July - 2017

Granite State of Mind, #142: Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, Manchester

Joe Pace

Jul 24, 2017

Granite State of Mind, #142: Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, Manchester

You have to love minor league baseball. Tickets, hot dogs, ball caps, parking for a family of four all under a hundred bucks? We make it point to get out to Cheney Stadium here in Tacoma a few times a summer with the boys to see the Rainiers, Seattle's AAA affiliate. I've also enjoyed my share of trips to Portland, Maine to see the Sea Dogs (in their awesome mini-Fenway up there). But the minor league park I've visited most has to be the one on the Merrimack River in Manchest

Granite State of Mind, #141: Exeter Sportsmans Club, Exeter

Joe Pace

Jul 21, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #141: Exeter Sportsmans Club, Exeter

There will be those who will scratch their heads at this entry. After all, I've never been a member of the club, and the only times I've visited have been in my capacity as an elected official. Some on the left might wonder at my profiling a gun club imagined orthodoxy would have me oppose, while some on the right might assume every Democrat is hell-bent to take their guns away. As is so often the case, assumptions about dogma based on calcified stereotypes are wrong on both

Joe Pace

Jul 20, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #140: Rumney

I love the fact that when I went looking for pictures of Rumney, the internet gave me an unending stream of rock climbing pictures. Apparently this little North Country hamlet is a climbing mecca, with the Rumney Rocks of Rattlesnake Mountain a destination for sport climbers who know their schist. The Polar Caves are another popular tourist destination in town. It's a far cry from 150 years ago when Rumney was a lumber town, with fifteen operating sawmills and railway service

Granite State of Mind, #139: The Lower Field, Exeter High School, Exeter

Joe Pace

Jul 19, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #139: The Lower Field, Exeter High School, Exeter

From the parking lot behind the old Exeter Junior High School (now the YMCA) or from the southeast end zone of the old Eustis Field, two unmarked dirt trails converge in the trees. Beyond a rusty metal and wooden footbridge over the Little River, the path leads to a wide open space that used to have ancient goalposts with flaking blue paint, concrete block houses full of museum-quality football equipment, and at the far end, embraced by encroaching forest, stood a forgotten a

Granite State of Mind, #138: Citizens Bank, Shaw's Branch, Portsmouth

Joe Pace

Jul 18, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #138: Citizens Bank, Shaw's Branch, Portsmouth

During my six years in harness at Citizens Bank, I had offices in lots of different branches. My usual haunts were Exeter, Portsmouth, and Dover, but my travels as a business banking officer led me to plug in my laptop and get work done all over the state, from Colebrook to Hampton Falls and almost everywhere in between (even over the border to Amesbury). The bank rarely meant brick and mortar to me. It was almost always about people - customers, of course, but also colleague

Granite State of Mind, #137: Keene State College, Keene

Joe Pace

Jul 17, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #137: Keene State College, Keene

In Ghostbusters, Ray Stantz references Gozer's entrance into our reality as the biggest interdimensional cross-rip since the Tunguska blast of 1909. Coincidentally, that same year saw the founding of Keene Normal School as a teachers college. Later, it would become part of the University System of New Hampshire as Keene State College (abbreviated KSC, which some of the less charitable of us at UNH would claim stood for "Kinda Sorta College"). Two hours down 101 west from the

Granite State of Mind, #136: Wentworth by the Sea, New Castle

Joe Pace

Jul 14, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #136: Wentworth by the Sea, New Castle

New Hampshire was at the center of the grand hotel craze in the latter half of the 19th century, with hotels catering to the new wealthy leisure class springing up across the state like moss after a rainfall. Only a handful remain now, including the Balsams and the Mount Washington. The only one on the seacoast resides in New Castle, where the Wentworth by the Sea perches above the Piscataqua like an owlish Victorian dowager empress. The Wentworth was built with 82 rooms in 1

Granite State of Mind, #135: Chocorua Lake, Tamworth

Joe Pace

Jul 13, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #135: Chocorua Lake, Tamworth

When I was a kid, Wentworth was our go-to family lake. For most of my adult life, Merrymeeting has been the place. But I'll admit to a fondness for Chocorua Lake, nestled along route 16 between Ossipee and Conway. It has a quiet, peaceful vibe, with very little development along its shores (due to property owner conservation easements and a motorboat ban), and it looks up in a serene kind of wonder at the rocky summit of its 3,500-ft name partner. Canoes, kayaks, fishermen, a

Granite State of Mind, #134: Ioka Theater, Exeter

Joe Pace

Jul 12, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #134: Ioka Theater, Exeter

Thanksgiving weekend of 2008 I wrote a post on Facebook wondering whether there would be local support for rescuing and restoring the iconic Ioka Theater and reinventing it as a community venue. The response was immediate and overwhelming, and before long with Carol Walker Aten and some other local dreamers we formed the Exeter Theater Company to spearhead the effort. Trevor Bartlett, Roger Goun, and many, many more. A ton of sweat and time were invested by a lot of people, a

Granite State of Mind, #133: C-Lot, University of New Hampshire, Durham

Joe Pace

Jul 11, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #133: C-Lot, University of New Hampshire, Durham

Back from hiatus with one of my favorite places in the state. Funny, considering it's really just a fairly small equilateral of pavement, a parking lot infamous to commuter students for occupying the vertex of perfect location and vanishingly infrequent availability. A space in C-Lot was the Holy Grail, the macguffin of the parking quest, earned through blind luck or the patience of the lurking predator. As a resident student, I never had much call to participate in the carou

Granite State of Mind, #132: Phillips Exeter Academy Chapel, Exeter

Joe Pace

Jul 2, 2017

Granite State of Mind

Granite State of Mind, #132: Phillips Exeter Academy Chapel, Exeter

(Hiatus from hiatus) Twelve years ago today, I learned that a perfect woman has a flaw. She's brilliant, dedicated, talented, selfless, loving, ambitious, hardworking, gorgeous - but, thank goodness, she ain't picky. On July 2, 2005, Sarah Pace became my wife at the Phillips Exeter Academy Chapel on Tan Lane. Many of you were there as Reverend Thompson officiated over a union that came as a bit of surprise to everyone, us included, and yet has stood the test of time. It was a

Categories

Archive