Places – Yet Another Unitarian Universalist

Dawoodi Bohra masjid

Next to the northbound New Jersey Turnpike rest area in East Brunswick, there’s a Dawoodi Bohra masjid. Carol and I looked at it over the fence separating it from the rest area access road. It looked quite impressive. Behind the masjid is a parking lot, and on the far side we saw two men wearing the characteristic white clothing of the Dawoodi Bohra.

If you’ve never heard of them before, the website of the Dawoodi Bohra community in the United States says:

“Following Islamic principles, our faith is expressed through service and kindness to others. We believe in the value of society, equal education, women’s empowerment, interfaith engagement, physical health and wellbeing, and a responsibility to care for the environment.”

Carol and I both wanted to see the inside of the building. But we were on a tight schedule. Plus, given the increased security necessary for many religious communities these days, we thought unexpected visitors might not be welcome. So we admired the outside of the building from afar.

Al Masjid Al Zainee (Dawoodi Bohra), East Brunswick, New Jersey

Night driving

Big tech landscape

A large bleak-looking warehouse — Crate and Barrel warehouse, Cranbury, New Jersey

On our way to a seminar in Maryland, we stopped at a rest area in New Jersey. Right behind the rest area was a bleak Crate and Barrel warehouse that extended more than a quarter of a mile in one direction; behind it was another bleak warehouse, an Amazon fulfillment center, again more than a quarter of a mile long.

We mostly think of big tech as software and computer companies. But huge fulfillment centers are also a part of the big tech landscape — all that merchandise we buy online goes through physical plants like these.

Snowmelt

The temperature has been above freezing most of the week. This afternoon, it got up to about 38 degrees F. (3 C.) with light rain and drizzle. I wanted to see how much the snow was melting in the woods, so I went for a walk. I did see some places that were now bare of snow, mostly on south-facing slopes or where the high winds of the blizzard hadn’t allowed much snow to accumulate.

Woodlands with snow covering most of the groun.

Most of the ground remains covered by snow, though. There are still places with a foot of snow or more. Crossing one field, I had especially tough going. Sometimes I’d sink up halfway up to my knees. In one of the deepest snowdrifts I stopped and stuck my hand down to see how deep the snow was. I didn’t manage to reach the ground, but I’d guess there was still a foot and a half of snow.

My legs in the snow, with the snow halfway up to my knees.

In many places, meltwater ran underneath the snow. Some of the trails had turned into shallow streams. My wet boots grew heavy from the weight of the water. I walked to a place where skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) usually grows, but I couldn’t get close enough to see if any had emerged from the snow due to a foot of water flooding the area.

At last I made it back to the car. What should have been an hour long walk took two hours. My boots were soaked, my raincoat and hat were dripping with rain. I only wish I could have stayed out longer.

Blizzard clean-up

My best guess is that we had between 24 and 30 inches of snow (see note at end of post). Today the temperature got above freezing, and the snow settled down some. But there is still a lot of snow on the ground. Some of the snow piles left by plows along the streets towered five or more feet above the road surface.

Our neighborhood, known as Cohasset Village, is a business district with on-street parking. The huge snow piles lining the streets took up much of the parking. So tonight, town employees and contractors are here in the Village with one large tractor with a bucket loader, three medium-size bucket loaders, one of those little mini bucket loaders, several police cars, and a long line of dump trucks. The little bucket loader climbs up on the sidewalk and pushes the snow into the street. The medium size bucket loaders carry the snow to a central collection point, the junction of Elm and Main streets, two doors down from our apartment. Then the big bucket loader scoops the snow into the waiting dump trucks, as one by one they drive up, get loaded, and drive off again. Our second floor apartment is the perfect place to watch the action.

Carol watched a murder mystery on TV. I thought it was more fun to watch the snow being pushed around and loaded in dump trucks — showing that I still haven’t gotten over my preschool fascination with heavy equipment at work.

Looking south down Main Street — Elm Street is to the left, just out of the photo.

Elizabeth Tarbox biographical information

Recently, I used something written by Rev. Elizabeth Tarbox as a reading in a Sunday service. I realized I knew next to nothing about her, so I decided to look up her obituary in the Unitarian, Universalist, and UU Yearbooks (now digitized and online). She died in October, 1999, which means her obituary would be in the following year’s Yearbook — except that was the one year when the UUA decided not to publish minister’s obituaries in the Yearbook. I found no other obituary or life summary for her online.

