Monday, Sep 14: More Stores of the Past

WBSM presents the very Richard show streaming live on WBSM.com and the WBSM app. Call 508-996-0500. Text us using app chat on the WBSM app. Now the very Richard show. 207 on a Monday afternoon 508-996-0500 is the number of New Bedford residents are being asked to change how they dispose of trash in order to reduce the amount of waste that's sent to the Crapo Hill landfill. For its part the city is taking action to try to expand the life of that landfill. The Mitchell administration has announced a new partnership with the Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District and Black Earth Compost to launch a new curbside food scrap collection incentive program for New Bedford residents. Now many of you will remember that we used to do that years ago and they stopped it for some reason. And the program asked residents to reduce household trash by having food scraps collected directly from their homes and transformed into nutrient-rich compost. To encourage participation in the as of now voluntary program the first 100 willing participants will be provided with starter kits which include one 13-gallon wheeled curbside cart and a roll of BPI certified compostable liners, one two-gallon sure close kitchen countertop bin put your food waste in. I think it's going to be a mighty smelly affair personally but also six months supply of BPI certified compostable kitchen bin liners, one cubic foot bag of Black Earth compost potting soil. So that's all of that is what you get for volunteering if you're one of the first 100 to volunteer. Residents can sign up for the program by visiting the Black Earth compost website. Composting pricing and subscription options. Black Earth compost charges a fee to collect food waste. Weekly collection costs $21.99 per month or $119.99 for six months. Every other week collection $17.99 per month or $94.99 for six months. For more food waste division diversion options you can visit the New Bedford recycling.org or contact the Greater New Bedford Refuse Management District, Regional Refuse Management District. Again this isn't New Bedford's first rodeo with this stuff, we always had the waste collection, food scrap waste collection that was common not that long ago. So is this something that you would partake in? If you volunteer you get the equipment but the the bags and all that kind of stuff you're going to have to replenish those you're going to buy them but in order to have your food waste picked up you're going to have to you're going to have to pay. You can get on a weekly plan, a monthly plan, an annual plan, whatever. Meanwhile the Refuse District is awaiting state approval on a proposal to expand disposal capacity at Crapo Hill by building a seventh waste disposal cell. The multi-acre basin lined with an impermeable barrier and other engineering controls to safely contain solid waste would increase the landfill's volume by 750,000 cubic yards, increasing the life of the landfill by several years. So you know I'm looking at some of the reactions to this online to my story and then people are some people are like gee I already compost or no thank you I already pay enough taxes I'm not going to pay to have my food waste picked up. You know somebody that I mentioned this to over the weekend said food waste what's that we don't have any of that at our house we eat everything we cook and we clean our plates so um there's that but uh would you want to start paying like uh gee I don't know what did I say the price was um $21.99 per month for weekly collection of your food waste that's something you're interested in spending money on yikes 508-996-0500 let's get some calls back on the hanging on whoops you got the sticky button today there you go now you're on the air go ahead sorry about that very good hi Barry good afternoon it's bob mcconnell calling hey bob mcconnell calling yes sir yes sir uh Barry I was listening in earlier as uh some of the callers were discussing the nostalgia of uh earlier times and the uh you know development of New Bedford and neighborhoods and things like that and it made me uh think of the three events that were coming up just this week in our local area what do you got well we uh had a meeting in Rochester a meeting in Fairhaven and also one in Mattapoisette and those are all Republican town committee meetings but the entire community is invited Democrats unenrolled Republicans also tonight out in Rochester at the Ponderosa Sportsman's Club they were having a law enforcement fundraiser with Sheriff Hodgdon and uh Steve Axaros the state rep from the 5th uh Barnstable District speaking and in Fairhaven at the Senior Center tomorrow we were having Paula Santos Young speak on the fentanyl crisis and also a candidate for the 10th Bristol District here and uh a third person is Louis Rivera who is going to be running for school board out in Rochester and has his uh active active uh campaign going to uh address uh school safety for children and uh boys and girls bathrooms and those issues and then out in Mattapoisette on Thursday Tim Dunn is speaking I believe and uh they had another speaker um let me just see who that is but um oh Anne Brinsley was coming down how about that and Tim Dunn in Mattapoisette so we must be important this year huh I know they're all coming down there okay I just I walked in the studio before and gee there is um Elizabeth Dion I'm like wow and now we get Anne Brinsley