I’ve always loved radio. My parents never had it on in the house. Every once in a while my Mom would play show tunes on the record player while she cleaned but for the most part it was quiet or the TV was on.

The car was a different story. In the car, when my Dad was driving, we would listen to the radio. My Dad loved to drive. He had a compass mounted to the dashboard and we would head out on side streets and back roads until we found our destination. Never going the same way twice. He would do this even when we were late, which was most of the time, and that would just infuriate my mother.

On Saturdays it was always the Texaco Metropolitan Opera. I think my Dad would take those back roads just so he could listen longer. Late on Sunday afternoons though we could faintly pick up this Public Radio Station out of Albany and they would play all the great radio shows of the 30’s and 40’s. Gang Busters and The Jack Benny Show were always my favorite. We couldn’t get the station in the house. So often on Sunday evenings my Dad and I would sit in the driveway with the car pointed in just the right direction and listen to our favorite episodes. For years for Christmas my Dad would get me a radio drama on record and that’s where I found the Shadow, Green Hornet and a great two LP set of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

      "Everybody has a story from that day."  That is what State Senator Steve Brewer said to me as we talked after the dedication of the Franklin St. Fire Station in Worcester earlier this week.  Steve along with State Senator Harriet Chandler, Rep. Vinnie Pedone and the entire Central Mass. delegation had worked hard over the years to get some state funding for this living, working, memorial to Worcester's six fallen heroes.

     The speeches had been filled with emotion.  Lt. Governor Tim Murray and District Councilor Phil Palmierie each had trouble at times as their voices cracked, and their eyes welled with tears.  "Everybody has a story from that day."  That is why, 9 years later, the dedication ceremony still held so much emotion.  Not because of the words being spoken, although they were fine words, but because everyone was suddenly back to that horrible night.  The flames that towered so high, the smoke that engulfed Washington Square and the city, the first reports that six were still inside.  That they had gone in to search for a reported homeless couple known to be living in the Cold Storage Warehouse.  That the alarm to bring the men out had sounded.  The realization that the six were not coming out.

Worcester a City on the Move!?!

     Worcester City Manager Mike O'Brien and then Mayor Tim Murray did much to make "Worcester a City on the Move" more than just a slogan. To make it a real feeling that for a time had even the "nay sayers" believing.  The first time I heard anyone use the term was when Mark Love, who was head of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce at the time, used it when discussing what he felt was an overwhelming amount of negativity in the media coverage of Worcester.  Mark wanted to find a vehicle to focus on the good news on telling what he felt was the real story of what was happening in the city. Worcester is a City on the Move with a great story to tell but no one is hearing it he would say.