WHITMAN — It’s not often that a children’s book author draws a large adult audience for a story time reading, but Kathleen Teahan’s new book “The Cookie Loved ’Round the World” is not your average children’s book.

The story of the chocolate chip cookie’s beginnings in Whitman also brought out local history buffs, former Toll House Restaurant waitresses and past customers of the restaurant that burned down in 1984. Children attending sat at Teahan’s feet, munching Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, from packages handed out by library staff as she and her illustrator Larisa Hart spoke at the Monday, Aug. 21 event in the Whitman Public Library’s Community Room.

After her talk they waited in a long line to purchase copies of the book to be signed by Teahan, a former English teacher and state legislator, and Hart, who is a former Whitman-Hanson Express graphic designer.

“Who remembers when the Toll House was standing in Whitman?” asked Youth Services Librarian Stephanie Young as some of the older audience members raised their hands.

“I didn’t grow up around here, but actually, it burned down before I was born,” she said to some laughter as she introduced Teahan.

“It’s very exciting to be back in Whitman,” Teahan said, recalling when the library was located in Town Hall. “Before I talk about the book, I’d like to talk about the cookie — how many people in this room like chocolate chip cookies?”

Almost every hand in the room shot up at the question.

“Looks like just about everybody,” she said. Teahan also provided some chocolate chip cookies factoids:

• The largest ever baked was a 40,000-pound biscuit made in 2013 in North Carolina as a fundraiser for a folk art museum;

• Americans eat 7 billion chocolate chip cookies every year — the number one variety;

• The chocolate chip cookies was first baked in Whitman in the 1930s.

“Whitman is a very special town and a town we should all be proud of because of that,” she said. “It also has a lot of other things we should be proud of.”

Her book is a “fictionalized history” narrated by Teahan’s real-life Aunt Ann, who grew up in Whitman and worked at the Toll House. Teahan’s research took her to historical societies, universities, libraries and personal information with which she was familiar.

Hart followed with a brief talk on the illustration process.

“We just met a couple years ago,” Teahan said. “It was the luckiest thing that could have happened.”

Hart compared their partnership to meeting a new kid in school who became your best friend.

“When you make a book it’s not just you working on the book,” Hart said with a laugh. “You have other people who work for the book company, so every illustration had seven versions of it.”

She told the children that, while they may color some pictures quickly, bigger and more detailed pictures could take more time.

“That’s what I learned while doing this book,” Hart said. “You can work on something and work on it for a long time, but if you believe in yourself … your perseverance will pay off.”

As she read the book aloud, Teahan interjected background information on the story and how she came to write it. For example, as children, Aunt Ann and her brother would sell daily newspapers and their grandmother’s homemade doughnuts to help the family pay bills after their father lost his Fall River shipyard job during the Great Depression.

“No matter what was happening, they didn’t give up,” Teahan said of the family’s resilience. “I bet you guys don’t give up when things are tough — you just keep trying and practicing and eventually you get it.”

The book also relates one version of the story behind Ruth Wakefield’s invention of the Toll House chocolate chip cookie. There are evidently at least three versions, Teahan said.

A batch of cookies ordered for a wedding reception was jeopardized by a shortage of walnuts, as the food supply was often undependable during the Depression. Wakefield substituted small pieces of Nestlé bittersweet chocolate, which she had on hand — but the morsels did not melt in baking.

“Everybody in the kitchen gave two thumbs-up to the cookie,” Teahan said adding that Wakefield’s request to Nestlé for chocolate that was easier to chop up led first to scored bars and eventually to today’s bag of semi-sweet morsels.

“The Toll House is on the front of the bag so everybody who buys this gets to see something about Whitman,” she said as she held up a package of morsels. “They also get the recipe. So Mrs. Wakefield put Whitman on the map.”

Even noted war correspondent Ernie Pyle was a fan, writing in 1938 that “Ruth Wakefield can cook ‘by ear.’ Or by taste, I suppose you’d call it. She can taste a strange dish, and come home and recreate it with every ingredient in proportion.”