coming down too yeah they're paying attention for one reason because we've got so much uh activity going on in uh not just Fairhaven and New Bedford but all the surrounding towns too and you know I'm really most grateful for that because it does give people a sense of belonging and well-being and uh developing friendships and and just basically knowing that you're not alone and that's something that we're striving to bring bring back again it's this uh get rid of this sense of isolation and invite people to different events and let them know that you're you'll be welcomed uh whenever you show up no uh no animosity no fights no uh political uh arguments going on just uh passing out information and listening to people's uh um concerns and comments so all that's awesome like we used to do in the old days yeah like I know right yeah exactly it's not a new concept it's one that is uh time-tested so I gotta tell you you mentioned the Ponderosa Sports Club uh and boy that threw me back a million years back in the 1960s that was founded by my father's Uncle Harry and Aunt Joan and they were beautiful Uncle Harry made that uh sausage out there and uh I the story he told me was that the milk industry had slowed down a little bit and they had a dairy farm but all the uh farmers and milk deliverers needed a place to have lunch so we opened up one of the barn buildings and started serving uh deer and sandwiches and lunch and that's how it started but uh a great place and uh great pizza they still have the great pizza they do and they will have that pizza uh along with the price of the ticket which I think is 25 bucks tonight so cold beer pizza and uh hear some great speakers and maybe meet some new friends tell you what that's how I got introduced to country music was as a kid in the 60s uh my parents would go out there to see Uncle Harry and Aunt Joan and on uh Sunday afternoons they would have uh they would have bands uh in the wintertime and I think they still do and yeah so so I'd see all the uh Roger Roger Quentin I think his name was and uh all of the old uh country artists from around here and I'd learn uh you know all about Charlie Pryde and Johnny Cash and all of these guys because they they paid great tribute to them every week so that was all good stuff good memories I'm glad you brought that up yeah and it's a great country bar too because uh I think there's a country song about it half of the bar is in one town and the other half is in the in the other town so uh the equestrian at Rochester line goes right through the middle absolutely hey good stuff I appreciate you checking in Bob thank you thank you Barry bye-bye all right Bob McConnell 508-996-0500 and he gets a sticky line I don't know why this button sticks all the time even hang up there we go and we'll go over here you're next at WBSM thanks for hanging out hey Barry you're talking about nostalgia in your bathroom right can I give you a little Puerto Rican history here uh Puerto Ricans started arriving in your bathroom in the 50s and early 60s okay and these are these are Puerto Ricans that had two uh households right there the husband and the wife there was a different clientele than what they have today but they seem to settle in South Water Street uh like uh Division Street all the way to South Water to Cold Street and Barry South Water Street was beautiful it had a lot of Puerto Rican stores and businesses it was a vibrant neighborhood it felt so beautiful because you know I came from New York City during the 60s and what they were burning the landlords were burning the buildings for insurance and we left there to come over here to New Bedford and find this place so beautiful and like I said the they settled in that neighborhood right and then in the 70s you have these outside agitators that came to town and uh if you remember the riots yeah summer of 1970 yeah I remember that well that didn't that didn't stop by Puerto Ricans that lived in New Bedford that was the agitators that came here and started all of that and and then they're burning the buildings down their businesses right and I couldn't believe it I went to the leaders and I come what the hell are you guys doing you stupid ass you're burning your whole neighborhoods right we went through that in New York City now you're doing it here right and I told him you're gonna we're gonna lose this because the government is not gonna allow that and and sure enough Barry if you see route uh 18 going south yeah it they made it turn just slightly west right uh right through the neighborhood so that whole neighborhood's gone it's all route 18 right all those beautiful houses and businesses all gone and uh you had a good Puerto Rican neighborhood of vibrant hard-working people there was work all over the place uh I remember my uncles come over here they had good year in the south then good good paying jobs and you can come over here and make a living you know I mean well there were a lot of good mills going down I mean even in the south then you had Firestone and uh you know a bunch of other mills that were going anybody could find a job within an hour you lose a job you find another one within an hour and uh and made some good money doing it yeah you know you can quit a job in the morning you had another one in the afternoon yeah and and there were good paying jobs uh unfortunately right now in New Bedford you don't see a Puerto Rican neighborhood you see they live in work