ELECTRIC SCOOTER

As my father got older he was restricted as to how far he could walk to go fishing. He resigned himself to the “M” St. Beach near his home. One day he called me and was so excited he had trouble getting out what he had to say. “I saw an ad in the American Legion magazine about an Electric 4 Wheel Scooter.”(My father was made an Honoree Member after 50 years in the American Legion…that‘s a story for another time.) “I can get back to Castle Island where the real fish are caught” Whoa, that is not the news you want to hear from an elderly parent. As much as I tried to dissuade him, it was to no avail. He had made up his mind and that was that.

For about a year he made it to and fro without incidence. He travelled on the sidewalk along City Point Beach, fishing rod and gear in tow all the way to the newly constructed pier at Castle Island where he made new friends doing what he enjoyed most…. Fishing. One day he called me and it was obvious that something drastic had happened. I had to pry it out of him and he told me this story.

After fishing for several hours he was headed back home and about a third of the way back his Electric Scooter died. Now if you lived or are still living in Southie you know we are a community of great Samaritans. Two guys in a pickup truck saw my father’s plight, stopped and put the scooter in the pickup bed and escorted my father back to his home and made sure he was settled before they left. My father never used the scooter again.

I had mixed emotions. I was sad he lost more of his independence but happy he was safer close to home.

EARLY TV SCREENS

Today when we watch television we feel cheated if the screen is less than 47 inches in diameter. Most homes I visit, 60 inches is the norm. That wasn’t always the case. When I was young Radio was the way we were entertained. My mind created the images in very vivid colors. Programs such as Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, Fibber Mcgee and Molly had me rolling in laughter. Drama such as Orson Welles Mercury Theater, CBS Radio Workshop, The Campbell Playhouse had my imagination running wild. My mind provided all of the visual images I needed.

When television first made it to the airwaves very few people I knew could afford a set. My downstairs neighbor was the first to purchase one. What drove him to buy one was the Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle… “Mr. Television” as he was known. Now the actual TV screen was only 9 inches in diameter. Our neighbor would invite us once a week to see “Uncle Milty.” Now we were five in number and they were three. That meant 8 of us huddled around a 9 inch screen. The young ones like myself sat on the floor while our elders had the luxury of the couch and chairs.

Size didn’t matter. The thrill of viewing television live and laughing with everyone else at the antics of a madman funnyman was what counted. Nine inches may seem archaic to young people now, but to me it was as good as the biggest screens available today.

BABE RUTH

I never saw Babe Ruth play. Growing up, whenever baseball was discussed his name always came up as the longest home run hitter of all time. Balls would travel  5oo feet from home plate when the Babe connected. He had a lifetime batting average of 342 and hit 714 home runs. It was no wonder I had become so enamored. As I grew older I began to devour everything written about him. In my gullible youth I thought whatever was written in a book or a magazine had to be true. Not so, there is more myth than truth in most of the stories. What is true is that he rose from real poverty to one of the richest paid ballplayers of his time.

Now as I read more on him I discovered an amazing fact. He had courted and married Helen Woodruff of West Fourth St. in South Boston. I lived on West Fifth St. just two streets over. Then even more amazing, when newly married lived in an apartment over Joes’ Spa a restaurant my father worked in and eventually partially owned. My idol lived, walked and chewed gum in my neighborhood, unbelievable.

To this day I am still fascinated by Babe Ruth and the life he lived. It is amazing that wherever I travel I find evidences where he has been. Recently when I was in Asheville, N.C. at a site of an old hotel there was a stone in which was inscribed “Babe Ruth slept here during his Spring Training Tour going north.” I know it is childish of me to have an idol at my age, but I can’t help it. I grew up adoring him and his image and life are part of me.

BRAVES FIELD

When I was young during WW II I traveled to Braves Field to watch the Boston Braves play. We sat in the right field bleachers where you could get in for a quarter. What I remember was when the ball was hit into the stands the spectators were required to throw the ball back onto the field as there was a  shortage of balls during the War. The players that played were the ones that were not fit for the military. You might call them the Over the Hill Gang.

The player who impressed me the most was Pete Gray. He impressed me because he had only one arm. He played the outfield and it was uncanny how he could catch the ball and magically shift glove and ball then throw the ball into the infield. He batted one handed and hit very well. He must have hated the War to end because he was no longer needed when the regular players returned.

I never considered him handicapped. He was an inspiration to all of us that saw him play. He played as well if not better than most players in the league at that time. It was only when Ted Williams came back out of the service that I switched my allegiance from the Braves to the Red Sox.

4 PARTY LINE

I was talking to a younger relative the other day and mentioned a disease I knew nothing about. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, Googled the disease and gave me the answer. Now I too have a cell phone but the only thing it does is call or receives phone messages. Before the days of instant communication in your pocket there was a landline phone in everyone’s home.

After WW II my father applied to AT&T for a phone. It took several months but the phone was eventually installed. Imagine you could pick up the phone and actually talk to someone somewhere else. If you went outside of your area you had to go through a Long Distance Operator and pray you wouldn’t be disconnected before you reached them.

Now the telephone man said we were to listen to the rings before picking up since we would be sharing the line with 3 other parties. Our ring was one short, one long, one short and one long. Any other rings belonged to the other 3 parties. Now as a 10 year old the temptation was too great. I learned if you gently picked up the receiver and covered the mouth piece with your hand you could listen in on private conversations.

 I am sure that if I applied to the National Security Agency I would be a shoo in with all of my prior experience spying on other peoples conversations.

ORANGE LINE 1975

When I heard they were going to take the Orange Line down in 1975 I took my trusty 8mm camera and stood at the front of the first train to take pictures. This is the way I travelled from the north to my job in Boston. I apologize for the quality but I had no way of cleaning the glass. A few months later they tore down this section of the elevated subway. It starts at North Station and proceeds to Everett through the now demolished Sullivan Sq. Station. It passes by the old Boston Garden and 150 Causeway St. bldgs which are now gone. I can still hear the screech of the steel rails as the trains turn the corner onto the North Washington Bridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Hc4R4wN7w&list=FLjbfqpt6qWBfUk9dQIF7bgA&index=56

GONE FISHING

On Jan.18, 1973 I entered EPA’s Chief Counsel’s Office to discuss a matter of business. After our business was concluded he asked if I had seen the Front page of the Boston Globe. Not yet I replied. I should tell you first, my father’s recreational passions were the L St. Bath house, walking for miles on end and fishing. When he was younger he would take his fishing rod to the Sugar Bowl at the end of the wooden pier near the Head House, an area which we now call Pleasant Bay. When the 1938 Hurricane destroyed the pier he moved on to Castle Island. As he got older his distance to fish became shorter and shorter. Let’s get back to the Front Page of the Globe.  “Here take a look. Maybe you know this guy. He has the same last name as yours.”

There was my father at the “M” St. Beach puffing on his pipe. A photographer was on his way to an assignment when he spotted my father sitting and relaxing without a care in the world. Being a professional he stopped his car and took the shot of his lifetime. The editor liked it so much he featured it on the front page. The photographer probably never got another placement like that for the rest of his career. My father was 80 at the time and lived to almost 103 years old. Maybe there is something to fishing after all.