Pyle’s columns, and Nestlé advertisements, advocating the inclusion of the Toll House cookie in packages to WWII troops overseas helped spread the cookie’s fame.

The book concludes with the project by a 1996 project by third-graders at a Somerset school, which won Official State Cookie designation by the state Legislature.

Holmes Public Library   “Monday night Madness” summer reading program ended on a slithery note with Museum of Science  traveling reptile education and presentation by Kim Cooper- Vernon Education Associate.

Herpetologists for a night, the children and parents watched as Cooper-Vernon spoke and presented the reptiles to the classroom. With a white board she also talked about what makes a reptile and how to recognize these creatures.

One child shouted ‘Godzilla is a reptile’ when asked who knows what a reptile is? The night was silly, slithery and appeared to be a hit as there were no empty seats to be had.

Some of the children made silly faces as the animals appeared as did the parents.

Cooper-Vernon talked about Sinaloan Milksnakes and their habitats.

The Sinaloan Milksnake was a clinging creature but by the faces in the audience not everyone likes snakes.

Murdock really enjoyed seeing his reflection in the cage and on the animal cam, which gave kids a closer look at the animal’s features.

Lux the Spotted Gecko got a view of the room from his cage.

Jim Duffy

Special to the Express

It is hard to imagine today, with 24 hour fast food restaurants, just how limited your options concerning “fast-food” were during the late 1940’s. I remember sometime during the summer of 1947, the “Pizza-Pie” truck came through Monponsett about twice a week around 7:00 on summer nights.  Just as we had the “Ice Cream Man” with his musical jingle truck, so too did the adults or “grown-ups” wait for the “Pizza Pie” truck.

One of our neighbors who served in World War II, told us of the wonderful “cheese-tomato pie” which he had sampled in Italy during the war. 

My father therefore bought one of the anticipated pies and I, who always equated “pie” with something sweet, nearly gagged on my first ever slice!

Therefore, during the spring of 1948, a small white frame building about the size of a small house, was constructed a few feet aside the Lake Theater. 

I believe that the Gentile family, who owned the local supermarket, owned the land and building, but Al and Rose Cintrella took a long term lease on the building, and in the early summer of 1948, the Clam Hut opened for business. 

Because the lakes drew a large “summer-crowd”, business in Monponsett was geared to the summer season.  Therefore, both the Clam Hut and Lake Theater were seasonal businesses, and operated from early May to the end of October.

I remember the evening the Clam Hut opened.  The first customer was Frank Purpura, and Al Cintrella proudly had the first dollar, which Mr. Purpura paid for a box of clams, framed under glass, and it stayed on the wall behind the counter for years.  I remember my father buying me an ice cream cone (first time I tasted butter crunch ice cream), and to this day remember the creamy consistency.

The Clam Hut, as the name implied, specialized in seafood.  Eventually the fried clams became a local legend.  French fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and the rich, creamy frappes, which nowadays would cause the Cardiologists to quake in their boots, were the staples of the times.  BUT, it was Al’s Pizza, the taste of which could not be equaled to this day, that was the special treat…They came in large and small sizes; the large was $1.25 and the small was $.75. 

Because the ovens had to reach the correct temperature, the pizzas could only be ordered between 7:00 and 10:00 at night.  Al worked as a cook at one of the Brockton restaurants during the day, so Rose ran the business until Al came in at 6:00 to fire up the ovens. 

As it was generally very crowded at night, on a first come, first served basis, the wait could be, and often was, up to two hours before your pizza order was ready. 

If you knew in advance, you could order the pizzas during the day to be ready at a certain time that night (paid-in-full, of course).

Then, as now, Friday night was the traditional pizza night.  Friday was generally “payday”, so parents were always ready to “spring” for this wonderful treat.  Many a summer Friday night I waited the counter, the juke box wailing the latest Hank Williams or Lefty Frizzell tune, eyes half closed as I nodded off to sleep. 

