Sailing on the Charles with the staff of MGH Home Base Program

Spent Sunday sailing on the Charles River with the staff of Mass General's HOME BASE Program, the RED SOX Foundation and the staff of Boston Community Boating.

Colleagues back in Kandahar are dealing with heat, dust and the ongoing issues in Afghanistan but I was able to spend the day with my daughter on the water. A great day and a great time was had by all.

Middleboro Jones will be leaving Kandahar once again - This time, likely for good.

Katanga meets Middleboro Jones, who is dirty and injured from his travels around Afghanistan)

Katanga: Mr. Jones! I've heard a lot about you, sir. Your appearance is exactly the way I imagined

After traveling around Afghanistan, I know how my counterpart, Indiana feels.....

The way things fall in place are both amazing and a never-ending mystery.....

I wound up in Afghanistan the first time in 2009 due to the down economy and a lay off......I was lucky to find a good company that has provided a great place to work, great people and very positive leadership. I couldn't be happier except for the aspect of wakiing up 7500 miles away from my home.....that part was NOT something I could ever be happy with.....'

 

Now after three runs through Afghanistan, the countdown for my departure as begun again.  I have approximately 17 days in country departing towards the end of May.  The game has changed here and the show is closing down.  There will be some work here, but not like it was during the hey days of 2009 - 2011.

So Middleboro Jones has managed to work his way out of trouble again....not real trouble mind you, the trouble of waking up 7500 miles away from home......

I will be "escaping" Kandahar and the whole Afghanistan AOR by the end of the month.....

I will miss my coworkers and the company BUT I will not miss waking up in Afghanistan....Thank You very much.....

As for plans, my plan is to head home and to spend the summer enjoying life in Massachusetts.  I have not been home for a summer since 2009 and I plan on enjoying all that it holds for BBQs, Time on the Beach and especially time with family & friends.

 

As for the rest....It's just like the scene where the Nazis are trying to take the Ark away from Tannis.....

(As Indy, Marion and Sallah watch the Nazis loading the Ark of the Covenant onto a large truck)

Indiana: Meet me at Omar's. Be ready for me. I'm going after that truck.

Sallah: How?

Indiana: I don't know, I'm making this up as I go

 

Roger that.

 

 

When I get home......

Where I would like to be/In my @vw Bus heading to the beach- I'll do it this summer when I get home from #Afghanistan twitter.com/Leadership_One…

— Middleboro Jones (@Leadership_One) March 22, 2013

4 Seas Ice Cream in Centerville, MA - The Best Ice Cream on Cape Cod

For those who enjoy Ice Cream, this small shop in Centerville, MA on old Cape Cod is without a doubt the BEST Ice Cream you will ever eat.  I have made believers out of people when they came to Cape Cod and we stopped by for a cone or a sundae.....

There is none better anywhere.

The article from the Barnstable Patriot says it all and reviews a book that documents the history of this little piece of heaven on Cape Cod.  Well worth the trip from anywhere.

Four Seas Ice Cream Sailing Through the Sweet History of Cape Cod's Favorite Ice Cream Parlor    
Written by John Watters  - Barnstable Patriot

Book Review - Four Seas Ice Cream
Sailing Through the Sweet History of Cape Cod's Favorite Ice Cream Parlor
By Heather Wysocki
The History Press, Charleston SC, 2012,
Softcover, 142 pgs., $19.99

When one thinks of summer on Cape Cod, one thinks of sunny days at the beach, Cape League baseball games, fried clams and, of course, ice cream. In the town of Barnstable we are blessed to have one of the most treasured and quintessential scoop shops in America, the venerable Four Seas Ice Cream.

As a reviewer of Heather Wysocki’s new book Four Seas Ice Cream; Sailing Through the Sweet History of Cape Cod’s Favorite Ice Cream Parlor, I confess I might be a bit of a “homer.” For well over 50 years I have memories of cones, parfaits, sundaes, frappes, and banana splits frozen in time from the little white clapboard-sided shop on South Main Street in Centerville. In the late 1950s I remember having tuna salad sandwiches on white bread cut into diagonal triangles with a small side of potato chips, followed by a scoop of chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone after a day frolicking at Craigville Beach. I’ve stood in long lines at night bathed by the red and blue neon sign as I prepare to get hooked up with a scoop of black raspberry. I’ve seen fellow Cape Codders, wash-a-shores, neighbors and visitors, a few of them that could be called celebrities, queue up for a dish of the summertime manna being mined from the cardboard buckets deep inside stainless steel freezers. I’m a fan, always have been, always will be.

Wysocki’s book is written from a very intimate viewpoint. The talented journalist is a bit of a “homer” herself when it comes to Four Seas, as her mother and step-dad are the current owners of the long-time family business. Wysocki could have easily mailed it in with a story as frothy as a milk shake; instead, she combines a little history of Centerville with some inside family memories that add a bitter sweetness to the success story that is truly a Cape Cod institution.

The book opens with a short history of the south-side village first called Chequaquet that turned into Centerville, a picturesque village with homes of sea captains, farmers, businessmen and entrepreneurs. One of the first interesting facts is that the structure that houses Four Seas was originally the building of the village smithy. The smithy was originally farther back on the property, but the first man to put Four Seas on the map had the building moved closer to the road so as to attract customers and make room for freezers in the back.

The person that started it all was William Wells Wilberforth Watson, who at first was only interested in investing in the idea of an ice cream stand across the street from Irving Wolff’s family restaurant Ye Old Cape Codder. Wolff opened the Four Seas Dairy Bar in 1934, but by 1936 still owed Watson $600 after running the summertime stand. Watson decided to come to the Cape and manage the store successfully himself. He did so, and in 1938 bought the Four Seas business and property.

