01945 Summer 2019 WEB
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A departure at Star of the Sea ● Lessons from an old house<br />
Old Town<br />
RocknRow<br />
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | VOL. 2 NO. 1
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02 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
A publication of Essex Media Group<br />
Publisher<br />
Edward M. Grant<br />
Chief Executive Officer<br />
Michael H. Shanahan<br />
Directors<br />
Edward L. Cahill<br />
John M. Gilberg<br />
Edward M. Grant<br />
Gordon R. Hall<br />
Monica Connell Healey<br />
J. Patrick Norton<br />
Michael H. Shanahan<br />
Chief Financial Officer<br />
William J. Kraft<br />
Chief Operating Officer<br />
James N. Wilson<br />
Community Relations Director<br />
Carolina Trujillo<br />
Controller<br />
Susan Conti<br />
Editor<br />
Roberto Scalese<br />
Contributing Editors<br />
Cheryl Charles<br />
Emma LeBlanc Perez<br />
Contributing Writers<br />
Bill Brotherton<br />
Gayla Cawley<br />
Bella diGrazia<br />
Thomas Grillo<br />
Thor Jourgensen<br />
Steve Krause<br />
Bridget Turcotte<br />
Photographers<br />
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Owen O’Rourke<br />
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<strong>01945</strong>themagazine.com<br />
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER<br />
Collateral damage<br />
The Catholic Church from the beginning did an amazingly poor job handling what has become known<br />
as The Crisis. Tone-deaf church leadership acted as if the problem would just go away. It didn’t.<br />
And all our sympathies and prayers should go to the victims. Obviously.<br />
But something else about this mess also bothers me: The vast majority of priests had nothing to do with<br />
the problem yet because of their collars are being looked at in a suspicious — if not accusatory — manner.<br />
And that’s unfair.<br />
I’m a product of Catholic education. At St. Joseph’s grammar and St. Mary’s High schools in Lynn, and<br />
Boston College, I encountered and greatly admired scores of priests. I grew up with a guy who became<br />
a priest (the late Fr. Dick Mehm, who when we were kids taught me to be an altar boy), and became<br />
friendly with many others — the late Monsignors John Carroll of St. John’s in Swampscott and John<br />
Dillon Day; Fr. Nick Sannella of the Lowell collaborative, Fr. Brian Flynn and Msgr. Paul Garrity of St.<br />
Mary’s in Lynn, and Fr. Tom Conway, O.F.M., of St. Anthony Shrine on Arch Street in Boston.<br />
Good men and great guys, all.<br />
As is Fr. Mike Steele, whom Steve Krause writes about in this edition of <strong>01945</strong>.<br />
Fr. Steele a few weeks ago departed Star of the Sea, where he served as pastor for 14 years, for St.<br />
Margaret Mary parish in Westwood. I met him nearly seven years ago. I had just moved from the Back Bay<br />
back to Marblehead and was coming off double knee replacement. (I thought running 3 ½ miles nearly<br />
every day compensated for a diet that consisted primarily of cheeseburgers and cookies. I thought wrong.)<br />
Because I couldn’t drive, my pal Shanahan (that’s him in the upper-left corner of this page) would pick<br />
me up on Saturdays for 4 o’clock Mass at Star of the Sea (making me presumably the only guy on earth<br />
with a Harvard Business School grad as a chauffeur). I couldn’t kneel, either, so Shanahan would get<br />
a couple of folding chairs from behind the altar and set them up for us in a corner of the church. One<br />
Saturday, Shanahan couldn’t make it, so I was sitting on a radiator when Fr. Steele spotted me. He actually<br />
stopped his procession to the altar to retrieve the chair for me. As a thanks, Shanahan and I took Fr. Steele<br />
to dinner on occasion, and over time I learned that his mother and two uncles went to St. Mary’s, that he<br />
grew up in Saugus, and that he is related to the McGees (the late Speaker of the House Tom and Mayor<br />
Tom, in whose inauguration he took part).<br />
So from my pew, priests such as Fr. Steele, Msgr. Carroll, Msgr. Day, Msgr. Garrity, Fr. Conway, Fr.<br />
Flynn, Fr. Sannella (who told me in no uncertain terms of his contempt for those who brought on The<br />
Crisis), and every Jesuit who taught me at BC, are to be viewed with nothing but respect.<br />
Meanwhile . . . What’s in a name? Everything.<br />
When Jack Tatelman and Paul Mazonson decided to start a rowing club, Tatelman launched into a<br />
lecture about water access safety and insurance. Mazonson cut him off. Mazonson was more concerned<br />
with giving their endeavor a "cool name."<br />
Thus was born RocknRow — Marblehead's very own rowing club with more than 60 members and a<br />
fleet of salt-water "single shells" — 21-foot-long dagger-like boats powered by twin 8 ½-foot-long oars.<br />
Thor Jourgensen has the details.<br />
One day, Hayley Reardon picked up the guitar that other family wouldn't learn. Today, she is making<br />
waves as a singer-songwriter. See Bill Brotherton's story. And Gayla Cawley writes about Amy Bucher, who<br />
started in the photography business more than two decades ago when it was a male-dominated industry.<br />
When Marjorie Roberts and her husband bought their house 47 years ago, she figured they'd fix it up<br />
and move on. They're still there, and she says instead of flipping the house, the house has flipped them.<br />
And, if you're over 50 and looking for a healthy activity, pickleball may be just the thing for you.<br />
For these, House Money, fashion, style, and more, check out this edition of <strong>01945</strong>.<br />
INSIDE<br />
04 What's up?<br />
06 Lessons from an old house<br />
10 Style<br />
12 House Money<br />
14 Marlehead's rockstars<br />
18 Female entrepreneurs<br />
20 Melancholy masterpiece<br />
22 Local flavor<br />
24 Holding the fort<br />
26 Our Father Steele<br />
28 Festival of Cod<br />
30 Rewriting history<br />
31 Pickleball<br />
TED GRANT<br />
COVER<br />
RocknRow co-founder<br />
Jack Tatelman rows<br />
through the water<br />
around Crowninshield<br />
Island in Marblehead.<br />
PHOTO BY<br />
Spenser Hasak
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04 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
What's Up for <strong>Summer</strong>?<br />
WHAT'S UP<br />
Talking about race<br />
WHAT: Abbot Public Library and the<br />
Marblehead Racial Justice Team host "Continuing<br />
Conversations on Race" aimed at exploring<br />
privilege, bias and questions in a safe and<br />
welcoming conversation.<br />
WHERE: Abbot Public Library, 235 Pleasant St.<br />
WHEN: June 24, 7 p.m.<br />
Pop the bubbly<br />
WHAT: For a summertime soiree where the<br />
tinkling glasses are counterpoint to crashing<br />
waves, mark The Marblehead Festival of Arts<br />
champagne reception on your calendar.<br />
WHERE: Fort Sewall, 8 Fort Sewall Lane.<br />
WHEN: June 30, 5-7 p.m.<br />
Hit the road<br />
WHAT: The Firecracker 5K road race<br />
celebrates summer's start with a jaunt through<br />
Marblehead's neighborhoods followed by<br />
awards, music, free kids club and more.<br />
WHERE: Lynn van Otterloo YMCA, 40 Leggs<br />
Hill Road.<br />
WHEN: June 30, 9 a.m.-noon<br />
Arts on the town<br />
WHAT: The Marblehead Festival of Arts<br />
celebrates its 57th year with a wide range of<br />
exhibits, outdoor music, a film festival, street<br />
festival, marketplace and children's activities.<br />
WHERE: Various locations, visit<br />
www.marbleheadfestival.org.<br />
WHEN: July 4-7<br />
Halifax Ho!<br />
WHAT: The 38th biennial Marblehead-to-<br />
Halifax Ocean Race is a 363-mile international<br />
competition with support from the Boston Yacht<br />
Club and Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.<br />
WHERE: Water off Marblehead.<br />
WHEN: July 7<br />
Get your Glover on<br />
WHAT: Marblehead's own Glover's Regiment of<br />
Revolutionary War reenactors pack musket ballmaking,<br />
marlinspike work, sea chantey singing,<br />
candle making and 18th century snacks into a<br />
two-day encampment.<br />
WHERE: Fort Sewall, 8 Fort Sewall Lane.<br />
WHEN: July 13-14<br />
Time to tee up<br />
WHAT: What's better than golf, food and fun<br />
at The Marblehead Open to raise money for the<br />
Marblehead Chamber of Commerce.<br />
WHERE: Tedesco Country Club, 154 Tedesco St.<br />
WHEN: July 15, registration and lunch buffet<br />
at 11:30 a.m. Shotgun start at 1 p.m. followed by<br />
barbecue and cocktails.<br />
A high seas classic<br />
WHAT: The Corinthian Classic Yacht Regatta<br />
celebrates classic yachts and characters and is<br />
hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club.<br />
WHERE: Water off Marblehead.<br />
WHEN: August 10-11<br />
Hit the bricks<br />
WHAT: Town-wide sidewalk sales offer a day of<br />
shopping in Marblehead stores and dining locally<br />
while enjoying great bargains.<br />
WHERE: Atlantic Avenue and Pleasant Street.<br />
WHEN: September 14<br />
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06 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
Lessons from<br />
an old house<br />
