Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Note to 89 percent of the registered voters in Wakefield, Massachusetts: There was a Town Election on April 26, 2011. Sorry you couldn’t make it. Two selectmen, two School Committee Members and an Assessor were elected. And those were just the contested races. It’s been noted that the 2011 Wakefield Town Election may have seen […]


Will close June 1 after 65 years on Albion Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts The expression, “the end of an era,” has become a bit of a cliché. But when the Ox Bow Pet Shop, one of Wakefield’s oldest businesses and one of the few independent, family-owned pet stores in a market dominated by chain stores […]


Old School

18Nov10

The town is preparing to accept bids from developers that will determine the future of the Franklin School, and if things go as expected, another of a generation of nine schools that the town built around the turn of the 20th century will enter a new phase in its long existence.


Parade of Pols

09Jul10

Maybe I’m the only one, but I like seeing the politicians in the Wakefield (MA) July 4th Parade. The marching bands are great, and they provide an element of entertainment relief in what would otherwise be an endless stream of pols. But the main reason I go to the parade every July 4th is to […]


Memorial “pavers” to go on sale They’ve already raised over $25,000 from voluntary donations and the sale of t-shirts and sweatshirts. Now, the World War II Memorial Committee is about to embark on a major fundraising effort that they hope will bring them much closer to their goal of $200,000 – the amount that they […]


Veterans Day 2009 in Wakefield, Massachusetts As featured speaker at yesterday’s Veterans’ Day exercises, US Army veteran Sam Stella delivered his remarks in an auditorium lined with the photographs of Wakefield soldiers who died in battles fought in distant places long ago. He focused his comments on the roles that United States servicemen and women […]


Next Wednesday, Nov. 11, Wakefield, Massachusetts observes Veterans Day with ceremonies beginning at 11 a.m. in the Galvin Middle School Auditorium. While Memorial Day each spring focuses on honoring deceased veterans, Veterans Day is intended to honor and thank all US military personnel who served in all wars, particularly living veterans and those currently serving […]


Unique landmark in Wakefield, Massachusetts I never got to see the castle before it burned down 35 years ago next month. But as a kid attending the Greenwood School, I certainly heard about it. “Have you seen the castle?” was a frequent schoolyard inquiry. In that typical childhood way, the goal of the questioner was, […]


In a column earlier this year, I apparently offended a few people when I offered the following observation. “For too many Americans the emotional memory of the horror and outrage of 9/11 has faded.” On the eighth anniversary of September 11, 2001, it seems an appropriate time to address the matter of how we remember […]


93 year-old WWII vet taught in Wakefield, Massachusetts for 30 years The school calendar is so engrained in most of us that the arrival of September each year invariably evokes memories our own school days. It may only be a passing memory of a classroom, a classmate or a favorite teacher. I took things a […]