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Category Archives: Hometown News

Dance schools deal with COVID changes

Walpole’s Commonwealth Dance Academy used its outdoor space for rehearsals.

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

As COVID recedes, Hometown Weekly is taking a special look at how some of the businesses in its communities are transitioning back to post-pandemic circumstances.

Not...

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Salons, barbershops talk COVID impact

Anthony’s Barbershop in Needham noted how many of their customers used the time they were closed to experiment with new hair styles.

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

As COVID recedes, Hometown Weekly is taking a special look at how some of the businesses in...

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Backyard Files: the global backyard

The exotic-looking scarlet tanager is thought to be rarer, globally, than the wild turkeys we see running around our communities.

By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Editor

As a small boy growing up in New England, one of my prized possessions was an old illustrated field...

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Restaurants adapt to survive COVID-19

Creating outdoor eating spaces was a huge thing for restaurants that didn’t have them before.

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

While many businesses have had to deal with the effects of COVID-19, few have struggled like restaurants. From lockdowns keeping their tables empty, to...

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Hometown communities rally around Kilian family

The 2021 class of BostonLax All-Americans poses with game MVP's Bryson and Kainen Kilian. Photos by Mike Flanagan.

By Mike Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor

After a year off due to COVID, one would think that the mood surrounding the eighth annual BostonLax All-American Game...

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Funeral homes get back to normal

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

As COVID recedes, Hometown Weekly is taking a special look at how some of the businesses in its communities are transitioning back to post-pandemic circumstances.

Last September we reached out to some funeral home owners and workers to see how they...

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Backyard files: robins in the snow

By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Editor

Years ago, when I was a small child, I spent my weekdays alongside my maternal grandmother, Ma, who watched me while my parents worked. In retrospect, those days had an outsized influence on me - it was in Ma’s kitchen where I first would develop...

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As COVID wanes, animal shelters wait

By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff

COVID-19 has changed how we handle most aspects of life. We wear masks when we leave the house. We use a colossal amount of hand sanitizer. Some even work from home. The changes have even inspired many people to adopt a furry friend to keep...

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Hometown Weekly prints ludicrous April Fools’ stories

With their weekly publication date falling on April 1 - April Fools' Day - the staff of Hometown Weekly couldn't resist the chance for a bit of fun. Hometown Weekly printed special alternate April Fools' front pages this year - an individualized one in each of its editions - on page three of...

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Storm brings differing snow totals

Medfield's Austin Verge and Garrison Schilling serve a customer after they get their generator going.

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

Last week’s snowstorm (the earlier one, which is depressing to write) was believed to be unique in that just a few miles could...

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My time dealing with COVID-19

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

Last week, the number of COVID cases in Massachusetts exploded to around 3,000 a day. Unfortunately, I was one of them. But while my experience with COVID-19 was far from among the most harrowing, interesting or even notable ones in the state, I do think...

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Backyard Files: the fox story

The gray fox's face is flatter, and could perhaps be described as more feline than that of a red fox.

By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Editor

The yips grew closer and closer. Two distinct individuals could be discerned, as though they were in conversation. As...

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December snow brings community outdoors

This snowboarder drew plenty of intrigued looks every time he went off a jump he’d made at Needham High.

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

Because of COVID-19 and the subsequent social distancing protocols enacted to slow its spread, this year, partaking in outdoor...

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Backyard Files: who?

By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Editor

Before I start, I'm going to have to apologize in advance for the amount of onomatopoeia in this story. Typically, I'm not one who relishes rendering (or reading) abstract sounds in print, but really, there's no other option here. How else is one to describe...

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Hometown Weekly voters head to polls

A Biden supporter stands just outside of the senior center on Ice House Road.

By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter

While record numbers of Bay Staters voted in the November 3 election by mail due to COVID-19, scores of voters still headed to the polls...

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A Different Kind of #MeToo

As Bob Dylan presciently sang so many years ago, “the times they are a changing.” Our times have certainly changed in so many ways as of late. We can engage in fair debate whether all of these changes are for the better, but one such awareness, that of sexual predation in our society,...

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Northeast Coonhound Rescue reacts to pandemic

By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff

When the coronavirus first hit Massachusetts, many rescues realized that they would have to change their normal line of operations until conditions allowed them to resume a semi-normal state. However, as the rest of the world has shifted, so has the day to day work...

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Social Distance Files: Independence Day

By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Editor

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place;

For years, July 4 has lulled us into a sense of almost patriotic routine. We know the day, its festivities and rituals so well that its trappings have...

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Social Distance Files: one for the birds

'I have a local resident through which you can live vicariously this summer: the ruby-throated hummingbird.'

By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Editor

Social distancing and quarantining were always going to be difficult. 

It was far easier to stomach, though, during the gray,...

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Local seniors graduate amid pandemic

By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff

Graduating seniors around the country have watched as traditional celebrations, graduations, and even their final days of school have been cancelled as a result of COVID-19. But like everyone, they have grieved, persevered, and created new ways to celebrate amid the ongoing situation. It is...

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