Autor: Bob Bates

Author Bob Bates is a son of the Berkshire hills town of Ashfield in western Massachusetts. He grew up on a dairy and apple farm during the 1940s and 1950s. It was a remarkable era in farm and country living as technology came knocking at New England farmers’ doors. Some farms cautiously tried the new machinery and tools and committed to it. Others looked at the future and were unable to make that same commitment. There was no middle ground; it was either grow or fold. Bob”s family chose to grow. Bates attended the public schools in Ashfield, then went on to Northeastern University in Boston. He endured, and often even enjoyed, a forty-year-long career as an engineer at a large electronics manufacturer in Nashua, New Hampshire. Bob met his wife, Sharon, while working at a telephone equipment manufacturer in the Merrimack Valley. He proudly showed her his country roots. “God’s country, ” he reverently called it. “Humph!” Sharon, a city girl, retorted, “Only God would have it!” Come to think of it, many New England farmers would certainly agree! Nonetheless, both of their children used every opportunity to visit the home farm. Now retired, Bates is busier than ever as a sports PA announcer, a Justice of the Peace, a model railroader, a writer, and best of all, as a grandfather!