Come on, who doesn’t? The folks who come and want to stay. The folks who stay and greet the day saying, not “hi, how are you?” but, “hi, aren’t we lucky?” The ones who were born here, who stand back nodding.

It was October 29, 2023, 6pm, one night after the full moon. It was an unbelievable 67 degrees. The faces were like those old-timey images of really happy people — broad grins — happy from the inside out. Faces shining in the moonlight, eyes glittering, they looked from Hunter’s Moon to the world’s perfect bonfire. Children running hither and tither, not one holding an adult hand. The whole looking like, as Stockbridge so often does, a Rockwell image. It was Halloween in Stockbridge.

Why so happy? It’s the simple things that make Stockbridge. The safely milling in the dark. A village gathered on the Green. People who know one another, and if not, happy to get to know each other. The low-cost, low intensity, low decibel fun!!

I remember every step (no kidding) of the first time I walked Ice Glen on Halloween. The torches, the declines into crevasses, the scramble up and over rocks. I wore the wrong shoes, (who could have imagined Ice Glen) but no matter, hands reached out from dark perches catching us and holding us steady — Arthur Dutil, Rick Wilcox, Norm Charbonneau.

I was so looking forward to the return of the event, and yet all the way down from The Hill, I was anxious — where would we be able to park?

Silly. Stockbridge was prepared. Easy as pie, nose in on the grass off the Park Street pavement. When in Stockbridge, so much of the anxiety of urban strategy sloughs off and the fun begins.

Now the commercial break: the underpinning of all this — the secret of Stockbridge — is low density. With low density, Stockbridge has open space. 

Depends on where you live: in some places Job One is change and progress; here Job One is to preserve and protect the magic we have. The technique is do less — allow less. Even if what you are promoting is something that sounds good — resist. Wherever you came from, let’s join hands and protect Stockbridge together.