In this season of giving, it is important to express appreciation for the kindness shown by others. But that can be difficult when you need to thank someone whose name you don’t know. Ruby Blackwell understands that conundrum – she owes a debt of gratitude to a person she has never met. This fall, the […]
Author Archives: Dave Kindy - Independent Correspondent
Posted inSports
Plymouth high school football headed to Fenway
If you were saddened by the lack of a Fall Classic for the Red Sox at Fenway Park this year, take heart. Plymouth’s two high school football teams are readying to help fill the void. On the day before Thanksgiving, Plymouth North and South will continue a nearly 30-year rivalry with a game at Fenway. […]
Posted inBusiness
How a Plymouth-based nonprofit is changing lives in Haiti and Kenya
Until a few years ago, Benjamin Dominic’s employment prospects were bleak. Living in rural Saint Rock, Haiti, with no electricity or running water, the young high school graduate had few hopes of becoming anything other than an unskilled laborer. Today, Dominic is a trained cyber security specialist who helps companies in Plymouth create websites and […]
Posted inPolice & Fire
‘We have to be our best on everybody’s worst day’
A police officer’s day is not easy. Like other departments, Plymouth Police deal with fatal traffic accidents, domestic violence, suicide, children’s deaths and other traumatic events – any of which can make it difficult to be emotionally and mentally prepared for the next challenge. “We have to be our best on everybody’s worst day,” said […]
Posted inPolice & Fire
‘The greatest danger Plymouth faces today’
This is the second installment of a two-part series on the Great Fire of 1900 and the prospects of such a blaze taking place today. In August, local fire officials kept an anxious eye on Hurricane Erin as it moved north along the East Coast. Most predictions had the storm staying steering clear of New […]
Posted inHistory & Architecture
Half of Plymouth was consumed by flames 125 years ago this week
Alfred R. Turner Jr. rowed like he had never rowed before. Pulling desperately on the oars of his rowboat, the wealthy industrialist from Newark, N.J., watched as a 30-foot wall of fire engulfed his spacious summer home on the shores of Little Long Pond. Driven by a 70 mile-per-hour gale 125 years ago, the massive […]
Posted inCulture
Museum mystery: How did a disembodied head end up in a historic Pilgrim Hall mural?
For 145 years, a disembodied head has stared at visitors to Pilgrim Hall Museum. No, it wasn’t a spectral visage or a floating face from another dimension. It was Mayflower passenger and eventual Plymouth Colony governor Edward Winslow popping up in a painting he wasn’t supposed to be in. Renovations at the 201-year-old downtown museum […]
Posted inCulture
‘Pedaling Preacher’ preps for Alaska adventure
When the pastor of Plymouth’s Church of the Pilgrimage, an avid cyclist, announced he was going to participate in a charity ride, parishioner Julie Witherew remembered thinking: “He’s biking where?” Alaska. That’s where the Pedaling Preacher – better known as Rev. Tim Garvin-Leighton – is headed next month to take part in the Fuller Center […]
Posted inCulture
Raspberry Jam finds its groove
Though Jerry Garcia has been gone for nearly 30 years, music inspired by the legendary guitarist is alive and well in Plymouth. The members of local band Raspberry Jam weren’t even born when the Grateful Dead leader was mesmerizing legions of Deadheads at marathon concerts. It plays a style of improvisational jam music popularized by […]
Posted inCulture
‘A powerful force for good’
Marcia Martinson was on a mission of mercy. The past president of Womanade at the Pinehills, a nonprofit group comprised of women who live in the upscale development, was dropping off a check at a residential shelter to help a family in need. “I made a payment for a woman whose family was going to […]