Everyone in town has a story to tell and opinions to share. In this feature, we shine the spotlight on one resident to learn more about them and their connection to town.

Meet: George Robinson

George Robinson

Q: What brought you to Hopkinton?

George: “I grew up here, [and] it ended up that we had enough land that my grandparents would give out land to the kids and grandkids. Probably in my 30s, I came back and got the piece of land and started to build a house. After my parents passed away, my brother got the homestead. Since I was a kid growing up, I remember hearing about three brothers living together in Worcester one time, and I thought that was the coolest thing to have three brothers live together, and years later here we are. I’m lucky to have family around, all because my grandfather had land.”

Q: What do you do for a living?

George: “I spent 30 years with the phone company doing various jobs. I loved dealing with people, with the customers. Fixing their phone lines was one of the greatest jobs. [Today], I’ve got one of the best part-time jobs you could probably ever ask for: driving the senior bus [at the Hopkinton Senior Center]. [I] started out with doing medical appointments, and then from there they got a bus and asked me if I’d be interested, and I said, ‘Absolutely.’ It’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

Q: What activities and hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?

George: “I like golf. I love swimming. I did a lot of skiing when I retired, but between the knees and a bad ankle now I have trouble skiing. One of these days I’m going to try waterskiing again, because I still have my big-boy waterski! I like motorcycling and I like boating. I like to do a little bit of just about everything, especially anything that involves the outdoors.”

Q: What is your favorite thing about Hopkinton?

George: “Probably the people I know. They’re great people. A lot of us who grew up in Hopkinton, a lot of people stayed here, a lot of people came back here. Even the new people that come here, just a warm, friendly feeling with a lot of the people that you meet. I love just being able to drive around on a back road and still see farms, still see fields, look at the stone walls. I can’t drive down a road and not jog a childhood memory.”

Q: What are some of your favorite places around Hopkinton?

George: “I love the town lakes, like Lake Whitehall. There’s not many houses around it you can see once you’re on the lake, so to me it’s just like being up in Maine. I enjoy the restaurants, Carbone’s, The Spoon. Just driving the back roads. The state park is really nice, too.”

Q: What are some of your favorite Hopkinton memories?

George: “The old schoolhouse parties that they used to put on. In October, they’d put on a harvest party or a Christmas party. [I remember] just watching horses go down School Street more so than cars. [It] makes me feel really old when I think about that! [Also], just being able to take off on a bicycle and go anywhere you want and not have to worry. You could go anywhere you want all day long. As long as you were back by suppertime, you didn’t get in trouble.”

Q: If you could change one thing about Hopkinton, what would it be?

George: “It’s a toss-up between the traffic and the taxes. Hopkinton is becoming more and more like the [other] towns around here. The building, I think, is out of control, the traffic. You ask anybody, the traffic is out of control. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like in another 10 years. But it’s because we have such great schools that people are flocking to Hopkinton, and they just keep building and building and building. And we have to keep building more schools and it just keeps raising our taxes. They’re going to tax a lot of people out of Hopkinton.”

— Interview conducted by Gethin Coolbaugh