I had heard a couple weeks ago that an old friend, Walt Goodrich, was failing. Tonight there was a message on Front Porch Forum saying he passed away yesterday. That is very sad. Walt was 90. He died on July 9, one day after his birthday. It is hard to imagine that he isn't going to still be on the farm where he was born and lived his whole lifetime. We were in highschool at the same time - he was a senior when I was a freshman, but in a small school, everyone is your classmate. Walt married in 1950 a "city girl," Sally McCutcheon, whose grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Farr, owned a cottage on Joe's Pond; the cottage at the intersection of Brown Rd. and Old Homestead Rd. belongs to Mary Allen now. Sally and Walt later had a cottage for a few years on what is now Sandy Beach Road - where Bill and Sandy Ricker are. Sally turned out to be a wonderful "farmer's wife" and worked in the fields alongside Walt. Together they raised six sons. Both Walt and his parents were interviewed at length for the Cabot oral history book. The Abbotts, Walt's grandparents on his mother's side, were some of the first settlers in Cabot. I think the farm, Molly Brook Farm in East Cabot, has been in the same family (Abbott, then Goodrich) for something like eight generations.
     Here is what the family posted on FPF:
 The Goodrich family wishes the community to know that Walter Ira Goodrich passed away quietly, peacefully and with dignity today 7/9/18 at 10 am at his home in the room where he was born July 8,1928. He made it to his 90th birthday. He was a man of wit, wisdom and hard working. As per his wishes there will be no calling hours or funeral. There will be a private graveside service at a later date in the East Cabot Cemetery where all the rest of his family are buried. There will be a celebration of his life on Saturday, July 21st at 11 am at Molly Brook Farm. There will be a pot luck picnic and BBQ. Bring a dish and meat to cook. Might be a good idea to bring a comfy chair.

     When my friend and one of the co-authors of the Cabot oral history, Amanda Legare, told me that Walt was near the end of his life, we agreed his passing would leave a big hole in our community. Much has changed since Walt drove a "school bus" - a milk truck that picked up kids and cans of milk along the way to first the creamery and then to school each morning back in the 1940s. We aren't even sure he had a license to drive at the time - but being a farm boy, he got the job done, and through all kinds of weather. I'm pretty sure some of the changes over time didn't sit well with Walt, but he still tended to business as usual, being a good farmer, good neighbor, and all around solid citizen. We will miss him.