Taking Pictures in Tewksbury

I have lived almost my entire life in the town of Tewksbury, MA.  I have lived in Methuen, MA since 2008.  I also lived in Methuen back in 1995.  I lived in a dorm in Lowell, MA for a year at one distantly past point too, and just prior to moving to Methuen for good I was living in Salem, NH for a few months.  Apart from those times, I lived in Tewksbury my entire life.

But I don't have any wandering-around-Tewksbury pictures anywhere.  I have a million from Methuen.  I have some from Billerica.  I have a bunch from Concord, and a slew from Boston and Cambridge.  None from Tewksbury though.

Until today.

I took today off so that I could get everyone to the Rush gig on time tonight.  I'd like to finish the Clockwork Angels novel before we go, but I have about 20% still to go and my eyes are pretty tired.  Anyway, this morning I thought it would be interesting to, after dropping off the kids, hit two or three places in Tewksbury that I thought might be good for pictures.

Being the Spicket River nerd that I am, I figured the first couple of places to visit would be on Tewksbury's river, the Shawsheen.  Put in simple, mathematical terms, Spicket > Shawsheen.  The first place I stopped was nice.  The second was not.

The first stop was on Shawsheen street, right near Bridge street.  There is a tiny little pull off that I think folks use to drop their canoes/kayacs into the river.  The view was nice.  Unfortunately the sun was nowhere to be found (of course not, I had a camera with me!) but here are a few pics...





I was surprised by how fast the river was moving.  I had always thought the Shawsheen was slow.  I wonder if it's ever been diverted, as the Spicket has.




There was a little brook feeding into the river.  I haven't a clue what it's called.




There was a lot of tall grass underwater, getting dragged along with the current.




The second place I stopped was next to the Knights of Columbus parking lot, right near the Micelli bridge on route 38.  I didn't like the view there at all.  It was swampy and slimy and muddy and gross.  I took a couple of pictures anyway, seeing as I had risked life and limb (and camera) climbing down to the edge of the water.

This picture is my favorite from this stop.  Hello, Mr Frog.  Sorry that I almost stepped on you.


This is the second coolest part of the stop.  I had never before seen a molted (is that the correct term) snake skin.  Cool, huh?  Thankfully it's a little one and not an anaconda sized sucker.


Oh yeah, the river.


I would like to assure all of you, especially the authorities, that the Robbie referenced in this image is not me.  Thank you.


See what I mean?  The water looks sludgy and gross.


Next we move on to what is most likely the most depressing spot on the planet Earth.  At least it's the most depressing spot I've ever been to.

There is a State Hospital in Tewksbury.  For many years, long in the past, it was a mental hospital.  It was the kind of place you see in old movies, where the state dumps people that don't fit in anywhere else.  Hopeless cases.  That sort of thing.  Apparently, they had patients who had no identity and no families and nothing.  What did they do with those patients on the occasions when they died in the hospital?  Apparently they buried them in the woods just off the hospital grounds.

I had known about this place for years.  Ever since two of my friends stumbled upon it while hiking around in the woods.  In the years since then, the town has placed a sign marking the edge of the area on East street, right near Livingston street, so it's not like it's some deep dark town secret.  The evidence is right there in the open.

Unfortunately, the cemetery itself is still lost in the woods.  I parked along the side and found a little path into the trees.  I was looking all around me, trying to see the cemetery while also trying to watch my step.  I don't want to end up in the Tewksbury Town Crier with the headline, "Fat Dumb Ass Falls Down While Taking Pictures No One Will Ever See."  I very carefully stepped over a fallen tree and noticed something on the ground near me.  I took a picture.


I looked around me and I was surrounded by graves.  The markers were barely above the ground.  Some were partly buried.  I had walked into that patch of woods specifically looking for a cemetery, and I walked right into the middle of it without even noticing.

No names.  No dates.  Just a number.  There is probably a reference in some catalog somewhere in the hospital marking the date of burial, and maybe even the circumstances, but no names.  No humanity.  Just a little tiny marker with a number on it.  This has to be the most depressing, pitiable thing I have ever witnessed.  Someone should remember these people.  Why not me.








This one sort of sums up the whole feeling of the place.


The last thing I looked at this morning was, to me, the sort of iconic view of the town of Tewksbury.  When I was a kid and we went on a car trip to visit relatives on the other side of Boston, or something, or whatever, seeing this always told me that I was almost home.


And there you have the high lights of my awfully depressing attempt at a photo walk around Tewksbury, MA.