BY MARJORIE ROBERTS<br />
W<br />
hen my husband<br />
and I bought our<br />
home 47 years ago,<br />
we thought that we<br />
would renovate the<br />
house and move on after a few years.<br />
Now, after 47 years in our same house,<br />
we realize that instead of changing the<br />
house, the house has changed us.<br />
Yes, we have made revisions, like<br />
updating bathrooms and the kitchen.<br />
Many of the changes have involved<br />
peeling back the layers of time to expose<br />
old beams and to remove layers of<br />
paint from wide pine floors, beautiful<br />
wainscoting, and other trim. Some of this<br />
wood we believe are the "spite boards"<br />
or wood of a certain width that was<br />
required to be sent back to England, but<br />
rebellious settlers resisted. An unexpected<br />
occurrence of living in this 17th century,<br />
or a lesson is my love and appreciation of<br />
wood, the building material of the house.<br />
As we have removed layers of paint and<br />
sometimes walls, we have found notes<br />
from previous builders, and left a few of<br />
our own in the walls.<br />
As best we can determine, our house<br />
was built in 1670. Initially, it was a twostory<br />
dwelling that remains attached<br />
to another house by a common wall,<br />
and now a single chimney that serves<br />
five fireplaces in the two houses. The<br />
history is a bit unclear as to whether the<br />
two houses were built simultaneously,<br />
or whether our house was added on to<br />
the smaller house just behind, which is<br />
not visible from the street. All of this<br />
history is a bit confusing, but adds to the<br />
intrigue and story of our house.<br />
Also intriguing is a trapdoor section<br />
of our living room floor, which gives<br />
access to a crawl space and dirt basement<br />
under the house. In this area are the<br />
brick arches of an old cistern. We have<br />
found discarded animal bones, metal<br />
objects, a porcelain doll's head and bits<br />
of clay pipes. Recently, a young woman<br />
and former neighbor reported that as a<br />
child, she discovered a tunnel under the<br />
other house that led into a shed in the<br />
backyard. Are the secret trapdoor and the<br />
Marjorie and Tom Roberts live in a home that was<br />
built in 1670.<br />
PHOTOS: SPENSER HASAK
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 07<br />
Rory, 8, and Brendan Gurtler,<br />
12 explore a secret crawl<br />
space hidden under a trap<br />
door in the living room<br />
floor of their grandparents'<br />
Marblehead home.<br />
The wrapping staircase leading up to the second floor.<br />
Rory and Brendan Gurtler<br />
roast hot dogs in the large<br />
living room fireplace.<br />
tunnel related to earlier times of Indian<br />
raids or the Underground Railroad?<br />
Again, the house holds secrets.<br />
One of the lessons from the house<br />
is an important one of perspective. Our<br />
home has hosted many families and<br />
other guests since at one time it was also<br />
an inn. As an inn, it was a mere four<br />
rooms on two floors, with two fireplaces<br />
on the first level and one on the second.<br />
One has to imagine guests sleeping on<br />
mats on the floor around the fireplaces<br />
with some kind of a meal prepared<br />
from the large cooking fireplace and its<br />
beehive oven.<br />
As I think of the other people who<br />
have lived and died in the house, it<br />
comforts me to know that there is a<br />
community of others who shared my<br />
dwelling and weathered many storms of<br />
a physical, political, and personal nature,<br />
and this simple house has held us all for<br />
nearly 350 years. With this awareness,<br />
comes the responsibility of care and<br />
preservation of the house, since others in<br />
the future will also call it home.<br />
Another aspect of this lesson of<br />
perspective is personal. In looking at my<br />
life as part of the history of the house,<br />
I have learned humility; my life events<br />
have great significance to me but they<br />
are just a part of a much larger collage,<br />
which spreads out from the house's<br />
history to the larger world.<br />
Our house is attached to another,<br />
and a walk down my street and through<br />
the historic part of Marblehead shows<br />
homes in close proximity to one another<br />
like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that make<br />
a charming landscape. When I first<br />
visited Marblehead and drove down<br />
the street where I now live, I remember<br />
commenting, "Who lives here?"<br />
I have learned another important<br />
lesson, which is to love, like, or tolerate<br />
my neighbors since they are part of the<br />
fabric of my life. A feud among neighbors<br />
changes the dynamics of the whole<br />
neighborhood since this is a place where<br />
one can borrow a teaspoon of cinnamon, a<br />
hedge clipper or a snow shovel.<br />
A highlight in our neighborhood is<br />
the Lee Street annual holiday party in<br />
mid-December. The location of the party<br />
is rotated between several homes that<br />
are considered to have more room for<br />
a party than other smaller homes, even<br />
though all are small. The party consists of<br />
a potluck dinner at one home and dessert<br />
and a Yankee swap at another. My home<br />
has often been the setting for the Yankee<br />
swap. Going back to the days of being
08 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
Target your message<br />
to an affluent audience<br />
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | VOL. 2 NO. 1<br />
A departure at Star of the Sea Lessons from an old house<br />
Old Town<br />
RocknRow<br />
Stone & Compass | Marblehead Little Theatre | Food and fashion<br />
an inn, my home bulges at the seams to<br />
accommodate 40-plus guests with their<br />
gifts and desserts. While it has evolved,<br />
the Lee Street holiday party is now in its<br />
42nd year.<br />
I have mentioned the small scale<br />
of my home, which originally had four<br />
rooms, two on each floor with perhaps a<br />
lean-to shed–like structure for housing<br />
a farm animal or storing provisions. The<br />
lean-to was ultimately expanded to create<br />
a kitchen. In the 1920s a fire burned<br />
through the roof of the house, and<br />
subsequently a third story was added to<br />
include a deck. Some people refer to our<br />
deck as a "widow's walk" (a term from<br />
Marblehead's fishing days when women<br />
would watch for their husbands' return<br />
with the fishing fleet from decks atop<br />
roofs). From my widow's walk, I have<br />
another reminder of perspective, which<br />
is to embrace the local and also look<br />
beyond.<br />
Despite the expansion, the house<br />
has little more storage than it may have<br />
had in the 17th century, and certainly<br />
nothing like could be expected in the<br />
21st century. The limited storage space<br />
has taught us another lesson to minimize<br />
our possessions, avoid clutter and recycle<br />
what is no longer needed. I have often<br />
said, "Living in the house is like living<br />
in a boat;" everything must have a place.<br />
My comparison to living aboard a boat<br />
comes easily since fishermen and shipbuilders<br />
designed our house, given that<br />
the local industry was fishing.<br />
I have learned many lessons from<br />
living in my house, neighborhood<br />
and community. I try to remember to<br />
preserve the traditions that have been<br />
established as well as the historic home.<br />
I am inspired by those who have lived<br />
here before me, who surely struggled for<br />
survival without central heat, plumbing,<br />
or electricity, and possible raids from<br />
Indians and pirates. The lessons that I<br />
have learned are lasting for me. I hope<br />
that others who will call this house<br />
"home" will learn similar "lessons."<br />
I am grateful to "<strong>01945</strong>" for giving<br />
my story a home. My husband Tom and I<br />
have lived in our house for 47 years. Our<br />
children, Bronwyn and Daniel also called<br />
it home until they found their own homes.<br />
We are delighted when our grandchildren<br />
come to visit, explore the secret space under<br />
our living room floor, and visit neighbors<br />
and their pets in this cozy section of<br />
Marblehead. I enjoy the process of writing<br />
and incorporate it in my clinical work as a<br />
psychologist.<br />
Dr. Corine Barone goes the extra<br />
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10 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
STYLE<br />
LET'S GO<br />
BY BELLA diGRAZIA<br />
PHOTOS BY SPENSER HASAK<br />
TO THE BEACH!<br />
The best part about living on the waterfront is the unlimited access<br />
to the ocean. If you are going to spend your summer with<br />
your toes in the sand and getting your tan on, you'll<br />
need the essentials. Grab your beach blanket, sunglasses and<br />
a hat, and don't forget to do it with some style. Thankfully, the<br />
boutiques that line the streets of Marblehead and Swampscott have<br />
just what you need.
