When, in the middle of August, Reggie Barrow married Association Treasurer Angela Perry's daughter, Joan, the Barrow family had a big Barbecue party afterwards. This gave Neil plenty of opportunity to pick people's brains, to check up on some of the new information Neil now had about the museum. He took Captain Cunningham aside, and asked him how it had happened that, in 1950, museum curator Susanna Seymour had departed so suddenly.

"She didn't have anything to say about it, really" the Captain said plainly. In 1947, the Chairman of the Board, Carla Spagnoli's father Simon, had discussed a controversial idea with the Board Secretary, Wheel Barrow's father Henry. Henry adamantly blocked Simon's intent to bring his daughter Carla on board as a museum staff member. By 1950, with Henry in bad health, approaching death, one of the last things he did was to oust the sitting curator replace her with his daughter. In 1950, when Simon died, Henry Barrow was made Chairman -- contingent on Carla's becoming acting curator.

"Simon was buried next to Louisa?" Neil asked.

"No one knows."

"No one klnows where Simon was buried?"

"Nobody knows where either one of them was buried," Cunningham said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's a mystery."

"Carla Spagnoli became acting curator in 1950?"

"In September."

"Susanna Seymour disappeared?"

"It's a mystery."

"Did Carla do a good job?

"I'd say yes," the Captain said. "By 1953, the number of summer visitors reached 2,000 people a month. The museum building was enlarged with a north addition. The $9,400 cost was funded partly by the State and partly by a local doctor, Walter Morton. The addition was given for the purpose of housing Morton's collection of Arts & Crafts pottery and Indian artifacts. carla put a five-year plan to beautify the Museum’s grounds into place. The stockade fence around the museum was removed. New outbuildings were erected and old ones relocated. A sprinkler system was installed and 120 rosebushes planted. By 1958, summer visitation averaged more than 4,000 people per month. The staff was increased to four -- Carla, a curatorial assistant, a custodian, and a part-time gardener."

"And this was all funded how?"

"Mainly through the museum's own endowment fund, enhanced by private contributions and some annual allocations from the town and state. The town budget for Fiscal Year 1960 included $8,800 in capital improvements. A membership drive increased the total Association membership to around 800. In December, 1961, an archivist was hired and microfilming of archival papers began. The Queen Anne style carriage house was built by the Rotary Club at about that same time. Outside lighting was installed on the grounds. Carla requested $17,000 from the town of Camperdene for Fiscal Year 1962-1963. A small gift shop began operating in the carriage house."

"It all ran quite smoothly?"

"Until 1965. The 1964-1965 city budget for the museum was set at $20,800. in 1965, Association President Henry Barrow pressed the Association to hire a professional curator -- one having a Masters degree -- for the Museum. That meant Carla would have been out. She didn't like that. My understanding is, she went to some people she knew in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn -- friends of her parents -- and, through the good offices of the Qabalistic Alchemist Arcanum, had a curse put on the man."

"Excuse me? "I said.

"Oh yeah," the Captain said. "She had some connections, let me tell you ."

"The Cabbalist Alchemy Archivy?"

"The Qabalistic Alchemist Arcanum."

"They put a curse put on Henry Barrow?"

"In fact."

This jelled exactly with what was in Wheel Barrow's file. "So?" I asked. "Did something awful happen to him?"

"Well for one thing," the Captain whispered in Neil's ear, "he died. That summer, visitation to the Museum exceeded 37,000 monthly. In the spring of 1965, the Museum Association voted Carla Museum Curator, though she did not have the now mandatory Master's degree. That year, 1965, the museum got its first volunteer help. Carla introduced "Annual Museum Day" that year. It drew in over 500 people. To Carla's chagrin, Wheel Barrow was made Chairman of the Board in 1967. He met with state legislative committees and got the state budget for the museum reduced. He singlehandedly restructured the museum board and its committees, giving himself increased power in the running of the museum."

"Did he abuse his power?"

"What? Were you born yesterday?" Cunningham said ironically. "Of course he abused his power. Does the name the name Clarence Richeson mean anything to you?"

Neil scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders, pretending he'd never seen or heard the name.

"The Reverend Clarence Richeson. In the year 1912, the good Reverend Richeson, who'd murdered his former fince, Avis Linnell, was electrocuted."

"The electric chair in the Museum -- that's the chair he was electrocuted in?"

"That's right," the Captain confirmed."The thing is," he continued, "all the papers, documents, magazine articles -- everything about the case -- letters and diaries written by both Richeson and Avis Linnell -- all are gone."

"Stolen?"

