A Blast from the Past...

The above photo came to me in an email today from one of our newest residents, John Donovan. He thinks it may be circa 1950s or 1960s, and wrote:

One of my colleagues used to summer with his grandmother, who lived on the Herring River in West Harwich, across from OMP. This photo turned up in a collection of old stuff he wound up with years later. He can’t date the photo – other than to “before I was born” – but is guessing the 1950s or 1960s. The interesting thing to me is the blades were still on the windmill, and there was no vegetation along the river bank down the path to the beach or near where the Doble memorial now stands. So maybe that helps date the photo.

I think the lack of vegetation is partly due to it being winter - it's hard to see on the blog, but the river is very iced over in this photo. But John's right in that there aren't any trees or tall shrubs visible on the Windmill property as there are today.

I do believe, however, the blades coming off the windmill is a much more recent phenomenon. I seem to recall they were still there when we first bought our house. They came down when the windmill was re-shingled around 2001 and never went back up. I could be wrong - please feel free to correct me in the comments section or with an email. (After all, I had just had baby when we bought the house. My brain may not have been functioning on all cylinders ;-)

Thanks for sharing the photo with us, John!