A brilliant, warm, sunny Labor Day 2023 pins a fitting end to the summer

Revere Beach early afternoon, Labor Day 2023. (Photo by Joe Resnek)

By Josh Resnek

The rainiest summer since 1872 came to an end on Labor Day 2023 in a crush of warmth and sunshine.

The temperature soared into the 80’s, and read 88 degrees at 1:28 pm on September 4 on the electronic time and temperature sign that flashes in front of Everett High School.

Glendale Park was a wide open green space absent of people at that time during a ride around the city.

The bus to Malden stops for passengers on Broadway Monday afternoon.

Everett Square appeared mostly deserted in the heat of the early afternoon except for traffic winding its way up and down Broadway and T busses picking up and letting off passengers.

In many, many ways, Labor Day in Everett found the neighborhoods in this city quiet and uneventful, peaceful, in fact.

From North Everett to the Santilli Circle, from the Chelsea line to the Malden border, most of the parks were empty and the side streets mostly free of thick traffic.

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Labor Day Dark And Dreary

A Holiday Is Cancelled Out By Badly Needed Rain

No sun, no water, no swimmers at Allied Veterans Memorial Pool. (Photo by Joe Resnek)

By Josh Resnek

A tour of Everett’s neighborhoods on Labor Day, 2022 revealed a city without outdoor activities, nearly everything planned for cancelled on a day meant to mark the end of summer.

What happened to the sun and the heat when it was expected and desired?

Instead, the city appeared to be painted with a dull gray patina. Everything was gray.

The streets were gray.

Buildings were gray. The sky was gray. Cement sidewalks were gray. Whether you are old or young, you were gray on this day meant for outdoor fun.

The city so robust and alive with a plethora of activities the day before under brilliant sunlight, was unusually empty and subdued in appearance and utterly quiet and damp in the rain.

Everett gray in the rain was a bit like the city of London that Charles Dickens described hidden in the fog in his famous novel, “Bleak House.”

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