The trouble with an accreditation visit is that there is no time for anything personal. The work starts at breakfast, goes through dinner, and extends on into the night. Accreditation visits are a lot of work but a very important part of higher education.
My plane did not leave until in the afternoon, so I had a little time after the visit to walk around downtown Manchester. The town is built on the Merrimack River and the riverbanks are lined with mills that used to be busy centers of enterprise. Now that the textile industry has been shipped overseas, the mills seek other occupants. One huge mill complex near the hotel is now full of retail shops, offices, and the like. I spotted another with broken windows and in general disrepair--awaiting rebirth. The van driver told me an interesting story about that mill on the way to the airport. It was bought 10 years ago by the inventor of the insulin pump and segway, intending to transform it as other mills have been transformed. When the renovators entered they found the premises contaminated with--no, not asbestos. Anthrax! It seems 100 years ago a shipment of cotton arrived at the mill for processing from Afghanistan. When one bale of cotton was opened, 30 workers died when anthrax spores were released. The mill was closed for many years after that horrible accident. The question now is: are anthrax spores silll hiding in the walls and ceilings of the old mill?
My plane did not leave until in the afternoon, so I had a little time after the visit to walk around downtown Manchester. The town is built on the Merrimack River and the riverbanks are lined with mills that used to be busy centers of enterprise. Now that the textile industry has been shipped overseas, the mills seek other occupants. One huge mill complex near the hotel is now full of retail shops, offices, and the like. I spotted another with broken windows and in general disrepair--awaiting rebirth. The van driver told me an interesting story about that mill on the way to the airport. It was bought 10 years ago by the inventor of the insulin pump and segway, intending to transform it as other mills have been transformed. When the renovators entered they found the premises contaminated with--no, not asbestos. Anthrax! It seems 100 years ago a shipment of cotton arrived at the mill for processing from Afghanistan. When one bale of cotton was opened, 30 workers died when anthrax spores were released. The mill was closed for many years after that horrible accident. The question now is: are anthrax spores silll hiding in the walls and ceilings of the old mill?
1 comment:
Glad you got a little play with your work. Amazing what can change with the passage of time. My in-laws lived not far from Manchester in a town called Henniker (supposedly the only one in the world) and the home of New England College where Rev. Hooper attended.
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