Apple Squeeze bears rainy fruit in Lenox

By Bill SamplePrint Story | Email Story
Putting the squeeze on young suspect Michael Ward is Officer Gary Lagarce of the Lenox Police Department. (Photo By Bill Sample)
LENOX– The remnants of Hurricane Ivan on Saturday morning and a chilly north wind on Sunday could not take the shine off the Lenox Apple Squeeze last weekend. Thousands of visitors and the local populace paraded onto the streets and got things cooking shortly after the rain stopped about noon on Saturday. By Sunday at 5 p.m., many vendors were reporting business had been as sweet as pie, as they managed to squeeze out some profits before heading home. Bob Romeo, event chairman, said he thought the attendance numbers might be down a little bit from last year, but he had heard no complaints from any of the vendors. He performed an informal “vendor satisfaction survey” about closing time on Sunday. “It seemed like everybody had a pretty good weekend,” he said. “The hot dog guys and all the other food vendors said they were having a real good day. The artisans seemed to have substantial sales, and the youth sports groups reported that they sold out of a number of items.” The event featured more vendors than last year and more “outdoors setups” from local businesses as well. Entertainment increased, with ballet performances, musicians, youth concerts and other performers. For the first time, a portion of the Squeeze took place north of town, at the Lenox Country Shops on Route 7, with a shuttle bus delivering people back and forth between the two locations all weekend. It was the 25th anniversary of the traditional event, which Romeo and Charles Flint, a Lenox antique dealer, initiated as a way to “give the town back to the townspeople,” Romeo said. “The name Apple Squeeze originated with associating the event with harvest time,” he added. “In the early days, to be a vendor at the event, it was mandatory that you give something away, like apples, or cider or apple pastries — whatever you had.” The “give something away” tradition continued this year, as workers at the Tanglewood booth gave away several crates of sweet Macintosh apples fresh from a local orchard. There was an apple pie bakeoff, music in the streets and free rides around town inside a giant apple towed by a farm tractor. One of the volunteer tractor drivers was Derrick Holt, a longtime Lenox resident, who said, “This is my favorite volunteer thing to do all year long. We support a lot of good charities, like United Way. It’s a great weekend for every body. This ride is free, but I’m asking people to look into how they can help local charities,” Franklin Street Realty, owned by Romeo, sponsored the giant apple float, which made continuous round-trip journeys through Lenox’s historic district, stuffed to overflowing with bemused kids and parents. Holt drove the tractor and bellowed shameless plugs for the streetside vendors and hearty greetings to one and all, non-stop on every trip. Delighted youngsters from town chased the rumbling fruit float from corner to corner as they spoofed with friends who had climbed aboard for the ride. Romeo said he had never seen a worse weekend for weather in the 25-year history of the festival. “A couple of outfits didn’t even set up Saturday morning, and we had to move some of the entertainment to inside the Town Hall,” he said. “Obviously the weather affected us there. At noontime on Saturday, there was almost no one around, only a couple hundred people. Then the rain stopped, and people seemed to be coming out of nowhere. By 3 o’clock, the streets were full.” He said a board meeting of the Apple Squeeze Festival Committee would be held sometime next week to go over this year’s event and to get feedback from all who participated to see what improvements, if any, could be made for next year. Committee members include Victoria Ross, Chamber of Commerce executive director; Nora O’Brien of Lenox Village Realty (and Chamber president); Lauren Steets of Canyon Ranch; Emma MacKenzie and Jessica Sinopoli of Case Enterprises and The Lenox Shops; Nora Schneider, owner of Crossing Borders; and Damon Fowler of Bandboard Music and Shear Design.
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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