Greetings from Dunham,Quebec! I woke up at 5 this morning and hit the road by 6:00 after waiting in a painfully slow line at the Noho Dunkin. By 10 I was in Coaticook. First stop was the bank to get Canadian cash. The bank was quite closed as was the one in Derby, VT. I was a little nervous about not having cash on me, but had plenty of green stuff. The librarian at Coaticook library didnèt really speak English and didnèt show any signs of recognizing the pitchnut photo I showed her.

Nine hours after speaking with Albert Brunelle, I found myself at a contra dance in Greenfield, MA. By chance, the band of the night was Tidal Wave, whose members were from Montreal, Quebec City and the Acadian region. My recent quest is to ask every person I meet from Quebec if they've heard of (my version of) pitchnut. When the intermission started I made my way on stage and asked the Accordion player if he'd heard of or played pichenotte. He said he'd played as a kid.

This morning I called an 85-year old man, Albert Brunelle, (the uncle of my brother's neighbor's friend) who presently lives in Connecticut, but was born and grew up in Coaticook, Quebec. He remembers a man named Scalabrini in St. Hermenegilde, Quebec (just north of Vermont) who built and sold pitchnut boards in the 1920's. Albert says that Scalabrini had been building the games since 1900, at least.

That means I'm the only one that can sell boards and call them pitchnut. And the logo, too, that's trademarked. I need to add the little TM. And time to get T-Shirts printed up. I'll get on that soon. Any requests for colors? I got an offer from a company to search for people who are infringing my trademark. I can save the $300 a month and do it myself. http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=bcajbo.2.1

Good question. That's what I'd like to know. Here's what I do know. My grandfather, Louis Blain, who was born in Quebec and moved to E. Hartford, CT, had a pitchnut board. His cousin, Harvey Martineau, who lived in Hartford, also had one. The two boards were reunited after at least 20 years in September '06. When and where those boards were built is unkown.

By Bob Dunn: Staff WriterJoey, Noah, Jeff, and Scott begin a game of pitchnut last week at Amherst Regional High SchoolJoey, Noah, Jeff, and Scott begin a game of pitchnut last week at Amherst Regional High SchoolRemember when board games were made out of boards?Lee Larcheveque does, and he's sharing that memory with his high school students by introducing them to a game called pitchnut.