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The towns of Bolton, Lancaster and Stow celebrated the graduation of their high school seniors at Nashoba Regional High School today on June 7, 2009. This "best of" slideshow chronicles the entire event. If you are searching for more images, please visit the full NRHS 2009 Graduation Gallery. All images are available for purchase with proceeds going to Stow's Community Chest.

Stow has the wonderful tradition of celebrating Memorial Day with a parade and ceremony. The parade begins at Center School and winds its way down to Brookside Cemetery. Every year, the names of all of Stow's fallen veterans are read as well as a reading of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, laying of the wreaths, playing of Taps, and volley by the Stow Minutemen. But perhaps most moving is when the first graders lay marigolds they have grown at the graves of veterans. After the ceremony at the cemetery, we all march to the Randall Library for the National Moment of Silence at 3PM and an address by our State Representative, Kate Hogan. It's gratifying to see so many come out to honor our veterans; brave men and women who fought to defend our liberty.

Even though a snowstorm is theoretically possible, twelve years ago we were socked with 25.4 inches from the famous April Fools' Day Blizzard, the fact that Erikson's Dairy opens today at noon bodes well for those of us who are tired of Winter. Erikson's is by no means the only spot around for the traditional warm weather treat. Dairy Joy in nearby Hudson and Weston as well as Kimball Farm in Westford and Carlisle are also worth exploring.

The real Santa Claus came to Bolton, Massachusetts today!

We all know that Santa hires "Mall Santas" to go around and represent him during this busy season. But that didn't happen today in Bolton. Yes, I was granted an early wish as the real Santa decided to make a surprise visit to Bruce Slater's Great Brook Farms. And there were none of those pesky photographers to get in the way of my own camera and Santa. Bruce's wonderful store was filled with happy children and adults. There were cookies and candy canes and hot cider and a fireplace. What a wonderful treat!

If you have never been to Bruce's store, you should pay a visit. We had met Maria, the new chef, last year and tasted her wonderful german cooking. So we had to try her pulled pork BBQ. We got a pound to go and it was fantastic. Many of you who live around here are probably familiar with Firefly's BBQ in Marlborough. I almost always get their pulled pork platter and had thought it was great. But the pulled pork from Bruce's was quite a bit better. I could taste the smokey flavor of the pork and the sauce was less sweeter and more spicier than Firefly's. It also wasn't swimming in sauce. It looks like we are about to have a new weekly takeout habit.

So back to Santa. Was he really the genuine article? I am well aware that many decry the Santa tradition as detracting from the religious aspects of the season. Perhaps they feel that Santa is part of the "commercialization" problem of Christmas. Still others feel that Santa is a great big lie and that we harm our children by letting them believe in the lie.

There's a word that describes these people: humbugs! What's wonderful about being a child is that you still have your imagination! As we grow older, this is one of the first things we lose, right along with our childhood innocence. But is what we imagine not real? Do children end up traumatized because their parents perpetuated a grand lie for so many years? Silly! Dr. John Condry of Cornell University interviewed more than 500 children who learned "the truth" and there was not one child who was angry at his or her parents. The most common response was that children felt more mature. My own experiences attest to this finding. We have a Christmas Eve tradition of over half a century of dressing up as Santa for the family and handing out and opening presents. Two years ago my oldest daughter knew it was me and helped me dress that evening. She felt so completely special. She had "grown up". If anyone should be traumatized it should have been me the parent. But even that I cannot complain about because it makes me proud to see my children reach new stages in life.

I haven't yet reached the point where my children don't believe in "The Real Santa". And, truthfully, I hope I never do. What's special about Christmas and Santa is that they are within us. In our adult hearts, I believe we mourn that we lost our gift of imagination and our ability to believe in things beyond ourselves. This is the lie. For it is a fact that there is much that exists beyond us. Yes, it kills me to not be able to tell my daughter that the new microscope came from me. But it also makes me happy at the same time. What keeps this tradition going is that as adults we desperately want to believe!

Christmas doesn't have to be about over-commercialization. Years ago I would have a tradition of frantically shopping one or two days before Christmas and would wrack my brain trying to figure out what to buy for everyone on my list. As I got older, things changed. The spirit of giving is with me quite a bit. And now I regularly see or think of things that would make my loved ones smile. They don't need to be expensive gifts or require trips to a crowded Walmart on Black Friday. This is one of the wonderful advantages of the Internet. You can shop from the comfort of your own home. You can save money and repurpose items from Ebay. Or you can even make your own gifts. The spirit of giving is really what Christmas is about for me. It's a spirit that should be with us all year long. Christmas gives us an opportunity to renew that spirit.

So, Christmas morning I will come downstairs with the kids and my wife (and my mother-in-law) at 6am. They will open presents. I will show them the half-eaten cookies on the kitchen table and the carrots on the back deck.

And I will smile.

While I am a Dad now, I still believe. For what I didn't tell you was that Santa today pulled me aside and told me to take the letters my children brought for him and put them in their stockings on Christmas morning. I know this Santa cannot go to every house in the world. He needs parents like me to help him do his work. So, why do I believe? I kept looking over at Santa today. He was so kind. He had such a mellow voice. He had a real and old beard! He smiled! He seemed so genuinely happy to be around all the children. He greeted each child in such a special way.

And I kept looking and sneaking a peek.

As we were preparing to leave, I looked once more and Santa gave me a wink!

