Welcome. Edgartown News was born from the simple fact that I have ink and Dektol in my veins and I need to write and photograph more than I need air or food, and from my love for this little town where I grew up and raised my family, the town I have left a few times but can't quite shake for good. Here you will find the wanderings and musings, photographs and commentary; the people, places, and happenings - past and present - of a small island town: my home town.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

My Uncle Orin



Orin Norton, Edgartown's Blacksmith
Orin Norton, Edgartown's last blacksmith, source unknown, 
probably taken between 1950-60.
(Thank you, ALM, for sending it)


When I was a little girl knocking around my Uncle Orin's farm - way up the hill, at the end of what is now called Norton Orchard Road -  where my grandmother, mother, brother, and I were often invited to pick corn and other vegetables that were in abundance; or wandering around down on Dock street, in and out of his blacksmith shop (where he once admonished me for coming into his shrapnel-covered floors barefoot but gave me a dime for penny candy anyway), I had no idea that he was a living treasure, Edgartown's last blacksmith who would be written up in National Geographic, and reminisced over so fondly; our own living legend, bent over his forge, crafting scallop drags, quahog rakes, anchors, ploughshares - every piece of metal that we needed for our farming and fishing lives.

How could we, as kids, have known these things? If we had, we'd have paid much closer attention.

2 comments:

  1. A few years ago my brother, Mark, and I had the wonderful opportunity to purchase back Orin's anvil. It's sitting in my parents shucking shed. I also purchased a couple of beautiful andirons from an auction on Chappy a few years back.

    Thanks for the posting Sara.

    Stacey (Orin's GGD)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, cousin, for checking in. I love that you have the anvil and the andirons from your great-grandpa. Wonderful.

    Hope to see you soon :-)

    ReplyDelete