, “Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Phillips, en route west, took two days to get to Bennington.” 

SAHS:  Because of COVID seating will be limited at the J & L program on Saturday at 2 PM at the Congregational Church.  We are trying to reach SAPA-TV to arrange to have it filmed


This article from the August 26, 2020 issue of The Shopper may be of interest.


Springfield's Main Street Master Plan can be accessed by clicking on the picture below:


The following was included in the July 26, 2019 issue of a newsletter I receive on a daily basis. Food for thought.

Andrew Cockburn in Harper’s:

A generation ago, Seymour Melman, a professor of industrial engineering at Columbia, devoted much of his career to analyzing this very subject. He concluded that defense spending’s impact on the broader economy was wholly harmful, a consequence of the bad habits injected into the bloodstream of American manufacturing management by a defense culture indifferent to cost control and productivity.

The U.S. machine-tool industry, for example, had powered postwar U.S. manufacturing dominance thanks to its cost-effective productivity that in turn allowed high wage rates for workers. But, Melman wrote, as more and more of its output shifted to defense contracts, the industry’s relationship with the Pentagon…


became an invitation to discard the old tradition of cost minimizing. It was an invitation to avoid all the hard work… that is needed to offset cost increases. For now it was possible to cater to a new client, for whom cost and price increase was acceptable – even desirable.


In consequence, as Melman detailed, the U.S. machine-tool industry gradually ceased to compete effectively with nations such as Germany and Japan, where cost control still reigned supreme.

In this e-book the first full paragraph on the 17th page through the paragraph on page 19 that ends on the 20th page draws further on the work of Melman and others for additonal discussion of this topic.


A very interesting article about the rise and fall of the machine tool industry in Springfield was posted on FB by Jerry Dopp, class of '61 and Carolyn Dopp's brother. You can see it here.


This would be an ambitious undertaking. Now there is some funding for it. Some additional information.


Scroll down in this article to get some more information about the funding for a couple projects.



Another video about Springfield.


Some pictures of old Springfield at the SAHS site.


Lots of Springfield history can be found here. Thanks to Judy Parker Turmail for bringing this to our attention.


Click here to visit a site dedicated to the Slack Shoddy Mill. At the tab "Bankruptcy of Mill" toward the bottom there is a list of employees at that time. You may recognize some of them.


Click here for pictures of Old Springfield.


An aerial view of downtown Springfield. Click on the thumbnail below to see a larger version.


For those who are out of town a real time idea of what the weather is like in the Springfield area can be seen via this Dartmouth webcam.


MISSING CLASSMATES


JOINED CLASSMATES


Percentage of Joined Classmates: 70.9%


A:   61   Joined
B:   25   Not Joined
(totals do not include deceased)

IN MEMORY UPDATES


•   Patricia Williams (See)  2023
•   John Lashua  2023
•   Richard "Rip" Ripchick (Class Of 1957)  2023
•   Rose Fluray (Rooney)  2023
•   Glen Booth  2023
•   Joel McKee Chapman  2023
•   Nancy Moore (Shanks)  2023
•   David LaPlante  2023
•   John Follett  2022
•   Joyce Harvey (MacDougall)  2022
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