i went to her elementary school

in honor of the fact that i seem to have mutually been written off and also written off 80% of my college career, here is an awesome fact about my hometown of uxbridge, massachusetts; the pissant, one-mcdonald's-having, white trash mecca, rural, twice the population of the capital of vermont small town that vomitted me out at the age of 17:

Given the important nature of the vote, the landowner and taxpayer status of Josiah's estate, and the fact that young Bazaleel, Caleb's younger brother, was just a minor, the townspeople voted to allow Lydia, "the widow Josiah Taft", to vote in this important meeting.^[10][1] Lydia then received Josiah's proxy to vote in this important town meeting. Lydia Chapin Taft then became the first recorded legal woman voter in America. Lydia Chapin Taft, now simply known as Lydia Taft, voted in an official New England Open Town Meeting, at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, on October 30, 1756. This is recorded in the records of the Uxbridge Town Meeting. Lydia Taft of Uxbridge became the first woman to ever vote in the nation.^[11][10] Judge Chapin records in his 1864 address to the Unitarian church, that, "Uxbridge may yet become famous as the pioneer in the cause of Women's suffrage".^[10] This was written 56 years before women's suffrage became legal in America. Lydia Taft's historic vote would precede the constitutional amendment for women's suffrage, which was in 1920, by 164 years. In 2007, Uxbridge may still become famous in the history of women's suffrage. According to Judge Chapin, the vote to allow Lydia to vote in 1756, was following the tradition of "no taxation without representation".^[10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Taft

some of those sentences don't make sense, but hey; that's wikipedia for you. lydia taft, neé chapin, was actually born in mendon, and became a resident of uxbridge only when part of mendon was ceded to uxbridge. that area is where my parents now live; fuck yeah, route 16! another interesting* fact about uxbridge, and that whole area of blackstone valley, is that most of the towns were divided up into (sometimes formalized) villages during the industrial revolution. in one area, two actual towns border one another; northbridge and uxbridge. however, the smaller mill villages of whitinsville, north uxbridge, linwood and another one i always forget all overlap one another. and whitinsville and north uxbridge have their own zip codes and post offices, despite not being real towns. and they each have different property tax laws.

and you guys thought the weekend subway schedule in astoria was complicated.

i also went to the taft elementary school, although i believe that it is named after husband, not her. the tafts were a big family in early massachusetts history.

*not actually interesting