Warner, N.H.

Here is a picture of Warner, N.H, where WCD grew up. It was settled in the seventeenth century by settlers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and was formally granted its colonial town charter in 1735. In the nineteenth century it flourished by supplying farm and dairy goods to the Boston metropolitan area. WCD can still remember taking the train from Warner to Boston when he was small. You got on the train by going to the station at the bottom of the hill by the river and went all the way to North Station, where your grandmother was waiting to meet you. Now the train is gone and the tracks have been taken up. It is sad. The population when WCD was growing up was under 1000.

When WCD was growing up there, Warner had three covered bridges, two of which were still in active use. The countryside was beautiful, and elms still grew on Main Street. It was a lost and better world.

The mountain in the background is Mt. Kearsarge. WCD's  younger  brother Tom, who was a national-level marathoner, used to start right down there at the bottom of Kearsarge Mountain Road -- the street that runs diagonally up the hill from Main Street -- and run all the way up to Mt. Kearsarge without stopping.  (In the lower right-hand corner of the picture you can see the church where Tom Dowling's memorial service was held . He is much missed by everyone who knew him.) WCD's surviving brother John, who in 1997 was N.H. Masters Runner of the Year, still does this occasionally. On the other side of Mt. Kearsarge is New London, New Hampshire, which is also a beautiful little New England town.

   If you look very closely at the picture, you can see the Pillsbury Library, which is where WCD got his education. Also the Dowling house, which is right at the bottom of Tory Hill. Also the town hall, where WCD made his first appearance in a school dramatic production. Also the vegetable heap out in back of  Horace Martin's IGA store, which is where the townspeople obtained objects to throw at the stage after having seen WCD's first-night performance.

Waterloo Bridge, Warner, NH

Pillsbury Free Library, Warner, NH