"It's supposed. Also correspondence between the Reverend Richeson and his lawyers which the writer TheodoreDreiser had gathered, along with Dreiser's notes toward a first draft of an abandoned novel he'd been writing about the case. The papers disappeared in 1967, the year Wheel came on Board as Association Chairman. He accused Carla Spagnoli of 'borrowing' the papers and things -- and never returning them. He claimed Carla had put them in a bank vault in Switzerland -- all except certain of the papers which she'd kept for herself to sell at auction."

"Did she?"

"How would I know?" the Captain said, shrugging his shoulders. "I only know that the next thing we knew, Carla had resigned, and fled the country with an older man named Grady McBreeze, a friend of Carla's father. She returned to Camperdene three months later, and was made Association Secretary. Frederick McCallom, having a Master's degree and ten years of museum experience under his belt, was hired to be Museum Curator. He was very professional. Everybody hated this guy. He clarified the relationship between the Museum Association and the town of Camperdene, recommending that the operations of the two should be wholly separate. The Association didn't agree, and took the town's money again that year -- the Town appropriation for Fiscal Year 1970-1971 was $76,400. In June, the Bungalow wing was expanded on its west side for more research room. Final arrangements were made for the purchase of property east of the museum. Visitors that summer reached 37,400 monthly. Association membership rose to 164. Six hundred researchers used the Museum Archives. In 1972, I joined the Association. At first I just stayed in the background -- kept my eyes and ears open."

"Waiting for something peculiar or unusual to happen?"

"Well, not so much that as just learn the ropes, get to know people, make my own power plays -- know what I mean? In 1972, yet another 1912 Craftsman bungalow was purchased by the Association, and plans were formalized for relocating it to the museum grounds. Town funding for the museum was set at $72,300. A separate state appropriation of $29,100 was provided for relocation/restoration/renovation purposes. In September, the new wing arrived on the museum grounds. Renovation efforts flopped. In November, Board members agreed on the need to hire another -- a new -- curator."

"Whooosh, like that, McCallom was gone."

"That's right. In 1973. McCallom was courting the affection of the Massachusetts Department of Finance, which was attempting to claim title to the Museum’s collections, citing a State Attorney General’s opinion that the holdings of The Museum of the Year 1912 in fact should have reverted to the Massachusetts Historical Society after the death of Simon Spagnoli. The museum board refused to send the State a list of museum holdings. The Massachusetts Historical Society made several attempts, through various state agencies, to assume control of The Museum of the Year 1912. State Senator Iris Holland, a Republican from Longmeadow, rebuffed their efforts. In 1974, Republican 33rd degree Mason President Gerald Ford appointed Republican 33rd degree Mason George Bush head of the the CIA. In 1974, The Museum fell into complete disarray, occasioning public criticism. No Annual Museum Day was held, due, as Wheel Barrow put it, asI recall, to a perceived 'general antipathy of the community toward the museum at this time.' Under considerable pressure, Frederick McCallom resigned. On May 1, Hollie Greenspan was selected from 55 applicants to become Museum Curator."

"My predecessor. Now in Nova Scotia."

"Your predecessor," Cunningham said. "She came aboard. Wheel, as Board Chairman, set up a volunteer auxiliary, which grew rapidly. In June, 1973, the first Folk Arts Fair, on the Museum grounds, attracted more than 5,500 visitors. In September, Sam Barnaby, a Camperdene developer, offered to donate the historic J. Marsden Bungalow to the Museum if it was removed from his recently purchased property. The Museum Board set a goal of raising $35,000 for the relocation. A community-wide fund-raising campaign began. Wheel directed the fund-raising committee; I managed publicity for the campaign. The Marsden Bungalow was moved, intact, six blocks, to the museum grounds. Hundreds lined Osborne Street to watch. The successful move got media attention across the state. The town appropriation for Fiscal Year 1974-1975 included funding for a second full-time maintenance worker. The Museum’s staff now included five full-time and five part-time employees.Nearly 40,000 people visited the Museum. Over 500 researchers consulted the Archives."

"How do you keep all this inside your head?" Neil marveled bluntly.

"Idiot Savant," the Captain said. "Ever hear of that? I can read the Camperdene telephone book backwards, close it, then tell you everyone and their middle initial, if it's given, who lives on Juniper or Prentice Streets. It's just one peculiar gift, like any another. Sometimes I wish I could change it, trade it in so that I had greater virtue, moral power, more nobility, dignity, higher consciousness, and so on."

"You seem like a pretty decent guy," Neil volunteered.

