Berkshire County, MA brief visit

Today i took a drive to Berkshire County, the westernmost one in the state of Massachusetts. Taking exit 2 from the Mass Turnpike, and noticing that the tools in the western third of the pike have been reinstated, went north up Rt. 20 through the town of Lee, established 1777, Lenox, the summer home of the Boston Pops orchestra ( Tanglewood) and into Pittsfield. Holmes Road led me past such landmarks as "Arrowhead," the home of the author Herman Melville ( Moby Dick) from 1850-1862, and Miss Hall's School, a private prep school for females since 1898. The serpentine coils of the Housatonic river, once named the 2nd worst polluted in the USA, are bridged in numerous places. The former South Junior High School is now the Herberg Middle School. The Berkshire Athenaeum Library still stands although it was too cold to look and see if it is in operation. Across from the former Dawes Elementary School, built circa 1907-8, the Flynn's Rexall Pharmacy still stands, operated by Flynn family descendants. As one heads north one finds a McDonalds and Friendly's restaurants. located across the street from their former locations. For many decades GE was the biggest employer in town; many of its remaining buildings seem unoccupied and dilapidated. In neighboring Dalton the Crane company used to make the special paper for US currency. Continuing north I came to the Savoy General store, owned by one gentleman for about fifty years, but owned by another for the past fifteen to twenty. Two of the three people there were employees. A little farther i came to Windsor Pond, a small lake with mostly seasonal cottages. A small stream issues from one end, eventually finding its way to Windsor Jambs, a small waterfall and former picnic ground. A man at the store told me the state had closed this area along with other state forests in the vicinity. Wending my way back to the turnpike i was struck by the aged nature of most buildings and a general sense of poverty. A number of people were ice fishing on lakes along Rt. 20.