Nostalgia Prompts BHS Grad to Launch Online Braintree Store

When Doug Hall was growing up in East Braintree in the 1950s and 1960s, his family never had a key that fit into the lock on the front door.

Kids roamed the streets without a care, at least until the lamp posts turned on, and crime never seemed to be a problem.

“It was the right place at the right time," Hall said.

Hall, a 1970 graduate of Braintree High School, is now re-living small-town Braintree through a Facebook site and an online store featuring Braintree books, gifts and clothing.

After high school, Hall joined the Navy, worked in Hospital Information Systems Project Management and eventually retired and settled in Palm Harbor, FL.

But he never forgot the feeling of Braintree during that time, and found an outlet for his nostalgia through a members-only "You Know You're From Braintree If" Facebook page.

"I noticed many of the members of the Braintree Facebook site no longer live here but feel as if Braintree is their home. I feel the same," Hall said in an email.

"I was looking for a book about Braintree history and found there was no single place to find quality products about Braintree, so I decided to create that place. It's an online shop called, Braintree You're My Home."

The website, created and designed by Hall and launched about a month ago, has a book store with 100 Braintree-specific titles, including tomes on John and Abigail Adams and Sacco and Vanzetti.

The virtual gift shop features 100 Braintree-specific gifts, clothing, drinkware and accessories, and has sections for 270 towns from Abington to Yarmouth. High School apparel for Braintree High, Archbishop Williams and Thayer Academy is also available.

Doug grew up in a quiet neighborhood bordering Arnold's Farm, which is now East Middle School. He said there was something about his childhood in Braintree, with its clean streets and friendly people, that he will never forget.

"I remember neighborhood kids playing in the near empty streets," Hall said. "Our parents had no concern about our walking to and from Penniman School or the half-mile to Al's Variety for a tonic and candy bar."

Visit www.BraintreeYoureMyHome.com to check out Hall's shop.