HOLYOKE — There’s a detail about the old Yankee Pedlar restaurant that Richard Rodriguez has etched into his memory forever.
Rodriguez, a sophomore at the Holyoke High School Dean Campus, said he remembers visiting his dad, the restaurant’s head chef, almost every day as a little kid. But it’s not the food or ambiance that sticks out to him today — instead, that title is given to Dobbin, a landmark horse who stood proudly outside of the restaurant until 2017 when the store closed and she was moved to the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round.
“This right here is also a symbol of Holyoke,” said Rodriguez, 15, on a recent Tuesday in March after he helped move Dobbin off her horse trailer and into the school’s auto shop for restoration.
The original plan was for Dobbin, who is in desperate need of repair, to be cosmetically restored by students in an auto collision technology class to be part of the Grand Colleen’s float in this year’s St. Patrick’s Parade, with a full restoration project scheduled for the fall. The parade has since been postponed to next March due to COVID-19, but students will still restore Dobbin for her triumphant return in next year’s parade, said Kathie McDonough, operations manager at the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round.
“As soon as the kids are able to go back to school her rehab will take place — that’s for sure,” McDonough said.
McDonough won’t say exactly where Dobbin is now in fear of her safety — the dilapidated equine has apparently been stolen, taken for joyrides and been the subject of numerous scavenger hunts in the past. Once Dobbin’s fixed, McDonough said, she’ll be brought back to the merry-go-round until next March’s St. Patrick’s do-over, and then right back to the carousel.
Mark Cipriani is the auto collision technology teacher at the high school and said his class has helped in restoring a sleigh now at the Holyoke Heritage State Park. He said he has restored horses similar to Dobbin in the past.
Speaking before the cancelation, Cipriani said students were first going to do just a cosmetic touch-up on Dobbin to get her ready for the parade, clearing any loose debris, clean her and put a fresh coat of white paint to fix her peeling facade. He said in the fall, students will engage in a project where they will do a complete resurfacing and restoration of Dobbin, who is made of fiberglass.
“Our auto collision class, because we specialize in automotive refinishes and fiberglass and things like that, we can put a really high-quality, long-lasting finish on it and it’s going to last for 100 years,” Cipriani said.
McDonough said the same colleens and float will return next year, meaning Dobbin will be “pulling” a carriage on which the Grand Colleens will sit on their float, which was titled the “Rocky Road to Dublin.”
David Brueshaber, a carpentry instructor at the school, said his class is in charge of helping put together the float. There’s not as much carpentry involved with this float, he said, but in years past kids have built intricate designs, such as castles. He said the kids have been watching the parade for as long as they’ve been in Holyoke and working on a part of it gives them a sense of pride.
“It’s just a really cool experience for them,” Brueshaber said. “I think it kind of ties them into the community a little bit because now they feel like they’re part of it — they’re not just living in the city but they helped with something that everybody is looking at.”
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.