West of Boston, locations are gifted with unconventional nicknames

STOP IN TOOL TOWN ROUTE TWO BOASTS A MURDERER’S ROW OF KILLER TOWN NICKNAMES. GARDNER IS THE CHAIR CITY. WINCHENDON TOY TOWN ORANGE IS JUMP TOWN, AND THEN THERE IS TOOL TOWN. THIS TOWN IS KNOWN AS THE HOME OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST TOOL MAKERS, LOCAL HISTORY BUFF DAN EATON TELLS US. ONE COMPANY LOOMS LARGE OVER THIS TOWN. STARE AT TOOLS MAKERS OF PRECISION MEASURING INSTRUMENTS. STARRETT HAS DIVISIONS ALL OVER THE GLOBE, BUT THIS TOWN ALONG THE MILLERS RIVER HAS BEEN ITS HEADQUARTERS FOR ALMOST 150 YEARS. PEOPLE ARE VERY, VERY PROUD OF THAT HERITAGE, AND IT SEEMS TO KIND OF BE IN THE BLOOD OF THE OF THE TOWN. TOOL TOWN, WHIP CITY, BUCKET TOWN, TOWN. NICKNAMES ARE OFTEN BASED ON TRADITIONAL LOCAL INDUSTRIES, SOME DATING AS FAR BACK AS COLONIAL TIMES. BY COMPARISON, OUR NEXT TOWN NICKNAME IS BRAND SPANKING NEW. IT MAY HAVE STARTED UNDERGROUND, BUT IT HAS SLOWLY WRIGGLED ITS WAY INTO THE PUBLIC EYE. WARM TOWN BREWERY HAS BEEN A FROTHY LOCAL SUCCESS STORY, SPREADING THROUGHOUT NEW ENGLAND, WITH A SATELLITE TAPROOM AT PATRIOT PLACE AND A GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPION GOLD MEDAL TO ITS CREDIT. WE’VE EXPANDED HERE. I THINK FIVE TIMES, FROM 8000FT TO 24,000FT. NOW. BUT WHEN DAVID FIELDS CAME ON BOARD, HE WASN’T SURE ABOUT THE NAME. MY FIRST IMPRESSION YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER I GREW UP IN THE ZIP CODE WE’RE SITTING IN RIGHT NOW. I HAD NEVER HEARD THE NICKNAME. I SAID, LOOK, GUYS, IT JUST DOESN’T REALLY SOUND THAT APPEALING. BUT HE LEARNED WORMTOWN WAS SPREADING AS A NEW NICKNAME FOR HIS HOME CITY. FIELDS SLOWLY STARTED WARMING TO THE WORM. TODAY, HE’S MAJORITY OWNER OF THE BREWERY AND WORM TOWN’S BIGGEST CHAMPION. I CAME AROUND PRETTY QUICKLY AND SAID, THIS IS THE BADGE THAT OUR BREWERY NEEDS AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT’S THE BADGE OF THE CITY THAT I GREW UP IN. HARDSCRABBLE, UM, YOU KNOW, WE LIKE TO GET OUR FINGERS DIRTY. WE’RE BLUE COLLAR, BUT WHERE DID THE TERM WORM TOWN HATCH FOR THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION, WE ARE DIRECTED TO RALPH’S CHADWICK DINER. THIS CITY’S WEIRDLY INDESTRUCTIBLE ROCK DIVE. FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS, RALPH’S HAS BEEN HOME TO MERCHANTS OF SONIC CHAOS AND CATHARSIS. HERE, WE’RE GRANTED AN AUDIENCE WITH A COUPLE OF LOCAL DIGNITARIES. I’M ELBOW WORM, THE INVENTOR OF WORM TOWN. I’M BRIAN GOSLOW, THE WORM TOWN MINISTER OF CULTURE AND WORM TOWN IS NOT A BEER. LEONIE ELBY WORM SAARINEN AND HIS PAL BRIAN GOSLOW WERE IMMERSED IN THE UNDERGROUND PUNK MUSIC EXPLOSION IN THE LATE 1970S. THEY THOUGHT THE LOCAL SCENE DESERVED MORE ATTENTION THAN IT WAS GETTING, BUT NOBODY WAS WRITING ABOUT IT, WOULDN’T WRITE ABOUT IT. MAGAZINE WOULDN’T WRITE ABOUT IT. SO I FIGURED I’D WRITE ABOUT IT USING A VARIANT OF HIS NICKNAME LBE WORM XEROXED A HAND SCRAWLED SHEET OF HIGH ENERGY ENTHUSIASMS AND CALLED THE PAPER THE WORM TOWN. PUNK PUNK PRESS AND JUST STARTED TAKING OFF FROM THERE. GOSSLAU SPREAD THE WORD ON HIS RADIO SHOW AT THE LOCAL UNIVERSITY. GRAFFITI FOLLOWED, THEN AN ALBUM FEATURING LOCAL BANDS NOT EVERYONE WAS THRILLED, ESPECIALLY FORMER MAYOR THE LATE JORDAN LEVY. YEAH, JORDAN LEVY DIDN’T LIKE IT AT ALL. HE WAS FROM THE OLD SCHOOL AND HE THOUGHT IT WAS AN INSULT TO THE CITY DIGGER DATING OUR CITY. MY FINE CITY. RESISTANCE WOULD PROVE FUTILE. A GIFT STORE POPPED UP, THEN A MUSIC FESTIVAL. EVEN THE LOCAL RUGBY CLUB ADOPTED THE WORM AS ITS MASCOT. CANDIDLY, I WAS NEVER OFFENDED BY IT. I THOUGHT IT WAS KIND OF FUNNY AND INTERESTING WHEN TIM MURRAY, NOW PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, BECAME MAYOR IN 2001, THE CITY’S WAR ON WORM TOWN ENDED. MUCH LIKE NIXON’S GROUNDBREAKING TRIP TO CHINA. THE MAYOR TRAVELED TO RALPH’S ROCK DINER FOR A SUMMIT MEETING WITH LBE WORM, A FORMAL PROCLAMATION RECOGNIZING THE NICKNAME WORM TOWN WAS THUS DECREED. BUT NOTHING HAS SPREAD. THE WORM TOWN NAME MORE THAN THE BREWERY FOUNDED IN 2010, BUT DON’T GO LOOKING FOR LBE WORM AND HIS MINISTER OF CULTURE HERE. UNDERGROUND DIE HARDS TO THE END, THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF WORM TOWN ARE STILL MORE AT HOME WHERE THE SUNS NEVER SHINE IN THE MURK AND MIRE OF DIVES LIKE RALPH’S ROCK DINER. I PERSONALLY HAVE NEVER MET ANY OF THOSE GUYS, BUT IF THEY WANT TO COME DOWN HERE, I WILL BUY HIM A BEER AND AND I’M ALWAYS HAPPY TO TELL THE STORY THAT THAT’S EXACTLY WHERE THIS CAME FROM. SO GOOD. SO HOW DO THE FOUNDERS OF WORM TOWN FEEL ABOUT BUSINESSES TAKING THEIR NICKNAME AND REALLY RUNNING WITH IT? WELL, LIBBY AND BRIAN MIGHT BE SAID TO HAVE A SORT OF INGRAINED UNDERDOG SENSE OF RESIGNATION ABOUT THE THING GROWING OUT OF THEIR CONTROL. SLIGHTLY ANNOYED, BUT ALSO PROUD. MOSTLY THEY JUST WANT THE RECORD SET STRAIGHT ON ITS ILLUSTRIOUS BEGINNIN