A small bevy of extraordinary events last weekend helped to magnify the image of Charlestown as a strong neighborhood.
The rededication of Peter Looney Park was a perfect example of a community in sync with the needs of its kids, its parents and the many, many friends of a former leader who left us much too early when he died last year.
There was no sadness at the clean-up and celebration at Peter Looney Park.
It was all about fun and games, food and puppets, tatoos and face painting. And it was also about cleaning up the park and paying attention to its well-being.
Then came the Charlestown Appreciation Night, officially called the Peter Looney Charlestown Appreciation Awards Event.
It was the 21st such celebration with more than 300 in attendance and 9 awards given out to those who deserved them.
And then there was the baseball parade, an homage to kids baseball, to the American spring, to Charlestown’s piece of American apple pie.
Large crowds attended all three events.
All three events are the type that tend to bind a community together in the right way.
There was a camaraderie alive in Charlestown last weekend.
There was the need to remember Peter Looney, one of the best to have led good and righteous causes in this community for decades and there was the need to celebrate and to enjoy and have fun among many, many Charlestown people from all walks of life.
Life in Charlestown is far from perfect.
However, last weekend’s full slate of public activities gave rise to the collective belief that this community has something very nice going.
And it is going strong.