I was born in Dorchester on Dean Street, December 15, 1936, then moved to West Cottage Street as a baby, then moved again when I was one or two years old to 49 Brook Avenue. I lived with my great grandfather (99 years of age) my grandfather, grandmother, my mother and father and my 2 brothers, all living in 4 rooms. There was no heat except in the kitchen from the black kitchen stove; there was no hot water on the third floor; there was no ice box. My grandparents came from Italy and couldn’t speak English. We lived in a six unit apartment house on the third floor, and it was very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. I remember the gas lamp post across the street from my apartment – three apartments on each side of a wooden building.
It was hard to get the oil can filled. My mother had to go to a little store on the corner on Cottage Street to get oil. It was very hard to get. News people came through and took a picture of me telling my great grandfather in Italian about the oil and how hard it was to get. I remember the air raids, and we had to pull the shades down, no lights. We were poor, on welfare, due to my mother and father both being sick. Food stamps helped a little to buy bread, milk and cheese, but no meats or sweets.
Then we moved to 101 Brook Avenue the other part of Brook Avenue (Brook Avenue was shaped like a horse shoe). When we got an ice box, Louie, the ice man, used to bring the dripping ice up to the 3rd floor and put it in the ice box. Before that we put food out on the porch.
I remember the man across the street delivered milk with a horse and wagon. I remember the popcorn cart coming around, and the rag man yelling “any old rags?” I used to visit the cobbler with my grandmother, who knew them, and they would speak in Italian. We knew all the neighbors. We walked everywhere even to Carson Beach, sometimes two times a day.
John L. Sullivan, the boxer, lived on Victor Street. I remember Bing Crosby came to visit him, because Bing was making a movie about Sullivan. Sullivan lived around my area about the 1920s, before my time. I don’t think his house on Victor Street is there any more. We walked up Dudley Street to Uphams Corner to the Strand. St. Paul’s was my church, and I belonged to the CYO at St. Kevin’s. I went to the Hawthorne School, John Winthrop School, Campbell, Girls High School. Occasionally we went to Charlie’s Spa for ice cream, but not often. I used to get a bagel in a garage for 2 cents. There was a five and ten store, and the Mary Hannon playground was nearby. I remember the Red Raiders football team and Randon the boxer. I remember walking to the City Hospital. We had the Dennison House too. We used to go to the Drake’s Bakery and to Franklin Park.
There was an A&P market across from Brook Avenue on Dudley Street. The Ideal Movie Theater was there, and the Ideal sandwich store for sandwiches next to the theater. I remember watching the people dance in the school yard at the Hawthorne School on Howard Avenue and remember going to the library at Uphams Corner. The Fuller Brush used to come around. I married, lived in Roslindale 3 1/2 years and moved to Stoughton where we lived 42 years. I am now in a private senior housing on Route 138 in Canton. We had 5 children, all born at St. Margaret’s Hospital. I lost a daughter 7 years ago at age 47. And my husband 34 years ago.
I also remember going to the drug store when I was older and sat the counter and had a drink. I remember getting some song sheets and sitting on the stirs with my girl friends and singing the songs. I remember looking out the windows and seeing the gas light lamp post. I remember going to Upham’s Corner to pay 12 cents for life insurance. I remember my mother scrubbing clothes on a wash board and putting starched curtains on a wooden form. You had to press the curtains on the pins which hurt your fingers. Once in a great while I could get a vanilla ice cream for 5 cents, the best ever. After that time it never tasted as good. The store was Morgan’s on Dudley Street. We were on welfare and got food stamps for milk, bread, flour, butter but no steaks, cakes or ice cream. We also received a voucher from St. Paul’s Church for food. The police men would walk the beat, and you got to know them.
I lost my mother when I was 16 and my father when I was 18. My father’s relatives were the proprietors of Blanchard’s Liquor Store. My mother was from Canada and came here at about 28 years of age. I remember a men in the apartment building used to work for a candy company, maybe Schraffts and used to give me a small box of Dots candy (4 pieces in a small box) once in a while. I also remember my mother going to out to use a pay phone. Our first and only TV was given to one of my brothers from Father Galvin and his friends. I think it was a 12-inch, and we couldn’t see the picture too well. My brother had T.B. and was in the hospital for 1 1/2 years. My father was also sick. I also remember on Mother’s Day you could wear a carnation, either white or pink, made of out paper, the color depending on whether your mother was alive or had died. I remember the trolley cars.
So much is gone. It was hard then but a better time. I do miss how it was.
Sincerely
Mary C. Murray (formerly Mary C. Jacoppo)
Canton, MA
was Mary C. Jacoppo, born Dec. 15, 1936