Wakefield Christmas Lights
Christmas lights along Main Street in downtown Wakefield, Massachusetts.
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Holiday classic newly relevant for these times
What is left to say about “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the story by Philip Van Doren that in 1947 Frank Capra made into a classic holiday film starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore?
Now aired on numerous television networks throughout the holiday season, hardly anyone over a certain age doesn’t know the story of George Bailey, a bank clerk and family man who is about to commit suicide when a strange man appears and shows him what the world would have been like if he had never been born.
But even if you’ve seen the movie version over and over, there’s nothing like a live stage production to give you back the feeling of experiencing the story for the first time. And that’s true in spades of Stoneham Theatre’s current holiday production of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Continue reading ‘It’s a Wonderful Life at Stoneham Theatre’
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Tags: Allan Mayo, Ann Marie Shea, Bill Gardiner, Bill Taylor, Chris Fournier, Chris Jorie, Christmas, David Wilson, Dee Nelson, Donna Reed, drama, Frank Capra, George Saulnier III, Hannah Wilson, holidays, Jakob Michaels, Jeremy Barnett, Jessica Webb, Jimmy Stewart, Joanna Murphy, Kiera McNelis, L. Arkansas Light, Linda Goetz, Lionel Barrymore, Lucas Lloyd, Meghan Fisher, Michael Barbo, Michael Sticca, Owen Doyle, play, Rebecca Lerman, Scott Giangrande, stage, Stephen LaMonica, Stoneham MA, Stoneham Massachuestts, Stoneham Theater, Stoneham Theatre, theater, theatre, Theresa Chiasson, Weylin Symes
“It is our obligation and responsibility to remember and honor those who have served in our armed forces,” Colonel John B. Encarnacao said at yesterday’s Veterans’ Day observance. “We literally owe them our lives and the freedom of our country.”
Wakefield’s Veterans’ Day ceremonies got underway at 11 a.m. in the Galvin Middle School auditorium with Commander David McCall of Corporal Harry E. Nelson American Legion Post 63 presiding. After the posting of the colors, Commander McCall led a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Continue reading ‘Wakefield, Massachusetts Honors Veterans’
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Wakefield needs a hug.
The town is struggling financially and its self-esteem may be shot, but help is on the way. The board of selectmen gave preliminary approval last week to a group that wants to stage a “farmers’ market” on Saturday mornings at Hall Park on North Ave starting next summer.
I just hope that, as a town, we can keep it together until then.
“Our town is in urgent need of some community and morale building,” the proponents told the Selectmen last week, “and a farmers’ market is one great way to start.”
Of course, in addition to “enhancing the local sense of community,” tangible arguments in favor of a farmers’ market–such as cheap, fresh, locally grown produce–were advanced as well.
Continue reading ‘Farm Aid for Wakefield, Massachusetts’
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Tags: Daily Item, farmers' market, fruit, selectmen, vegetables, Wakefield, Wakefield Climate Action Project, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts, Woodstock
Runs through Nov. 9, 2008
Each of the characters in Colin Teevan’s “How Many Miles to Basra,” it seems, has a debt to settle.
The current offering at Stoneham Theatre follows an Irish radio journalist, Ursula (played by Eve Kagan), as the British military unit in which she’s embedded struggles to survive an unauthorized journey deep into Iraq just after the fall of Saddam in 2003. (Stoneham Theatre audiences will remember the talented Kagan for her performances as Louise in “Gypsy” and as Judith in “The Cutting.”)
The unit is battling boredom at a little-used checkpoint when an approaching vehicle arouses their suspicions. They pull the Iraqi occupants from the car and the ensuing search turns up a large sum of cash. When a scuffle ensues, exacerbated by the language barrier, one of the soldiers mistakenly thinks he sees a weapon and shoots both Iraqis.
Continue reading ‘How Many Miles to Basra at Stoneham Theatre’
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Tags: Alejandro Simoes, Basra, Bryan Miner, Colin Teevan, Daily Item, Derek Stone Nelson, Eve Kagan, Iraq, Iraqi, Janelle Mills, Jerrell Lee, Joe Lanza, Mason Sand, play, plays, Stoneham MA, Stoneham Massachusetts, Stoneham Theatre, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Weylin Symes
Fright Night at Fenway Park
Wednesday, September 24 was a dark and chilly night at Fenway Park, as the Boston Red Sox prepared to play the Cleveland Indians in a meaningless game. The Red Sox had clinched a post-season berth the night before, assuring that there would be October baseball in Boston.
Cleveland was going nowhere, achieving a .500 winning percentage only by playing well for the previous month. Pitcher Paul Byrd was starting for Boston against the Indians, a team that had previously released him, so there was some on-field drama.
But who could know that the real drama that night would unfold beneath the stands, on the lower concourse on the third base side.
Continue reading ‘Fright Night at Fenway Park’
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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 home subdivision.
Most people don’t spend much time thinking about their kindergarten days, if they think about them at all. They probably remember even less about the building that hosted them. For the last several decades, kindergarten for most kids has been just the next step after day care and nursery school.
Continue reading ‘Razing of Miss Hope’s Studio School Marks End of an Era for Wakefield Baby Boomers’
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Developer will pay $500,000 to town over five years
The Town of Wakefield, Massachusetts has settled its lawsuit concerning the Millbrook Estates affordable housing project.
Under the agreement, the town has agreed to drop its pending lawsuit and the developers in return will pay the town $500,000 over five years, Town Counsel Thomas Mullen announced at last night’s meeting of the Wakefield Board of Selectmen.
Continue reading ‘Town of Wakefield Settles 40B Lawsuit Against Millbrook Estates’
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My Lawn is Greener Than Yours
I recently reduced my carbon footprint.
Did I buy a Prius? No. I could never afford the sticker price.
Did I inflate my tires to the proper pressure? The answer is a flat no.
Did I install a clothesline in my back yard? Sure – strung between my two windmills.
Did I buy a bunch of those squiggly light bulbs? No way. Did you know that those things contain mercury and if you break one they have to send a hazmat team to tear down your house? It’s true. I read it on Wikipedia.
So how did I save the polar bears?
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Arsenic and Old Lake
For the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts, news that the dredging of Lake Quannapowitt’s Hartshorne Cove has been completed is certainly welcome.
The recent cleanup was ordered following the discovery in 1999 that arsenic, lead and petroleum contaminants had seeped into the sand, mud, peat and gravel on the Lake’s bottom in the area behind the Hartshorne House and Vet’s Field.
The contaminants came from the old coal gasification plant on North Avenue, approximately where the MGLD building is now. In Ancient Times (the late 19th and early 20th centuries), gas manufactured from coal was used to light the town’s street lamps. The process produced a coal tar by-product that was stored in underground wells and eventually found its way into the Lake bottom.
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Mark Sardella 