"Don't get me wrong," he said. "I have my qualities. But there are things that I will never tell you of, which you should know about. Well, anyway, Wheel Barrow was offered a million dollars for his property immediately opposite the Museum, but he refused to sell it. On May 13,1976, the Morton Room re-opened with newly reorganized exhibits. On May 17-18, the Folk Arts Fair drew 4,000 visitors. A fellow named Willy Bishop was hired to coordinate the Museum's educational programs, for which the state legislation had just approved $65,000, and the volunteer auxiliary. Outreach programs included traveling artifact kits. The Camperdene Artists Guild secured a five-year lease on the west wing for a combination workshop/gallery. In 1977, the volunteer force increased to fifty. Artifact and archival holdings grew apace. During the winter, four new employees were hired under a federal program that funded the jobs for periods varying from six to eighteen months. In 1979, the 1912-style windmill was constructed on the grounds. Cuts in Federal spending led to the loss of six employees in the spring of 1981. Extensive work on Museum properties began as workers removed rental properties adjacent to the museum. A major renovation of the museum began, including restoration of stone fireplace. A new exhibit, 'Opening the Family Trunk,' displayed clothing -- outfits, fashions -- people had worn in 1912. A reduction of state agency budgets by ten percent prompted the Museum to increase fund-raising efforts and raise Association membership dues.In 1984, the gazebo was constructed on the west lawn. Funds for the professional education of Museum staff increased to $4,000 in 1985. New shelves were installed in the Library to hold 8,000 volumes. The cumulative total of items cataloged reached 19,400. Museum visitation totaled 75,000. The first computer, acquired for use in the Archives, was obtained in 1986, at which time the state reduced the Museum’s budget by nearly half. Still, new programs were introduced, expanding the Museum’s role in public education, including high school and college level scholarships. A grant from the Institute of Museum Services funded expansion planning. Further property was purchased west of the Museum but a freeze on state spending restricted further development. The Memorial Rose Garden was completely rebuilt. A water garden and a goldfish pond were installed near the windmill. Visitation increased to 90,000, and volunteers donate a total of 22,000 hours in 1988. In 1989, the Archives acquired its largest single collection, the George P. Farrow collection, which includes over 1,700 maps. In-house training sessions for volunteers were held from October through April, 1990. In 1991, the Museum began a closer association with the Massachusetts Archaeological Society and, in 1992, we gained accreditation from the American Association of Museums. Out of 6,500 museums nationwide, only 700 had received this designation. Plans were under way for expansion on the western end of the museum with a 30,000-square-foot building -- half exhibit space, half storage. Forward planning also includes expanded book publishing and publications efforts. In 1993 The Amphitheater and the northwest parking lot were completed. A new entrance was cut into the west side of the museum, providing improved handicapped access. In September, Rob Czjesch was hired as graphic artist and exhibit designer. In March, 1994, the Board of The Museum of the Year 1912 voted to remove Hollie Greenspan as curator. Our reason? We gave none. Julia Seymour-Stanton was made ccting curator a short while. You were interviewed -- and hired. This may come as a surprise to you, but Carla Spagnoli assumed, from your name -- Neil Oppenheimer Wright -- that you were Jewish, perhaps descended from the Oppenheimers who'd hobnobbed with the leading Jewish families in the good old days -- the Wertheimers, Schusters, Speyers, Sterns, Rothschilds. She insisted that was your best selling point. Wheel said you looked like some dumb goof who couldn't tie his own showlaces in the sunlight, but this time Carla prevailed. Excuse me," the Captain now said abruptly, lurching away very briskly. "Barrow beckons."

Wheel Barrow, in a blood-red apron and a high white chef's hat, had just stepped away from a hot barbecue and, with both hands in multicolored cooking mittens, was waving Cunningham over very vigorously.

Along about 3:00 that afternoon a big truck pulled up, filled with "energy efficient lighting." After months of scheming and calculating -- and what with a rebate offered by the Electric Company on this "energy efficient lighting" -- Wheel Barrow and Captain Cunningham had bought these lights for the Museum. Their understanding was, the Electric Company was going to also install them. They were told, this was not at all the case. The two decided on the spot, while eating their spare ribs at the wedding feast, to return the whole batch until such time as the Electric Company could have their installers present and ready to install the lights.

About a month passed. A second truckload arrived, but -- again -- no installers. The Captain called the firm to set up an appointment for him, the truckdriver, and the installers all to be at the museum at the same time on the same day. The Electric Company's representative informed Captain Cunningham that they had never intended to install any lights. They only sold the lights. And so the lights again went back to the warehouse -- forever perhaps.