It all started at a Valentine’s Day party in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1848. Miss Lynch, a local socialite had invited literary guests to read valentines aloud. This was an exciting prospect to Sarah Helen Whitman, a poet of some esteem, for, she presumed, Edgar Allan Poe would be there. Helen had just read “The […]
In the Victorian-era seaside village of Watch Hill in Westerly Rhode Island, the Flying Horse Carousel claims to be one of the nation’s oldest (circa 1867). It differs from others of similar vintage because the carved wooden steeds are suspended by chains from a turning framework attached to the ceiling. As the carousel picks up […]
Yankee Magazine March 1993 Jamie Huntsman never saw the avalanche that rumbled down Mount Washington, sweeping him and his climbing partner off the highest mountain in New England. But strangely, he could see himself falling, heading downward, and knew that if he didn’t get himself turned around, he was going to die. The afternoon of […]
When Michael Kittredge III, the son of the founder of Yankee Candle Company, launched a college business project on candles in 2009, the Kittredge family soon found themselves drawn back into the candle business. And the village they created around their flagship store – which includes The Farm Table restaurant, a Chocolate Cottage, a café, and Kringle Christmas Barn — […]
Our annual celebration of ordinary New Englanders — the angels among us — who are making an extraordinary difference in the lives of others.
Before people used the term “windchill” to refer to the weather, there were numerous other descriptions of meteorological conditions. In Maine “Twice as Cold as Zero” (don’t bother doing the math) is an old saying that means it’s zero degrees with a high wind blowing. Excerpt from “The New England Sampler,” Yankee Magazine, January 1993.
After learning untold uses for dryer lint, worn-out panty hose, and used dental floss, we present the winners of the Yankee frugality contest. In our September 1990 issue of Yankee Magazine, our issue devoted to Yankee frugality, we asked for your own frugal tips and anecdotes. You responded with more than 200 letters, many of […]
When Chester Greenwood of Farmington, Maine, received a new pair of ice skates on Christmas morning (quite an expensive gift in 1873), all he could think of was his ears. “They’ll start aching. They always ache when I’m out in the cold too long,” he complained. His mother suggested wrapping a scarf around his head, […]
Is this New England’s greatest gift to America? Well, it’s just our opinion…
One of the winners of this year’s Editor’s Choice Food Awards is Dancing Deer Baking Co., specifically their delicious molasses clove cookies. These spicy treats put Dancing Deer on the foodie map when the company first launched as a small wholesale operation in 1994. Twenty years later, they’re still one of our favorite cookies (Dancing Deer […]
Every year at this time, as the last note of “Deck the Halls” fades into the general hubub of Christmas party conversation, the question hangs in the air, unasked: What exactly does the phrase “troll the ancient Yuletide carol” mean? Wonder no more. This troll is not a monster found beneath bridges or a method […]
In November 1888 a 22-year-old Vermont woman named Kate Gillette was plucking and dressing turkeys for the Boston market on her family’s East Randolph farm while waiting for a teaching job to start in December. Worried about how she would live on the $7 a week that the position paid, she tried a novel variant […]
