Recent Dean Shalhoup Columns

Tradition of Greek Food Fest a savory delight

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, May 19, 2012

It was a truly amazing sight. With more than a thousand pounds, and literally thousands of ample helpings, of some of the region’s finest Greek …

Coast Guard honor made even more special through family ties

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, May 5, 2012

Jayme Reed is a woman of few words, especially when it comes to talking about herself. She’d much rather a conversation revolve around her family …

Local pizza icon’s passing conjures warm memories

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, April 28, 2012

Unless you were looking for trees or big farms, there wasn’t much way out there in the sticks. Indeed, as any old-time local can tell …

Titanic, up close and personal for local diver

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, April 14, 2012

Dave Christensen had me on the edge of my seat, hanging on his every word. We were on a rare journey to one of Earth’s …

Liamos Brothers Market has history of bustling on Easter

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, April 7, 2012

Easter couldn’t compare to Christmas for early-morning bounty, of course, but there was something really neat about devouring jelly beans and breaking off a solid …

Friends remember courageous woman

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, March 31, 2012

If any sense of regret, discomfort or guilt lingered in Concord’s historic South Congregational Church on Friday afternoon, the Rev. Jared A. Rardin banished all …

In fight against cancer, Nashua’s Dwane inspires others

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, March 24, 2012

If cancer was a being that could sense emotions, it would hate people like Sharon Dwane. Quick to credit family, friends and faith for picking …

Take an online cruise down memory lane

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, March 17, 2012

While poking around in granny’s attic the other day, you spotted an old postcard and blew off the dust in hopes of making out the …

Nashua ‘lawn guy’ was a true World War II flying hero

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, March 3, 2012

Of all the “lawn guys” in these parts – you know, those of us who hate (read: can’t play) golf, who eschew a day at …

Back home again in beloved Gate City

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, February 18, 2012

To say “I’m back” would imply I left at some point, which, of course, we avowed ink-stained-come-carpal-tunnel-stricken lifers just don’t do. Whether we can or …

Finding the answer 4 decades later

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, February 11, 2012

Finally, 40 years later, it all makes sense. Back then, all that we purple-bleeding Panthers from perennial interscholastic powerhouse Nashua High School saw were two …

Giants used to be New England’s team by default

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, February 4, 2012

It’s bad enough so many of them still hold dear – and even boast of – their fathers’ and grandfathers’ ancient allegiances. But did they …

12th Granite State Groundhog Gathering planned for Feb. 2 in Nashua

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, January 28, 2012

A dozen years? Really? It seems like just yesterday a small troupe of us self-proclaimed hearty New Hampshire types, weened on ferocious winters that lasted …

Nashua man works polls for 60 years

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, January 14, 2012

An unseasonably warm rain pelted the region for the second day in a row on that early November Tuesday, but nary a spirit was dampened …

Hudson trucker’s life turns upside down in an instant

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, January 7, 2012

Bob Beauregard knows roads. From broad, multilane superhighways to two-lane bypasses, merge-clogged urban beltways to rural, winding ribbons, they’re his bread and butter, his livelihood, …

Santa Fund turns 50

Dean Shalhoup | Sunday, December 25, 2011

The date Dec. 7 lives, especially for Americans, in infamy, its annual observances heavy still today with a sense of disbelief for its utter suddenness …

Pearl Harbor attack stirred a wide range of Nashua area emotions

Dean Shalhoup | Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Ralph Dirubbo had made the trip from his native Milford to Haverhill, Mass., earlier in the day for a Sunday visit with his aunt, something …

Boston television pioneer spent last years in Nashua

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, December 3, 2011

Growing up in baby boomer-era Boston, twins Wayne and Lynne Saya naturally watched a lot of Rex Trailer, Big Brother Bob Emery and other locally …

Nashua band to make music for Telegraph Santa Fund

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, November 26, 2011

What could be more fun than rocking to the timeless classics of the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and (for the mellower among us) Moody …

