Water in Attleboro tasted better when Burdon S. Blanchard was in charge of the pumping station. And when Harold Wetherell was chief of the Norton Fire Department, fires may not have been put out any faster, but firefighting was something the community was more involved in.

Statisticians are more than welcome to try to pick apart the above two statements. The facts - whether chemical analysis of Attleboro water or extrapolation of response times, damage reports and the annual budget of the Norton Fire Department - may not support them at all. But what chance have facts got when they are up against legends?

To be sure, Mr. Wetherell, who died Friday at the age of 100, and Mr. Blanchard, who died Sunday at 85, were of that special breed of legend - the hometown variety, also known as the legend next door. They asked not for special treatment. Indeed, it feels strange to refer to them as Mr. Wetherell and Mr. Blanchard, or even Harold and Burdon. They went by Hank and Buster and they did their jobs well - very well - for about 40 years apiece.

Admittedly, it was a different sort of fire department when Hank Wetherell ran it. There was more reliance on volunteer, or call, firefighters and on neighborhood stations. It was kind of a part-time operation and in between calls Mr. Wetherell would take care of business at Wetherell Paint Co. He founded the shop next door to the Chartley fire station and continued to work there long after his retirement in 1970.

You'd trust Hank Wetherell to fix your ripped screen or broken window or for advice on how to paint the shutters or grow your tomatoes, a plant about which he was an expert. And you'd trust him to put out the fire when needed. Trust went a long way in Hank Wetherell's Norton. And Attleboro's water department was a totally different operation under Blanchard. Rather than the water filtration plant of today, Attleboro worked a "ground recharge system," the only one of its kind. We can't explain it, but Blanchard had no trouble doing so.

His name appeared most often in this newspaper because of a minor sidelight of the job: keeping the local weather records.

Was 103 degrees a record for Aug. 4? Blanchard would produce the information readily.

In a very basic way, he had his finger on the pulse of Attleboro.

The legends passed on this week after long and full lives. We can't say exactly how they will be remembered. That is mostly up to the people who knew them well, especially those whom they trained to continue the businesses of water delivery in Attleboro and firefighting in Norton.

But remembered they will be. The legends next door always are.