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 11<br />
Chic Streets Boutique, 434<br />
Humphrey St., Swampscott<br />
C<br />
A) Large straw tote bag with<br />
aztec print, $150<br />
B) "Just Beachy"<br />
bikini bag, $68<br />
C) Quay, light<br />
mirrored<br />
sunglasses,<br />
$55<br />
E<br />
B<br />
F<br />
D<br />
G<br />
Seaside<br />
Allure, 9<br />
Pleasant St.,<br />
Marblehead<br />
A<br />
D) Lilly Pulitzer<br />
kaleidoscope coral flip<br />
flops, $38<br />
E) Top it Off rainbow tassel<br />
sunhat, $28<br />
F) Lilly Pulitzer "Lexy" gold and<br />
pink sunglasses, $48<br />
G) Top it Off rainbow pom pom white<br />
scarf, $28
12 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
HOUSE MONEY<br />
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BLAKE SHERWOOD, COMPASS.
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 13<br />
A peek inside<br />
13 Goldwait Road<br />
SALE PRICE: $2,063,785<br />
SALE DATE: January 31, <strong>2019</strong><br />
LIST PRICE: $2,995,000<br />
TIME ON MARKET: 526 days,<br />
June, 2017<br />
LISTING BROKER:<br />
Blake Sherwood, Compass,<br />
Chestnut Hill<br />
SELLING BROKER:<br />
Jane Maurer, Coldwell Banker<br />
Residential Brokerage, Marblehead<br />
LATEST ASSESSED<br />
VALUE: $2,544,400<br />
PREVIOUS SALE PRICE:<br />
$2,500,000, May, 2008<br />
PROPERTY TAXES: $27,130<br />
YEAR BUILT: 1958<br />
LOT SIZE: 0.44 acres<br />
LIVING AREA: 4,000 square feet<br />
ROOMS: 9<br />
BEDROOMS: 4<br />
BATHROOMS: 4 plus 1 half<br />
SPECIAL FEATURES:<br />
This oceanfront front home with<br />
stunning views from nearly every<br />
room was meticulously renovated<br />
and restored in 2015. Additions<br />
include a chef's kitchen with a floorto-ceiling<br />
wine refrigerator, spacious<br />
pantry and 9-foot island, perennial<br />
gardens, irrigation system, and a twocar<br />
attached garage.<br />
Source: MLS Property Information Network.
14 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
Top left: RocknRow co-founder Jack Tatelman carries a boat down to the dock with the help of fellow member Chris Leake. Top right: RocknRow member John Rogers rows<br />
through the water around Crowninshield Island in Marblehead. Center right: Paddles belonging to the RocknRow club line the wall where they store their gear. Bottom<br />
left: RocknRow boats are housed in the Marblehead Trading Company. Bottom right: RocknRow co-founder Jack Tatelman, left, speaks about the rowing season with John<br />
Rogers, center, and Chris Leake.<br />
PHOTOS: SPENSER HASAK
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 15<br />
Marblehead's<br />
Rock<br />
Stars<br />
BY THOR JOURGENSEN<br />
When Jack Tatelman and Paul<br />
Mazonson decided to start a rowing club,<br />
Tatelman launched into a lecture about<br />
water access safety and insurance until<br />
Mazonson cut him off.<br />
"Paul said, 'Screw it. What we need is<br />
a cool name.'"<br />
Thus was born RocknRow —<br />
Marblehead's very own rowing club<br />
with more than 60 members and a fleet<br />
of salt-water "single shells" — 21-footlong<br />
dagger-like boats powered by twin<br />
8 1/2-foot-long oars.<br />
With membership spanning all<br />
ages and split about evenly by gender,<br />
RocknRow take to the water on rowing<br />
excursions ranging from easy-going forays<br />
to fierce 21-mile competitions.<br />
Current club President Terrie Leake<br />
said rowing is only half of RocknRow's<br />
mission. The other half is devoted to<br />
friendship and a love of Marblehead.<br />
"My favorite thing is that we've<br />
developed into such a nice community of<br />
friends," she said.<br />
The way Leake tells the story,<br />
Tatelman and Mazonson were sitting
16 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
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on Tatelman's lawn in 2007 when<br />
they hit on a way to combine a love of<br />
Marblehead community life with a love<br />
of rowing.<br />
Leake said the club's first boats were<br />
stored on the roof of the Marblehead<br />
Yacht Club pool house and the first<br />
attempts at rowing resulted in members<br />
snagging their crafts on Marblehead<br />
Harbor mooring lines.<br />
Marblehead Trading Company owner<br />
Ralph Anderson and yard manager<br />
Tom LeBouf reserve a corner of their<br />
cavernous boat barn for RocknRow's<br />
shells and wall space covered with<br />
maps lining out rowing paths around<br />
Marblehead Harbor.<br />
The water is the limit when it comes<br />
to rowing excursions ranging from<br />
Marblehead rock and Tinker's Island<br />
— a relatively easy hour-long row — to<br />
the Blackburn Challenge: A 21-mile<br />
slog around Cape Ann. Club members<br />
have taken trips to Michigan, Maine and<br />
Canada to row.<br />
"Being in the water makes you feel<br />
better about being alive," said Tatelman.<br />
Practice and patient instruction from<br />
RocknRow member and coach Jigger<br />
Herman has helped members master<br />
the shells, which feature sliding seats<br />
mounted less than a foot off the water's<br />
surface. Velcro straps hold feet in place<br />
and oars are mounted in locks on each<br />
side of the shell provide propulsion.<br />
"Feeling comfortable in the boat<br />
is the first hurdle to get over," said<br />
RocknRow member John Rogers.<br />
Rowing backwards is also an<br />
adjustment and learning the proper<br />
stroke takes time. But Christopher<br />
Leake, Terrie's husband, said the learning<br />
curve leads to a very pleasant place on<br />
the water.<br />
"It's serene and peaceful. It's almost<br />
like yoga when you're rowing," he said.<br />
RocknRow membership comes with a<br />
$475 annual fee and there is currently a<br />
membership waiting list. Some members<br />
own boats while the club also purchases<br />
shells for members' use.<br />
Getting out on the water with<br />
RocknRow means knowing how to swim<br />
and learning to rig and launch a shell<br />
off the dock near Marblehead Trading<br />
Company.<br />
"The big deal is to go around Brown's<br />
Island," said Terrie Leake.<br />
The club does have one hard and fast<br />
rule: No rowing alone.<br />
In its devotion to Marblehead,<br />
Tatelman conservatively estimates the
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 17<br />
club has raised $100,000 for local causes.<br />
The late summer Misery Island cleanup<br />
is an annual club event.<br />
Members socialize throughout the<br />
winter on ski trips and in a book club<br />
and start-of-the-rowing-season boat<br />
preparation in May and the season's<br />
September end are reasons to have<br />
fun and take part in the 14-mile Lake<br />
Sunapee row.<br />
"It's the members that make the club<br />
special. It's the spirit of the members,"<br />
Tatelman said.<br />
RocknRow even hosts an early June<br />
"blessing of the fleet" to inaugurate the<br />
rowing season complete with a pancake<br />
breakfast. On a sadder note, club<br />
members name shells after members who<br />
have died.<br />
The collage adorning a wall in<br />
RocknRow's corner in the Marblehead<br />
Trading Company includes a list of<br />
commandments, including, "Thou shalt<br />
pee before launching."<br />
"I never envisioned the club would<br />
last this long," Tatelman said, "We all<br />
have a common love for the town and<br />
the water."<br />
For more information on RocknRow,<br />
visit info@rocknrow.org<br />
From left, RocknRow members John Rogers, Terrie Leake, co-founder Jack Tatelman, and Chris Leake<br />
stand on a dock overlooking Crowninshield Island before launching their boats.
18 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
Amy Bucher, owner<br />
of Amy Bucher<br />
Photographic,<br />
edits a photo in her<br />
second-floor studio<br />
in Marblehead.<br />
PHOTOS:<br />
SPENSER HASAK<br />
Female entrepreneurs are making<br />
their mark in Marblehead, but to become<br />
successful on their own, they've had to<br />
overcome challenges along the way.<br />
When Amy Bucher started in the<br />
photography business more than two<br />
decades ago, she found herself in a maledominated<br />
industry. Most of her mentors<br />
were men, she said.<br />
Being in a field dominated by men<br />
was challenging, Bucher recalls, but she<br />
believes the transition to seeing more<br />
women in photography, with some<br />
owning their own businesses, has to do<br />
with them having a knack for personal<br />
interaction.<br />
"You have to be able to relate to<br />
people and women are able to do that,"<br />
Bucher said. "I think it's important to be<br />
able to communicate and work well with<br />
other people and have an empathy and<br />
understanding, and almost a motherly,<br />
caring aspect."<br />
A Midwest native, Bucher relocated<br />
to Marblehead a few years ago. By that<br />
time, she was an experienced business<br />
owner, having started Amy Bucher<br />
BY GAYLA CAWLEY<br />
Photographic in 2001. Following the<br />
move, she opened up a studio in Old<br />
Town on Pleasant Street.<br />
Bucher said she's been interested in the<br />
field since she was a kid. Her first job was<br />
as a photographer at a theme park when<br />
she was 15 years old. She got her degree in<br />
photography and made it into a career.<br />
"I've always wanted to have my own<br />
business," Bucher said. "I always wanted<br />
to be able to create my own business and<br />
organize it in a way I found interesting<br />
and fun and fit into my schedule."<br />
Making the decision to become selfemployed<br />
was both nerve-wracking and<br />
exciting, Bucher said, because there's a<br />
lot of risk involved. She made sure to<br />
give herself a safety net, setting aside a<br />
cash reserve and saving up for equipment.<br />
For other female entrepreneurs<br />
looking to start their own business,<br />
Bucher said she would advise them to<br />
get involved with something they're<br />
passionate about.<br />
"Especially in a creative industry,<br />
it's really important to be able to enjoy<br />
the work you do so you can give more<br />
of yourself to it and therefore, be more<br />
successful and have more fun doing it,"<br />
Bucher said.<br />
Before Noelle LeBlanc started<br />
Work Loft, a co-working space that<br />
opened downtown in 2017 and provides<br />
professionals an environment to work<br />
remotely, she had to deal with a lot of<br />
negative feedback from people doubting<br />
she could become successful on her own.<br />
Before opening her own space,<br />
LeBlanc, 48, had worked in the high tech<br />
industry for two decades and found that<br />
none of her jobs were based anywhere<br />
near her hometown.<br />
When LeBlanc moved to Marblehead<br />
eight years ago, she was working in an<br />
international sales<br />
role and found<br />
that her days<br />
were either<br />
spent on<br />
an airplane<br />
or working<br />
remotely<br />
from her<br />
kitchen.<br />
Work Loft's Noelle LeBlanc.<br />
PHOTO: OWEN O'ROURKE
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 19<br />
"I just got so bummed out by being<br />
alone all day honestly," LeBlanc said. "At<br />
first, it was really cool to be able to wear<br />
sweatpants and then it was a bummer to<br />
wear sweatpants all day. I wanted to go<br />
out (so I) would go to the coffee shop<br />
and I always guilted myself into buying<br />
way more coffee than I needed just so I<br />
could stay there."<br />
LeBlanc learned there were lots of<br />
professionals like her, which prompted<br />
her to decide to open up a co-working<br />
space to give them an option to work<br />
remotely without being isolated from<br />
other people.<br />
Members can come and go as they<br />
please, with LeBlanc comparing it to<br />
having a gym membership.<br />
Business is good. Work Loft is<br />
undergoing a $55,000 expansion.<br />
LeBlanc said there's been more of a<br />
demand for private offices, so members<br />
can duck into rooms to make phone calls<br />
without disturbing others. There are five<br />
private rooms right now and eight more<br />
will be added this summer.<br />
Starting out was difficult, LeBlanc<br />
said, but not because of her own selfdoubt,<br />
but rather negative feedback from<br />
others that she had to learn to drown<br />
out. She said lots of people around her<br />
were terrified that she was leaving a<br />
steady job and paycheck to open her own<br />
business, telling her she might fail.<br />
"Maybe this is unique to female<br />
entrepreneurs — I kept hearing you can't<br />
do it," LeBlanc said. "Would you say this to<br />
a man? Maybe, but it doesn't seem typical<br />
to me. It was always coming from women."<br />
But LeBlanc said that wasn't how<br />
she wanted to view the world and her<br />
life. She advises other female<br />
entrepreneurs to silence<br />
negative comments that<br />
stem from others' fear and<br />
anxiety and only listen to<br />
like-minded people.<br />
"We all want to feel<br />
secure," LeBlanc said. "I<br />
understand that. What I don't<br />
understand is defining our<br />
lives and our choices by fear<br />
instead of inspiration. When<br />
people said you can't do this,<br />
it's going to go wrong, I looked at those<br />
people and I thought you're someone who<br />
lets your choices be defined by fear instead<br />
of opportunity and inspiration."<br />
Nancy Mantilla has loved flowers<br />
since she was a child.<br />
She grew up on a farm in South America<br />
where her parents had lots of gardens.<br />
Her mother always made sure she was<br />
responsible for taking care of the plants at<br />
home, something that developed her passion.<br />
Mantilla, 57, came to the United<br />
States in 1982, where she attended<br />
school in Boston and lived in nearby<br />
Newton with an unrelated family. Money<br />
was tight. At school, she studied English<br />
and political science, but was still<br />
drawn to flowers and started working at<br />
Winston Flowers in Boston a<br />
few years later.<br />
She later moved on to<br />
work in floral design at the<br />
Ritz-Charlton, a luxury<br />
hotel in Boston, which<br />
included a stint as a pastry<br />
chef. There, she learned the<br />
ins and outs of the business<br />
and struck out on her own<br />
Flores Mantilla's Nancy Mantilla in 2000, opening Flores<br />
PHOTO: OWEN O'ROURKE Mantilla in downtown<br />
Marblehead.<br />
"I was very excited," Mantilla said. "I<br />
wake up every day and am blessed that<br />
I'm still here and can do what I love."<br />
Mantilla said her passion is gardening<br />
and design and can't imagine her life<br />
without flowers. In November 2017,<br />
her 18-year dream came true when she<br />
opened up her second location in South<br />
End, Boston. She splits her time between<br />
the two stores.<br />
She'd advise other female<br />
entrepreneurs to work hard, believe in<br />
themselves and never give up.<br />
"Nothing has been given to people<br />
who don't work hard," Mantilla said.<br />
"You always learn. I think the day you<br />
stop learning is the day you die. So, I'm<br />
alive. I'm learning every day."<br />
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20 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
M<br />
masterpiece<br />
E L A N C H O L Y<br />
H A Y L E Y R E A R D O N<br />
PHOTO: KATE GALLAHER<br />
BY BILL BROTHERTON<br />
Hayley Reardon said when her<br />
parents were newlyweds, her dad, Pete,<br />
bought her mom, Meredith, an Epiphone<br />
guitar.<br />
"My mom spent half a day trying to<br />
learn 'Pancho and Lefty' and then gave<br />
up," said Reardon, with a smile.<br />
When her uncle, John Reardon,<br />
would visit he'd play a bit. Her big sister<br />
Chelsea, six years older, tried it for a<br />
while but lost interest. Otherwise, the<br />
guitar sat unused.<br />
"The summer before sixth grade, I was<br />
sitting around the house, bored one day.<br />
My dad bought this guitar for my mom,<br />
which she didn't play. I picked it up."<br />
Today, Hayley, a 2015 graduate of<br />
Marblehead High School, is making<br />
serious waves as a singer-songwriter. Her<br />
new EP, "Where I Know You," which<br />
came out in March, is getting rapturous<br />
reviews from fans and the nation's music<br />
critics.<br />
Performer Magazine described her<br />
music as "brilliantly moving folk pop<br />
with a lyrical depth and soul." American<br />
Songwriter called her song "Numb and<br />
Blue" a "melancholy little masterpiece."<br />
No Depression magazine said "With<br />
a contagious glow and maturity well<br />
beyond her years, Hayley’s definitely a<br />
talent worth tracking." Her music has<br />
been compared to that of Patty Griffin,<br />
Lucinda Williams and Tracy Chapman<br />
rather than most of today's young singersongwriters.<br />
And she's doing it on her own terms.<br />
Record companies be damned!<br />
Reardon has toured Germany and the<br />
United Kingdom, and recently played<br />
two high-profile shows: headlining at<br />
Club Passim, the esteemed folk music<br />
club in Cambridge, and opening for<br />
Rodney Crowell, Brandy Clark and<br />
the North Mississippi All-Stars at the<br />
Shubert Theatre in Boston.<br />
"The show ended with all of us on<br />
stage performing 'Leaving Louisiana<br />
in the Broad Daylight,' and I sang<br />
Emmylou Harris' part," said Reardon,<br />
with a broad smile.<br />
Hayley's played Passim often, the first<br />
time when she was 14 and opened for Don<br />
White, the Lynn-based singer-songwriterhumorist<br />
whom she calls her mentor.<br />
"Hayley is my pal," said White, who<br />
has served as Reardon's teacher/adviser<br />
since she was 12.<br />
White said her talent was undeniable,<br />
even then. "My mother was dying, and I<br />
thought of my mom while Hayley played<br />
a new song, 'Good Morning Beautiful,'<br />
in my house. She was 13 or 14, and it got<br />
to me, and it was a song she threw away.<br />
I covered it on one of my albums.<br />
"Hayley is an excellent example of<br />
how to have a career on your own terms,<br />
as an independent musician, without a<br />
record label telling her she has to wear<br />
hot pants and do this or that," added<br />
White. "Record deals are not always in<br />
an artist's best interest.<br />
She has a loyal fan base in England
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 21<br />
and Germany, because of those tours.<br />
Many successful artists, like Jimi Hendrix<br />
and Mary Gauthier, made a name for<br />
themselves over there before coming<br />
home.<br />
"Hayley is instinctively smart and<br />
fiercely independent," White said.<br />
"When she was 16 or 17, she said to<br />
me 'I'm already thinking about what<br />
I'm going to do at the end of my music<br />
career.' That's unusual for a young person.<br />
I think she's interested in doing good<br />
work and making a living in music. I<br />
wonder if fame matters at all to her."<br />
When Reardon was 12, her dad<br />
brought her to an open mic at the King<br />
Hooper Mansion "just to watch. But I<br />
decided to play." The crowd applauded,<br />
and Hayley was hooked. Before long, her<br />
dad was driving her to open mics all over<br />
New England.<br />
"I was only 12. I couldn't play in<br />
bars, but wanted to sing my songs. I was<br />
pleased there was a network for that.<br />
"At the start, I was so nervous. I was<br />
terrified. I used to sit on a stool and put<br />
my feet on the bar of the stool, because<br />
they were shaking so bad."<br />
Her first proper gig arrived the next<br />
year at a King Hooper open mic when<br />
she was invited to perform a 30-minute<br />
showcase. A hat was passed after her set,<br />
guests tossed in a buck or two, and at age<br />
13 Reardon was making money doing what<br />
she loved.<br />
"It was pretty cool," she said. "I've<br />
always been drawn to writing. In place<br />
of learning other people's songs, I wrote<br />
my own."<br />
Marblehead is home to the me&thee<br />
coffeehouse, one of America's premier<br />
acoustic music spots, and Kathy Sands-<br />
Boehmer, the me&thee's booking<br />
manager, remembers the first time she<br />
heard Reardon sing.<br />
"Jeanie Stahl (a Marblehead singersingwriter<br />
of note) brought her to a Bill<br />
Staines show at the me&thee when she<br />
was 12. Jeanie asked Hayley to play a<br />
couple of songs for Bill and sat him down<br />
in the Holyoke Room after the show.<br />
Hayley played two songs and I will never<br />
ever forget that moment. I was so taken<br />
with one song that she sang called 'She's<br />
Falling.' This song was about a young girl<br />
who had been bullied at school and later<br />
committed suicide. I knew immediately<br />
that this young woman was someone who<br />
was an old soul and who understood the<br />
power of song. I've been so proud of the<br />
part that the me&thee has played in her<br />
career and thrilled that she'll be part of<br />
our 50th-anniversary celebration next<br />
season."<br />
Reardon has performed at the<br />
me&thee numerous times since.<br />
Two albums of original songs came<br />
out while she was still in high school.<br />
But music fans really started paying<br />
attention when "Good," a fan-funded<br />
album, arrived in 2016.<br />
Lorne Entress, who has worked with<br />
Lori McKenna, Catie Curtis and Erin<br />
McKeown, produced the album with<br />
beautiful arrangements that highlight<br />
the powerful messages in her songs.<br />
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22 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
LOCAL FLAVOR<br />
Sipping on <strong>Summer</strong><br />
BY BELLA diGRAZIA<br />
PHOTOS BY SPENSER HASAK<br />
It's hot, the sun is shining, and you need<br />
something sweet to cool you down. Drink a glass<br />
of red sangria, the perfect daytime adult beverage<br />
that anyone can make. The best thing about this<br />
recipe is you can customize it to your own taste.<br />
Sip it on your couch or on your deck.
Here are our six steps to making sangria:<br />
1) Fill a gallon-sized pitcher halfway with Sprite.<br />
2) 5 cups of Carlo Rossi Cabernet Sauvignon<br />
3) 1 cup of Mathilde Pêche liqueur<br />
4) 1 cup of Stoli Razberi<br />
5) 1 cup of Bacardi Limon<br />
6) Blackberries, oranges, peaches, apples and limes roughly cut<br />
*For best results, let the sangria sit overnight and add one cup of Sprite the following day.*<br />
You can find any of the above ingredients at:<br />
• Vinnin Liquors, 371 Paradise Road<br />
• Swampscott Farmer's Market, 22 Monument Ave.<br />
• Whole Foods, 331 Paradise Road
24 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
Holding the fort<br />
PHOTO: OWEN O'ROURKE<br />
Fort Sewall helped ensure the town's<br />
survival in its earliest years four centuries<br />
ago and Marblehead is returning the<br />
favor by paying for a major revival of the<br />
historical site.<br />
Roughly the size of a football field<br />
and flanked by rocky inclines battered by<br />
ocean waves, Fort Sewall is a testament<br />
to Marblehead's endurance and the<br />
town's love of history.<br />
Town residents and history lovers<br />
beyond Marblehead's borders put<br />
together a $1 million-plus plan to fix up<br />
the fort. With more than $250,000 in<br />
grant proposals to help pay for the work,<br />
organizations led by the Fort Sewall<br />
Oversight Committee won initial Town<br />
Meeting backing this spring to pass a<br />
Proposition 2 ½ debt exclusion override<br />
to pay for $750,000 worth of restoration<br />
work.<br />
The override breaks down to a $16.69<br />
annual contribution by each town<br />
property owner for five years. Support<br />
through the town's tax base is only one<br />
source of money for the fort's revival,<br />
said Larry Sands, a Glover's Regiment<br />
member with 20 years Oversight<br />
Committee experience.<br />
"We've raised $360,000 from 100<br />
donors," said Sands.<br />
Built in 1644 as an "earthwork fort,"<br />
it is armed with two cannons aimed and<br />
ready to fire across Marblehead Harbor's<br />
narrow entrance. Economics spawned<br />
the fort's construction: According to one<br />
of the plaques at Fort Sewall's entrance<br />
detailing its history, Marblehead's status<br />
BY THOR JOURGENSEN<br />
as "' ...the greatest towne for fishing in<br />
England'" meant it needed protection<br />
from pirates and French or Dutch<br />
warships.<br />
The fort's history inscribed on the<br />
plaque explains how the French and<br />
Indian War triggered coastal defense<br />
construction. One hundred men worked<br />
for seven days to bulk up the fort's walls<br />
and add 10 more guns to its defenses.<br />
The 1700s saw Marblehead become<br />
a strategic defensive stronghold with six<br />
forts bristling with guns in what is now<br />
modern-day Fountain Park, Seaside Park<br />
and other locations.<br />
Glover's Regiment's formation as a<br />
fighting force aiding in the war against<br />
Britain sent Marblehead's men off to war.<br />
"Women and the elderly manned<br />
the fort," according to the history<br />
summarized on one of the fort's plaques.<br />
Their diligence paid off when a<br />
British warship approached Marblehead<br />
intent on burning down the town. The<br />
sight of workers busily bulking up Fort<br />
Sewall's ramparts sent the British into<br />
retreat.<br />
Named for Samuel Sewall, a<br />
Revolutionary War-era town resident<br />
who later became a judge, Fort Sewall<br />
was enshrined in history on April 3, 1814<br />
when British warships chased the USS<br />
Constitution into Marblehead Harbor.<br />
The sight of the fort's guns discouraged<br />
the pursuers from pressing their luck.<br />
"People underestimate the importance<br />
Marblehead played in the American<br />
Revolution. It is important not to lose<br />
sight of history," Sands said.<br />
Sands said <strong>2019</strong> is a fitting year<br />
to kick off fort restoration efforts<br />
celebrating Fort Sewall's 375th<br />
anniversary. The work list is long and<br />
builds, Sands said, on work started five<br />
years ago on a master plan for restoring<br />
the fort. In 2017, the fort's brick facade<br />
received much-needed repointing<br />
and prioritized future repairs include<br />
"parging," or recoating the fort's interior<br />
brick wall; repointing and repairing<br />
upper-level doorways; replacing stairway<br />
railings and refurbishing pathways<br />
ringing the fort and leading in and out<br />
of it.<br />
Sands said the work will span the<br />
next three years culminating in 2022<br />
- the 100th anniversary of the federal<br />
government's decision to return the fort<br />
to town oversight.<br />
Marblehead residents Slaid and<br />
Julie Jones couldn't be happier to see<br />
their favorite strolling spot slotted for a<br />
spruce up. The couple walk the ramparts<br />
overlooking the harbor even in chilly and<br />
wet weather.<br />
"It's one of our favorite parts of<br />
town," Slaid Jones said.<br />
"The views are great and it's quiet,"<br />
added Julie Jones.<br />
A Marblehead resident since 1980,<br />
Sands said Fort Sewall is overseen by the<br />
town Parks and Recreation Department.<br />
He hopes money can be allocated<br />
eventually to pay a town ranger to guide<br />
tours around the fort.
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 25<br />
REARDON continued from Pg. 21<br />
A band of respected, locally-bred<br />
musicians backed her up during the<br />
recording: guitar heroes Duke Levine<br />
and Kevin Barry, who are in the current<br />
J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf's band<br />
the Midnight Travelers; bassist Richard<br />
Gates, who's played with Paula Cole,<br />
Suzanne Vega and a who's who of folk<br />
artists; and drummer Marco Giovino,<br />
who was in Robert Plant's Band of Joy.<br />
How did Reardon end up in the<br />
recording studio with such heavyweights?<br />
She said Entress called unexpectedly and<br />
said "I have this band. Come on down."<br />
Their fee had been paid and the project<br />
completed, so she went in for a oneday<br />
session. "I liked how it sounded,"<br />
she said, so, thanks to the kickstarter<br />
campaign that raised money to make<br />
"Good," a year later she was able to bring<br />
Entress and the band back.<br />
The Handwritten Sessions tour in<br />
2017 was an epic road trip around the<br />
United Kingdom. She intentionally<br />
played only in people's living rooms<br />
and backyards. London-based Webb<br />
Street Studios documented the tour, and<br />
Reardon released a candid live video<br />
series and tour documentary.<br />
That tour led to her most recent EP,<br />
which was recorded in rural Vermont with<br />
longtime musical friend Ryan Hommel.<br />
She describes its five songs as "vivid story<br />
snapshots of people in my life." One song,<br />
"200 Years Old," is a standout. It's about<br />
her late grandmother, Rebecca Atkins of<br />
Marblehead, and her dementia.<br />
"I loved hearing her stories about<br />
getting all dolled up for YMCA teenage<br />
dances. My grandmother liked Patsy<br />
Cline, and would show up early to ask<br />
the DJ to play 'I Fall to Pieces,' which<br />
she played for me when I was about 10.<br />
I’ve always cherished that image of my<br />
young grandmother dressed to the nines<br />
in a big empty ballroom, arriving before<br />
everyone else just to request her favorite<br />
song," said Reardon.<br />
"Years later, I ended up helping to<br />
take care of her when she had severe<br />
dementia. … The only thing that would<br />
bring her back to the present was when<br />
I put on Patsy Cline. ... and for a second<br />
she was with us again.”<br />
She recorded a version of "America<br />
the Beautiful" last July, partly as a tribute<br />
to her grandfather Stan Atkins, who was<br />
a fire captain in Marblehead. He would<br />
sing patriotic songs with the Reardon<br />
girls after school.<br />
Reardon attended Belmont University<br />
in Nashville, the place to be for a rising<br />
musician who writes and performs<br />
her own<br />
songs. She<br />
continued<br />
to write,<br />
but didn't<br />
perform<br />
much. "There<br />
was so much<br />
opportunity<br />
there, I<br />
suffered a bit<br />
of paralysis,"<br />
she said.<br />
"Plus, I<br />
missed home.<br />
My creativity<br />
was reset at home." After two years, she<br />
transferred to Salem State, where she<br />
studied English and continued to write<br />
songs.<br />
She said her parents grew up in<br />
Marblehead, and there are a bunch of<br />
relatives in town.<br />
"I see Marblehead so differently now<br />
that I left and came back. People get<br />
behind you in Marblehead and support<br />
you. It's a very special place. … It's a big<br />
part of who I am.'"<br />
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26 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
Our Father<br />
Steele,<br />
who art in<br />
Westwood<br />
BY STEVE KRAUSE<br />
PHOTO: SPENSER HASAK<br />
How does a priest know if he's<br />
been effective in a parish?<br />
It's easy to look back on 14<br />
years at a church like Star of the Sea in<br />
Marblehead and come up with honest<br />
self-assessment. It's better, though, to<br />
hear it from others.<br />
Father Michael Steele is departing<br />
after 14 years as pastor of Star of the Sea<br />
Church. As of June, he'll be off to St.<br />
Margaret Mary's in Westwood, where<br />
part of his assignment will be to oversee<br />
the collaborative merger with St. Denis<br />
in the same town.<br />
Those who know him, and have<br />
worked with him, know Fr. Steele will do<br />
a fabulous job in Westwood.<br />
"This is a great opportunity for him,"<br />
said Ray McNulty, a member of the Star<br />
of the Sea parish council and a religious<br />
education teacher and lector. "He'll be<br />
great for that situation."<br />
Both McNulty and fellow parishioner<br />
Kate Daily speak highly of Fr. Steele's<br />
ability to relate to the youth of the parish.<br />
"I think he's fabulous with the children,"<br />
said Daily, a CCD teacher and eucharistic<br />
minister. "He brings an energy to the<br />
room ... I never really imagined being a<br />
CCD teacher and a minister, and all of a<br />
sudden, I was. It's been great."<br />
McNulty goes one better.<br />
"He dominates a room with the power<br />
of his personality," he said.<br />
Fr. Steele, 67, comes from an<br />
educational background, and both<br />
McNulty and Daily point to that as a<br />
stepping-off point for his effectiveness<br />
in the parish. Fr. Steele, before becoming<br />
pastor at St. Joseph's Parish in Wakefield<br />
26 years ago, was the superintendent<br />
for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese<br />
of Boston. And he's always made it his<br />
mission to nurture young people and their<br />
families as the backbone of the parish.<br />
"Pope Francis says that the youth and<br />
the family are the heart of every parish,"<br />
Fr. Steele said.<br />
To that end, the parish has a<br />
standing-room-only children's Mass at<br />
9 a.m. every Sunday that, according to<br />
McNulty, attracts Catholics from other<br />
communities.<br />
"There's often a homily aimed at the<br />
level of young people, and there may be<br />
a program — depending on the time of<br />
the year — where there may be a pageant<br />
around the altar. And there may be dialogue<br />
between the priest and young people."<br />
Fr. Steele says what spurs him on is<br />
"a zest for the gospel, and a calling for<br />
others to give reach to the gospel. I have<br />
a desire for family liturgy.<br />
"We have to ask ourselves 'how are we<br />
doing the work of God?' he said. "One<br />
thing I did when I came here was to
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 27<br />
make it a point to listen to what people<br />
had to say. It takes three years, I think,<br />
to take the direction you've identified as<br />
a goal. Before I came here, there were<br />
no goals or objectives written down. I've<br />
changed them three times since then.<br />
Goal-setting is so important."<br />
Fr. Steele takes a lot of pride in<br />
how he has restructured the Catholic<br />
education program in the parish, a source<br />
of accomplishment shared by those he<br />
works with in the parish.<br />
"There are more than 1,200 people in<br />
the program," McNulty said. And, said<br />
Daily, he's made a difference.<br />
"He's built a real sense of community,"<br />
she said. "There are so many things to do<br />
here, and he is willing to educate anyone<br />
who comes through the door. He'll take<br />
you any way you are. If you walk into<br />
Mass late, he'll welcome you."<br />
Fr. Steele, a 1968 Saugus High<br />
graduate, has had varied life and<br />
educational experiences. In 1969, he<br />
was among the many at the Woodstock<br />
rock festival in Bethel, N.Y. (he is<br />
quick to point out, however, that he<br />
refrained from partaking in the many<br />
"refreshments" the festival had to offer).<br />
He received degrees in philosophy<br />
and sociology from Merrimack College<br />
in 1972, and worked for a spell with<br />
the Department of Health, Education<br />
and Welfare in the Social Security<br />
department.<br />
He said he thought he might want to<br />
be a priest as he was leaving college, but<br />
a friend told him to experience life before<br />
making a decision. What changed his<br />
life, he said, was working with the poor<br />
in Appalachia.<br />
"You don't know how blessed you are<br />
until you see what life is like for some of<br />
those people."<br />
By the time he went into the<br />
seminary, he was sure. He had studied<br />
at both Northeastern and the Boston<br />
College School of Social Work, and<br />
received his Master's Degree in Divinity<br />
from St. John's Seminary in 1977 — the<br />
same year he was ordained by Cardinal<br />
Humberto Medeiros — and Pastoral<br />
Theology a year later.<br />
Even after being ordained, he continued<br />
studying — this time at the University of<br />
San Francisco Jesuit Graduate School to<br />
receive an advanced degree in religious<br />
education. He also attended the Institute<br />
of Catholic Educational Leadership, and<br />
the Sabbatical Program at the Pontifical<br />
North American College's Institute for<br />
Continuing Theological Education in<br />
Rome.<br />
His experience at Star of the Sea was<br />
not his first in the area. He served as<br />
a deacon at St. John the Evangelist in<br />
Swampscott, and remembers Msgr. John<br />
P. Carroll as a friend and mentor.<br />
While in Wakefield, Fr. Steele was on<br />
duty in 2001 when Michael McDermott<br />
burst into Edgewater Technology and<br />
killed five employees in a shooting spree.<br />
For his response and counsel to fellow<br />
employees and families of victims, he<br />
received the Sen. Paul Tsongas Award for<br />
Exemplary Community Service.<br />
Perhaps as a result of all his<br />
experiences, he's encouraged and<br />
motivated young people in his parish<br />
to commit to service. And, high school<br />
seniors who attend the religious<br />
education program, and who complete<br />
four years of service, will receive $1,000<br />
scholarships.<br />
He loves what he does, and where he's<br />
done it, but embraces the challenges the<br />
new assignment will bring.<br />
"I think there's always time for a<br />
change in parish community," he said.
28 | <strong>01945</strong><br />
1 2<br />
3<br />
Festival of Cod<br />
4 5<br />
1. Dawn Jenkins and the cod she created for the Marblehead Festival of Cod-VIP Launch party.<br />
2. From left, Pam Duncan, Jocelyne Poisson, Betty Spellios, Karen McManon,<br />
and Carol Moore look at some of the cods.<br />
3. Kiki Taron Kinney with the hand woven brass cod she created.<br />
4. Lis Horowitz and Pinar Gokce enjoy the cods on display.<br />
5. Ann Arata played bass in a trio at the party.<br />
PHOTOS: OWEN O'ROURKE
Rewriting<br />
history<br />
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE<br />
I<br />
nspired by the rich history of<br />
Marblehead and the roots of her<br />
ancestors, New York Times bestselling<br />
author Katherine Howe has penned<br />
another bewitching story.<br />
Howe grew up in Houston, but family<br />
roots led her to Marblehead as an adult.<br />
Being in the town and touching materials<br />
that existed when her ancestors were<br />
accused of witchcraft brought history to<br />
life for the writer.<br />
"One thing that makes Marblehead<br />
so special is that it's not a museum," said<br />
Howe. "It's a living, breathing colony<br />
that has always been there. The house I<br />
was living in was built in 1705. To think<br />
that someone's foot was on this same<br />
floorboard, who almost certainly saw the<br />
hangings happen because people went<br />
from miles around to see it — it was that<br />
kind of proximity that inspired me."<br />
Howe was a teenager when she<br />
learned of her relationship<br />
to Elizabeth Howe and<br />
Elizabeth Proctor, both<br />
accused of witchcraft<br />
during the Salem<br />
Witch Trials in<br />
1692.<br />
It wasn't until<br />
after Howe wrote<br />
"The Physick Book<br />
of Deliverance<br />
Dane" that she<br />
learned she was<br />
also related to the<br />
woman on whom<br />
she chose to base<br />
the main character<br />
of her story.<br />
"I found out<br />
on a fluke," said<br />
Howe. "I was<br />
messing around<br />
on Ancestry(.com)<br />
a couple of years<br />
ago and found<br />
that Deliverance<br />
Dane, the woman<br />
who I wrote my<br />
book about, was<br />
my eighth greatgrandmother."<br />
Howe chose<br />
Dane as her main character because, in<br />
real life, she played a marginal role in<br />
the witch trials. She wanted the freedom<br />
to create a more fictionalized character<br />
without readers already having a mental<br />
image attached to who she was. It<br />
didn't hurt that she found Dane's name<br />
striking.<br />
Howe describes her preferred genre<br />
as "historical fiction with a slight magic<br />
twist."<br />
She received the 2016 Massachusetts<br />
Book Award for Children's Middle-<br />
Grade/Young Adult Literature for The<br />
Massachusetts Center for the Book.<br />
The award is given for books published<br />
by commonwealth residents or on<br />
Massachusetts subjects.<br />
Howe won the award for her young<br />
adult novel "Conversion," published by<br />
Penguin Books. It's a story about a senior<br />
at an all-girl preparatory high school,<br />
where students are under many pressures.<br />
The girl, Colleen, becomes<br />
unexplainably ill with a mysterious<br />
illness, only for her close group of<br />
friends to follow suit. The girls suffer<br />
from seizures, violent coughing, and hair<br />
loss.<br />
Colleen realizes that Danvers, where<br />
the story takes place, was once Salem<br />
Village, where three centuries ago a<br />
group of girls exhibited bizarre behavior<br />
and were accused of and executed for<br />
witchcraft.<br />
The town searches for an explanation.<br />
Everything from pollution to stress is<br />
considered until the realization is made<br />
that the girls are suffering from a hysteria<br />
outbreak.<br />
Howe, who was living in Ithaca,<br />
N.Y., at the time she wrote the novel,<br />
was fascinated by the idea of mass<br />
psychogenic illness as she watched<br />
the number of girls suffering from<br />
nonepileptic seizures and other sudden<br />
ailments grow.<br />
Similar instances occurred in North<br />
Carolina in 2002 and in Monroe, La.,<br />
half a century earlier, according to The<br />
New York Times.<br />
"It was all over the news," said Howe.<br />
"This looks exactly like what happened<br />
with the afflicted girls in Salem. What is<br />
it about being a teenage girl today that is<br />
so intense and crazy that (it) makes you<br />
physically sick?"<br />
Howe will release "The Daughters of<br />
Temperance Hobbs," a novel that returns<br />
to the world of "The Physick Book of<br />
Deliverance Dane," on June 25.<br />
All of her books are either available in<br />
store or to be ordered from the Spirit of<br />
'76 Bookstore.<br />
Howe has appeared on Good<br />
Morning America, CBS This Morning,<br />
NPR's "Weekend Edition," the BBC,<br />
and the History Channel. In 2012, she<br />
hosted the Expedition Week special<br />
"Salem: Unmasking the Devil" for<br />
National Geographic.<br />
Howe and her husband Louis Hyman<br />
share their time between Massachusetts<br />
and New York, visiting their historic<br />
home by the sea on summer vacations<br />
and holidays.<br />
"I just can't give up Marblehead,"<br />
said Howe.
SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | 31<br />
Pickleball<br />
The fastest-growing sport you've never heard of<br />
BY BILL BROTHERTON<br />
The day is warm and sunny, and a<br />
group of pickleball players, many from<br />
Marblehead, are swatting around yellow,<br />
hard-plastic, Wiffle-like balls on the four<br />
courts at Collins Cove in Salem.<br />
What is pickleball, you ask? It's only<br />
the fastest growing sport in the United<br />
States for men and women age 50 and<br />
older. And a group of Marblehead<br />
pickleball enthusiasts are raising funds<br />
to build six first-class courts at Veterans<br />
Middle School.<br />
Joe McKane, a leader of Marblehead<br />
Pickleball, the group working toward<br />
building the Marblehead courts, said he<br />
and his fellow players are here at Collins<br />
Cove most weekdays from 1 to 3 p.m. "if<br />
the weather is decent, not raining, and<br />
temps are above 50 degrees."<br />
He's hopeful Marblehead will have its<br />
own courts by early fall. More than 100<br />
donors have ponied up $34,000, he said,<br />
and bids have gone out to contractors.<br />
The construction cost will be about<br />
$55,000, and the courts will be open to<br />
all, not only Marblehead residents.<br />
Other committee members include Pat<br />
Bibbo, Bucky Grader, and Bryce Suydam.<br />
McKane, keeping an eye on the courts<br />
while we chat, said he picked up the<br />
game during winters spent in Naples, Fla.<br />
A tennis player can do well at the game<br />
in a couple of outings, he said.<br />
"I've been an athlete my whole<br />
life. Pickleball is a great, fun game. It's<br />
challenging and competitive. And everyone<br />
here is fun to be with," McKane said.<br />
Bryce and Ghillie Suydam of<br />
Marblehead have been active players<br />
for some three years, starting while<br />
wintering in Naples. "Pickleball is easy to<br />
get proficient at, but difficult to get really<br />
good at," said Bryce. "Ghillie and I really<br />
enjoy it."<br />
They were two of the 4,000 players<br />
who battled it out in the US Open<br />
Pickleball Championship, which is held<br />
in East Naples, Fla. each year. Amazingly,<br />
PHOTO: OWEN O'ROURKE<br />
Ghillie Suydam and Bryce Suydam playing pickleball at the Collins Cove courts in Salem.<br />
the tournament was started by Jim<br />
Ludwig, a St. Mary's High grad and<br />
Lynn native who is executive director of<br />
Pickleball For All.<br />
Wendy Furman, taking a short break<br />
after a lively game at Collins Cove,<br />
said "Pickleball is wonderful. You get<br />
exercise and it's competitive." She picked<br />
it up in Delray Beach, Fla., and said<br />
new residential developments there are<br />
pushing for pickleball courts.<br />
Kathy Walsh of Salem joined the<br />
Marblehead group this day. "I'm a<br />
beginner," she said. "It's a good workout and<br />
I've met some nice, new people. And I'm<br />
hitting the ball more often than before."<br />
Ron Landman, retired principal of<br />
Swampscott Middle School, said he got<br />
hooked about three years ago. "It's windy<br />
here, right on the water, but it's a perfect<br />
day. It's always a perfect day when you<br />
can play pickleball with friends."<br />
Rick Haigis of the USA Pickleball<br />
Association is Salem's pickleball<br />
ambassador. Don't laugh. He's a busy<br />
fellow; these courts are seldom empty.<br />
Today, he's joined this Marblehead group.<br />
Haigis said Salem Mayor Kimberly<br />
Driscoll, wooden paddle in hand, can be<br />
found battling it out here most Sunday<br />
mornings. Two years ago, a tennis court<br />
in terrible disrepair was replaced with<br />
these green, lined courts.<br />
The game's rules are posted on the<br />
USA Pickleball Association’s website, but<br />
I'll save you a visit to Google. The game,<br />
supposedly invented in the mid 1960s<br />
as a children's backyard game, combines<br />
elements of badminton, tennis, and table<br />
tennis. Played on a court about half the<br />
size of a tennis court, lending itself to<br />
faster action and quicker access to the<br />
ball, pickleball is played by two singles or<br />
teams of two players each. They compete<br />
to score 11 points and must win by two.<br />
The ball is served with an underarm<br />
stroke so that contact with the ball is<br />
made below waist level. A game typically<br />
takes 15 or 20 minutes.<br />
In Marblehead there are indoor courts<br />
at the Council on Aging, the Lynch<br />
Van Otterloo YMCA and the Jewish<br />
Community Center of the North Shore.<br />
Pickleball courts are also available in<br />
Lynn, Peabody, and Beverly.<br />
Marblehead's Recreation and Parks<br />
Department has been incredibly helpful, said<br />
McKane, and will make a major donation.<br />
Gear is for sale on the group's website<br />
with proceeds going toward building the<br />
courts. Donations may be made at www.<br />
marbleheadpickleball.org.
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