The Goddard rocket site is in Auburn. Between affordability and things to do, I prefer Springfield - I like the MGM cinema and the food court, plus they’ve got the big E, Basketball hall of fame and Six Flags right around the corner in Agawam. The only notably unique things Worcester has that Springfield doesn’t is the Woo Sox and direct train access to Boston, and honestly the commuter rail isn’t the greatest.

Tower Hill Botanical Garden.

Wait what?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John%27s_High_School_(Massachusetts)

"In July 2019, a report compiled by a former FBI agent accused 6 former Xaverian Brothers of sexually abusing underage school children."

Holy shit dude...

Fluff Edit: Valentines Day Cards

If you're up for a short drive, New City Micro creamery in Hudson for amazing ice cream and Fattoush in Northborough for middle eastern food. Also Island Fin Poke just off of Park ave is to this date the best poke I've had so far

Barbed wire?

Smiley faced snoo with a valentine in one hand and a monkey wrench in the other

Worcester: New England's Warehouse

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Have you seen the house prices, interest rates, cost of material, labor rates for trade services? All of this has a direct impact on “market prices”. Landlords barely break even or have a small amount of positive cash flow when you add up all the bills. Supply and demand is the issue - not enough housing and too many people. The problem isn’t the landlords it’s the market and market conditions that drive price. Common sense.

Worcester is the home of the Smiley Face 🙂

A heart, since we are "the heart of the commonwealth" . Not sure if this is because of the central location, or the invention of commercially produced Valentine's day cards.

Birth control and Harvey Ball. ….no clue how you’d affix that to a Reddit icon.

Worcester: A convenient place for New Englanders to arrange their sales goods for shipping to Boston and Providence since 1848!

There’s a visit with Santa at Stearns Tavern, 12/21 from 11am to 1pm. No admission charge.

Some Brothers were still there as late as the 00s when I attended. Rarely saw them though, you would've thought they didn't live there.

Ugh say it louder. I swear, people really get stupidly defensive over shit cuz they can't think beyond "it didn't happen to me" or "I never heard of that."

Well the world doesn't revolve around you, jerkasses.

Personally, I never really heard much about such things when I attended. But as time has gone by, I've heard more and more...

I dunno how many of you remember this, but few years ago, they sent this mass letter about accusations of one Brother who was there for years. It was SUCH a PR letter, emphasizing how it was long ago, he's no longer there, we're a community, blah blah blah.

Then there's the growing number of former classmates and alumni I've talked to over the years who admit they were abused. Hell, I chatted with a guy just months ago who was a year ahead of me, and he admitted to briefly "dating" a male teacher at the time.

We were literal teens, I was doing freaking cross country while he was in the building with that teacher. Shady shit has been happening under our noses this whole time!

Just thinking about that freaks me out. I can understand some of you who wanna deny this was happening, believe me I know it's hard to swallow. But where there's smoke, there's fire. And SJ has been setting off its smoke detectors for decades.

"it’s not even that like force religion on you"

Okay I stopped reading here. Bullshit, yes they do.

I attended during the 00s right at the height of the gay marriage stuff. Being out of the closet would've literally gotten me killed. The fact that there's clubs there now is fucking surreal to me.

Then again, $100 says such clubs are extremely monitored. I know of other schools that have literal campus ministers as leaders who not-so-subtly try to convert members to being straight and/or religious. If it isn't the same at SJ, I will be surprised.

You know, reading all these comments and replies about SJ and its toxic culture is making me feel so damn validated. I don't wanna say my time there was horrible or anything, but all you guys are putting into words a lot of shit I've bottled up for years.

I think I'm gonna have a long overdue therapeutic cry now, thank you all.

Man, I remember some sports teams in my years had captains that weren't even damn starters. Guess how many had millionaire families? ALL of them.

"The school has one standard for the favored kids and another for the other kids."

Holy shit, SO true. This may just be me, but I always found it toxic as hell how they frequently awarded and lifted up a small handful of kids who excelled.

Like, my class was hundreds but always had the same couple dozen kids getting stupid amounts of attention. For lack of better word, it felt extremely neglectful of the rest of us.

You mean Welch? That guy always did seem really off.

But he was very alumni-focused and I'm pretty sure he pushed the religious shit cuz he saw money in that.

Cuz you grow up and realize how insulated you were in that place and how full of shit they were. I got caught up in all their religious bullshit, but now realize they were just groomers with extra steps.