FEATURE: Interview with Barney and Doris Blood [with video]

In an exclusive, personal, and wide-ranging interview with Barney and Doris Blood, Jane Bouvier, host of the weekly Cablecast show Around Town, learned that 90-year old Barney Blood and family will rebuild Blood Farms on an accelerated schedule, planning to be operating again by the end of Summer.

According to Bouvier, a principal motivation for the Bloods to rebuild is the incredible outpouring of support, phone calls, letters and personal appeals expressing willingness to help and encouraging him to rebuild for the sake of his employees, the town and the whole region. Mr. Blood received a typical encouraging call from one long-term, loyal customer, saying, "my lambs will be ready by spring and I hope you'll be ready to take them...."

Perhaps another motivation for rebuilding is that Barney and his wife Doris had the unique experience of having to shop for meat at a supermarket for the first time in memory, recently buying a Pork Roast and Hamburger.

Mr. Blood acknowledged that he's still feeling 'a little bit low' because of the devastation of the fire and his wife Doris worries about his health because of the fire and a recent heart attack.

The night of the fire, Mr. Blood said he was asleep in an easy chair near a window with a view of the meat processing operation. In the early hours of that Sunday morning, a relative pounded on the window frame, waking him up, alerting him to the fire, which he could see 'right outside the window' burning vigorously. Mr. Blood said that first view of the fire was 'devastating'.

Mr. Blood reminisced about living across the street until he was seven years old when the family moved into the brick-sided family home next to Blood Farms.

Jane Bouvier's interview with Barney Blood will be broadcast on the next edition of Groton Channel News.