Monday, April 11, 2011
Driving lessons yield unexpected philosophical insight.
Dad was the driving instructor in our family. When he took my older brother David out for driving lessons, I was allowed to go along, sitting in the back seat under strict orders to keep my mouth shut. By the time I was old enough to get a permit, I was already familiar with many of the basic reminders. Dad was big on signaling – let the other guy know when you plan to turn or stop. Don’t follow too closely. Slow down at intersections, even when you have a green light. He thought most people drove too fast, so he was always reminding us to slow down. He did not approve of impatient people who honked their horns at other drivers. He also felt that one of the most important elements of driver training was parking lessons. Usually, the …
42.36368
-71.165149
Watertown Children's Theatre
321 Arsenal St, Watertown, MA
/articles/rules-of-the-road-2
767723
/locations/3954825
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Can a kid have too much self esteem?
One of the frequent cautions that my father reiterated to us kids was, “Don’t get a big head.” He was, of course, referring to the tendency of young males to swagger if they do anything that warrants the acclaim of their peer group. If you did something remarkable, like hitting a game-winning home run or catching the ball that saved the day for your team, you would be the sudden recipient of positive attention. Or maybe you got recognized for some academic accomplishment. All that cheering and patting on the back could go to a guy’s head. Always ready to pour a bucket of ego-shrinking cold water on any hint of cockiness, my father would say on such occasions. “Nice work, but don’t get a swelled head about it.” In those pre-Dr. Spock days…
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Is procrastination inherited or is it a lifestyle choice?
For most of my life I have wrestled with a tendency toward procrastination. Whether this is an inherited trait or a lifestyle choice is debatable. I was three weeks late when I was born. I weighed nearly 11 pounds. The doctor took one look at me and joked to my mother, “He doesn’t seem to have a sense of urgency.” When I was growing-up it seemed everyone in my family was a procrastinator. At the time, I assumed that “putting things off” must be an inherited trait, like freckles and red hair. No one in the family seemed to have a sense of urgency about getting things done or being on-time. Typically, on the day before Christmas, there would still be a stack of unstamped Christmas cards to be mailed. When company was expected, the house …
42.370337
-71.178169
Watertown High School
50 Columbia St, Watertown, MA
/articles/no-sense-of-urgency
768529
/locations/3005213
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Yesterday's Northeaster evokes a blizzard of frozen memories.
Well, there's nothing like a good old-fashioned Northeaster snow storm to top-off the Christmas holiday season. If you were dreaming of a white Christmas, you got your wish this year. And if Santa brought you a new set of skis, a sled or a board for Christmas, the storm was a timely bonus – to the tune of a foot or two of frosty fun. David Ayotte, WHS class of 1973, lives in California these days, but Watertown will always be his hometown. When he hears about New England storms, he remembers when he was a kid, riding with his father, shivering in the jeep as they plowed snow in Watertown. His dad, Win, owned the Citgo station on Mount Auburn Street near the square until the mid '70s. When it snowed on a weekend, young David was often …
42.37395
-71.180859
Victory Field
40 Orchard St, Watertown, MA
/articles/hello-winter
1430653
/locations/2885275
Monday, December 13, 2010
Holiday movie favorites bring back memories of the old days.
OK, it's official: The Christmas season has begun. Yesterday afternoon I watched "Miracle on 34th Street" for the umpteenth time. I had been surfing the channels, looking for a good college football game, but just couldn't resist the urge to stop and see this movie again. It was the original black-and-white version, released in 1947, with young Natalie Wood as the skeptical little Susan. I still prefer this version to the subsequent remakes of this classic. Being in a nostalgic mood, I asked my siblings if they had any special Christmas memories from our Watertown Days. Christine recalls persuading Dad to increase the budget to buy a more expensive, but perfectly symmetrical, Scotch pine from one of the temporary live tree lots that …
42.367263
-71.188996
St. Patrick's Parish
26 Chestnut St, Watertown, MA
/articles/the-gift-of-shared-memories
768161
/locations/2774695
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The long dormant "The Enchanted Village" gets a new life.
Growing up in Watertown, one of my fondest early memories is being enthralled by the Christmas decorations on houses along the route from Harvard Square to Watertown Square. I remember being with my mother and siblings, riding in a noisy, old street car down Mt Auburn Street, on a late winter afternoon, just before Christmas. It gets dark early during December. We were returning from a shopping trip into Boston. In those days, if you wanted to go to the big department stores, like Filenes or Jordan Marsh you took a street car into Harvard Square and then transferred to the subway inbound to Park Street station. I can still recall being entranced by the brightly lit decorations on many of the homes we passed on our way home. Roofs and …
42.37207
-71.15674
Mt Auburn St & Arlington St, Watertown, MA
The street car used to run down Mt. Auburn St. to Cambridge.
/articles/a-christmas-flashback
/locations/2663681
Denise J. Dubé
10:04 am on Monday, February 21, 2011
What a riot -- and balm for another procrastinating soul. I do believe we're doing way too much and that's probably why we rush around cleaning 10 minutes before guests arrive. more ›