Growing up, David Jacobson knew his father was a hero – he just didn’t know how much of one. His dad, Russell, served in Vietnam but rarely spoke about what happened, though David could see it was significant. His father, who had been a U.S. Navy corpsman, or combat medic, with the Marine Corps in […]
Category: Culture
Posted inCulture
Prospects for July Fourth festivities looking up
When July Fourth parade and fireworks organizer Matt Tavares spoke with me in April, he sounded slightly down about the prospect of pyrotechnics going up over the harbor this year. Tavares – who took over responsibility for the longstanding celebrations from his father, Ken – said fundraising efforts were in danger of fizzling. If the […]
Posted inCulture
Saying goodbye to the ‘Mayor of North Plymouth’
It was the news Enzo Monti hoped would never come: his friend of 90 years, Charlie Vandini, was dead at 95. Growing up in North Plymouth, the two had been close companions since Monti was 7 and Vandini was 5. “I was dreading that call,” Monti, 97, recalls. “Charlie had not been well for some […]
Posted inCulture
Introducing the Independent’s new culture writer
We welcome Julia Davis as our new Culture columnist. She began her writing career as a reporter at the Old Colony Memorial, and later worked as a book editor and communications consultant in Boston and New York before returning to Plymouth, where her family settled in the 1980s and where she now lives among longtime […]
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Evil, sneaky ‘Miss P’ takes over two lives
A few weeks ago, I met with a couple I have known for years who are considering a building project with my firm. During the course of our conversation, they mentioned they hadn’t seen my husband Ben lately at the local museum where he has long worked. I have been dancing around this question with […]
Posted inCulture
Thomas Dolby is drawn to the ‘next new thing.’ It’s bringing him to Plymouth.
Thomas Dolby is coming to the Spire Center for the Arts? Along with longtime David Bowie bass player and singer Gail Ann Dorsey? Am I reading this correctly? That was my reaction to seeing the listing for Dolby’s (sold out) April 14 show at the 280-seat downtown venue. His biggest hits, “She Blinded Me With […]
Posted inCulture
‘Most walkable’ town, says Boston Magazine
(This column has been edited to address an incorrect assertion that Massachusetts Audubon’s Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary was the first cranberry bog in the nation restored to its natural state.) I was sitting in my dentist’s office in Needham the other day flipping through the latest issue of Boston Magazine, the annual “Top Places to Live” […]
Posted inCulture
‘Wash-a-shores’ v. ‘embedded clams’
What I love most about writing for the Independent are the responses I receive from readers after publishing an article. Locals share memories and newcomers express gratitude for learning about their adoptive home. One of the newcomers, who became a fellow Independent correspondent after moving here a little more than a year ago, is Peter […]
Posted inCulture
Snow stories through the ages
As the Blizzard of 2026 nightmares begin to fade, it’s been a constant topic in my office of 9 people. Four of us compared it with the Blizzard of 78, much to the chagrin of the younger members born after the storm. Paul Fiocchi was a sophomore at what was then Southeastern Massachusetts University in […]
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For once, All Things Plymouth was more than an online cage fight
Facebook’s All Things Plymouth page can feel more like a toxic waste site than community gathering place. With a purported 150,000 “members” – exceeding by two times the total of every adult and child in town – it’s often a steaming caldron of bad grammar stirring hate, ignorance, and racism. But last week’s crippling blizzard […]