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You gotta say to yourself, wow what an amazing place!

How lucky to be a part of this beautiful community.

If you’re not here, what are you waiting for?

Stay tuned, we have some of the most jam packed, insider, exclusive stuff coming at you in the next 10 days with several series of posts which I’m incredibly proud of.

Buckle up campers- it’s about to get really fun!

I just finished having a long, really lovely conversation with Sylvia DeBoever, niece of Sarah Lawrence (known as Aunt Settie), of FDR memorial stamp letter fame.  Sarah lived at 121 Leonard Street, not 123, which was her husband’s house, Leonard Lawrence, also known as Richard L. Sears who died in the 1970’s.  Sarah then moved from Leonard Street to Heart Street in Gloucester to take care of her aging mother.  Sylvia said she spent a lot of her time at the Senior Center, bringing arts and crafts for the seniors to do, and was much loved by everyone who knew her.  She died at the age of 98 on August 22, 2001.  She was an avid stamp collector, as was FDR, who was considered the greatest stamp collector that ever lived.  Sylvia’s husband Tom, also an avid collector, owns some of FDR’s personal stamp collection.  Sylvia grew up in Gloucester, but moved away to Michigan 51 years ago, after she and Tom married.  She loved to visit Aunt Setti in Annisquam, then walk to the lighthouse to rendezvous with her then boyfriend, Tom who was in the coast guard.  She would then walk home to Heart Street.  Aunt Setti instilled in her a love of stamp collecting, which Tom also shared.  After talking with her, I am so thrilled that she will be reconnected with something that was her aunt’s and meant so much to her. 

Sylvia found out about the stamps by reading the Gloucester Times, which she does every day on line, to stay connected with her beloved Gloucester.  I have sent her the link to Good Morning Gloucester, so she can subscribe, and now stay connected in the GMG family way. 

E.J. Lefavour

That the intended recipient of these FDR memorial stamps was Sarah Lawrence, an avid philatelist and regular customer of Mr. Grimsland. 

Henry Grimsland became interested in First Day Covers during the depression when his firm, The Artcraft Engraving Co., needed additional work. As a topnotch steel and copper plate engraver, Grimsland was dissatisfied with the current cachets and felt that a steel engraving, printed on a high quality envelope, would be of interest to philatelists. He produced his first cachet for the Peace Commemorative stamp issued at Newburgh, N. Y., April 19, 1933 and made one or more cachets for each United States stamp produced until the American Chemical Society stamp issued in New York City, Sept. 4, 1951.  He was born in Risor, Norway on January 16, 1889 and died in Chicago, Illinois on January l3, 1957, just three days short of his 68th birthday.

I received this email a short time ago from Sylvia DeBoever, niece of Sarah Lawrence:

Dear Ms. Lefavour: I am Sylvia DeBoever of Grosse Pointe Woods, MI who is the niece of S.E. (Sarah) Lawrence now of the “Grimsland” cover fame!  I have contacted both the Gloucester News writer (Francis Quinn), as well as the USPS representative in Boston (Mr. Tarmey) with the evidence of death of my aunt Sarah E. Lawrence (2001) in order to obtain receipt of the long lost mail that ended up in England 66 years ago. Mr Grimsland was well known to us as the stamp dealer (professional philatelist) of whom my aunt was a regular customer.  I have not yet contacted Mr. O’Keefe who presumably holds the item in question.  I assume he will get contacted by Mr. Tarmey of the USPS.  We (my husband and I) were thrilled to get this bit of info as we are active philatelists ourselves, and had acted in the 1990’s as agent for my aunt to sell her stamp and cover collections for her then needed cash.  I’m sure we will be getting further information in days ahead. 

I responsed to her:

Hi Sylvia, Nice to make your acquaintance.  It must have been even more surprising to you to learn of its existence than it was for us to see it, after it floated around who knows where for almost 66 years.  At this point, I believe Mr. Tarmey at the USPS is in possession of the envelope and who you should be in contact with.  It makes for a very nice end to the story to know that Mrs. Lawrence has family that are also philatelists, and that you will now have in your collection something your aunt obviously wanted to have in her’s but never received.  I wonder if she wondered what ever happened to them.  Just out of curiosity, how did you learn about it?  Do you read Good Morning Gloucester?  Thanks for contacting and best wishes, Ellen

Nice ending to a very fascinating story – thanks to Good Morning Gloucester spreading the word.  I’m just sorry that Tom O’Keefe won’t have the stamps and envelope for the Annisquam Historical Society.

E.J. Lefavour

www.khanstudiointernational.com

A bunch if news outlets picked up the story she broke about the letter that had been in circulation for over 60 years.

That before I even moved to Cape Ann, I was being positively influenced by the inspiring energy of Joey Ciaramitaro through reading Good Morning Gloucester?  The man is a non-stop package of powerful positive energy, a goodwill ambassador for Cape Ann, and a guru of social networking; but I only knew the Good Morning Gloucester side of him.  I’ve gotten to know him personally now, learned a little about his family history and wanted to share it with those GMG readers that might not know. 