Nashua’s Winter Holiday Stroll has new image

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, November 19, 2011

Victor Lemay and Tracy Wampler are planning to create quite a scene – two scenes, actually – right in the middle of the 18th annual …

Hardy local folks simply carry on

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, November 5, 2011

After a couple of days, it became almost as grating as its summertime cousin: “Hey, fella, hot enough for ya?” Indeed, I think it was …

Nashua author takes fresh look at beloved city

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, October 22, 2011

Do we have room on our coffee tables for yet another entry in what has become a pretty impressive string of compilations shining light on …

Harbor Homes to honor mental health advocate

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, October 15, 2011

Betty Winberg was never an architect or building contractor, but she knows better than most the vast difference between a house and a home. It …

October: A time to honor Nashua’s fallen firefighters

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, October 8, 2011

Summer has always been my favorite season, although I can hardly remember the days it came with an extra-special bonus: 10 or so leisurely weeks …

Cofounder of Leda Lanes in Nashua remembered

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, September 24, 2011

Every morning for years, Ray Simoneau began his day by opening the newspaper and scanning the local obituaries. While not an uncommon ritual for many …

Nashua’s Anderson Chapel makeover brings back fond memories of teenage summers

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, September 17, 2011

It might not sound like it, but the two or three times each summer we arrived at 8 a.m. sharp and heard those magic words, …

Tribute paid with “100 Nights of Remembrance”

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, September 10, 2011

in this series Sunday: Touched by tragedy Work continues for the Ogonowski family Remembering Dad in Merrimack tuesday: Security at home A look at NH’s …

Day to celebrate American worker

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, September 3, 2011

This was never intended as a political column, nor a forum in which to grind partisan axes. That said, I’ll graciously heed my self-imposed parameters …

New England hurricanes have been memorable

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, August 27, 2011

Glancing outside as I write this Thursday afternoon, I see a cover of dark-blue clouds, occasional showers and just a hint of a breeze. I …

Celebrating a Nashua man’s life that was too short

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, August 6, 2011

Naomi Moody shoved aside the shock and grief almost as quickly as they struck her that Friday evening 13 Augusts ago. After all, there was …

Reunion evokes memories of Benson’s

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, July 30, 2011

If you had a choice, would you rather be chosen the “prettiest boy” or the “heaviest girl” from 50 or so of your peers? Either …

A heat wave for the ages

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, July 23, 2011

Besides trying to devise clever, and cheap, ways to cope when hit by weather extremes like this grody hot spell, one thing we always seem …

Group pulls together to honor friend

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, July 16, 2011

Of all the little foibles that help make us the mere mortal humans we are, it’s a good bet our uncanny ability to get lost …

Delivering milk was Ideal business

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, July 9, 2011

Until someone finally set me straight many moons ago, I’d argued more than a few times that milk, at least in our neighborhood, had nothing …

Heat wave overtook city 100 years ago

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, July 2, 2011

Remember the old Hill Street Blues episode when, in the middle of a heat wave, shabby but lovable detective Mick Belker plopped a recurring perp …

Local woman has seen medical metamorphosis during 50-year career

Dean Shalhoup | Monday, June 20, 2011

Not yet 18 and just a couple months out of high school, the green-eyed girl whose favorite expression was “wunnerful, wunnerful” suddenly found herself in …

Nashua couple still happy 7 decades after ‘I do’

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, June 18, 2011

Good fences make good neighbors, they say. Apparently, they can even help make good marriages. But building, selling and installing good fences for most of …

Nashua firefighters rally for commissioner

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, June 11, 2011

I’ve got it pretty rough, you know. I mean, really, what could be worse than coming home from an extended vacation and finding a dirty, …

Minding manors leads to recognition

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, June 4, 2011

Looking bright and spiffy, and standing as proudly as ever in the midday sun, the venerable inner-city landmark almost seemed to smile as a bunch …

Fateful flight for Nashua airman

Dean Shalhoup | Saturday, May 28, 2011

To this day, Frank Mancuso hasn’t a clue where he went that September morning so long ago. All he knew then, and all he knows …