one through six and that community things like you know if you go to Borton they got a little Chinatown uh Italian town things like that uh New Bedford missed out on on that but is there is there a place that you could call a Puerto Rican neighborhood now or a Puerto Rican section is there any place like that in New Bedford not that I know of no and uh because they're all scared we did have the opportunity but these dumbasses started burning the city and I told them the government is not gonna allow this yeah they're not gonna rebuild it they weren't gonna rebuild it no no so they if you look at Barry if you look at Route 18 from the top on the map google map yeah you see it turn they they could have gone straight to Cove Street but no they went a little bit to the west and wiped out that whole neighborhood all gone uh South Florida Street is under a one uh Route 18 now you know yeah and and it's sad because uh you know I look at that and I remember how beautiful it was and I remember New Bedford in the 60s gorgeous gorgeous you know you left the doors open you didn't worry about crime uh it was just so so beautiful and clean the federal government tore the heart out of this city with urban renewal between Route 18 and before that 195 and 140 I think in between if I remember correctly 140 came before 18 it was 195 then I think it was 18 then 140 if I remember um just tore the heart out of the city neighborhoods um just uh stores businesses and memories because those were your memories right that was your childhood that was you know you were a teenager I think when you came here right from from New York yeah yeah yeah from New York yeah and like I said it was beautiful it was just beautiful tenement houses uh you saw you went to Cove Street uh going south and the old Portuguese people would put uh cobblestones in front of their houses New Bedford was gorgeous I mean I still think New Bedford is pretty uh it's suffering like a lot of big city stuff uh but that's the government you know I mean like when my parents came here right uh they struggled Barry they struggled and uh my father and mother were together and the only way that uh welfare would help them if is if my father was not there right so a lot of families had to report that the husband was not there the fathers were not there and uh that contributed to all this mess we have here today it encouraged it and that you're exactly right and that that uh established and created ghettos in big cities all across this country uh divided families you know one parent households uh kids in trouble kids in jail uh a collapsed education system all because of that and that what we refer to as the great society that started Lyndon Johnson in 1964 just absolutely devastated this country well I saw the change Barry I lived the change and I remember my father and mother struggling together and when they came to this country in the 50s that was the first thing they told him because my father mother went to the welfare department for help and they told him sorry you don't mean you're there and he had to get out and that hurt us you know me so when your parents came from your parents came from from Puerto Rico and settled in New York right there must there must have been family there right yes okay and then when you moved from New York to New Bedford was their family here that you were following a lost aunt that we hadn't seen uh for years my uncle found her and he came here to visit and when he saw New Bedford my god this was like heaven it was so gorgeous beautiful and I remember that you know I mean and uh and they settled and then when they came to visit my uncle and they saw this and little by little every all my family moved here they don't live here no more I'm the last of the Mohegans here uh everybody went to like South Carolina Florida uh they moved they moved out of here for better opportunities yeah uh because where New Bedford was declining other places were doing okay uh but yeah I'm the last of the Mohegans here yeah it was I mean it was it was short shortly after that I mean you know the riots the sum of the riots were 1970 that was under uh George Rogers was mayor and um you know um industry had already begun leaving industry was already on the decline and uh it accelerated after that and then of course they're ripping up the uh the the city for the the highways and everything and um and then a little bit later after that you had NAFTA and um you know things just uh it just totally disappeared and people followed the industry because there just weren't any opportunities here any further it was awful I can remember in the 70s um I graduated from high school in 76 and and um you know all of the kids that I went to school with everybody left they went to school somewhere else and never came back or they found jobs elsewhere because there just were no opportunities here and I'm afraid that's where Massachusetts is heading again yeah and if this keeps up Barry you know I I I got uh you know I'm older now I got all my doctors here and New Bedford is so easy to just go to the doctor's office or go shopping everything's so close by you know I mean yeah uh you don't have to travel 10 miles to go get some milk uh and I've loved this about the city but if if this continues you know I mean like they uh I heard the show in the morning where they're considering bringing uh a site where you can inject now I because of a health situation Barry I got