Joey’s Grandfather, Captain Joe Ciaramitaro was born in Detroit, Michigan on January 6, 1915. He was two years old when his father died. His family then went back to Sicily where he learned to fish. At the age of fifteen he returned to the United States and settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts where he fished on several trawlers.  Captain Joe met and married Felicia Curcuru at the age of 23 in 1938. With the help of Ben Curcuru, Captain Joe had his first boat built – the “Ben and Josephine”.
The Ben and Josephine was launched in March of 1941, however the vessel was sunk off the coast of Maine by a German U-Boat.  When Captain Joe tried to board the Ben and Josephine to get the compass out, the Germans thought he was going to radio their location to the Coast Guard. They shot at him with machine guns so he came out of the Pilot House with his hands in the up and without the compass.  The crew of the Ben and Josephine got into the lifeboat and rowed for 36 hours and finally landed at Mt. Desert Rock off the coast of Maine. Navigating by the stars of the night, Captain Joe led his crew to shore after a day and a half of rowing.
The next boat built for built by Captain Joe was the “Benjamin C”. The Benjamin C was launched in 1946. He fished the Benjamin C from 1946 to 1952. The boat was then sold to National Sea Products of Nova Scotia.  In 1953, Captain Joe bought the former Slade Gorton property on East Main Street. The property was used as a smokehouse, salted fish house, fillet house and flakeyard. It was then that Captain Joe & Sons was formed.
In the 60′s and 70′s, Captain Joe & Sons, Inc. was known for processing whiting and the company supplied A&P grocery stores throughout the United States. The company was run by Captain Joe and his two sons, Benjamin (Libby) and Charles Ciaramitaro.
In the mid-70s Joe (our Joey C.) & Frank Ciaramitaro joined the company to form the third generation. Joe and Frank worked summers until they graduated from college to work full time along with their fathers.  As Joey tells it, their fathers paid them slave wages, so they decided to do a little lobster brokering on the side to make a little extra money.  The Captain Joe & Sons fleet has since grown to handle the fish and lobsters of 37 fishing boats and 39 lobster boats.
Today you can visit Captain Joe & Sons, in Gloucester, seven days a week to buy fish and lobster directly as the boats are being unloaded.  Stop by Captain Joe & sons at 95 East Main Street, say hi to Joey, get yourself a Good Morning Gloucester bumpersticker, and of course some lobster or fish.  http://www.wholesalelobster.com/

E.J. Lefavour

www.khanstudiointernational.com

That picturesque and unique Lanes Cove, located in the village of Lanesville in Gloucester, rose to prominence in the 1800’s for fishing (one could row out into Ipswich Bay and bring back a boatload of cod) and later granite quarrying? Except for lobstering, no one fishes out of Lanes Cove today, and all that is left of the granite industry are water-filled quarries and a cove with massive breakwaters designed specifically for loading granite onto sloops. Because the granite industry died in the 1930’s, Lanesville has remained largely untouched.

During the 1900’s, the rocky coastline and wonderful light that pervades Cape Ann brought artists and sculptors to Lanesville.  World famous sculptors made their homes here, buying quarries from the bankrupt Rockport Granite Company. Lanesville became a home to many extremely creative people. Today, many of the descendants of these artists live in Lanesville or close by, and many new artists have settled here, attracted by the same natural beauty and camaraderie of other talented and creative people.  http://www.lanescove.us/

E.J. Lefavour

www.khanstudiointernational.com

Hey Joey!

I was lucky enough to attend the DMO FB/ Twitter mug-up that you and Dawn spoke at a few weeks ago and I can’t tell you how much that presentation helped me in getting my employer’s (Applyby & Wyman Insurance Agency) FB account off the ground! The insurance industry is pretty "dry" and it’s difficult to make our products sound fun, engaging and interesting on the web (it’s not like I can post pics of policies). I had been scowering Google for ideas on how and what to post, but with your first-hand knowledge you were able to point me in the right direction and get the ball rolling.

I’m also in the process of setting up both a FB and Twitter account for my boyfriend’s plastering business (that’s another story, still in the planning stages) but I wanted to send you a link to the improved A&W FB page and pass along some info we’re doing on cyber-liability. Although our headquarters is in Beverly we do have some incredible G-town folks that work here (including me) and since cyber-liability is sort of an unknown but real issue for businesses both small and large, we have decided to hold a webinar and in person meeting at the end of April and beginning of May, thought maybe your site visitors would be interested. Let me know if you have any questions, and thank you again for your presentation- the knowledge you passed on is priceless!

