Sounding Off
A coupla years ago, I did a Dukes Up ditty about the air raid siren in Holyoke.
I talked about how I used to have to hide under my desk at school every Friday. And it wasn’t just because a nun was coming after me with a ruler. It was also on account of the air raid siren that went off at noon, training us how to react in the event of a nuclear attack by the Russians. I gotta tell ya, I was more afraid of the nuns than the Russians.
That same damn siren had been blasting every Friday at noon for decades from Jimmy Curran’s Wherehouse in downtown Holyoke. The last of its kind on the East Coast and part of the rhythm of the city for generations. Well now we’ve got a situation.
Recently, the city issued a cease-and-desist order after a few anonymous noise complaints by a couple of nimrods. Come on, at least put your names on those complaints, you chicken gizzards.
The siren is owned and operated by Jimmy Curran’s Wherehouse, a meeting and gathering site loaded with Holyoke memorabilia. Jimmy Curran was a legend and one of Holyoke’s greats. The Wherehouse is also the site of Curran Construction Company, now run by Jimmy’s son Scott.
Anyway, in true Holyoke fashion, folks are fighting back on social media and selling “Sound the Siren” T-shirts to support bringing the tradition back. Another cool thing is now on Fridays people are showing up at the Wherehouse at noon and laying on their car horns, echoing down the canal like the old siren used to.
The mayor is in favor of the siren sounding again and the City Council is looking at ways to tweak the noise ordinance so it can return. Hey, you can’t keep a good town down. Keep your dukes up.
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