Happy New Year in Holyoke

Varick invited us to ring in 2015 at the firehouse he's converting to a home in Holyoke, Massachusetts.  About 40,000 people live there, near the Connecticut River.

Here's the Victorian house he restored and sold several years ago.

And here's a (not very good) view of the firehouse from one of the city's many canals. Amtrak recently added service to Holyoke so if you're visiting him you can leap off the train into his kitchen.

Varick's nine guests didn't have any trouble parking.  That's one of the advantages of living in a firehouse.  You also can jump on the trampoline in the attic.

The Connecticut River provides Holyoke with an independent source of power.  That's why so many paper companies built factories there in the 19th century, and why the lights stayed on in Holyoke during the 1965 blackout in the Northeast.

Like any good host proud of his city, Varick led a walking tour.  We had the place to ourselves on New Year's morning.

Here's Andrew by an old turbine (I think).

Holyoke's City Hall looks great from the canal.

But close-up you realize the city has seen better days.

We took advantage of a mostly intact ice sculpture of a penguin to snap our first portraits of 2015 outside of the local carousel.

Andrew

Thom

Steven

Ted

Varick

Randy

Peace!

No doubt about it, Holyoke is struggling to find its mojo but some of the decay is picturesque.  I love how this WWI memorial in Veteran's Square has tattered the Stars & Stripes.  Metaphor, anyone?

In addition to Varick's homesteading, a few artists (and cats) already have decided that vacant industrial space in an environmentally self-sufficient community offer a fresh, cheap and politically correct canvas for re-purposing.  

After the tour and a falafel lunch we headed back to the firehouse before going our separate ways.  Randy demonstrated how Dick Cheney and other water boarding advocates could use Varick's basement to interrogate terrorists.

Thanks again, Varick and Ted!