Contact Rebecca at her Facebook page if you are interested-

http://www.facebook.com/#!/applebywyman

Rebecca Yavner

Cape Ann Home & Business Exposition
Saturday, March 26, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Sunday, March 27 2011, 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.
Gloucester High School Field House
32 Leslie O. Johnson Road, Gloucester

On Saturday, GMG contributors were out in force at the Cape Ann Home & Business Expo.  Our assignment was to spread the GMG love and sign up new subscribers to Good Morning Gloucester.  The happy exhibitors pictured here are some of the lucky people who will now be part of the worldwide GMG family.  For anyone who may not know this, you can subscribe to Good Morning Gloucester free of charge and obligation.  All you have to do is go to http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Goodmorninggloucester, type in your email address and anti-spam text, and you have become a part of a blogging phenomenon that is spreading around the world to share the unique awesomeness of Gloucester, and all of Cape Ann.   There is no requirement that you blog or that you even read it every day if you don’t have the time; but if you don’t, you will surely be missing out.   FYI, Good Morning Gloucester has a booth at the Expo, so stop by today between 10:00 – 3:00 and check it out.  Go to http://www.capeannchamber.com/expo/partic.htm for more details on the Expo. 

In this episode- GloucesterCast Listener Poll results, One Hour at A Time Gang Shout Out, St Joseph’s Novena Crawl, Gloucester Glacier, Harbor Porpoise and Common Dolphin, Kenny’s Real Estate Segment, Kenny’s Gloucester Pizza Map, Cow Poop, Tech Talk- iPad & iPad2

Click here to play or save the podcast

Please leave comments or questions on which topics you would like to hear more about on The GloucesterCast or how we could improve. Thanks for listening.

Check Out Kenny’s Blog- TheCutBridge.com

The GloucesterCast Theme Song Gloucester Til The End Music is from Earl and Arch- you can download it for free at GimmeSound here- http://www.gimmesound.com/EarlAndArch-1/

Money Donated To The GFAA
Can’t beat that!

Donna Writes-

What a beauty of a day..  Wayne at the Liquor Locker is having someone
do some Murals on his walls, this one is from a Donald Mosher picture of
Good Harbor, on the other side he will be having a mural of a vineyard
in Tuscany.  Told him maybe we could post this on the best blog in the
world, GMG…  I run into so many people who love your blog…

That Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), a/k/a FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945), a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war, and the only American president elected to more than two terms?  On April 15, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt was laid to rest in Hyde Park, New York.

July 26, 1945 – The U.S. Post Office Department issued a 1-cent stamp commemorating Roosevelt in Hyde Park, N.Y. This was the second in a series of four stamps issued in memory of the recently deceased president. Each stamp showed an oval portrait of Roosevelt to the left plus a scene of an important place associated with his life. The 1-cent issue showed Roosevelt’s house in Hyde Park, N.Y.  The postage rate in 1945 was 3-cents.

On July 26, 1945, H. Grimsland of Chicago mailed this First Day of Issue Roosevelt Memorial envelope and  1-cent stamps to Mrs. S.E. Lawrence of 123 Leonard St., Gloucester, MA.  This envelope finally arrived in Annisquam 3 days ago.  It had traveled to Gloucester, England and God only knows where else over the past almost 66 years, but it finally made it to its destination.  Mrs. Lawrence is long gone, so the mailman gave the envelope to Tom O’Keefe who is the curator of the Annisquam Historical Society, and he loaned it to me to share with all of you.  The mail must go through!

(lyrics by Larry Groce)

When you mail a letter,
you can send it anywhere.
On foot, by truck, by airplane.
The postman gets it there.
So write a letter to a friend,
Maybe she’ll write you.
No matter what, you always know.
The mail must go through.
No matter if it rains or snows.
The mail must go through.
 Some folks live in a city,
some live in a little town.
Even if you live out on a farm.
There’s a post man making his rounds.
So mail someone a letter,
even just a card will do.
You know it’s nice when the postman,
has a letter in his sack for you.

E.J. Lefavour

http://www.khanstudiointernational.com/did%20you%20know%20book.htm

Hi Friends!

This is the final episode of the Gourmoo Cook Off that I participated in last December in California, the Wild Card round.  As one of the remaining two contestants I was able to choose one final recipe, made with lactose free Lactaid Milk of course, to wow the judges and hopefully win a culinary dream vacation sponsored by Lactaid Milk.

Congratulations to Morena–she is a wonderful girl and a great cook and I am so proud of her.  She is taking a culinary vacation to Thailand to see her Father and I couldn’t be happier for her.  She is a talented cook who does a great job showcasing the food of her culture and I am honored to have cooked with her.

And now for the giveaway.  Remember, I randomly chose the winner from comments left here on GMG and on my blog, www.laurielufkin.wordpress.com.  And the winners are:

Donna Marie of Topsfield who wins the $25.00 Amazon Gift Card

and

Kathy Gentile of Gloucester wins the free Lactaid Milk coupons.

I will contact both of you (or you can contact me at laurielufkin@yahoo.com) so that I can get your prizes to you.  Thanks everyone for your great comments and support!