"Back then longevity itself was a newsworthy topic."

February 14, 2022 4:17 PM

"On August 2, 1909, Mr. Edwin A. Grozier, Publisher of the Boston Post, a newspaper, forwarded to the Board of Selectmen in 700 towns (in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine) in New England a gold-headed ebony cane with the request that it be presented with the compliments of the Boston Post to the oldest male citizen of the town, to be used by him as long as he lives... and at his death handed down to the next oldest citizen of the town. The cane would belong to the town and not the man who received it." While eligibility has, since 1930, been extended to women, and in some towns the cane is not presented to but merely named for the town's oldest citizen, this tradition still continues today. One website (slightly out of date) attempts to track who's name is on the cane in each participating town. While not every town is still keeping good track of the location of the cane or the age of its oldest resident, many do. Stow MA, Bethlehem NH, Sunderland MA, Foster, RI, and aptly, Livermore ME and Gray, ME.
posted by jessamyn (17 comments total)

How the heck have I never heard of this? Why isn't this a thing that everyone knows? This is amazing!

Sadly, looks like my town doesn't have one.

It's a little morbid. Sort of a "here, take this, you'll be the next person to die." thing.
posted by bondcliff at 4:40 PM on February 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

I recall the Boston Globe trying to track down all the Boston Post Cane holders years ago, perhaps even in pre-Internet times. My in-laws used to live in Raymond, Maine, and my MIL knew a couple of different people who held the cane.
posted by briank at 4:42 PM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Thanks for this! Comes at an interesting time for me as my dad, who turned 90 back in July, recently purchased for himself a very nice hand-made cane (cannot recall the wood). I think he liked the idea of it and its provenance more than anything else. While he doesn't need a cane to get around, I have been encouraging him to starting bonding with it now rather than waiting until after it becomes obligatory. I suspect he feels there's a lot of stigma in using such a tool and I wish I could disabuse him of this.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 4:45 PM on February 14, 2022

It's a little morbid. Sort of a "here, take this, you'll be the next person to die." thing.

Morbid, perhaps, but only because as end of life approaches most everything becomes informed by that transition's various markers. Here in the west we don't have a great model for reaching (or sharing) the ends of our lifespans and many things don't get spoken of (or about) as a result.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 4:51 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

That's awesome. I live in New Hampshire, and had no idea about this, but my husband does a lot of work with local governments here and went "Oh yeah, I walk past the cane in [redacted]'s town hall every time I'm there" when I mentioned it. Sadly, we currently live in a city and not a town, so no board of selectmen, and no cane for us.
posted by damayanti at 4:54 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

BRB perambulating the bounds
posted by zamboni at 5:06 PM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's a little morbid. Sort of a "here, take this, you'll be the next person to die." thing.

I think it's both morbid and not, like what Insert Clever Name Here says. Like the last year my mom was alive, she was given an award by the town, chosen to be the parade marshall. She got to give a speech at the annual town's traditional day (for us its Fifer's Day - the first fifer into the Revolutionary War was from my town I think) which is like one of those greased pole climb and strawberry shortcake kinds of events. All the old timers get together during a day with usually nice weather and it's a nice way to say hi to people you don't see very often.

So my mom got this award and we all knew, because of her general health, which was not really a secret, that this would be her last Fifer's Day. So people got to fuss over her and say what they wanted to say to her, and she honestly enjoyed getting fussed over. She was far from the oldest person in the town but it was a different sort of way of bestowing something on to the people in the town who had been around for a while. Now it's possible there might be older people in the town who just got there, or don't care or who don't choose to participate and so there's a slightly random aspect to the cane but especially for a lot of smaller New England towns, that person is likely a known person. And it's a way, an excuse even, to get in touch and say hey and maybe "thanks" for the things that person has done.

I live in New Hampshire

I was chuffed to both know the town of the historical society that put up this page (which is where my sister works, she told me about this tradition which I also had not known about) and also that the guy listed on the Resources page site, the one who can engrave the town name on to replacement canes, is the husband of a NH librarian I know and really like. New England, so small!
posted by jessamyn at 5:23 PM on February 14, 2022 [11 favorites]

I recall the Boston Globe trying to track down all the Boston Post Cane holders years ago

2002! Good memory!
posted by jessamyn at 5:35 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Cool! As a Stephen King fan, I’d read about the canes but filed it away in my brain under “maybe true, maybe fictional”.
posted by Monochrome at 7:20 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

To you from failing hands
we throw the torch
be yours to hold it high
-John McCrae
posted by furtive at 7:39 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Now I finally have a use for my fake ID.
posted by not_on_display at 8:03 PM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm surprised this wasn't a plot point in the Gilmore Girls, because it sure could have been. What an interesting custom!
posted by twelve cent archie at 8:16 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Hah! There's a notice in the local paper this week looking for any residents older than the current holder, born in 1919, in case the cane needs to be re-awarded. Apparently they now present a replica, as the original is "showing its age" and is on display in the town hall instead.
posted by restless_nomad at 4:35 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

Nine Seven hundred for mortal men doomed to die,

I'm sure if I was more confident in Lord of the Rings knowledge I could finish out the rest of that poem with the appropriate New England references.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:58 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

No canes went to Vermont, where there were certainly Boston Post readers. Boo. Nor to Connecticut, apparently.
posted by beagle at 5:50 AM on February 15, 2022

And, if you live in Maine, you can get a legislative sentiment when you get your cane.
posted by JanetLand at 7:05 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is so cool! I wonder if my town's Council on Aging ever did reinstate the tradition (the last update on the website in 2011 says they were "looking into it").
posted by lysimache at 1:52 PM on February 15, 2022