Easton - A Town of Nations

"All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

When I was a kid, Easton was a lily white society.  It was almost exclusively Caucasian, Christian, and of European lineage.  We had, and still do have, a strong representation of people whose ancestors came from Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, and Sweden. 

And while my research on this specific demographic is not exhaustive  – it is fairly reliable – when World War II broke out, there were only two black families and two Jewish families in Easton. 

Curiously – for a Baby Boomer like myself growing up in Easton – there was not much contact with immigrants.  Almost all the people, kids and parents alike, who I knew were born here. 

Being fairly rural and removed from a major city – the touch point of the most diverse immigration – Easton remained homogenous.  We still are not a bastion of diversity or first generation immigrants (though we once were), but my experiences over the past couple weeks or so led to reflection on just how much we have changed – and for the better. 

America is ever growing, as is Easton – even if the r as during other periods.   Our town population is also changing  – as is its work force  – in many other ways.

Easton is ever more international and multiracial and multi-spiritual.  

Joe Meawad owns on Main Street.  Joe is from Egypt.  I talked with him the other day when I ran into him at the on Washington Street/Rte. 138 alongside the entrance to the Easton Industrial Park (Joe also introduced me to his brother and his mother who were with him).   I told Joe that I would like to sit down with him and do a  column on him and his thoughts on what is going on now in his homeland.  Always upbeat and gracious, he said sure, and we are going to do that interview soon.

Of course, that Dunkin’ Donuts has a hard-working, personable, and efficient staff, almost all of whom were born in South America, most in Brazil. 

If you stand in front of Dunkin’ Donuts and look northeast across the street, you will see May East, a Chinese restaurant.  Owner Cristo “Crist” Wong is from China.

If you get on to Rte. 138 and travel north, soon on your right is a ; it is on the corner of Washington Street and Belmont Street.  I am a frequent patron of the store, and one of the clerks with whom I enjoy talking is a gentleman from Haiti.

I exercise at up at Five Corners.  The other night I was at the gym talking with a woman who is in her 30s; she (her name is Lisa) and her husband moved to town a few years ago from New Jersey.  They have two small children. 

Lisa is Irish on her dad’s side, and Japanese on her mother’s side.   As I found out, Lisa has two aunts who live in northern Japan, far from the “immediate” effects of the earthquake – and they both are all right.  But as we agreed, there is much we don’t know about the consequences of the  

Who just walked past me as I was writing this column at the , but Uma Hiremath, the library’s assistant director.  Uma was born in India; she came to America in the 1980s for graduate school and has been here ever since.

Back to Anytime Fitness, another person I met recently at the gym is young lady, a German national, who is working in Easton as an au pair.  She tells me that she loves America, and a couple weeks ago she took a holiday in Mexico. 

One of my favorite “establishments” in the area is l.  Its owners are Neil Levine, who was born in America, and two Irish immigrants, Pat Connell and Michael Sullivan. 

If you want wonderful Mexican food, and a tasty margarita, go to at 620 Washington Street.    

(El Mariachi, in Easton, is the second El Mariachi in the area owned by the Lopez family; its first is located a town over at Taunton Green.)

What I have shared here is just a small slice of how Easton is more representative of the “melting pot” than ever before.  

Easton becomes more tightly woven in the "single garment of destiny."