Archive for the ‘Profiles’ Category

On August 19, 2010, a crowd gathered at the First Parish Congregational Church in Wakefield, Massachusetts to say a final goodbye to a woman who spent decades looking out for the weakest of God’s creatures. Esther P. Nowell died August 8, 2010 at the age of 92. She was the founder, prime mover and force […]


Last week, I attended my first Boston Red Sox opening day, a game against the World Champion New York Yankees. My father, Steve Sardella, was born 89 years ago this week in Wakefield, Massachusetts. These two seemingly unrelated facts are linked in my mind because my father was a huge Yankee fan, despite having lived […]


I’ve been thinking about World War II a lot lately. I guess it’s a combination of things. Certainly the ongoing effort to raise the funds to replace the crumbling World War II Monument in my hometown of Wakefield, Massachusetts has served as a consistent reminder. The new granite memorial will be built on the same […]


My artist brother, Bob Sardella, painted this scene showing our chlidhood home on Spring Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. In the foreground is Jack, the great dog we had for 15 years back in the days before leash laws, when dogs roamed free.


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, […]


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 […]


Legendary Wakefield Amusement Park Opened 50 Years Ago Writing about my recollections of Pleasure Island on the occasion of its 50th birthday forces me to acknowledge that I am at least as old as the park. So let me stipulate up front that I was but a wee lad, still wet behind the ears, when […]


Located missing boy in woods on cold December night Two Wakefield, Massachusetts police officers received commendations last night. One of them walks on two legs, the other on four. Police Chief Rick Smith and the Board of Selectmen last night formally commended Officer Brett Rossicone and K9 Leo for rescuing and likely saving the life […]


Almost unnoticed, an era ended in Wakefield, Massachusetts this week. Or at least, an era’s final tangible symbol vanished with the razing of the bungalow at 93 Montrose Avenue that was home to Hope Dillaway’s Studio School for Children in the 1940’s and 1950s. The property is slated to be developed as a five-lot single-family […]


“Route 128 is the road we all love to hate,” David Kruh told the audience at last night’s Sweetser Lecture 2008 season opener at the Wakefield-Lynnfield United Methodist Church. Kruh then proceeded to deliver a fascinating photographic history of the highway that runs around Boston, from Cape Ann to the South Shore. Kruh was making […]