All one has to do is search through the archives of the Sprague Historical Society to understand what a thriving area Sprague once was. Postcards are a wonderful way to understand the glory days of this former mill town. Although a postcard, probably still inside the former Fred's News building, doesn't show much change in the past fifty years, along this small stretch of West Main Street, there are noticeably differences. The immediate area, directly behind Fred's News, not only had a large garage, which was part of the Fred's News property, but at one time Harrington apartments spanned the Beaver Brook and almost attached to the old garage. In 1986 we became the owners of the property, the garage still there, housed many boxes of memorabilia. At one time the Egg-Nazi built a small greenhouse directly in front and attached to the building. The perfect place to start all his Spring flowers, giving them a much needed headstart, before making their first appearance on the sidewalk at Fred's News. Fuschias, ferns, ivies, petunia baskets and many more filled the little greenhouse to the brim and was a welcome haven from the cold and snowy winter landscape. Bill kept the greenhouse heated by using a propane gas heater. In the spring when the flowers were moved to the outside, the building housed unused pots, fertilizer for flowers, gardening equipment and whatever else Mr. Bill could fit in. Unfortunately, it became a haven for small critters and the stinging variety of insects.
Knowing our youngest son was allergic to be stings, the moments a hive was discovered, it needed to be taken care of. Let me say, we probably had more bees and wasps in our backyard than the whole state of Florida. Possibly an exaggeration, but those God-blessed insects were everywhere. Bill had stored a cardboard box of God knows what on one of the shelves.. One of the kids, looking for the basketball in the garage announced, "just saw a bunch of bees flying into the box on the shelf." Bill and I headed for the garage. The plan sounded good on paper: Bill would slowly remove the box from the shelf, I would have the can of flying insect killer ready. Yes, a chance to perfect my quick draw skills! As soon as Bill moved the box, what seemed like thousands of bees were in the air, attacking! He dropped the box, picking up a tennis racket, swatting at the bees. I had been directly behind him, getting ready to spray that killer stuff, as each bee flew from the hive. We didn't figure the entire hive would empty out all at once. So, there we stood, Bill swatting at the bees with a tennis racket, me, spraying wildly into the air. Things seemed to be progressing to the point, we might have been victorious, had a bee not flown through the webbing on the racket, landing on Bill's nose, stinging the crap out of him. He ran, as did I, but not without laughing. Wimpy Bill, looking rather pathetic holding his nose, was quite a comical sight. As for me, no bee stings. The remaining bees eventually calmed down and regrouped with the Queen bee, flying off, in hopes of finding a new place to build their home, away from the nut swinging the tennis racket and the laughing fool woman, spraying the shit out of them. I thought the moment would of been a "funniest videos" winner, Bill icing his nose, trying to get the swelling to go down. Even he had to admit, a bee sting on the very end of the nose, although painful and swollen was quite funny looking. He also learned he needed to practice his "back swing!"
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