Scavenger Hunt

            On Tuesday, Laura and I took a journey around CF to complete the scavenger hunt as instructed by Dr. Horwitz. It was a cold and snowy day but it turned out being a lot of fun. It wasn’t like any other assignment we’ve had in this class. Actually, I wouldn’t even consider it an assignment. It was a fun learning experience.

            Laura and I drove to and around CF but it was different than the other Tuesdays that we took the trip. I was really looking around at my surroundings. One of the first things I noticed were the restaurants. On one of the main roads there were a lot of independently owned Mexican or Chinese restaurants. I didn’t see any chain restaurants. I also located the police and fire stations, which were right next to each other and right near the high school. That park next to the high school, is Jenks Park and is a place where there are local sporting festivals or activities. After driving around in a few circles and trying to count the number of schools we could find we looked up and read that there were six public schools in CF (including pre-K schools). That seems to me like a lot of schools for such a small city but there is one pre-K school, a kindergarten school, two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. It’s a lot of schools because students transition at different grades than what I am used to. I wonder why the CF school district does this and I wonder what determines the grades at which the transitioning occurs. Well, on another note Laura and I visited the library, the Adams Memorial Library, but it was not open due to the weather conditions.

            I saw a few historical places in CF. The whole time I kept thinking that it is so amazing that there was so much history in such a small city. There were still other historical places that were on the handout given for the scavenger hunt but one of the monuments Laura and I visited was located in the Moshassuck Cemetery. It is a Civil War monument and is placed right in the center of the cemetery. The monument was a gift dedicated to the bravery of soldiers in the war and has stood there since. Aside from that history, the little bit of fame that associates with CF is that there are three Major League Baseball players. They are Max Surkont, Charley Bassett, and Jim Siwy. That’s a lot of baseball talent to come from one small city.

            One of my favorite things I saw Tuesday was the Chocolate Mill Overlook that overlooks the Blackstone River. The Chocolate Mill is even older than Slater Mill but was unfortunately demolished in a storm in the early 1800s, so there is an overlook in its place.

            Learning about the history of CF was a lot of fun. Like I said before, it was crazy to think about the amount of history such a small city has. I wonder how many people know about this. I sure didn’t know any of this before completing the scavenger hunt. As a future teacher, I think it is extremely important to know the history of the town or city that I will be teaching in. It is important for students to know about this because it is something that not everyone is aware of, even if they have lived there their whole life. Overall, this was a great learning experience and I am glad to have gotten it done before the snow really started coming down!