The Upper Falls News is an email newsletter about what's going on in our village.  The Upper Falls News is brought to you by the Upper Falls Area Council but it's intended to cover any and all news in the village. 

Upper Falls Trivia - What Upper Falls business has a small bowling alley in the basement?

Who Turned Off Upper Falls? - On Monday afternoon, amidst Sandy's howling winds and torrential rains, Upper Falls resident Jerry Reilly noticed that the waterfall had been turned off.

Light up the Neighborhood ... and a Child's Birthday - BirthdayWishes.org is organizing their 3rd annual Birthday Wish Luminary Night in Newton on Dec 2.  This wonderful local organization provides birthday parties for homeless children.  Their annual Luminary Night is a both a great neighborhood celebration as well as a way to help the organization with its mission.  Luminaries are glowing lanterns made from paper bags.  On Luminary Night (Dec 2) they hope that the front yards and porches all over Upper Falls will be lit up.  Order luminaries here to help support BirthdayWishes.org and spread the word to your neighbors and friends to join in the fun on Luminary Night.

Shovel That Snow - Make some $$$ shoveling snow this winter.  The city's putting together a directory for residents that will list students (or adults) in each neighborhood that are willing to shovel snow this winter.  Sign up for the list, you get put in the directory, neighbors call you, and you negotiate your price and terms.  It's a great program for both the shovelers and the shovelees ... if we have any snow this winter.

Greenway Trail Opened Again - This past Sunday, a team of volunteers re-opened the Upper Falls Greenway trail.  The entire trail was opened up last spring as part of the NewtonSERVES spring cleanup.  Since then, the trail became impassable near Tower Road due to a very large fallen tree and a lot of new growth.  The volunteers included a team of parents and kids from the Mason Rice school in Newton Center.  This energetic team helps out with projects around the city and they decided to volunteer their help this month with the Greenway cleanup.

What's That Sound? - Last Friday, Robin Dexter heard a familiar sound.  Said Robin, " I believe I just heard the church bells ring on Elliot Street.  It's been almost exactly a year".  The bells at the Mary Immaculate of Lourdes church have been silent for the last year due to technical troubles.  It's nice to have our neighborhood's audible clock back in commission.

Come Into My Garden - Plans are afoot to organize an Upper Falls Garden Tour next spring.  We hope to feature as many Upper Falls gardens as possible.  The only thing you need to participate is a garden, any garden, not a spectacular showpiece garden (though those are of course also welcome).  Even the simplest, most modest gardens are interesting to lots of people.  So if you might consider opening your garden for an afternoon sometime next spring, then click here.

Did you know ... ? Your stomach would digest itself without the lining of mucus it creates!.  "Did you know ...?" will feature an interesting and random fact every issue, collected by nine year old Upper Falls resident Jayla Reilly

Send Us Your News - If you have any upcoming events, activities, news, trivia, stories, anecdotes or jokes related to Upper Falls just send them to news@UpperFallsNews.org and we'll include them in the next newsletter.  For those who prefer living in the past, back issues of the Upper Falls News are archived at UpperFallsNews.org.

Trivia Answer - The Biltmore has a long unused bowling alley in the basement of the premises - just a few lanes with no automatic pin setting machines.