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  • With or Without Wheels

    Boston Marathon 1997 wheelchair division coming through Framingham, MA

    FRAMINGHAM, MA – Temperatures above 50 degrees and wind from the east are not considered favorable conditions for running from Hopkinton to Boston, and it was already starting to show on the faces of some of the ten thousand plus runners as they paced their way through the Framingham stretch of the 101st running of the Boston Marathon.

    Runners left Hopkinton at 12 noon and the wheelchair division 15 minutes earlier. To participate, entrants had to be 18 years or older on race day, and have completed a sanctioned marathon with a qualifying time for their division during the previous year. With competetion like the Kenyans, Uta Pippig, Jean Driscoll, and other course favorites, most knew from the outset that they could not hope to win — and most only hoped to finish the 26.2 mile course …in any amount of time.

    Runners passing through Downtown Framingham in Boston Marathon, 1997First to cross the Framingham town line and pass the cheering crowds in downtown at a few minutes after noon, was the wheelchair division. Passing the Rt. 135 / Rt. 126, (Waverly St. / Concord St.), intersection, the difficulty of navigating rail-road crossings on the three wheeled racing chairs was obvious — and became painfully so for Jean Driscoll when she later lost control and flipped her chair in Bookline’s Cleveland Cirlce after her front wheel got hung up on a trolly track.

    At the time of the crash, Driscoll, who had won the woman’s wheelchair division for the past seven years, and held the course record in (more…)

  • Landslide Saves Town

    [photo[ Framingham Town Clerk, George King
    Framingham Town Clerk, George King, tallies final vote counts

    FRAMINGHAM, MA – Today was a historic day for the town of Framingham Massachusetts as voters cast more than twice as many votes to turn back a proposed charter that would have transformed the largest town in the state into just another medium sized city.

    Announcing the election results in a press conference held in the Ablondi Room of the Memorial Building, Town Clerk George King declared the charter ballot question had lost by a 30 percent to 70 percent margin. At 9:15pm, with all votes in, King’s unverified tally showed that 11,892 had voted on the ballot question, and that only 3647 were YES votes, while 8245 voters sent a loud and clear NO!

    (more…)

  • April Fool’s Blizzard of ’97

    FRAMINGHAM, MA – After an unusually warm winter, with little snow, people were a little amused when, during the last days of March, meteorologists started predicting a blizzard would hit the area.

    [PHOTO] April Fools Blizzard, 1997, Framingham MA
    Just the day before this photo was taken people were seen walking around downtown in t-shirts and shorts, but during the storm it was necessary for plows to pile 8-10 feet of snow in the rotary in Memorial Square to keep roads clear and traffic moving. (photo by Randy Harris)

    It wasn’t Yankee humor, but the weather forecasters did have the last laugh when rain, then sleet, then snow, snow, and more snow buried the town in 24″ of the heavy wet stuff during the record setting single-day storm.

    [PHOTO] Winter St. Dam, April Fools Blizzard, 1997, Framingham, MA
    Warm temperatures returned almost immediately after the storm causing such fast melting snow and runoff that the ground vibrated as water pounded over the falls on Winter St. (photo by Randy Harris)

    As luck had it, town elections, originally scheduled for April 2nd had already been moved up to April 8th.. this was done because Framingham Public Schools were on vacation for the week, which also lessened the impact of the storm— school kids were home to enjoy the snow without adding snow days to the end of the school year.

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    April Fool’s Blizzard of ’97

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