to go to Boston uh Boston Medical Center and that whole neighborhood around there right you syringes people on the floor you see zombies and if they want to bring that to New Bedford my god you know I mean I think that would be the last straw for me thank you my friend good stuff appreciate it I always appreciate talking to you 508-996-0500 I gotta get the break in we're gonna come back after this stay tuned back to Barry Richard on WBSM call 508-996-0500 you'd have um like in the Polish you had a Polish section you had a French section you had and and it's everybody just kind of like sort of melded together in the years uh they went by people tended to move around people used to stay in one place back in the day uh but then um in one neighborhood and businesses were there and um you know you went to the school in the neighborhood but once all of that changed neighborhoods kind of broke down and people just moved all over the place um anyway um other stuff your donations are pouring in for the holdout juror who blocked the triple child killer Lindsey Clancy's acquittal I cannot believe what they are doing to this guy this guy did what he swore to do when he was sworn in as a juror right to vote his conscience and to uh you know uh listen to the information and um and um make a decision based on his uh understanding of the information that was presented and this guy has been terrorized you know I couldn't believe that he's a black he's a black guy I didn't realize that at first it doesn't really matter but it came out that he was a black guy and you know people like Gail King Oprah's pal uh Gail King oh I can't believe the holdout was a black man one of it's like shut the bloopity bloop up the guy was a man doing what he was supposed to do uh what he swore in a bible to do and um just because you don't like his vote or his views or his position that's why you have 12 people on the jury but it seems all the other members of the jury were all activists and they wanted to clear this woman immediately within 10 minutes and he's saying no this doesn't sit well with me anyway the fury is aimed at um NBC 10 Boston apparently one of his commentators uh Sue O'Connell who I wouldn't be able to distinguish between her and a bag of rocks I've never seen her don't know her never heard of her uh I don't think I've ever seen NBC 10 Boston but anyway um Sue O'Connell I guess a reporter NBC 10 Boston on Friday released dismissed criminal allegations dismissed charges that were brought and then dismissed which generally means there's no case here charges brought they're so she reported on this jurors dismissed criminal allegations a family restraining order and a housing court judgment against the unnamed juror now I wonder if they did the same kind of investigating into the other jurors this guy became an enemy because he didn't want to release a triple murderer woman who killed her kids didn't buy into this whole postpartum depression thing so they're treating this guy as though he's an enemy a bad guy somebody did something bad and this is what the media did to him or at least this uh particular media and and you know again Gayle King oh I can't believe he's one of us a black man many on the right find it unfathomable this according to a mass daily news um that a triple child killer was one juror away from being acquitted to that side of the country the man who refused to acquit Lindsay Clancy is not a defendant he is the hero he's a hero NBC 10 Boston commenter Sue O'Connell doubled down with a follow-up Lindsay Clancy trial new information about the holdout juror her post was viewed 54,000 times I wonder if he could sue her I mean what business is it of hers to do that what is what right does she have to do that to him the give send go stand with juror campaign is raising security legal and lost wage money for the man as of Saturday it had drawn roughly $23,000 it was promoted on x by give send go co-founder uh Jacob exec wheels Florida governor Ron DeSantis has publicly offered him asylum if he wants out of Massachusetts he remains unnamed the trial judge impounded the jury list be at MSNB 10 no what is it NBC 10 in Boston uh was able to get the guy's name and do a background check on him and find all this stuff about his past and to publish it as though that's relevant to anything Sue O'Connell a longtime in NBC 10 Boston commentator and host of the show of the channel's Commonwealth Confidential posted the quote-unquote exclusive from her verified NBC Boston account exclusive the holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial had a history of domestic violence allegations investigators have learned through court documents and interviews with family members O'Connell went on to write Friday the story itself was reported by NBC 10 investigator Ryan Kaff O'Connell the network's longtime courtroom commentator promoted it and then spent the next 24 hours defending it on the platform Sue O'Connell's post exploded garnering a massive 4.8 million views and 8,900 replies most of them tearing into her only 1,800 people liked it five replies for every like one ex-user called O'Connell a monster that was one of the milder ones I can think of a few choice words for her under her post an ex-community note has been drafted flagging the story against Massachusetts state law general law chapter 268 13b criminalizes willfully intimidating harassing or retaliating against the juror or family with intent