Dot Day
Early on in the Covid-19 emergency, we wondered what would become of 2020 Dorchester Day celebrations. If the timing had worked out better, it could have been an opportunity for a massive celebration, a release of pent-up energy, and a chance to revel in each other’s company once again.
Alas, it’s not to be. The Dorchester Day Parade — which was to be held this Sunday, June 7— was cancelled weeks ago.
It was the right call. Dot Day 2020 won’t be the same without the parade. But that doesn’t mean we won’t observe the day in other ways.
Every year, the Reporter – by custom – publishes a special Dorchester Day section the Thursday before the parade that very much strikes an upbeat note. This year, despite the troubling news that’s happening here and across the nation, we want to lift each other up by celebrating the diverse community that we all love with a commemorative special section.
Happy Dot Day everyone.
- Bill Forry, Editor
Like you, Marty Walsh is going to miss this year’s Dot Day Parade. Your mayor and neighbor has been hitting the streets on parade day and the backyard barbeques that follow since he was a kid growing up on Taft Street.
“I’ve marched in the parade pretty... Read more
Editor's note: Dorchester Day is traditionally observed on the first Sunday in June. However, the 2020 Dorchester Day Parade was cancelled due to the COVID-19 health emergency. In the spirit of safely celebrating Dorchester Day this weekend, this week's... Read more
I was so pleased to be asked by Bill Forry to come out of retirement to write a column for the Dorchester Day edition of the Dorchester Reporter. I have one great change to my column writing process, though. Because I now have macular degeneration,... Read more
This is a love letter to my person, whom I found on a train platform in Dorchester when I was 16 years old.
I lived on East Cottage Street in a large yellow three-decker that is hard to miss. My high school – the now-closed Elizabeth Seton Academy – was... Read more
I’ve never managed to get the hang of crowds.
This is not an ideal thing for a reporter to struggle with. I’ve had to cover rallies, games, marches and parades, of varying intensity and size, from Boston to Worcester. The bigger the crowd, the more my... Read more
About a month into law school, my property law classmates had a pretty clear sense of two of my priorities: I’m obsessed with three-decker houses and I’m the resident Dorchester booster.
Two years ago, I sat in a crowded All Saints Parish church and... Read more
At the farther end of life, my 78th year, I’m regularly prompted to cast my mind back to the long ago. Most often, it’s a name or place cited in the local news that triggers remembrances of family, friends, and associations from my boyhood time in... Read more
The cancellation of next Sunday’s Dorchester Day parade brings with it a special disappointment for one of the community’s favorite leaders, 93-year-old Louis Pasquale, who had been named the chief marshal of this year’s march down the avenue.
A fixture... Read more
“Growing up in Dorchester has to be like growing up no place else on earth. Although some of the old gang has moved to other cities and other states, no one ever really leaves. Because no matter how much time and distance we put between ourselves and... Read more
