How much fun is the month of October? It is the month of dragging out all the old skeletons in your closet, scaring yourself silly, and eating way too many of the chocolates you purchased "for the kids". It's the month of holding your breath as you pass by cemeteries, and eyeing nervously that slightly run-down house at the end of the road. And, yes, it is also the time you think most of ghosts.

There are a few high profile spooks known to the Needham History Center and Museum, and in this episode, Gloria Greis shares them with some surprising details. For instance, the town's best known ghost story is more a tale of ghost-busting. But before you can say that 'you ain't 'fraid of no ghost', she'll tell you about a haunting so persistent, the house eventually moved out of town.

Gloria's guest today is Ginny Gregg, who has a different perspective on living with the past. Sometimes, co-existing with your home's prior occupants can be relatively easy... if you choose to embrace them.

We like to think that we use this podcast as "a bridge to the past", but in this edition of All Roads, the bridges are the history we are looking at. The town of Needham, Massachusetts has an uncommon number of bridges as a matter of necessity, as the Charles River winds its way around most of its borders.

As we kick off our second season, Gloria takes an inventory of the many crossing points that form the town's gateways, including what may be its most beautiful and fear inducing spans.

She also talks with two of the people responsible for keeping the structures safe and functional. Her guests, making a return appearance, are Carys Lustig, director of the Needham DPW and town engineer Thomas Ryder. They explain that indeed, they don't make them like they used to....and maybe that's a good thing.

School may be out for summer in Needham, but the administrative staff will be working hard to prepare for September. Fortunately, they have a modern, cool space in which to perform those duties. But that was not always so. The home for Needham Public Schools is the Emery Grover Building, the oldest public building still in existence in the Town. It was always a bit of a grand, odd duck, out of character for a small, New England town. It was also, for a long while, out-dated, severely lacking, and somewhat dangerous.

In this episode, we remember the town's efforts to bring it back from the brink, and track its evolution to the 21st century with one of the people most responsible for breathing new life into the site, Needham's Director of Building Design and Construction, Hank Haff.