Category: Great Barrington MA

Death

By Mickey Friedman February 8, 2018 Perhaps because my beginning was so profoundly touched by death – the grave illness and death of my younger brother Jonathan before I was three – and the deep grief of my parents, I…

Let’s Park

By Mickey Friedman August 7, 2017 Margaret came to Fuel to talk about my last column about Great Barrington. She wanted to know more about how I would solve the problems. So let me first suggest a solution to the…

They Come and Go

By Mickey Friedman July 24, 2017 Friends say they increasingly avoid Great Barrington. There’s less and less for them here. Losing Martin’s reminds me when folks gathered there, at Melvin’s, or ordered breakfast from Ruth at The Cricket. Once Frankie…

RIP – The Problem

February 15, 2017 By Mickey Friedman Interested in PIP, the Public Involvement Process for the contaminated New England Log Homes site (NELH) in Great Barrington? Then it’s time for RIP, the Phase IV Remedy Implementation Plan – Revision 3. And…

Ministry

By Mickey Friedman November 11, 2016 My mother, before she was shipped out as a child to a bunch of foster homes, each one more miserable than the next, did a stint with the Nuns, who tried to beat the…

Under The Influence

By Mickey Friedman October 22, 2016 We rip ourselves apart. White, black, born again or unenrolled, native born or newly arrived, we tear at each other with ever-increasing fury. That we are all flawed and prone to mess up seems…

Ongoing insult to longstanding injury

By Bill Shein October 6, 2016 Way back in March, 2006, I wrote a newspaper column commenting on the turnover in storefronts in downtown Great Barrington. As old, longtime stores closed up, many of the new ones, I wrote, could…

Parts Per Trillion

By Mickey Friedman September 9, 2016 The story of 100 Bridge Street in Great Barrington is a story of failure. And while it’s convenient to cast blame, the real responsibility lies with those at New England Log Homes who made…

Better Than Best

June 22, 1916 By Mickey Friedman With great recognition comes great responsibility. Living in Smithsonian Magazine’s The Best Small Town in America is an honor, and Great Barrington and its people have done a bang-up job serving as a sterling…

Rise Up for Rising

March 26, 2016 By Mickey Friedman Like many stories, the story about the Lenox or Lee or Housatonic PCB Dump begins and ends with money. The money Monsanto made selling PCBs to GE and Westinghouse. The massive amounts of money…

Embrace the Geese

March 8, 2016 By Mickey Friedman Before the geese, Great Barrington didn’t need public relations. When I got here in seventy-two, there were fewer antiques and more junk. Joneses, a treasure trove of used everything. Bars not bistros. Railroad Street…

Want/Need

By Mickey Friedman December 3, 2015 “Want” and “need” often get confused. Webster defines “want” as “to desire or wish for (something)” and “to need (something)” or “to be without (something needed.)” But for me there is an important difference,…