Because of this extra crowd, Al & Rose hired a local summer resident, June Hudgins, to wait on the counter.  I can always remember June kindly ensuring me, as I was half asleep, that it would not be “too much longer”.  Finally, the pizza was ready.  Served between two cardboard pie plates and inserted into a paper bag (no Papa Gino’s style lidded boxes back then!).  It was worth the wait.  Al’s Pizza had a special taste all its own.  I have recently discovered that the Lynwood in Randolph makes a very similar tasting pizza-perhaps they use Al’s recipe.

The weekends were always busy, and to most of the older teenagers and young adults, a movie at the Lake Theater and pizza afterwards at the Clam Hut was the “height” of a 1950’s date night.

How content we were back then with so little.

As the summer drew to a close, and the “summer-crowd” went back to their homes, the day after Labor Day signaled the end of movies and pizza for another year. 

What was a crowded active scene dwindled down and the Clam Hut and Lake Theater were open on weekends only, until the end of October. 

After moving away in 1954, I lost track and during a visit in 1969 found Al & Rose Cintrella operating what was then called “Indian Head Restaurant” on Route 27 in Hanson.  Since it was during the day,  Al had not fired up the ovens so I made due with a hamburger.  But to this day, I still have trouble believing that you can order a pizza 24/7, any day of the year!

Susan Basile, Halifax Town Historian, asks if anyone has a photograph of the old Clam Hut they would be willing to share, the Historical Society would love to make a copy of it, as they have none. Just contact her through the Halifax Historical Society.

By Elizabeth Moura

Special to Express

MIDDLEBORO- Safe to say acoustic guitarist and singer Kerri Powers was born to perform.

A shy, creative kid, she started composing her own songs at age nine, encouraged by her visual artist mother and an equally supportive father. The family musical legacy couldn’t have been more conducive to her dreams: her father’s family is distantly related to Bing Crosby, and her paternal grandmother played piano accompaniment to silent film screenings.

After marriage, a divorce and raising her son, she returned to performing at many venues, including the Boston Folk Festival and Philadelphia Folk Festival, and touring Europe as the opening act for Canadian Fred Eaglesmith.

Listening to her play and sing “Tallulah Send a Car for Me” shows off her rich, low voice, with a little Joplin gravel mixed in. Her folk music stories are Americana everyone will relate to, particularly women who have experienced similar life lessons.

Longtime folk singer and self-described “humdinger,” Tom Smith has been writing songs and performing since the 1960’s, but he’s a 21st century man. “The Kitchen Musician,” his blog, is filled with musings about his songs and recordings. They are, he writes, “intended to recreate the feeling of sharing self-made music with friends around the kitchen table.”

Smith says the songs often “change and mature even after I share them.” His blog is popular, with 140 videos viewed 145,000 times.

Smith’s performing style is as friendly as his blog, and in his 2007 video “A Prayer for Peace,” the audience joins in the refrain as he asks for a shared peace and a willingness to walk away from violence.

All these years, Smith has written and shared songs full of his experiences and many of them are our experiences. He’s a kindly, gentle sage with a gift for reaching as deep into his listeners as he reaches into himself.

Kerri Powers and Tom Smith at Soule Homestead, 46 Soule Street, Middleboro. July 22, 6 p.m. Admission $10 per person, under 16 admitted free. Ample parking. Concert performed rain or shine, moving indoors if necessary.

South Shore Equine Clinic and Diagnostic Center of Plympton is welcoming Dr. Caitlin Owen, the newest member of the clinic’s veterinary team.

Dr. Owen is an equine veterinarian with dual certifications.

She attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she obtained a bachelors degree in animal science. 

While at UMass, she studied abroad in the west of Ireland where she rode a variety of different horse breeds and fell in love with the country.    

When it came time to choose a veterinary school, Europe was calling.  Dr. Owen completed her veterinary degree at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in beautiful Edinburgh, Scotland.  As a veterinary student, she was able to travel and learn from equine clinicians all over the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark. 

South Shore Equine Clinic was one of the places visited as an extern and that experience clearly left a good impression!  After graduation she was again drawn across the Atlantic to Ireland, where she completed an equine hospital internship in the heart of Thoroughbred racing country.

