Roseanne Swain, left, and Mary Jean Laviolette of the Concord Minutemen Fife and Drum Corps party likes its 1775 as they dance to the music of the Love Dogs during the 2025 Patriots’ Ball at the Concord Armory on Saturday, April 12, 2025.  Decades ago, the ball was an integral  part of Patriots’ Day celebrations.  The party  made a comeback  in 2025 in honor of the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution.  

The Concord Minute Men Fife and Drum Corps performs as the suns sets before a  a lantern lighting ceremony for the 10-foot tall Concord250 Lantern on Sunday, March 23, 2025.   Ken McGagh/The Concord Bridge 

Sunlight shimmers on Walden Pond as William Clift, 11, looks for minnows on Thursday, November 14, 2024. The kind of day enjoyed by William and his brother, Tom, 9,  and mother Christy, of San Antonio, Texas, has become increasingly rare at Walden Pond, where a combination of little-understood natural forces, overcrowding, and pollution exacerbated by climate change complicated the visitor experience for much of 2024.  For now, the solitude that famous Concord philospher Henry David Thoreau wrote of finding at Walden Pond still appears accessible. 

Performers  from the Dongfang Dance Troupe start  their “Jade Bird Dance” during the Lunar New Year Festival at Concord-Carlisle High School on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Ken McGagh/The Concord Bridge 

The Concord-Carlisle student section waves their cell phone flashlights during a Kicks for Cancer boys' soccer match against Lincoln-Sudbury at Concord-Carlisle High School, Saturday, September 23, 2023.  Ken McGagh/The Concord Bridge 

Aliyah  Janae Jackson, 13,  parade queen, marches in a Kiddie Carnival parade put on by  the  Boston Society of Caribbean Culture and Heritage, Saturday, August 17, 2024. 

Elliot Cooley, 6, plays on his swing while the band The Anna and Mickey Show perform from his Highland Street porch during the  West Concord Porchfest, Saturday, June 8, 2024.  The all-ages grassroots community music festival is in its fourth year.   Ken McGagh for The Concord Bridge 

Graduates take shelter under umbrellas during commencement exercises  at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S. June 9, 2024.    REUTERS/Ken McGagh

The Foxborough marching band is reflected in the sousaphone of Cayden Hui-Derouin before the Warriors marching band performed at halftime of the Thanksgiving Day game against Mansfield, Nov. 23, 2023. 

Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe 

Rusty Varrell, 19, of Holliston, climbs down as steam from the evaporator and smoke from a wood fire pour from the Natick Community Organic Farm maple sugar shack, March 27, 2015.  

Lincoln-Sudbury graduates toss their caps in the sky at the conclusion of graduation ceremonies at the high school Sunday, June 4, 2017.  

Riley Everett, 10, of Framingham and his colorful helmet and clothes cut through the shadows at the Farm Pond Skate Park in Framingham, March 23, 2021. 

Victor Tkachenko of Russell's Garden Center in Wayland positions a velociraptor statue as workers build a float for the Sudbury Fourth of July parade, July 2, 2013.  

Julia Shannahan, 3, of Hopedale,  is surrounded by bubbles from DJ Mike Rutkowski during the 39th annual Hopedale Day in the Park Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018.   

Lilith McGrory, 7, of Medfield's face meets the snow as she rolls down a hill on the grounds of the Medfield State Hospital Friday, February 10 2017.

Megan Birch, an incoming third grader, rides the school bus to  the Brookside Elementary School in Milford during  a simulated school day organized by the school district to  demonstrate social distancing protocols in response to the coronavirus pandemic, on Friday, August 21, 2020.

A group of Westwood Little Leaguers grab a ball hit by a stilt walker in a Yankees uniform during little league opening day festivities at Morrison Park in Westwood,  Saturday, April 27, 2019.  

Famed Boston Bruins national anthem singer Rene Rancourt starts Law Day at Framingham District Court with his rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" April 27, 2017. 

Fireworks rise above the cotton candy booth during Bellingham Days at Bellingham Middle School, August 21, 2021. 

Arianna Cicio, 6, of Bellingham, right, and her brother Anthony, 4, zoom down the Fun Slide at the Holliston Lions Club's  carnival at Holliston High School, Thursday July 8, 2021.

 As the first major snowstorm of the season moved in, Katelyn Galvin, 23,  left, Tyler Vlass, 26, Gina Zambarano, 24, and Mike Zambarano, 26,  continued to play a friendly round of pond hockey at Jennings Pond in Natick , Saturday, January 23, 2016

Palma Philips, 86, of Waltham, tosses bread for the birds at Hager Pond on Route 20 in Marlborough.  Philips, a  popular bird feeding area in the Wayside Country Store, March 12, 2020.  

Residents of Alan Rd. in Hudson paint an American flag at the end of their cul-de-sac  on Sept. 9, 2011 in preparation for the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. 

On his 100th birthday, Earl Haley  of Framingham smokes a cigar as a waits for a birthday parade to arrive at his  home  June 3 2020.  The centenarian still smokes a cigar every day. 

Musket fire illuminates the Sudbury Minutemen during a 4:00 a.m. salute on April 19, 2012. The group was re-enacting the events of  April 19, 1775 and the start of the American Revolution.  

Framingham facilities worker Rob Klein is framed in a doorway at darkened Nevins Hall  as he moves a decorations in preparation for a Holiday Pops Concert, Dec. 12, 2014.  

Members of the "British King's Own" 4th Foot army march by a pond on their way to battle the Colonial militia during the Red Horse Tavern Battle at Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Oct. 29, 2-011.  

Jon Bowman, 15, is silhouetted by the setting sun as he waits for a pass from a friend while hitting a hockey puck around frozen Mill Pond in Westborough, Massachusetts, Jan. 25, 2022.  

A parasol and fan keep Katie Burke of Melrose cool as she watches the Race of the Century, an annual period affair featuring competition between vehicles of different technologies and eras  at the Collings Foundation in Stow Saturday, July 30, 2016.

Nancy DeRoma of Natick takes her English bulldogs Gina, front, Lenny, left, and Norman for a walk in Natick's Dug Pond, Aug. 20, 2013.  

Georgette Jowdy, a worker at Eastleigh Farm in Framingham, cradles her beloved 22-year-old Jersey cow Peaches before the cow  was euthanized by a veterinarian, Feb. 8, 2013. 

Natalie Brown, 11, of Sacramento, California, takes part in the  benediction during Patriots Day ceremonies in Sudbury, April 19, 2012.