He knew I believed.

Related Post:

• Santa Makes a Surprise Visit to Stow! (12/07)

External Link: Great Brook Farms

There are a lot of Irish folk in Southie, but you wouldn't guess that out here in apple country. Aside from Sunday night's at JP O'Hanlon's in downtown Ayer, there really isn't a place to go to for traditional irish session music. Say hello to Mary, Phil, Marilyn, and Tom from Rhode Island and their "Celebrating Ireland" program which made its way to Marlborough and Hudson today. Marlborough is hosting their Saturday Morning Discovery Series at the Union Common and Hudson is hosting Saturdays at South Street at Cellucci Park.

Interspersed between the fiddle, harp, tin whistle, button accordion, and bodhran music, Marilyn told some rather interesting stories, one poking fun at marriage and another that may have my kids scared tonight at bedtime. They came prepared with lots of percussion instruments for the little ones (and not so little ones). It was a great time. And I look forward to them coming back next year.

If you like Irish/Celtic music, you may love the all female group Cherish the Ladies. We caught their concert at Regis College this past April and their tour schedule has them playing May 5, 2009 at The Somerville Theater. At their concert in April they did a song that the group today did called "Welcome Poor Paddy Home." Of course Joanie Madden and crew did it much better, but the song is awesome. The chorus goes:

It's almost a good a song as "Fields of Athenry" about the Irish famine which was the closing song at every bar in Ireland when we were there in 1997. But you don't here it much over here. There are, however, 150 recordings of that song on iTunes and the Boston band Dropkick Murphy's recorded it for their 2003 Blackout album.

External Links: Harpist Mary King | Cherish the Ladies

When you think of July 4th in America, you think of sun, fireworks, bands, parades, and barbeque. Well this year we didn't get all of those things. On July 3rd we went to Devens for their annual festivities of fireworks and the Metropolitan Wind Symphony playing all sorts of patriotic and toe tapping music. Unfortunately, we had been having a week of late day thunderstorms and one big one rolled in before the show began and they basically told us to leave. So we did. But friends of ours came later and the show and fireworks eventually went off. This is usually a fantastic event because members of the Massachusetts State Police and Army and Marine Reserves display equipment and talk to kids. It is a great opportunity for children to meet those who protect us, and it is so fitting they are there for a July 4th celebration.

Next up was July 4th and we had several local festivities from which to choose. There were festivities in Harvard, Bolton, and Acton. We decided on the Lincoln parade, but that was kind of drizzly and we skipped it. Fortunately, the sun broke through the clouds in the afternoon and the Sudbury parade went off without a hitch. There were no photographers where I was (towards the end of the route), but there were plenty of photo opportunities. We met several interesting people, saw a wonderful parade complete with floats, bands, and the famous Klein Unicycle Family, and went home for hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill.

Of course Independence Day is much more than going to parades, although that is a big part of it. It's part celebration. But also it's part reflection, or at least it should be. In Lincoln, they read the Declaration of Independence before their parade and I think that's a fine tradition. In Sudbury, former servicemen marched as well as Minutemen who all reminded us what many have sacrificed for our freedom.

In case you are wondering, the Declaration of Independence is indeed dated July 4, 1776. You can find all sorts of information at this link. I admit I cannot remember having fully read it until today. While reading this document, I was struck by a conflict. On the one hand I felt proud that our states have rights and we have freedom. On the other, I felt unsettled that the minimalist government envisioned by our forefathers has become an utter monstrosity. Of course the other conflict is that women and blacks were not counted as being "equal". Another is that all the signers from Massachusetts (John Adams, Sam Adams, John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry, and Robert Treat Paine) graduated from Harvard which is a bastion of liberalism.

If you've ever been to a Stow SpringFest, you know it usually rains (or snows)! This year we got lucky. It was a very special year for us because our town celebrated its Tercenquarternary. What's that word you say? Well the word was "invented" for this occasion and simply means we celebrated our 325th anniversary. We had a huge parade this year. We had the Stow and Sudbury Minutemen, bagpipers, tractors, trucks, antique cars and fire trucks, a replica of the Stow West School (the 1-room schoolhouse still standing on Harvard Road), and a hayride. We even had ourselves a clown on a bike! The girl scouts carried the flags belonging to Stow over the years and the parade was closed by the famed Belgian horses of Rockbottom Farm.

The parade ended at Center School where the real festivities began. There were huge cakes to celebrate the Stow Community Chest's 25th anniversary, students playing instruments at the Stow Friends of Music booth, encampments of minutemen, animals, an old-fashioned broom maker, a blacksmith, spinning and weaving demonstrations, firemen playing "water polo", 20 information booths, and activities galore.

The afternoon gave us a wonderful children's play at the Old Town Hall. "The Time Trap" was a unique lesson in Stow history from a kids' point of view. The play was inspired by books by Stow's Martha Perkins and chronicled the lives of modern day Stow kids who got caught in a parallel existence with 18th, 19th and 20th century Stow kids. The portal in time was an old outhouse.

For more images, visit: Paul's Apple Country Gallery no. 21 or see a select few in the "Images" related post. Proceeds from print sales will go to support the Stow Community Chest.

Related Post:

• Images: Stow Springfest (5/2008)

For more images, please visit: Paul's Apple Country Living Gallery no. 21. Proceeds from print sales will go to support the Stow Community Chest.