The corner house on Cove Street was a castle atop a hill. Overlooking the bay, it was a summer home to my family for over 60 years. My great-grandpa had originally purchased the Victorian home with his best friend. Together their families grew with the home and new generations arose. Despite the creaky box-spring beds […]
Yankee
When “Maudlin” Was “In”
Welcome to the November 2008 edition of “Jud’s New England Journal,” the rather curious monthly musings of Judson Hale, editor-in-chief of Yankee Magazine, published since 1935 in Dublin, New Hampshire. When “Maudlin” Was “In” Years ago in New England, people viewed death and dying quite differently …Get Our FREE Yankee Best New England Vacations Guide! […]
Dennis Pinette is among my favorite contemporary Maine painters. In fact, he is among my favorite all-time Maine painters. Born in Belfast, where he now lives and works, Pinette is a native Maine artist who looks beyond the picturesque to the more piquant, poignant, and pungent aspects of the Maine reality. Though he still primarily […]
Rhode Island: Boys’ Reformatory
Rhode Island Paranormal Research Team, Scituate, Rhode Island The group collected some very eerie EVPs (electronic voice phenomena) at Saconawa Prison, which used to be a boys’ reformatory. “We had a recording of Ray and Barbara setting up the equipment, but in the background, you can hear someone saying, ‘Get out!’ in a very ominous […]
VIDEO: Boston’s Nutcracker Dancers
Seeing Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker for the first time is a special memory for writer Annie Graves. If it made such an impact on a child in the audience, what about the children who perform onstage? Yankee‘s Justin Shatwell talks with one of the girls who played Clara in Boston. Backstage photos of last year’s […]
More times than I can count we made the yearly pilgrimage. Driving dark, icy roads from a small town in southern New Hampshire, we slid into the brilliance of Boston, threading through narrow streets to our destination: the warmth and light of the Boston Opera House, glowing like a beacon of Art and Culture. Inside […]
Best Bookstores in New England
There’s nothing quite like curling up with a good book, or picking one out at one of the best bookstores in New England. Susanne Strempek Shea, one of the Pioneer Valley’s best-loved writers, chose these beloved shops as the best bookstores in New England. She is the author of five novels and three memoirs, including Shelf […]
Find out how many lights there are in Forest Park and other holiday facts 600,000 holiday lights in the “Bright Nights at Forest Park” display, Springfield, MA 41 Pilgrims signing the Mayflower Compact while docked in Provincetown Harbor (Nov. 11, 1620) 0 native wild turkeys in MA in 1852Get Our FREE Yankee Best New England […]
When government agencies began wildlife recovery programs in the late 1930s, wild turkeys were a priority. Now, they seem to be everywhere.
Hungrytown Music Review
For the past five years, this husband-and-wife duo has been enjoying a second honeymoon as one of the most folkier-than-thou acts on the road. Leaving behind the security of their clerical jobs at the United Nations, Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson settled in a small Vermont town, traded their pensions for a touring van, and […]
One of my favorite New England writers is John Hanson Mitchell, whose Ceremonial Time (1984) investigated the “deep history” of Scratch Flat, a one-square-mile piece of ground 35 miles northwest of Boston, from the Ice Age to the Digital Age. His new book, The Paradise of All These Parts (Beacon Press; $24.95), attempts the same […]
Facts About Evergreen Trees
Fresh Christmas trees are like sponges: Their moisture alone weighs more than the tree itself does when dry. After Christmas, you can recycle your tree as mulch for your gardens and trails, cover habitat for fish, a barrier to reduce soil erosion, or a habitat for birds and other wildlife. Farmed Christmas trees cover about […]