PUBLIC INPUT

In the early 1940’s and 1950’s the City of Boston made decisions without consulting the very public that was affected. Today Public forums are the norm but that wasn’t the case then. One incident that I got personally involved in… was when I found out the City was going to open up a new route to the newly constructed containerized docking facility near Castle Island. The fastest route from the Southeast Expressway to the new facilities was down Day Blvd., …that is along Carson and City Point Beaches. I couldn’t believe it. Was the City out of its mind? Huge 12 wheeler trucks passing by the shoreline with pedestrians coming and going to the beaches. This had to be stopped.

I started a letter campaign by getting as many people who would listen to write to the City to stop this crazy idea. It worked. No trucks are allowed on the causeway from the Southeast Expressway even today. I was only a teenager then but I learned a lesson that I never forgot. The public can influence policy if only they can be heard.

Forums like this makes it even easier.

AQUARIUM

One of the many destinations my father walked me when I was a toddler was the Aquarium near the Farragut statue. For a small child it was a wondrous place. All those sea species floating above my head was a true marvel to behold. As many as I saw, only one vision stays with me these 75 years later… that is the loggerhead turtle. I was told later that it weighed over 200 pounds and was probably 30 to 40 years old. You can imagine the impact it had on me. I was a third its size and a tenth its age. I can still visualize it slowly gliding about behind the glass enclosure. It wasn’t easy for my father to tear me away because I could have watched it for hours, it was truly mesmerizing.

It was torn down in the 50’s to make way for an ice skating arena. The citizens of Southie were not happy. A treasure was taken away. But the explanation was it was for own good. Thanks but no thanks.

 

 

 

KEROSENE/COAL HEATING

The choice for fossil fuel in the 1940’s was Kerosene. We had a single burner in our living room that was meant to heat the two flats we occupied. Days like today when the temperature reached zero or below you realized how inefficient that was. The farther away from the single source of heat the colder it was. The bedrooms were on the higher level and what little heat reached that level, the more blankets you piled on. By morning it was so cold that my mother would have to coax us out of bed. We raced to the living room burner in hopes of avoiding hypothermia.

When we moved we graduated to coal as our main source of heat. The coal truck would drive close to our cellar window, insert a chute and deliver coal to our coal bin. Now nothing was automatic. My father would shovel the coal into a monstrous burner that resembled the ones that powered the Lusitania Cruise ship. If we had exceptionally cold weather, then he would have to get up in the middle of the night to refire the burner.

I used to love to watch the coal tumbling down the chute. It is a wonder I didn’t get coal miners lung disease from all the coal dust I inhaled.

ANTHONY'S PIER 4

There have been many Immigrants from Albania that have been successful business men. The most successful of them all was Anthony Athanas. In his heyday he owned 5 major restaurants in Massachusetts. His flagship restaurant, Anthony’s Pier 4 was known far and wide throughout the country. At its peak it was grossing $12 million annually and was the highest grossing restaurant in the country. He was president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and named restaurateur of the year in 1976. Every celebrity or politician who was anybody came and ate at his restaurant. To prove it he had pictures taken immediately with that person and hung the photos on his walls throughout the restaurant.

For as many years as I can remember, a gang of us from EPA had our annual Christmas luncheon there. We occupied the largest round table in the corner and we were often visited by Anthony on his rounds. Since his uncle married my aunt he would greet me with the Albanian word “krushk” meaning a non blood relative.  Paul Keough of our group, (a former Public Relations Spokesperson at the Ma. House of Rep.) would jump up and rush to greet each politician as he entered the restaurant. He never got to enjoy his meal. Anthony should have hired him as his official greeter.

Sadly the restaurant closed its doors this past summer. Another Southie landmark no longer with us.

MOCK INVASION CARSON BEACH

When we were kids we either played at Cowboys killing Indians or soldiers killing “Japs or Natzi’s”. After watching movies like Wake Island, Bataan, Guadalcanal Diary, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo etc. we were ready to join battle with our wooden rifles. WW II however ended in 1945 when I was 10 so I missed out on seeing the real thing. But wait; there was another opportunity to witness a real live invasion with Marines, Navy pilots, Army personnel, amphibious vehicles etc.… the whole shebang. There was planned a mock invasion right here in Southie on Carson Beach. I marked Oct. 1949 on my calendar. I wouldn’t miss this for all the tea in China. Sure enough the Navy cleared the beach of the foe by flying literally 100 feet over the land. Explosives planted in the ground made it look like they were actually dropping bombs. Then came the amphibious LST’s that discharged the Marines and Army soldiers. They charged ahead to secure a beachhead. Weapons fired and it was all so realistic. It could have been Normandy as far as I was concerned. The event was not without controversy, however. A photographer for the Boston Post named Morris Fineberg was hit by flying shrapnel and killed. I guess it was too realistic after all.

ELIA (LEO) ANDON KOTELLY

You could only describe my father as a true American Patriot. He loved this country as I know no other man could. From my earliest childhood he would extol its virtues. Education was the gateway to success he would say and America was the land of opportunity where you could get as far as you want to go. Considering he never got to High School he saw  3  of his children graduate from college. He left Albania as a young teenager to escape the clutches of the Ottoman Empire. He was about to be drafted into the Turkish Army when he boarded a ship for the United States. As an immigrant in Jamestown New York he was exploited by the mill owners . He didn’t care. He made it to America and that was good enough for him. When WW I broke out he was anxious to join the Army. He thought those years were the best years of his youth. He was heartbroken when he was mustered out in 1918. After all why do you need a standing Army when the War to end all Wars was over. He settled in South Boston and lived the next 80 years there. He was well known as“Leo”of Joe’s Spa. At the L St Bath house he reigned as checkers champ for many years. He was a family oriented man and we were lucky to have him with us for almost 103 years.

"BOMBS AWAY CURTIS LEMAY"

 In 1987 I headed up a delegation to Japan to gather information for the MWRA Wastewater treatment planned for Deer Island. The first day of our visit we met with the Tokyo mayor and his staff.  He and I traded greetings and other pleasantries through an interpreter. I explained the purpose of our visit and he inquired if any of us had been to Japan before. On the way over from the States, Tony Fletcher a Board member of the MWRA told us he had been stationed in the Sea of Japan as a Navy pilot on an aircraft carrier in the waning days of WW II. After the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima he was asked to fly a reconnaissance mission over the city and report back his findings. Tony told us his report was simple. To his commander he said “There is nothing left of the city” So when the mayor asked the question I looked over to Tony and he nodded a quick no to me. I left it as none had.

Later that same day we met with the Tokyo engineers. They began our meeting by showing us a video depicting the bombing of Tokyo which occurred just months before the devastation caused by the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. General Curtis Lemay had unleashed tons of incendiary bombs on the city. He used the entire fleet of B-29 bombers under his command. The devastation was worse than that caused by the Atomic bombs. 100 thousand souls were lost, 250 thousand buildings destroyed and 16 square miles leveled. Why would they show us this? They pointed out it was an opportunity to rebuild the city anew, a sort of instant “Urban Renewal” project. I couldn't understand how nonchalant they treated such a disaster.