With a little bit of research, I was able to generate the timeline below — which tells me most of what I want to know:

5 March 1944, born Elizabeth Irene Peck to William and Irene Hard Peck in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom (birth record)
1963, married Charles E. Tarbox (1938-2016) in St. Albans; she and Charles later had a child (marriage record; Charles Tarbox obituary in Boston Globe)
1968, she and Charles immigrated to the United States; applied for Social Security card (Social Security records; Charles Tarbox obituary in Boston Globe)
1986, B.A. in philosophy, Bridgewater State College (Bridgewater State yearbook for 1986)
c. 1980s, congregant at First Parish Duxbury, Mass. (mentioned in FP Duxbury newsletter)
c. 1986, began studying at Harvard Divinity School
c. 1988-90, served as student minister, First Parish Norwell, Mass. (mentioned on FP Norwell Facebook page)
1990, graduated Harvard Divinity School (UUA Yearbooks)
1990, ordained (UUA Yearbooks)
1990, settled at First UU Society of Middleboro, Mass. (UUA Yearbooks)
1993, publication of Life Tides: Meditations
1997, settled at First Parish in Cohasset, Mass. (UUA Yearbooks)
1997, publication of Evening Tide: Meditations
1999, resigned from First Parish in Cohasset due to ill health (First Parish Cohasset records)
31 Oct. 1999, died in Duxbury (Duxbury Annual Report; Social Security records)

I’m mostly satisfied with this timeline, though I wouldn’t mind finding answers to a couple of questions. First: When did she become a Unitarian? — it’s even possible she was raised Unitarian, as there was a small Unitarian fellowship in St. Albans in the 1950s, according to Alan R. Ruston, Unitarianism in Hertfordshire (Watford, Hertfordshire, U.K., 1979), p. 26. Second: What was she doing between marriage in 1963 and starting college in the 1980s — which includes a subsidiary question: Why did she come to the United States?

Blizzard, part 2

8:15 p.m. — Power went out two houses down from us, but so far we still have it. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Latest National Weather Service (NWS) reports show more than 30 inches of snow from Rhode Island up through southeastern Massachusetts. The nearest trained NWS spotter is in North Scituate, which is about 3 miles from here; that observer recorded 29 inches of snow as of 5:00 p.m.. Carol and I shoveled at about 5, and another couple of inches has fallen since then, so I’m pretty sure we have more than 30 inches at this point. And it’s still snowing.

Early to bed tonight. Beginning at seven tomorrow morning, we’re both volunteering with Cohasset Emergency Management to help staff the warming center for people who have lost power.

Blizzard conditions are defined by the NWS as visibility of 1/4 mile or less and wind speeds (sustained or frequent gusts) of 35 mph or higher, for 3 hours or more. These conditions were officially reached throughout eastern Massachusetts, from Providence, R.I. and Martha’s Vineyard, west to Worcester and north to Beverly, Mass. I guess we start calling this the Blizzard of ’26.

Woman standing in front of a snow-covered house. — Carol and I shoveled a path to the front door of the church’s Parish House. Carol is wearing the anorak that her father had when he wintered over in Antarctica. The snow wasn’t very deep where we were shoveling, because the wind had scoured it away. A friend with an anemometer saw 60 mile an hour wind gusts this morning.

Blizzard

Buildings and trees mostly obscured by blowing snow. — Cohasset Village during the storm.

I went out for a short walk. A few wind gusts strong enough to knock me off balance. Lots of downed branches, mostly fairly small. Heavy snowfall, an inch of two an hour, with very low visibility. It’s a wild storm.

The lights keep flickering, so I’ll post this while we still still have power.

More snow

It kept snowing all day today. The town’s plows haven’t been able to keep up, so the town has extended the on-street parking ban through Wednesday at 8 a.m.

Because it’s been so windy, it’s hard to say how much snow we got here in Cohasset. The National Weather Service reports that a trained spotter measured 13.5 inches of snow in Rockland, just south of here, at 5:13 this morning. We’ve had another 2 to 4 inches since then, and it’s still snowing. I’d guess the total snowfall will be at least 18 inches here in Cohasset.

I took a break from work in the middle of the day, and went snowshoeing in Great Brewster Woods, a 25 acre tract of conservation land close to our house. It felt like I was out in the middle of nowhere — a pretty amazing feeling for crowded suburbia. I didn’t see another soul, and the falling snow deadened all the sounds except for a Great Horned Owl hooting mournfully in a tree overhead.

Snowshoeing in Great Brewster Woods, Cohasset, Mass.

Update 1/28: NWS spotters from the immediate area reported 18 to 24 inches of snow from the storm. I’d guess about 20 inches here, though because of drifting it’s hard to tell. In any case, a very substantial storm.

Storm

Snow is coming down, maybe an inch an hour. The wind is drifting the snow around our building, and I couldn’t really tell how much snow we have gotten so far. So I put on my snowshoes, walked over to Cohasset Common, and saw there was at least eight inches of snow in the middle of the common.

The Common was quite beautiful. A few kids were sliding down the hill that St. Stephen’s church is on, and the occasional snow plow rumbled past. Aside from that, no one else was out. Lights were on in nearly all the houses around the common, making it look cheerful in spite of the gusty winds.