My wife’s father loved to jump in the car with me and make a beeline for Boston Street where he swore there was a store that sold the best chicken pot pie ever made. Truth be told, I could never find the place. It must have already gone out of business but what was its name and was it really as good as Arthur claimed? Don’t ask me.
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They tell me Kiley Playground had the nickname “Kiley University” back in the day with plenty of neighborhood athletes looking to school each other in basketball and baseball. Who gave the park the name? Don’t ask me.
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I will miss my friend, Jeff Baker. He was a man’s man who put family first. Rest in peace.
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Spring remains in the witness protection program or some other hiding place but gradually warming weather turns my attention to the yacht clubs and marinas where boaters are already busy getting their craft shipshape for the warming weather. I always wonder how many people brave the New England elements and live year-round on a boat. Vin “The Hat” Scag comes to mind but how many others call a boat home in local harbors?
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The Item’s own Marian Kenney with expert help from Valerie Deland at Grace United Methodist (formerly Broadway United Methodist) Church answered a question I previously posed and informed me the “Paul Revere” bell formerly located in Christ Church United Methodist Church on Union Street now occupies a prominent spot in front of Grace Methodist. A little bit of history: Lynn had upwards of a dozen United Methodist churches at one time and several combined forces under the Grace name.
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The ruins of a brick wall at the end of the Oxford Street parking lot are all that remains of the former Ben Crest Plaza where four people were killed in a rooming house fire on Aug. 8, 1989. Every time I see the wall I wish there was a plaque remembering the lives lost and the firefighters and other people who saved lives that night.
The Ben Crest ranks with deadly blazes on Bruce Place and Chatham Street as locations where in recent years, unfortunately, tragedy could not be averted.
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Speaking of memorials, is there any truth to rumors cropping up here and there about efforts to honor some of the city’s most notable elected officials in recent memory by enshrining their names on the public library or, perhaps, the post office? Don’t ask …
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I always like turning off North Shore Road in Revere and driving past the former church that is now a community center (according to the signs on it) for Turkish Americans and Bosnian Americans. The international feel of the building mirrors the way Revere is changing. The center is just a little ways up the road from the Paul Revere School where great Lynn educator Barbara Kelly has made a huge difference.
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Anybody know how and when the Walnut Street dam was built? Who built it and is it built completely from dirt or does it have a rock or cement core? Don’t ask…
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Thanks to Jan LeColst for sending an amusing note about the energy reports National Grid mails out to electricity consumers. The report tracks consumer energy usage compared to other neighborhood users, but as LeColst pointed out, the utility sends out duplicate reports through the mail and by electronic mail. I wonder where all those paper reports end up? As Jan says, “Go figure.”
