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The first picture of the parade includes my father, Carl Sillanpaa, in the front row. He ultimately became Fire Chief and New Hampshire Fire Warden. The second picture is of the Ford chassis cab truck that my father and his friend, George Koski, built the equipment on the back. It was basically a tanker truck with storage for pumps and hoses. The tank had not baffles in it so it was a BEAR to drive. I drove it once on a fire run with my father since I was a member of the Junior Fire Department which consisted of teen boys trained to help the fire department.

My father was very active in the community including building New Ipswich's first community playground with a baseball diamond and swimming pool. The New ipswich Sportsman's Club led the project with Carl Sillanpaa, George Koski, Hjalmar Maki, Alfred Parhiala and others I don't remember. I believe Alfred Partial donated the land.

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The view on Taylor Road this morning looks remarkably similar to 2019. Brrr.

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The two journals which are fun to read show us two sides of New Ipswich. Summer home to old elite upper crust families from Boston and home to common year round folk like James and Hamish. While at Northeastern U in 1962 (which was across the street from the Museum of Art) I took a course in art history and came across a Kaula painting. Our class made many visits to that museum.

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I knew all the men in that first photo except for Hamish Roger. I think the caption is wrong, Ted Karnis was Fire Chief, not Bill Currier. Love that Taylor Rd photo. As I've said before Taylor Rd is my favorite walking road

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I recall going to 'Ted' Karnis' Esso station with my dad on town hill in the 1960's and buying gas for .23 cents a gallon. When gas hit .50 cents a gallon in New Ipswich in 1974 we thought it was the end of the world.

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