Archive for the ‘Columns & Essays’ Category

Part 3 of a series on the Walton Family of Wakefield, Massachusetts [Part 1 ; Part 2] Mary E. Walton did not live to see her granddaughter, Mary C. Walton, marry Valentine Giamatti. But her husband, 82 year-old Arthur G. Walton did attend the elegant wedding in South Berwick, Maine on July 3, 1937, just […]


Or how my photo of the Hood Blimp made the Official Red Sox Post-season Program Lord knows I waste my share of time on social media, even though I’ve never been a huge Facebook user and by most standards, tweeting 7,000 times and sharing 4,000 photos on Flickr barely qualifies me as a piker among […]


The Massachusetts Tech Tax is going to be repealed, and that’s a good thing. But now that repeal appears certain, all this “let bygones be bygones” stuff is just a little nauseating. Massachusetts is Democratic state – I assume we can all agree on that much. A state’s political leanings tend to be reflected within […]


[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] Suspicious 1940 blaze linked to union activity On the afternoon of July 18, 1940, the Wakefield Fire Department received a frantic call from the caretaker of the former Arthur G. Walton property at 108 Main St. Hans Meyer, who still lived in the caretaker’s house, reported that the old […]


[Part 1 of 3] [Part 2] [Part 3] Daring payroll Robbery of Walton shoe factory compared to Sacco & Vanzetti When it comes to Wakefield’s prominent old families, chances are you’ve at least heard of the Hartshornes, the Beebes, the Wakefields and the Eatons. But what do you know about the Walton family of Wakefield, […]


Kenneth Lonergan’s “This Is Our Youth,” currently on stage the Gloucester Stage Company, paints a compelling, passionate and funny – if not pretty – picture of disaffected upper-class youth in Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1982. I found myself wondering if the play’s title was intended as an observer’s commentary about the play’s twenty something […]


Pop quiz: What’s the first thing you do if you’re a new business moving into Wakefield Square? If you answered, “Hire Brian McGrail to go before the Zoning Board and get a waiver from the parking requirements,” you would be correct! Bonus question: Why do you need a waiver from the requirements for parking? If […]


We are right in the middle of the graduation season, and I am again available for a small stipend to deliver the keynote address at any commencement ceremonies. Or you can save yourselves the money, save me some time, and spare your graduates a few minutes of agony and just read it here. Graduates, distinguished […]


They say that everybody loves an underdog – unless the underdog happens to be a moderate Massachusetts Republican. The Democrats think you’re the devil incarnate, and a lot of your fellow Republicans call you a Democrat. Scott Brown heard it when he ran, and now Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez is also getting it from both […]


A cold October rain was falling as I turned my rented Nissan Sunny down the dirt lane in the village of Portglenone, Northern Ireland. The road was barely wide enough for one vehicle and had patches of grass growing between tire-worn tracks. Up on a hill in the distance to the left, I could make […]