Watson ran the stand into the late 1950s and was looking for a full-time manager when in 1956 Boston University student Richard Warren answered a newspaper ad. Warren landed the job of managing Watson’s store. Watson. who wore an all-white dairy outfit, ran his business with an austere hand but the quality of his product brought people from far and wide. Warren readily took hold of the concept, it didn’t hurt that he also met his future wife Georgia Swift, who had worked on the counter for a few years.

Richard Warren bought Four Seas from Watson in 1960, when Georgia and he were well on their way to raising their family of three children. Warren chose not to alter too much what Watson had begun, realizing it was definitely going to be a huge success story one day. To augment the summertime money Warren took a teaching job at Barnstable High School, where he passed an endless string of potential workers in the halls every day. Working at Four Seas Ice Cream was considered a great job.

The author’s stepfather, Doug Warren, “Dick’s” youngest son, runs the stand today with his wife Peggy. Author Wysocki tells the tale of tragedies that hit the Warren family over the years. First, Warren’s marriage to Georgia failed; later his oldest son Randy was killed in a car accident when he was 22 years old; and then in 2008 Richard Warren himself died in a freak skiing accident in New Hampshire.

Wysocki’s book also touches upon the celebrities from all over the country that have stood in line for a scoop. Four Seas ice cream was a favorite desert for all the Kennedys. The book is filled with charming visits by Jackie Kennedy and former professional football player Rosie Grier, both forgetting their wallets and having to sign an IOU. So good was the ice cream that Bob Hope, who was performing at the Melody Tent, visited the stand with his wife several nights in a row. Steven Tyler, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler and many more have also stopped by.

There are many reasons to enjoy Wysocki’s book about the family business. It’s a telling story about the building of a family business, it’s also a story about an ice cream store that has gained national attention, and her book is filled with institutional knowledge passed down from family and former employees. It a quick summer read for anyone who has ever tasted Four Seas’ delicious deserts, and that for sure is a great many people.
  

Two great upcoming CAR SHOWS in SE Massachusetts

As the Summer season winds down, I am glad to be back home to take in a few Car Shows in the Southeastern Massachusetts area. Car Shows are a great social experience and you get to meet many others who share interest in classic cars.

I'm going to show off my 1963 Willys Jeep which will be sporting a brand new set of military tires from Summit Racing, which offered them a good $ 20 cheaper than Coker Tires.

There are two car shows of note upcoming in SE Massachusetts in September -

Spindles Auto Club - 31st Annual Car Show and Swap Meet

Sunday, September 4, 2011 - (Labor Day Weekend)
Marshfield Fairgrounds
Marshfield, Massachusetts
Route 139 and 3A

For Info Call: 781-335-9754
All Makes and Models Welcome

Participant Gate Opens at 7 AM
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Spectators)

CARS & COPTERS - Sunday, September 18, 2011
Rain date: Friday, September 25, 2011
Plymouth Municipal Airport
Plymouth, Mass.

New England's most unique charity car show began in 2009 as a spin off of Boston Cars and Coffee. There are few events that can boast 750+ cars, there are even less that can do so and manage to get you up close to a dozen different helicopters. Cars and Copter's home can be found at The Plymouth Municipal Airport.

Since our event in 2009, Cars and Copters has become the largest event that Yuppieracing.net hosts.

With the help of Driven Perfection, Heliops LLC, Plymouth Municipal Airport management, B and L Productions, and The Beantown Sound, Yuppieracing.net presents an event opened to all makes and models of cars and motorcycles to benefit The Jimmy Fund in honor of Ricky Hoffman.

Ricky was our special guest in 2009 and sadly, he lost his battle to brain cancer shortly after. All proceeds from the show support Dr. Kieran's Pediatric Brain Tumor Research at Dana-Farber.

Contact: Rebecca Freedman
Phone: 617-632-5008
E-mail: Rebecca_Freedman@dfci.harvard.edu
Website: www.yuppieracing.net
Facebook: Cars and Copters

(Pictures below are from last year's Cars & Copters show)

A video visit to Cape Cod.....Massachusetts' coastal jewel and a very special place...

Winter is in full swing here and the snow is flying.....but the beauty of it is that SPRING & SUMMER are only a few months away....Enclosed is a great video display that shows why we here in Massachusetts say that there in no place like Old Cape Cod.... If you have never visited, you should make a plan to come and see what Henry David Thoreau saw when he said,

"We do not associate the idea of antiquity with the ocean, nor wonder how it looked a thousand years ago, as we do of the land, for it was equally wild and unfathomable always. The Indians have left no traces on its surface, but it is the same to the civilized man and the savage. The aspect of the shore only has changed. "

Quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau; Cape Cod (1855-1865),

Back Home.....

The arrival back home has been enjoyed and it is great to see family and friends....I even took my 1963 Willys Jeep down to the Halifax Car Show on Friday evening.......36 hours after leaving Kandahar, I was at the Car Show with my best friend smoking a few fine Cuban Cigars and humbly accepting the kind remarks of those who admired my Old Jeep......

Time passes quickly and soon, it will be time to reverse the process and head back....But until then, I'll enjoy & savor each moment with the knowledge of this is what we all work hard for....Friends & Family, time at home, and the comfort of all that is cherished.

Summertime in Southeastern Massachusetts is an awesome time of year and all should take in the splendor of the season and all that it offers.....The Middleboro Veterans Memorial Park is one of the sites to see when you come to Middleboro, MA for a visit.....I am proud to be part of the group that created and built this beautiful and solemn memorial to all our Veterans, past & present.

More to follow as time allows.....time is fleeting and it waits for no man....off to play with my old cars and spend an afternoon celebrating " Beberday", a local and not so well known holiday in these parts.....