Name shaming

21Sep17

Wakefield’s inexorable slide from a proud, blue collar, working class town to the precious PC world inhabited by communities like Cambridge, Concord and Lexington accelerated just a bit this month when the Board of Selectmen decided that it would, after all, like to change its name to one that does not have the word “men” […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield   |  1 Comment
Tags: Ann Santos, Board of Selectmen, Brookline, definition, dictionary, Ed Dombroski, election, gender neutral, History, Humor, man, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Mehreen Butt, men, name, Opinion, PC, Peter May, political correctness, Politics, Rena M. Colson, sex, Steve Maio, Tony Longo, Town Meeting, tradition, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, women

Name that board!

15Jun17

Right on the heels of the plastic bags crisis, the latest issue to rock Wakefield is what name we should use for the town’s executive body. For the past 370 years, “Board of Selectmen” has done quite nicely, but no more. The position contains the word “man” (and in the plural, “men”). In 2017, this […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Wakefield   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: attorney, Board of Selectmen, Cyrus Wakefield, gender neutral, History, humpr, lawyers, man, Mark Sardella, men, Opinion, Politics, select board, selectboard, selectman, tradition, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Warriors, Xena Warrior Princess

Wakefield 150

14Apr17

Not very many people realize it yet, but 2018 is shaping up as a pretty significant year around here. If the first thought that popped into your head was that retail sales of weed will be legal in Massachusetts starting in July 2018, it might be time to put down the bong and pick up […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, News, Opinion, Politics   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: 150, 1868, 2018, anniversary, Bob McLaughlin, celebration, Cyrus Wakefield, Fourth of July, History, Independence Day, Jeff Wakefield, July 4th, marijuana, Massachusetts, rattan, Reading, South Reading, town hall, Wakefield MA

Dog Park’s ‘Barbaric’ history

30Dec16

By MARK SARDELLA Last month, through the efforts of a number of local people, local dog lovers and their canine friends received the gift of a new dog park in the Junction. But this long-vacant parcel and its neighboring property have an interesting, but mostly forgotten, history dating back to May 17, 1969. Let’s set […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Profiles, Wakefield   |  1 Comment
Tags: 1969, Altamont, Baby Boomers, Barbarics, bikers, bust, COPS, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Daniel Sullivan, Dog Park, dogs, drugs, Flower Power, Grateful Dead, Hells Angels, hippies, History, jail, John Tecce, Judge Lawrence Brooks, Judge Louis Glaser, LSD, Malden District Court, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts State Police, millennials, motorcycle gang, pills, police, pot, raid, Rolling Stones, Sgt. Robert Westscott, Sixties, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wakefield Police, weapons, William Scanlon, Woodstock, youth

Primitive Social Media

30Sep16

Wakefield is getting good at hosting really big parties: Festival Italia, the Holiday Stroll and Independence Day are prime examples. Soon to take its place alongside those is the upcoming Halloween spectacular, “Haunted Happenings.” But what if you can’t make it for some reason? What’s the next best thing to being there?

Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: books, Climate Change, comedians, Cyrus Wakefield, Facebook, Festival Italia, Fourth of July, History, Holiday Stroll, Humor, Inaugural Exercises in Wakefield Mass., Instagram, Internet, John S. Eaton, Mark Sardella, media, newspaper, Opinion, Paul D'Angelo, phones, poetry, Politics, press, social media, South Reading, Tritter, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, weather

“The Remarkable Cyrus Wakefield”

24Feb13

A Talk by John Wall Many people know the story of how the town of South Reading, MA came to be renamed after industrialist Cyrus Wakefield. But most people probably don’t realize the extent to which he shaped the town of Wakefield as we know it today. In a talk on Feb. 20, 2013 to […]

Filed under: Feature stories, History, Profiles, Wakefield   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: business, Capt. Henry Bancroft, Cyrus Wakefield, furniture, History, industry, John Wall, Mark Sardella, rattan, South Reading, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts

Remembering Paul Faler

22Dec11

There are certainly many who knew Paul Faler better than I, although I had the privilege of knowing him for a good long time. When we spoke on the phone two days before Thanksgiving, it did not even cross my mind that it would be our last conversation. I first met Paul Faler in 1970 […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, Opinion, Politics, Profiles, Wakefield   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Assessor, Board of Assessors, Boston, Boston Massachusetts, History, Paul Faler, Paul G. Faler, professor, property tax, tax, tax assassor, taxation, taxes, UMass, University of Massachusetts, Wakefield, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts