💯 STORY CHALLENGE
She Testified Before the Court, “In Summer we Raise Berries, and In Winter we raise Hell”(Day 77)
Hel’en-Winter became the nickname for the town
The story goes, and be forewarned, the source is not the most reliable, being a thesis paper written during the rise in the racist pseudoscience of eugenics, that during a hearing in Greenfield, Carrie Pratt was asked by the judge what people in Shutesbury did for a living. “Your honor,” she answered, “in summer we raise berries, and in winter we raise hell.”
Hel’en Winter became a nickname for Shutesbury, and the Hel’en Winter Club began with an official order from Raymond Kenney, State Director of Fisheries and Game to Denis Shea, local game warden. Captain Ben Pine of the famous ship Gertrude Thibault, famed Medical Examiner George Burgess Magrath, William Thatcher of the Boston American, Thomas Morgan, Associated Press writers and others, were members of this club that was as difficult to join as any fraternity, although the club atmosphere was informal and burlesque.
Headquarters were in Shea’s old farmhouse. The club met four times a year for fishing, hunting and drinking hot toddies. It was made up of men of all walks of life, mostly Boston newspapermen, and included four Governors.
