MALDEN

I've been in one of those moods lately, thinking about the past. It's gotten so
out of hand that I found myself recalling an obscure 1970's tv Western
yesterday down to the cast and the names of their characters.It's useless
knowledge like that which gave rise to Trivial Pursuit.

Anyway, I found myself thinking of Malden this morning.That's a town north
of Boston where my folks bought a two family with my uncle and his family as
co owners. They had the first floor and we took the second and we lived there
from shortly after my 1st birthday until my 8th.It's weird sometimes but I have
more vivid memories of Malden and Dorchester as a kid then I do of Abington
as a teenager. Same thing with school. Go figure.....
...Aunt Emily(who I called Mimi and the name has stuck over the years) is
Italian and kept her living room furniture covered in those clear plastic things
for years. I am not sure what the occasions were, perhaps the birthdays of my
cousins but there were some family celebrations with her uncle Luigi who played
mandolin and would pause for an occasional glass of wine "for gas in the engine".
One party was mostly outside in the big back yard that had a huge lilacbush at the
back end.
.....the house was on Beach St , one house from the corner of Beach and Clapp.
That house belonged to the Coriellis (sp?) who had three sons, Vinnie, who was
a teenager and the twins, Ronnie and Richie who were my age. On the other side
were the Tedescos, Pat (who ran a cobbler's shop) and Rose and their two kids,
an older daughter whose name I forget(well, she was a girl! I wasn't old enough
yet to pay attention) and the boy Michael who was my age. We all played together
and attended the Linden School together up the street.
.....the twin's mother, Jo, and Mike's mother, Rose, had a tremendous argument
outside on the sidewalk one day and it got physical with slaps and hair pulling. My
grandmother (whose name was Agnes but will always be Nanny to me) came out
and broke it up, lecturing them on such behavior in front of the kids.
....Saddles our dog was out on the sidewalk with me one day and the boxer from
across the street charged over. My mom always claimed Saddles was defending me.
I don't recall the dogfight, I was only 5 or 6 at the time. I do recall the ride to the
Angell Memorial Animal Hospital wtih my uncle holding Saddles in the back seat
with a cloth over a bad rip in the dog's neck. There was nothing the vets could
do and they put Saddles to sleep.
....the house was across the street from a small grocery store and behind that
was the Linden Creek.(Linden is a section of Malden and Linden Square was
just up the street. Pat Tedesco's shop was there). During a hurricane in the
mid 1950's the creek overflowed and flooded the street, and a motorboat actually
came down the middle of Beach st. ...followed by my Dad in the 1954 Pontiac
that we had at the time. The engine block was up high enough to let him get
through and pull into our driveway.
...Linden Creek was also the site of a death. I can't recall if it was accidental or
homicide.
....the infamous Indian attack. I was Sgt Preston of the Mounties.Ronnie and
Richie were the Indians. One of them threw a lance (aka a tomato plant stake)
at me as we were running along and it hit me right on the bridge of my nose,
just missing my eyes. Much yelling between the moms over that one. I had
a small scar there for years but it's faded away.
...Mom feeding me tablespoons of something to improve my appetite because I
was such a scrawny kid back then. It must have been time release stuff.
..Davy Crockett...the white football I got for a birthday, the same one where
I got my first two wheeler, a Schwinn..the cool black campus jacket with
the collar that was bright red underneath when you turned it up like all the
tough kids did.

We moved to Dorchester shortly after my grandmother died in 1956.
I had a reunion of sorts with Mike Tedesco when we both entered
Cathedral High School in 1962 as freshmen. Then my folks bought
the house in Abington, and that was the last connection with Malden.