Tuesday, May 15, 2012
State health officials want to put restrictions on school bake sales to discourage unhealthy eating habits, but will this hurt fundraising efforts?
Fundraising efforts at Easton Public Schools is about to change. Massachusetts state health officials recently recently approved regulations that would prevent bake sales from being held during school and in the 30 minutes before and after school to discourage unhealthy eating habits. Gov. Deval Patrick has backed down on the regulations after criticism from parents and organizations that say putting restrictions on bake sales would negatively impact fundraising efforts for the schools and nonprofit groups, according to USA Today. Legislation passed in 2010 will still require schools serve healthy snack options in the cafeterias and limit sugary foods. Do you think Gov. Deval Patrick should enforce the bake sale ban to help encourage …
Monday, May 14, 2012
"There really could be something going on here." A Parallel to the 1968-69 Celtics?
One of my Facebook buddies is Erik Anderson, a fellow child of Easton and Oliver Ames High School grad. Erik, a few years younger than me, grew up on Seaver Street and now lives in North Carolina with his wife and children. Erik played hoops at OA, and also did some high school basketball coaching. He loves his roundball. Erik was what you call a basketball gym and playground rat, frequently looking and scouting for a game, a chance to play, for that opportunity to get in a "run" on the court. Actually, he is now into his mid 40s, and he still plays spirited and aggressive pickup basketball, including against kids a couple decades or more younger than him. After Saturday night’s Celts comeback win over the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
I'm Sending You Love and Thanks!!
"Everything I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." ABRAHAM LINCOLN My mother played sort of the backup and supportive role in our family, across many different areas of our lives. My dad was a public figure, and he was distinguished in his field, and he was a character, and commanded a good deal of attention. Many people don’t know that my mother was highly influential in our family; she was a strong influence on my father, and on her children. My mom is 83 years old, and lives in a nice retirement community, about a mile and half from my sister and her husband and three kids, in the town of Evanston, IL, a suburb of Chicago. Mom stays active, although physically she has slowed a bit. It is nice that my sis and her family are…
Monday, May 7, 2012
Facebook Conversation and Stories Add to the Narrrative
It was nice and heartening that the column I wrote – the one titled, Remembering The "Family" Markets In Easton that was published on Easton Patch last Thursday – stirred a happy foment of nostalgia and commentary about those days gone by. And, here, let me explain a bit. When one of my “Muscato’s Musings” columns posts on Patch, usually within 24 hours of the column being published, I post a link to the column on my Facebook page. Now, you know, among my Facebook friends there is a coterie of hard core Eastonians. Some of the Tribe of Easton still live here in town, others live outside of Easton, but close by – and there are others who live far away in the U.S., as far away as California. Then again, one of my Facebook friends …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Here is Part I of a Journey Back
I need to give a call out here to my journalist compadre, Johnny “Q” Quattrucci, for suggesting this topic for a column. Q is sports editor for Gatehouse Media; his responsibilities include editing and writing stories for the sports section of the Easton Journal. Q recently sent me an email he wrote in which he said that he thought an interesting column would be one that focused on the family owned grocery markets in Easton that operated when we were kids in the late 1960s, and into the 1970s – this before the major chains bought up the stores, and the names changed from Harvey’s, Southworth’s, Casey’s, Curtis’s, and Peasley’s, to Tedeschi’s, Cumberland Farms and 7-11. Yep, I like it. And I need to state that I understand all the …
Monday, April 30, 2012
Really. Please
Gotta love it. In this past weekend’s Wall Street Journal there was a column by Robert Wheelan; it was titled, “10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won’t Tell You.” No better time for this column – for the avalanche of graduation speeches is upon us. I know commencement speeches. I have delivered one, and I have advised on others. Mr. Wheelan's column contains wonderful and helpful wisdom. Then again that is a lot of what makes wisdom wisdom – it is wonderful and it is helpful. And here I share with you Number 5 on Mr. Wheelan’s list: 5. Help stop the Little League arms race. Kids' sports are becoming ridiculously structured and competitive. What happened to playing baseball because it's fun? We are systematically creating races …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
It Helps Make Life A Lot More Enjoyable
Find your passion – preferably one that doesn’t drain you financially, but enriches you spiritually. Admire and congratulate those with wholesome passions. It was back around 1994 or 1995, a winter night after a local high school basketball game, and a group of us, including the coaches of one of the teams in the game – the team that won that night – went back to a home for a post-game party. Well, the coaches were gathered around a TV set at the house watching that night’s game on tape. The coaches were thoroughly in to it, talking about each play and going over strategy, and the performance of individual players, and all that. This was pure entertainment for them. Some women who had stopped in to the party were standing in the …
Monday, April 23, 2012
It's Not Cheap – Not At All
Ah, being a high school kid nowadays – it seems to be very expensive, here in Easton, and just about everywhere else in the Good Old U.S. of A. User fees for sports and other extracurricular activities, the pressure to wear the most fashionable shoes and clothes, driving the fancy ride – and then this spring, I mean, we've got ourselves Spring Break and the prom. Yikes. Oliver Ames High School has done something smart for its prom; it has moved the event out of a fancy hotel in Boston, and to the South Shore, to Lake Pearl Luciano’s, a nice and classy function facility in Wrentham. Moving the prom to the South Shore saves money for the prom attendees. But, still, what the OA kids face is what kids everywhere face with the prom. …
Sunday, April 22, 2012
A trip to Fenway Park gets the memories flowing.
It's really not about the actual structure. Truth be told, the place looks every bit of its 100 years. After nine innings, your body is a crooked mess. Unless you are under 5 feet 5 inches and weigh less than 140 pounds, you are going to be very uncomfortable for three or so hours. It costs a fortune to attend a game these days. Hot dogs come with a loan application to purchase them. You know not to even try to drive there. Still, Fenway Park is what it is. With all its warts, it's ours. After all, Fenway is a place where memories live on. How many things is our lives are still even standing 100 years later? Places like that are few and far between. In a way, Fenway is really our own fountain of youth, a place where we go to remember …
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Sam Jones Has A History With Easton
My childhood friend was in Boston over the past few days. Many years ago, during summers of the 1970s, when we were kids, we spent many weeks together at Stonehill College at boys’ and girls’ basketball camps. My friend’s name is Wally Ray; he is a distant cousin of NBA Hall of Famer and Boston Celtics great, Sam Jones, who was the co-director of some of those hoops camps at Stonehill all those years ago. My dad was another co-director of those camps. Many Easton kids, Baby Boomers, have fond recollections of Sam Jones and the camps at Stonehill College. I was fortunate to be able to see Wally and Sam yesterday and sit and talk with them. I have written about Sam in this space before; that column can be found here: Sam Jones Wally is …
Bev Carlson
7:53 am on Wednesday, May 16, 2012
We used to have "Bakeless Bake Sales" for busy mothers. more ›