Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: DAN MILLER
GOSHEN, MA – It turned out to be a pretty good day to roast a pig and dunk a town official or two.
The approximately 150 people who ate hotdogs, hamburgers and corn at the first annual “Pignic” at Tilton field seemed to be enjoying the benefit for the town’s police and fire departments, which sponsored the events.
There were plenty of takers at the dunking booth, where three softball throws went for 50 cents. And town officials expressed no reservations whatsoever about being the pigeon.
“Oh yeah,” said Police Chief David Guertin. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Certainly,” said Raymond Morin, a selectman and firefighter. “There’s nothing better than getting wet.”
“Anything for a buck,” was the word from Fire Chief Francis Dresser.
Dresser then climbed into the booth, dipped his feet in the water and remarked on how frigid it was. When he finally hit the drink, he let out a yell but managed to keep the smile on his face.
“It was a shock,” he said later.
The man who brought Dresser down first was Louis Benoit of Northampton. It turns out that Benoit is the brother of William Benoit, a Goshen firefighter and emergency medical technician.
Had the Benoits conspired against Dresser, who declined to give his age but said that at 40 years of service he is the senior fire chief in Western Massachusetts?
“Oh sure. I gave Lou the money,” William Benoit said in jest. Also dunked was Lois Cross, an emergency medical technician for Chesterfield, Goshen and Williamsburg.
Meanwhile, in another part of the field, a 10-year-old complained he lost his appetite for pork.
Timothy Mercier of West Springfield took one look at 145 pounds of pig, apple in mouth, turning over an open fire and said, “The poor little thing . . . maybe I’ll have a burger.”
Guertin said he fired up the grill at 5:30 a.m. yesterday, and that the pig was ready to eat by mid-afternoon.
“You know it’s finished when the hams and shoulders reach 170 degrees.”
The pignic was named after the featured cuisine, and not the co-sponsors, Guertin said.
But one could say that for the two departments, it was a kind of pork-barrel politics.
As well as being a benefit, the picnic also gave firefighters and police officers a chance to socialize, Guertin said.
“We’re trying to bridge the gap between fire and police,” he said. “They are there with us with the ambulances at accidents, so we should get to know them,” he said.
He credited the Hampshire County Deputy Sheriffs Association with supplying grills and making salads.