to interfere or punish for participation the pending note reads I mean look if everybody if everybody becomes afraid that their past or their present is going to be published by the media if they serve on a jury and vote in an unpopular way if it's going to be you know put all out there in the media nobody's going to want to serve on a jury anymore so it should be against the law this woman should be charged criminally NBC should fire her immediately I don't know why they have it I would have as her news director I would have fired her ass instantaneously it's the media folks 508-996-0500 you're next on WBSM thanks for hanging on hey Barry Don hey Don um yeah no you were talking about Woolworths before I get into my main topic here Woolworths used to sell men's dungarees for seven dollars they were polyester and cotton they were made by Wrangler but they reversed the w to a maverick they were the best dungarees I ever owned I remember maverick jeans that sound I forgot about that yeah I remember that now I remember them oh maverick where's Woolworth it's gone wow oh killed me oh gosh they were great yeah they were really really great yeah no but uh quickly uh regarding people getting beaten and threatening out there I want to remind everybody that the senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts was nearly beaten to death she was chambers by a democrat representative who took umbrage and offense as to what Sumner said about his uncle oh um what was his uncle's name there anyways uh the uncle supported slavery Sumner was against us Brooks went in with a cane beating Sumner in the head but he brought along a friend with a gun that prevented anybody from stopping the beating in the house of the in the uh senate chambers yeah he took quite a whooping from that he was I mean he was very badly injured from that yes he was yes he was yeah and then they no people don't know about this but I mean this is the insanity they should know about you know other other jurors in Great Britain I don't know if you read if you've read of this but William Penn was arrested for the conventicle act in other words he was speaking a religion that was against British law well had he been convicted there never would have been a Pennsylvania because he never would have been awarded the land in Pennsylvania because of his uncle who was an admiral Admiral Penn well guess who was the worst persons on the juror for the jury were the three judges who refused to accept the fact they would not find William Penn guilty of the conventicle act they said he was guilty of speaking in public well that enraged them for three days they held the jurors up in a upper room no food no water no bathroom nothing people were throwing food in through the window until the British army showed up to prevent them from doing that wow yeah this actually happened you know uh William Penn and Edmund Burke was the foreman of the jury and oh god they were vilified and everything else by the judges and by the government but not the people unreal thanks Don there's always great stuff thank you 508-996-0500 gotta get the break in we're coming right down this portion of programming on WBSM brought to you by south coast health advanced medicine more care back to Barry Richard on WBSM call 508-996-0500 i worked in the lingerie department and speaking of water street when i came from portugal at the age of eight my first movie that i ever saw was at the royal theater i think it was royal uh right on water street and the movie was a flower drum song it was i'm sorry the movie what was the name of the movie flower drum song oh wow okay that was a musical right yes it was okay nice movie nice movie though yeah uh yeah and i we came to the south end as well we lived on division javette and then we moved to dartmouth after a while but i'm gonna i'm gonna pull one out here that was miyushu umeki that was in that yes wow it was a wonderful movie it really every now and then you can catch it like uh somewhere probably online i'm sure you can find it online well yeah exactly exactly so what happened to your old neighborhood your old neighborhood is pretty much gone right yeah it is it is my aunt lived on division uh when she came from portugal for over 60 years and she passed so now her son is still living on division but you know the wonderful memories we would sit out on the porch in the summer and all the little old ladies i would i would do their hair i'd uh they'd wash their hair once a week and i put their hair in rollers i'd write all their christmas cards it was wonderful memories it was a wonderful community actually back when people sat out on the front porch did you call it the piazza did you go sit on the piazza yeah yes yes we did i thank you for the memory yeah my mother used to call it the piazza to go out on the piazza yeah but that way you know if back in the old days like that i mean we didn't we didn't have much tv i mean there were like three channels on tv or whatever exactly exactly and it was so hot in the house we didn't have air conditioning you might have a window fan so everybody sat on the front porch that night on the front porch and we would talk to everybody yeah you know it was incredible is it now if you were in a three-decker everybody from the second and third floor they'd all come down and everybody would hang out there and yeah exactly i miss those you know i am so happy that i actually got to live through a