Mogul credits his success to Mountain Road pea-picking
Ron Given of Burlington Lanscaping on Wyman Street, whose family has deep roots in Winnmere, says the Blais family was the last to operate those Mountain Road greenhouses in the first picture. John F. Blais Jr. became a serial entrepreneur, launching several successful companies. He told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that picking peas one-by-one on Mountain Road was an important character-builder:
“During my childhood, I had chores to do. I had to work every day and every night, Saturday and Sunday morning,” Mr. Blais said. “One of the things it taught me is when you have work to do, you have to do it. You can’t put it off to another day, especially in farming.” All business students should spend a little time in a “perishable business” to become conditioned to urgency, he said.
Absolutely love the web page! Thank you for gathering all the fond memories for us. __________________Michael Runyan – Selectman, Town of Burlington
Hard to imagine people picking peas on Mountain Road 50 years ago. But then, 50 years is a very long time ago!
I really enjoy and look forward to reading this webpage “that forgets to forget”. Thank you.
Thank you so much for all the history of Burlington. Brings me back to my youth growing up there.
Barbara Serpa
Past resident
i remember working for the Blais brothers in the greenhouses there on mountain road…………remember the old water tank that stood for many years on the hillsdide…………carl johnson, bhs 54
Love this site! Thanks for doing this!
The MACRIS document for 26 Mountain Road (link below) tells of th3 house’s connection to an Irish immigrant community that settled in the Mountain Rd / Burlington Rd area in the 1850’s. Interesting story…..
http://mhc-macris.net/Details.aspx?MhcId=BUR.68
Grew up in the Mountain Road area. Thank You
Was raised on Mountain road, very much appreciated the story… thx