filled the center of the table with tantalizing choices. As the group settled in with their slices of pie and coffee, Sarah’s cousin Paul asked about Boston. As she talked about her new city, she realized how much she was enjoying it. Mentioning the North End brought a smile to her grandmothers’ face as she listened.
“The North End was always one of my favorite pa rts of the city,” Rose started. “My mother would take me over there to pick up pastries for special occasions and there were stores that seemed like they had been there forever – probably still are there. It had almost a timeless quality to it. Is it still like that, Sarah?”
“It is. The small bakeries and corner stores. The cobblestone streets and brick buildings. It’s charming really. We ate at a restaurant on Hanover Street that has obviously updated its first floor store fronts but I am dying to get back over there and try out some of the older restaurants.”
“I loved that city.” Rose has a wistful look on her face as she finished her apple pie.
“Why did you leave, grandma?”
Her mother interjected while pouring more coffee around the table, “My grandparents decided to move to Connecticut back in the late 40’s. Partly to get your grandmother out of a seaport with all the navy men back from the war.
“Well it wasn’t as simple as that. I might have caught a few eyes in my day, but there was something else going on with a neighbor who my mother swore was after my father and wouldn’t let up. Her husband had died in the war, which was unfortunately very common back then. At first they felt bad for her but then she would want my father to help with everything and my mother put her foot down and said enough was enough. We moved from Beacon Hill out to Brookline and she showed up there.”
Barbara laughed along with her mother. “Grandma Mary was a feisty one. Especially compared to my father’s mother. Grandma Mary was always full of stories and she loved to tell them.”
Rose smiled, thinking of her mother. “Yes she did. Well, my father got a job with his older brother Edward in Connecticut the summer I turned eighteen. My father went ahead to get settled and we gave up the apartment and moved in with my mother’s mother in the South End.”
She looked over at Sarah, the wisps of eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “I wish I could remember what street to tell you but it was a long time ago.”
“It’s ok, one of these days I will look it up.”
“The South End was different in those days; it was undergoing changes and many of those beautiful single families were being turned into apartments and tenements. My grandmother had always lived there in a family home but our family was small and it had not made much sense to keep it a single family so she had converted it to apartments where the extended family could live easily under one roof.”
Jack spoke up, listening intently to Rose tell of her childhood city “Rose, I thought you grew up in South Boston. Is it the same thing as the South End?”
“No, Jack, two separate neighborhoods. The South End was marshland and back in the mid 1800’s they started to fill it, hauling dirt and rubble from the towns of Needham and Dedham by railroad cars. They filled the area and built out the streets, in a similar fashion to how they built out the Back Bay area by the Charles River. They covered these new areas with fashionable brick row houses and brownstones with small gardens. Quite lovely, especially the areas that had gardens.”
Rose took a sip of her coffee and her eyes took a faraway look. She didn’t say anything until Barbara interrupted her thoughts. “Mom, you were telling us why your family came to Connecticut.”
Rose tittered at her momentary memory lapse. “Oh don’t mind me. The mind gets old but it’s the old memories that I remember best. So, where was I? Oh yes, we moved to the South End for a summer." She paused again, sipping her coffee.
“The
“The North End was always one of my favorite pa rts of the city,” Rose started. “My mother would take me over there to pick up pastries for special occasions and there were stores that seemed like they had been there forever – probably still are there. It had almost a timeless quality to it. Is it still like that, Sarah?”
“It is. The small bakeries and corner stores. The cobblestone streets and brick buildings. It’s charming really. We ate at a restaurant on Hanover Street that has obviously updated its first floor store fronts but I am dying to get back over there and try out some of the older restaurants.”
“I loved that city.” Rose has a wistful look on her face as she finished her apple pie.
“Why did you leave, grandma?”
Her mother interjected while pouring more coffee around the table, “My grandparents decided to move to Connecticut back in the late 40’s. Partly to get your grandmother out of a seaport with all the navy men back from the war.
“Well it wasn’t as simple as that. I might have caught a few eyes in my day, but there was something else going on with a neighbor who my mother swore was after my father and wouldn’t let up. Her husband had died in the war, which was unfortunately very common back then. At first they felt bad for her but then she would want my father to help with everything and my mother put her foot down and said enough was enough. We moved from Beacon Hill out to Brookline and she showed up there.”
Barbara laughed along with her mother. “Grandma Mary was a feisty one. Especially compared to my father’s mother. Grandma Mary was always full of stories and she loved to tell them.”
Rose smiled, thinking of her mother. “Yes she did. Well, my father got a job with his older brother Edward in Connecticut the summer I turned eighteen. My father went ahead to get settled and we gave up the apartment and moved in with my mother’s mother in the South End.”
She looked over at Sarah, the wisps of eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “I wish I could remember what street to tell you but it was a long time ago.”
“It’s ok, one of these days I will look it up.”
“The South End was different in those days; it was undergoing changes and many of those beautiful single families were being turned into apartments and tenements. My grandmother had always lived there in a family home but our family was small and it had not made much sense to keep it a single family so she had converted it to apartments where the extended family could live easily under one roof.”
Jack spoke up, listening intently to Rose tell of her childhood city “Rose, I thought you grew up in South Boston. Is it the same thing as the South End?”
“No, Jack, two separate neighborhoods. The South End was marshland and back in the mid 1800’s they started to fill it, hauling dirt and rubble from the towns of Needham and Dedham by railroad cars. They filled the area and built out the streets, in a similar fashion to how they built out the Back Bay area by the Charles River. They covered these new areas with fashionable brick row houses and brownstones with small gardens. Quite lovely, especially the areas that had gardens.”
Rose took a sip of her coffee and her eyes took a faraway look. She didn’t say anything until Barbara interrupted her thoughts. “Mom, you were telling us why your family came to Connecticut.”
Rose tittered at her momentary memory lapse. “Oh don’t mind me. The mind gets old but it’s the old memories that I remember best. So, where was I? Oh yes, we moved to the South End for a summer." She paused again, sipping her coffee.
“The
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