Growing up in Groton, Dr. Owen is excited to be working back home in Massachusetts at South Shore Equine Clinic. 

Dr. Owen treats a wide scope of conditions including foals, imaging, colic, and a range of other emergency and critical care situations.

He started off by saying that even the Dalai Lama hates ticks. While that is difficult to verify, it could be true — but Buddhist teaching frowns on the killing of any living thing.

By the end of entomologist Larry Dapsis’ talk “One Bite Can Change Your Life,” at the WHRHS Performing Arts Center Wednesday, June 28, one could assume few came away with a Buddhist outlook on the issue of ticks and the infectious diseases they help spread, but they had some advice on how to prevent being bitten.

“This is a beautiful summer evening, and I can’t think of a better way to spend it than by having a very robust discussion of infectious diseases,” he said.

The talk, sponsored by the Plymouth County Beekeepers Association focused on protecting oneself, one’s yard and pets from pathogens that cause Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis relapsing fever and Powassan virus carried by ticks found in the region. Dapsis holds degrees in environmental science from Fitchburg State University and in entomology from UMass, Amherst. He has worked with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Service for six years and 24 years in the cranberry industry with Ocean Spray before that. He stressed that, prior to joining the Cooperative Extension Service, he had little experience with ticks.

“I had a very vertical learning curve,” he said. “To address that, I read everything I could get my paws on, and talked with a ton of people. I had to figure out what the landscape really looked like.”

Even the word “tick” elicits a visceral response from people.

“When I say people hate them, I mean everybody hates them,” he said invoking the Dalai Lama. “When a gentle soul like the Dalai Lama turns his back on a form of life on this planet, that is a headline.”

Dapsis said the Dalai Lama had tweeted out his disdain for ticks a few years ago. True or not, who could blame him?

The six New England states rank in the top spots on most lists for the incidence of Lyme disease in the United States over several three-year average studies.

“If there is any question that we are living at Ground Zero with this problem, this should take it off the table right away,” he said.

While Barnstable County used to regularly rank at the top for Lyme in the state, Plymouth County has overtaken Barnstable in that statistic.

Part of the credit for Barnstable’s improvement has been its aggressive work against the Lyme vector.

He has advocated the hiring of an entomologist for Plymouth County, and that position has been budgeted with the expectation that one should be hired by this fall.

During a question session after his talk, Dapsis was careful to point out he is not qualified to answer medical questions, but focused on how the insects spread diseases. While he focused on deer ticks, Dapsis noted that climate change has brought more aggressive pests such as the Lone Star tick — which hails from Texas as the name implies — and the illnesses they carry.

“We’re seeing plants and animals where we never used to see them before,” he said, noting that three years ago, the first established population of Lone Star ticks was found on the Massachusetts mainland at Sandy Neck Beach Park in West Barnstable.

Samples from the six-mile stretch revealed that Lone Star ticks “own that area” which is in a migratory bird flyway.

The concern with the Lone Star ticks is that they can see prey and run toward it, unlike the blind deer tick that has to “quest” for hosts on the end of vegetation.

“This is an aggressive biter,” Dapsis said of the Lone Star, known for laying eggs in clusters of thousands which hatch into hard-to-see nymphs that stick together. “Within minutes you can get overwhelmed with hundreds of bites and the older stages are also very aggressive. … They can run with spider-like speed. If they can see you, they’re going to chase you.”

The main danger of the Lone Star tick is that it spreads diseases such as erlichiosis and other illnesses, an http://www.tickencounter.org/images/Amblyomma_americanum.jpg can trigger a red meat allergy.

That includes any foods, including marshmallows, made with red meat or its components.

“This can range from hives to anaphylactic shock,” he said.

Once attached to a host, all ticks secrete a glue-like material to hold themselves in place until its feeding cycle, which can last for days if not detected and removed, is complete.

That cycle includes the secretion of anticoagulants into the host to ease feeding on blood as well as agents to deaden nerves to help prevent detection.

