It’s finally here, and to everyone that grew up in East Somerville – especially in the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s – The First East Somerville Reunion will be this Saturday evening at the Somerville City Club. The event is free to all including the food, which was taken care of by sponsors of the event. The time is 7–11 p.m. What a great way to celebrate a special community like East Somerville, and if you grew up there or lived there you’d know exactly what we are talking about. From Foss Park to Sullivan Square, Lower Broadway, both the Avenues and “the other side” – what a great way to celebrate your youth with others who grew up in this small community. Again, the event is free and no reservations are required. Come enjoy yourself and meet and greet old friends and make new ones, over 100 coming. By the way, City Club is directly across the street from the Holiday Inn, Lower Washington Street and Inner belt Road.

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Happy Birthday this week to several fans and Villens here and around Somerville. A Happy Birthday this week to Paul Gaspar who grew up here and has his own real estate appraisal business. Mary Walker, too, who is well known to many here in Somerville. She grew up and worked here and is still here in the Ville. We wish her the very best.   Another lifelong resident, Michael Terrio, is celebrating his birthday this week as well. Somerville police officer and good guy Mike Wyatt, who also plays a mean bagpipe for the Greater Boston Firefighters Pipes and Drums, also celebrates. We salute Mike and his service to our community. And finally, to one of Somerville’s finest men, who has given so much to our community we salute and say Happy Birthday to former Mayor Eugene C. Brune, who is celebrating this week. We off course wish him the very best and many more years.

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Our condolences go out to the family and friends of John Ercolini. John is originally from Somerville and later to Stoneham. He will be waked at Doherty’s Funeral Home today, Wednesday, 4-8 p.m.

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We here at The Somerville Times will be placing an additional 10 boxes on top of the existing 20 something boxes throughout the city. And we will be redoing our distribution list so that we are more widely and evenly distributed throughout the city. With over 12K print readers, nearly 6K on Facebook and hundreds on Twitter, not to mention an average of 1200 to 1500 a day on our web site, we clearly are the true community newspaper of choice.

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We just had to say something about one of our advertisers: The Mount Vernon Restaurant has a fantastic 2-lobster dinner sale going on for only $16.99 for two, with the coupon inside our paper these next few weeks. Our publisher Ross Blouin and his wife Diane recently had a fantastic lobster dinner and highly recommend it. A great meal and an awesome place. If you haven’t been in a awhile we suggest you try it out again, and don’t forget to clip the coupon here in The Times and mention you saw it here.

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Somerville police are using undercover cross walkers to set up questionable traps at crosswalks throughout the city. The undercover just walks back and forth in the crosswalk all day long, while the unit pulls over the unsuspecting “criminals” to issue a citation. You can go online and watch a video of our Police Department entrapping people, courtesy of www.thefreethoughtproject.com. This is going on under the present head of the Police Department. We thought it was interesting, what do you think? Is this really protecting and serving? Let us know by posting your comments on our website. Wonder how much revenue the city takes in from this? So many questions, not enough space! What will they think of next?

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Congratulations to one of our oldest homes here in Somerville. This year is the 300th anniversary of the Oliver Tufts home at 78 Sycamore Street. The house is now a four unit condominium, which is a far cry from when George Washington slept there back when General Lee own the property. You can read more regarding General Lee and the Somerville connection and his property here in this week’s The Somerville Times under our own Bob Doherty’s column Eagle Feathers.

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Talk about time and how it stands still. Well, this past week one of our staffers here, and an old timer, ran into someone at Market Basket, and when they saw each other instantly recognized and remembered one another. They stood and talked a long time about themselves and what has happened to Somerville over the years. January 1963, Central Hospital, a car accident and a nurse who was so unbelievably great at her job, Ms. Ann Moran of Washington Street hasn’t changed a bit. We just want to give a shout out to Ms. Moran. She was and still is a nurse, and what a wonderful personality and memory she has. Best of all, you can tell by her voice she’s a very caring person. We’re sure Ann has touched the lives of many here in Somerville over the years. We just thought you’d like to know that she still lives here in Somerville, in the same house her family owned for many years. And guess what? She loves reading The Somerville Times so we just had to say something.

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Our own Cam Toner is on the road to recovery, still back and forth with the hospital for treatments. She has such a wonderful family. She has so many positive people behind her, we know she will be back in shape and helping out at the office again real soon. Many have asked about Patti Norton and she’s doing fine. She’s till having problems but she has the strong support of her husband and many friends. Both ladies receive cards and letters from many wishing them both well, and hoping they are on the road to recovery.

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We still haven’t found out anything on the name of Sylvester Baxter Park at Assembly Square, other than he worked sometime for the state and had no connection to Somerville whatsoever. We did learn that at one time there was a marker/sign using the name of Sylvester Baxter Park that used to mention “The Blessing of The Bay,” now we can’t find that either. Shouldn’t the city have something to say about the name of the park? There are enough deserving elders here in the city that it could have been named after.

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Best deal in town for “Drivers Ed” — Somerville High Adult Evening course is offering its Summer Session 10 days: Monday – Thursday beginning July 14,15,16,17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28 and 29. From 9 to 12 noon. In person registration beings Thursday, July 10 from 10 to 12 noon at Somerville High School Main Office. Or make check out for $50 to: Somerville Adult Evening School (be sure to include student’s name and mark in the bottom left corner of the check “Drivers Ed”), and leave in SHS Main Office to be placed in Night School Mailbox. Even in summer both Sophia and Scott are working hard, two great teachers here in Somerville and one great team at the Evening School.

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Our good friend Jimmy Ribeiro is in MGH Kidney Dialysis. He’s doing well, we hear, and hopefully will be home by the time you’re reading this. We wondered why he didn’t have a cookout over the 4th weekend. Now we know! His better half Karen probably had a peaceful weekend with their dog. Jim’s a good guy and has friends all over the place. Another Somerville good guy. Get well and out of there.