portion of that me too now i live way out in dartmouth it's a very lonely place because people don't visit that often anymore uh so it's like you know you you get to see people at funerals weddings or you know at grocery stores that's it yeah the doctor's office i see everybody in the doctor's office that's true too but neighborhoods were you know in the neighborhoods were such that i can remember if i ever got in trouble in the neighborhood the the the neighbors were always allowed to give me hell if they want you know they they became my parents they could yeah and um or if i fell down and scraped my knee you know the woman next door could could put some uh what was it back then vaccine i think it was they could put some yeah yeah yes and clean or me cure a chrome remember that stuff with that it was like when we bought it when we go to church when we go to church people would um uh tell my parents oh your daughters were talking in church if we if my sister and i went alone because we walked him on camel you know okay yeah we walked and then they come back the little old ladies would say oh you know your daughters were talking at church and we get a little lecture about talking at church i can remember you know like the neighbors would all i mean not only do we all sit out at night i mean i can remember every night during the week with my father and i at least would sit on the porch and uh because the red socks would be on the radio back then they weren't on tv there were no tv game maybe on the weekend you might get to see a tv game but they were always on the radio so we'd sit on the on the front porch and he'd have his um he'd have his quart of narragansett beer and he'd be either reading his uh read his digest or doing his crossword puzzle and uh we'd be listening to the red socks together it was quality time that you would spend yeah and it's okay that was that was another brand of beer i don't remember that when i remember uh my dad would would get like narragansett um or if he was broke that week maybe black label or something you know uh and but that was i mean those were quality times that we just don't have anymore you know yes they were yes they were it was a community today everybody's very isolated very closed in and somebody knocks on your door the other thing is now all these three deckers you don't go we used to have the entrances were all open so you could go to the third floor and knock on the third floor now everybody's got locked right on the main door going into the entrances so you know it's it's totally different well you had screen doors too and i can remember my mother would leave the door she'd leave the front door open at night and just lock the screen door and we'd go to bed and leave the door open exactly you know yeah yeah such a different different way of life and and you there's no way you can explain that to some of the some of the folks today that didn't live it and it's not their fault they just didn't live it you know what we all got we got rid of our cities we we tore them down and are they you know we we surrendered them we all moved out to the suburbs and everybody wanted the neighborhood you know that kind of isolation and everything and what we lost was immeasurable in terms of not having that community yeah definitely and walking to the walking to the corner store the little corner little uh grocery stores that they had but they had everything you whatever you wanted they always had it well what i did do is uh roberts market on the on the boulevard roberts market uh pete's luncheonette hammond's fish and chips there was the the brown jug there the guys who go there for beer after work on friday or whatever you don't even have neighborhood bars anymore you don't have any of that stuff anymore it's no you don't i gotta hold you my friend excellent call i appreciate it thanks for the memories we're going to come back after the break stay tuned i can think of remember you go there on certain days it looked like zombie movie with people oh you know what it methadone clinic it might have been a methadone clinic oh was it a methadone okay yeah that because that that we've had a few of those around the city yeah because i just remembered that and then i remember they got rid of it i wasn't sure if that was the same thing or not yeah i know that was there where people would um i think you have to have a prescription um a friend of mine was actually a driver uh for that they go around pick people up and bring them to the methadone clinic so they can get their fix um all right yeah and in those i believe are still in business this morning yeah but in terms of the safe injection sites they're not legal in mass yet but uh don't hold your breath because i think they will be pretty soon wonderful just all we need yeah right don't have enough trouble have a good day thank you my friend appreciate it 508-996-0500 that's it that's going to do it for us for today uh fun show today really interesting i always love to talk about um you know someday i keep threatening i'm going to go over to a nursing home or go over to a senior center i love to go over and hang at the senior center just talk to folks about you know the old days and memories and that because that is so cool to remember um in some ways it's sad but in other ways it's great because we live in a time many of many folks my age and older we live in a time that you can't even explain to young people today