Former Hancock resident Ben Curran remembers the last time he walked in a parade in Hancock.
“It was 1968, and we wore tricorner hats,” Curran recalled. “My family lived in Hancock in 1960s, and while we didn’t stay all that long, it just had a lasting effect on my family.”
Curran’s father was in the foreign service, and the Curran family lived all around the world during his childhood. But of all the places the family lived, Hancock was the one they most thought of as home.
“My mom and my sister and I were talking about our memories of Hancock, and we had so many great memories, we starting joking that we needed to get a group of former residents together to lead the parade and call it the ‘Hancock Diaspora,'” Curran said.
Curran began to make plans to get a group together for 2026, reaching out to old friends and other former Hancock residents.
“Then my mom said, ‘I might not be around in 2026!’ So we said, ok, we’ll do this now,” Curran said.
At this year’s Old Home Days on Aug. 16, Curran, along with fellow former Hancock residents Tia Strombeck and resident Rob English, carried a banner in the parade with the title “Hancock Diaspora: Spreading Love and Peace Around the World.”
“Some people I spoke to weren’t sure about that title, but I think it’s consistent with the theme of Old Home Days,” Curran said. “It’s about celebrating, it’s about people coming home and re-connecting. It’s about these beautiful small town values, and it’s about being in this beautiful and peaceful corner of the world.”
Curran says coming back to Hancock and the Monadnock region is “so refreshing.”
“We ran into so many old friends who were back visiting from other places, and several of them want to be part of this next year,” Curran said. “We hope that people see the banner and wonder about it, and that they get in touch. We think the group will double and triple in size next year, and hopefully will continue to grow. We just think it’s an amazing opportunity for people to connect.”
Curran publicized the project with a flyer at the library and other locations around town.
“We heard from a lot of people who were excited about it,” he said.
English, whose family has been in Hancock for generations, found the photos from past days used on the banner.
“My mother is a great grammaticist, and she loves the word ‘diaspora.’ She meant it in global terms, like the Greek diaspora or the Ethiopian diaspora–people from those countries have spread all over the world. Applying it internally, in the United States, it is legitimate use of the world – it’s people who have lived in Hancock and now live in other places all over the world,” Curran said. “And there are a lot of us.”
Curran hopes the Hancock Diaspora group will walk in the parade every year going forward. He also wanted to show his son, Matiwos, 16, who walked with the banner, how to get a small project like the Diaspora organized.
“It’s been great to have him be part of it. I come back to Hancock several times each year, but Old Home Day is just really special. Running into so many old friends, it brings back memories from when my parents were living there,” Curran said. “You really just can’t say enough about Hancock Old Home Days, and about Hancock. It’s just a very special place.”