Some animals like mice, rabbits and birds known as competent hosts can harbor the Lyme disease bacteria and transfer it back into the tick population. People are among the incompetent hosts that cannot infect a tick, but are a food source for the insects.

How to protect yourself?

Dapsis advocates the liberal use of insect repellent since the highest rate of Lyme is among children ages 5 to 9 and in the senior population, who have the time to be outside. New England winters are not harsh enough to harm ticks in the winter and synthesize glycerol, a natural anti-freeze, to protect them from the cold.

Repellants are the first line of defense.

Dapsis is not a fan of all-natural products because they are not always EPA-registered. Products with DEET, eucalyptus oil or, to his preference — permethrin — which is used for treating fabric and footwear.

“It’s a real attitude adjuster,” he said. “This is the most effective tool in the box.”

Products like K-9 Advantix or Frontline or tick repellent collars can help protect your pet from the vectors. Check with your vet to determine what is best for cats.

Removing a tick should be done with pointed tweezers, grasping the insect at the head easing it out backwards.

“If you crush that tick, you just might give yourself a nasty infection,” Dapsis said. “A tick gut is full of microbes.”

Most people flush the tick down the toilet.

Instead, keep the tick, date it, and if possible send it to a lab such as the entomology department at UMass, Amherst (see tickreport.com) to determine what microbes it might be carrying. You may not test positive for an illness a tick carries, he said, but it is a “starting point for a conversation with your doctor.”

A local boy and his family are looking forward to a trip abroad to Scotland this August as the adventure of a lifetime begins for a boy who simply loves to make music.

Nathan Campbell, 8, of Halifax, will be competing in the World Pipe Band Championships before an international audience in Glassgow, Scotland in mid-August.

Nathan has been studying music for years and his instrument of choice is the bagpipes. As a member of the Colum Cille Pipes and Drums, he has played for many area events and his ability to play so well, at such a young age has impressed many.

Why the bagpipes? He saw a Highland festival and decided he would like to give the bagpipes a try.

Kim Campbell is mom to Nathan and his brother Evan, 11.  Evan is a drummer for the Colum Cille Pipes and Drums and is likewise learning the bagpipes –indirectly- she joked. She assists with cleaning and tuning the instrument with Nathan as well as driving to events and practices. The boys perform for various events and most recently Nathan performed at a cookout for residents at The Woodlands in Plympton.

The boys believe they get their musical talents from their father, Mathew, who is a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Marines. Their Scottish family history includes an heirloom kilt,  over 100 years old and dating back to their paternal great-great-grandfather in Edinburgh. The three Campbell men have had portraits done at various times in the kilt.

Nathan and his brother have been recognized by locals on the South Shore as they perform while marching along the Cape Cod Canal in Bourne where the family likes to camp.

He is learning to read and write music, clean the bagpipes, properly tune it in various temperatures and environmental influences and to always look sharp in his Highland attire.

Both boys belong to Colum Cille Pipes and Drums, located on Cape Cod, which currently has about 30 members. They wear the Cunningham Tartan in honor of their benefactor Harold Cunningham.

One of the most emotional and heartfelt moments for the Campbell family was attending the one-year memorial for the SS El Faro in Jacksonville, Fl. Nathan played Amazing Grace at services in honor of those who perished when the ship was lost.

Mathew Campbell, a chief engineer who ships out for several months or more at a time, had at one time been stationed on the SS El Faro. He knew several of the 33 shipmates who perished when the ship was lost during the 2015 Hurricane Joaquin.

During the tribute Nathan played his pipes before nearly 500 people, said mom Kim.  If he was nervous performing before the crowd it didn’t show. Both boys agreed with their mom that it was a special time for all the families to attend.

The Campbells are enthusiastic about the trip to Scotland with Nathan as it is the pinnacle of Pipe Band competiton.

Evan will be traveling to Glasgow to support his younger brother, assisting in shining and cleaning the instruments, which he is wholeheartedly looking forward to doing.

Nathan also considers himself an adventurer and having seen a special on Antarctica, he hopes one day to visit –  as long as he can bring his bagpipes.