Seacoast History Blog #128 
October 16, 2011

My wife Maryellen and I have been like ships passing at sea. She’s meeting over here, I’m meeting over there. I speak to the Rotary one week, she speaks to Rotary the next. She handles the spotlight well, but I’m never truly comfortable unless I can see my house. Things have been hectic enough right in my own back yard (see upcoming blog) but every fall I find myself forced out onto the road and into the public, plugging books, selling ads, giving talks, and meeting people. I never see it coming, and I always intend to write things down. But the days fall like autumn leaves and pile up all around. So here is a quick behind-the-scenes summary of the last few days in the history biz. (Continued below)

Republican Pow-wow

A few days after my investigative article on the Portwalk archaeology report appeared in the paper, I got an email from Sen. Nancy Stiles (R) who wanted to have coffee and talk about how we might help preserve our historic treasures that lie underground. Two hours before we met on a Sunday morning, my wife told me that our meeting was already in the news on NH Public Radio. We sat up in the comfortable second floor reading area in the Portsmouth Athenaeum. We chatted for about 90 minutes and I pushed my case that heritage tourism has literally saved the Portsmouth economy from ruin. Most tourists never pay $5 to tour an historic house, but their presence gives the city its charm and create the shell in which our cultural renaissance began in the second half of the 20^th century. History is the shell that holds the nonstop parade of cultural events that keep this town lively. Destroy history and the artists go away. Get rid of the creative people and there will be no tourists to pay for hotel beds and restaurant meals and parking tickets. No tourists, history, or culture means no quality of life. When that goes, housing values fall, people leave, schools close, businesses dry up. I’m not kidding. History is the keystone. So it makes no sense to me that we allow people to build structures in this town, without salvaging the history beneath them. A few dollars to preserve what’s underground is as important as saving the historic houses above ground.  Sen. Stiles is a good listener, and she said she is really concerned that once history is destroyed underground, it can never ever be recovered. If we don’t dig up artifacts scientifically, 90% of their value is lost to historians and anthropologists and scientists, and scholars. Sen. Stiles promised to follow-up on the notes I gave her about ways to fix the problem at the state level. Two days later senator’s staff made contact with the top three people at the NH Division of Historic Resources and they all met in Concord. A couple of days later Stiles met with two contract archaeologists from Portsmouth. I haven’t heard back yet, but it looks like the wheels are in motion.

Don’t Mention the Simpsons

When I told people I was headed to Springfield, NH to talk about the history of Portsmouth, everyone here said – “Where’s that?” When I told the 45 citizens of Springfield that nobody in Portsmouth had ever heard of their town, a member of the audience shouted, “That’s the way we like it!” I still don’t know where it is. My wife drove. It was dark and very foggy. The 1700s-era former church rises up out of the woods on a hairpin turn off the main road. Ten minutes before the lecture started there were only a few people seated in the long wooden benches, but by the stroke of 7pm the place was bustling. Just about everyone in the audience knew about Strawbery Banke Museum, but most agreed that they didn’t exactly “get it.” No really famous people ever lived there. Nothing really important ever happened on the 10-acre campus. Some of the houses were moved there and they represent a wide range of dates and architecture. The pond at Puddle Dock that attracted settlers in 1630 has been filled in. The original houses are gone. Almost nobody knows this was the site of the first permanent New Hampshire neighborhood that has survived in various forms for almost 400 years. I hope I cleared up some of the confusion. It’s a complex concept and it took me 400 pages and 400 pictures and 400 footnotes to sum it up in my book. Cutting it down to an hour ain’t easy, but I try. And thanks, as always, to the NH Humanities Commission for supporting my talks. Visit the Springfiled Historical Society Web site.

At the Foot of Mount Kearsage

Nice people in Springfield, and we got to the New London Inn after my talk just in time for last call at the restaurant. The inn is dog-friendly so our corgi suggested we stay the night. We planned to do a little early leaf-peeping, but it poured great guns the next day. We got soaked just crossing the busy street to the little Tourist Information booth across from the inn. And despite the OPEN sign, the info booth was locked. It was as foggy as the night before and, for people who know every inch of Portsmouth, Maryellen (who runs the tourist center here) and I were fish out of water. No, salt water fish in rainwater. We wandered home via Warner. My father worked for AT&T for 35 years, so I opted for the telephone museum there, but it was closed. We ended up at the Mt Kearsage Indian Museum that includes an incredible collection of Native American artifacts, not just local treasures, but items across the nation. Impressive, and especially important for the many young students that visit annually, who likely have no clue that native culture goes back 12,000 years or more, even in New Hampshire. It poured intermittently until we pulled into our driveway on the edge of the good old Piscataqua River. Then the rain stopped.

Thank You, Democrats

A couple hours after returning from the Wild West , we were due at the Portsmouth Sheraton where I was presented with a Community Service award from the local Democrats. The award is newly named for former local representative Jim Horrigan who died recently. His wife and kids sat with us at the head table, and it was an honor to learn his story. Like I said, I’m not much of a socialite, but the crowd of about 125 active party members was mellow and we probably knew half of them. City Councilor Laura Pantelakos got an award for long-time service to the party. I had a nice chat with Councilor Chris Dwyer about ways to improve archaeology oversight with city regulations that could work in tandem with state regulations created by Sen. Stiles.  Honorees were allowed to make very brief remarks. I gave my “History means Business” speech, the same one I gave to Senator Stiles the week before, but trimmed from 90 minutes to 60 seconds. I received the award and, to my great relief, managed not to fall off the podium. Jerry Bird, the National Field Director for Obama for America, was supposed to be the keynote speaker. But the same rough weather that had plagued us all day prevented him from flying in from Chicago. So he gave his address on a giant TV screen via Skype. I enjoyed the technology more than the talk. Bird didn’t offer any details we Democrats haven’t heard a million times – get out the vote, have faith, and send more money. We were dog tired, but there’s no rest for the weary. More talks next week, and every time we pause, there’s even more history than there was the day before. The Portsmouth Democrats award, by the way, is almost impossible to photograph unless you hold it up to moon at midnight.

© 2011 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved.