Here are this month’s mystery people from photos developed but never picked up at the Hopedale Pharmacy. Thanks again to Amy Burns for them. I’m expecting someone will come up with names for this family. It appears that they lived at 58 Bancroft Park, and went to Sacred Heart Church. Please email me ([email protected]) if you know who they are.
The signs on the Community House lawn honor military veterans. It is a joint-project of the Community House and the Senior Center, funded by the Community House.
HOPEDALE — Caroline Frankel made history when she opened the first woman-owned recreational cannabis shop in Massachusetts. Now she’s opened her second.
Caroline’s Cannabis has opened at 4 Charlesview Road, less than three years after the first store opened in Uxbridge. While the first store contains about 600 square feet of retail space, the Hopedale store is more than twice that, at about 1,500 square feet.
Frankel said she may be the first social equity applicant with the state’s Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) to open two retail stores.
“They really embraced us through the entire build-out,” she said of Hopedale officials. The store’s first customer was Select Board Chair Brian Keyes, according to Frankel’s husband, Steve, who works at the store.
In 2019, Frankel became the first woman to open a recreational cannabis shop in Massachusetts when she opened in Uxbridge. She said that location still sees about 500 customers a day.
“I have people driving from the Boston area to come here to shop at our stores,” Frankel said.
Caroline’s Cannabis is the second cannabis business to open in Hopedale. The first — High Hopes — opened in August at Hopedale Airport Industrial & Business Park.
More: Hopedale’s first marijuana dispensary has High Hopes for its opening
Frankel said she is currently seeing about 200 customers a day in Hopedale.
“I have people driving from the Boston area to come here to shop at our stores,” Frankel said.
Caroline’s Cannabis is the second cannabis business to open in Hopedale. The first — High Hopes — opened in August at Hopedale Airport Industrial & Business Park.
More: Hopedale’s first marijuana dispensary has High Hopes for its opening
Frankel said she is currently seeing about 200 customers a day in Hopedale.
When Caroline’s Cannabis opened its Uxbridge store, it was the 11th dispensary to open in Massachusetts; the Hopedale store is about the 175th, said Steve Frankel. He said that number could soon reach 300.
More: A fourth location pitched by Green River Cannabis gets support from Hopedale selectmen
More: Two marijuana dispensaries proposed in Mendon
Among with the usual products sold at cannabis dispensaries — flower, vape cartridges and concentrates — Caroline’s Cannabis offers edibles like infused ice cream from Framingham-based Cloud Creamery.
.HOPEDALE — Dressed in his 40-year-old uniform, retired U.S. Army Col. Francis Larkin spoke to honor two of the same men he does every year during the town’s annual Veterans Day ceremony — Larry Heron and Dick Griffin.
“(Heron) was magnificent, terribly wounded in action and carried on for another 16 years,” said Larkin, 89.
Heron, who like Larkin attended St. Mary’s High School in Milford, lost his eyesight after getting wounded in battle during World War II, and had to undergo more than 30 skin graft operations to restore his features.
In 1945, Chapter No. 6 of Disabled American Veterans of Milford was dedicated to Heron, while he was in the audience.
Cpl. Richard J. Griffin died aboard a hospital ship in 1951 after receiving shrapnel wounds in battle. Today, he is still remembered as the only Hopedale resident killed in action in Korea.
“He was a great basketball player; I was not,” said Larkin, a Vietnam War veteranand former Milford District Court Judge and town moderator.
On Wednesday morning, Larkin briefly spoke of his fellow veterans during a quaint Veterans Day ceremony on the Hopedale Community House lawn. The ceremony at 43 Hope St. was attended by about a dozen veterans, including Hopedale resident Henry Lessard, a World War II veteran who turns 100 on Nov. 20.
More than a dozen other onlookers joined the gathering to hear the names of living and deceased veterans called, and to see about 100 signs with veterans’ names lining the sidewalks. More signs will likely be added, said Hopedale Veterans Agent Pat Morris.
“As time goes on, I’m sure we’ll fill most of the lawn here with names,” he said, as several people reached out to him after the signs went up to inquire about getting one themselves.
While the deadline was last month, Morris said people can still request a sign from the Senior Center. While there is no charge to obtain a sign for a living veteran, it costs $16 to honor a deceased one.
Select Board Member Glenda Hazard read more than a dozen names of living Hopedale veterans and Council on Aging board member David Guglielmi read the names of more than a dozen deceased ones, including his own father and Hazard’s father. With every name, a steel triangle was struck.
Josh Tavares, legislative aide for state Sen. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, read a statement about the importance of the federal holiday and honoring veterans, both living and deceased.
“These men and women were ordinary people until they heard the call of duty and promptly answered it, many of whom left their families, their homes and their lives. None of this for recognition or fame, or even the honor bestowed upon them today,” said Tavares. “As the brother of a helicopter Army pilot who will soon be deployed, Sen. Fattman understands the gravity of having a loved one answer to the call of duty.”
Other local veterans who participated in the ceremony included Steven Petak, commander of VFW Post 1544 Milford and a Vietnam veteran who led the pledge of allegiance, and Vietnam veteran Bernie Stock, who recited the poem “I am a Veteran” by Andrea Brett.
Echo Taps were performed by Hopedale High School students Adelaide Greenwald and Cameron Cassidy.
Hearing our veterans: ‘I learned from an Afghanistan War veteran’: Middle school students hear from veterans
Click on the photo to go to a petition asking that the Select Board act to purchase the land bordering the Parklands to protect Hopedale’s water.
Click here to go to a page of West Street land FAQs.
Click here to see a drone view of tree cutting that has been done on the property.
A little snow fell on the evening of November 26. No need for the snowblower just yet, though
