Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Back in December of 1908, a shocking crime rocked Wakefield that could have easily had more victims.
While doing research for the look back at a long-ago Christmas that ran Tuesday on Wakefield Patch, another very non-Christmasy story came up that has one or two echoes of things we’re reading a lot of in the news these days and which was appropriate to hold back for a day. Basically, the December 25, 1908 issue of the Wakefield Citizen & Banner had a back-page story with the headline “Crazed Man Murders His Two Children.” Hiram L. Badger, 42, lived in a small house behind 394 Main Street and murdered his daughters, 15 year old Florence and 9 year old Catherine, with a hatchet as they slept. The girls were students at the Lincoln School. Mrs. Badger, 34, was away from home at the time and an extremely gossipy news article notes that before…
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Concert at Unitarian Universalist Church in Wakefield on Dec. 23 highlights the holiday music of 19th Century America.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The following is an announcement from the Standing Room Only Concert Series: In the Boston area during the Civil War, Christmas trees were a new phenomenon and many of our favorite carols were being penned by local composers. Nationwide at that time our country faced a divisive split in allegiances, however, that makes this election season look tame. With “A Civil War Christmas” on Sunday, December 23 at 7:30 at the Wakefield UU Church, the Standing Room Only concert series presents music that inspired Americans at our most difficult time to keep the faith - in each other, in the founding principles of the United States, and in the interdependent web of all existence. The first half opens with “Ashokan Farewell”, the haunting theme from …
Monday, September 3, 2012
This is a series that has run on holidays on Lynnfield Patch over the past year looking back at local life in the World War II era. We'll try it on Wakefield Patch because of the various references made to the town.
For much of the past year, I've run this series of articles looking back at life in Lynnfield in 1942 with help from the archives of the Lynnfield Village Press newspaper. The series began around Thanksgiving of last year, which means that there will probably be a Halloween edition, then we'll find some greener historical pastures to work with. This will also be the first time this series appears on Wakefield Patch, in part because the Lynnfield Village Press routinely carried ads and some other things from that town as well. In 1942, Labor Day weekend was a muted affair because rationing of gasoline, tires and other basic supplies was in full swing and the war was affecting almost all aspects of daily life. "Labor Day 1942 finds us all …
Melissa Schools
6:51 am on Monday, September 3, 2012
I love the slice of life approach to this article! I also like your funny side comments! more ›