Researcher: Your job is to find some background information related to an important idea in the reading. Search through available references such as library books, reference books such as the encyclopedia, magazines. You might even interview someone who knows about your topic. Find some websites on the Internet so that you can do your investigation online. Share an interesting tidbit related to your reading.
Please respond to one other Research entry.
7 comments:
Ralph Fletcher makes many comments throughout the book regarding the historical significance of Marshfield, MA. Fletcher mentions on pg. 95, "Marshfield was a historic place with lots of old houses, and Jimmy Dean lived in one of the oldest houses in town, built in the early 1700's." After researching online about the town of Marshfield, I learned some important information.
Marshfield was established in 1620.
Edward Winslow, who was a signatory on the Mayflower Compact, established the colony and became the governor of Plymouth Colony.
Marshfield became part of the commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1692.
Marshfield got its name from the many salt marshes that surround the town.
There are many beaches in Marshfield and it has become a very desireable place for tourists. Ralph often mentions his day trips with his family to Humarock and Rexhame Beach. There are 3 rivers that flow through the town: South, North and Green Harbor River. Although Humarock Beach is actually in Scituate, MA the bridge that takes you there over the South River is only accessible from Marshfield.
I thought this information was very interesting and helpful in understanding the history and geography of the town of Marshfield which Ralph Fletchers speaks of so fondly.
Meg,
Thank you for finding out so much information about Marshfield. While I was reading I found myself being more curious about the kind of place Marshfield was/is. I was picturing it to be such a beautiful place and wanting to visit it. I picture it to be a cute and quaint little town. I wonder if it still as that charm with being a big tourist area. Are there a lot of hotels, restaurants, stores, etc. now?
There's a great website http://maps.live.com. Click on locations and type in any address and you can see the street from a bird's eye view or aerial. I decided to check out Acorn Street which is where Ralph Fletcher lived. At the beginning of the story he mentioned that his street was surrounded by woods. There were woods on both sides of the road. If you go to the website and look at Acorn St. from an aerial view you will see a huge golf course that Acorn Street runs between. It's the Marshfield Country Club. The Country Club opened in 1922 and Ralph Fletcher was born in 1953 so it would've been there when he lived there. I don't remember him mentioning there being a golf course on his street. He described the setting so well with woods, streams, graveyards, swamps, etc. I think it's interesting that he didn't mention the golf course.
I had never heard of the word "scuttlebutt" before and thought it was a really funny word. So, I decided to research where it came from. I wasn't sure if it was a slang word that was used at the time or what. It does mean gossip as the book described. It actually originated from sailors. They would gather around the scuttle butt (a barrel full of water). The sailors would get drinks of water from the scuttlebutt and share gossip. The term scuttlebutt became sailor's slang word for gossip.
I was cracking up when the Fletcher family woke up to a coop full of roosters instead of chickens. And since we have discovered one of our "hens" is not a hen, but a rooster, I decided I'd research how to tell if your chick is a rooster or hen.
Well, I guess it's not so easy. There are 3 ways you can determine the sex of your chickens. The 1st way is very difficult to the untrained chicken farmer. It is called vent sexing. In this way you have to actually look at the sexual organs of the chicken. This is difficult because the sexual organs of a chicken are inside the body not out.
The 2nd way is feather sexing. Inthis way you determine the sex by certin characteristics of the feathers. I guess male and female chickens have distinct feathers. This technique, also, needs to be done by someone with a well trained eye.
The 3rd way, which is the way we always use, is to wait until the chickens are a bit older. You will diffinately be able to tell by certain characteristics they gain while they are maturing. For instance, the combs on the tops of their heads and waddles underneath their beaks are much larger than that on hens. Also, the feathers of a rooster are much more beautiful in color and legnth. Especially the tail feathers. And also, they rooster will start to grow these little nubs on the back of their legs which eventually turn into spikes for defense against predators.
I was really hoping for an easier solution, but no such luck. I guess I'll have to continue to wait like we've been doing for years.
Ralph Fletcher makes a comment about a circular driveway call "Tea Rock Lane". He states (150): It had a historical plague that explained how on this spot the colonists burned British tea before the Revolutionary War." So I did a little research and learned some really important facts about Tea Rock Lane.
During the time leading up to and during the revolutionary war, Marshfield was badly divided between Tory and Patriot families.
There was a higher percentage of Tory families in Marshfield.
Despite the powerful influence of Marshfield Tory families, the town's Patriots were active on the revolutionary Committees of Correspondence.
Marshfield Patriots confiscated tea and burnt the tea on a large rock, situated on what is currently known as "Tea Rock Lane".
Today, the town's people still have their own "Marshfield Tea Party" as a source of pride.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshfield,_Massachusetts
Leigha, the map website was neat, thanks for sharing.
I found this website that has photos of Marshfield and some of the places Ralph Fletcher mentioned in the book (Humarock and Rexhame Beach, North, South and Green Harbor River, Congregational Church, etc. )
http://www.marshfield.net/photos.html
I also looked up Leo's Bakery because I loved the part when he was trying to hang in there for those lemon-filled doughnuts! It didn't have an official website but it was founded in 1967.
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