Hurricanes that live on . . . The Hurricane of 1938

Hurricanes that live on  . . .  The Hurricane of 1938

The hurricane of 1938 (actually a pre-memory for Marash Girl), up to that time the most violent hurricane recorded in 100 years,  tore down the portable schoolhouse in 16 Acres, Springfield, Massachusetts,  providing the birth of the cabin on top of Wilbraham Mountain.  As the story goes, after that hurricane, Marash Boy's Uncle Haroutioun went to the City of Springfield's  auction to purchase the remains of that schoolhouse in 16 Acres with the thought of setting it up on the family land on top of Wilbraham Mountain, to be used as shelter for the family during sudden summer mountaintop rainstorms. . . Uncle Harry's highest bid caused much consternation for the French Canadian carpenter bidding against him. Furious, the French Canadian carpenter approached Uncle Harry at the completion of the auction: "You rich guys always win out! I needed the remains of that school house in order to live, to work, to feed my family . . . "  Being a survivor of the Armenian Genocide and not exactly a rich guy, Uncle Harry understood, and offered the carpenter half of the portable schoolhouse in exchange for the carpenter's setting up the other half on the top of Wilbraham Mountain, on the family land.  The carpenter accepted and the rest is history, or was history until the tornado of 2011 returned the cabin to the earth. [See Marash Girl's posts on the 2011 tornado.]