James T. “Pudgy” Kasper started repairing my cars more than 30 years ago and I never called him James or Jim once in all those years. Everyone called him Pudge or Pudgy, and I learned while interviewing Kasper and his late wife, Marvene, three years ago that his nickname and business name are the product of a mispronunciation of the Polish word for baby.
Pudgy died last Saturday at the age of 86, and his life story is about a man who did it his way by opening his own automobile-repair business.
Marvene Kasper (nee’ Jacobsen) stood by his side for more than 60 years to make that dream a reality, and their son, Thomas Kasper, keeps the dream alive today on Pleasant Street in Lynn.
Pudgy’s had its humble beginnings on Chestnut Street and Western Avenue in 1968 as Pudgy’s Mobil. High rents charged by Mobil convinced Pudgy and Marvene to strike out on their own. They bought the former American Byproducts building on Pleasant Street in 1977 and undertook a top-to-bottom renovation.
The couple leaned heavily on their Nahant roots to make their business and their family a success. Pudgy and Marvene knew each other as children and only needed a 30-day courtship after getting reacquainted to send them to the altar in 1956.
Her father worked for the town public-works department and her mother juggled housework and any jobs she could take on. Kasper’s father was a delivery driver for the Wachusett Potato Chip Company.
“We would steal chips out of his truck and he would lose a quarter of his stock by the time he made a delivery,” he recalled in our interview.
World War II brought soldiers, big guns, and blackout curfews to Nahant. The ear-splitting sound of the town siren meant lights were to be extinguished in homes and blackout curtains drawn to prevent lurking German submarines from spotting the silhouettes of ships against a backdrop of town lights.
“It scared the heck out of us. My three brothers and I would huddle up in a corner of the room,” Marvene recalled.
GIs were a common sight in the town, and they were quartered in local homes and took in movies at a theater on Flash Road until a fire destroyed the moviehouse.
Pudgy thought about becoming a police officer, but his ability to tear apart and rebuild an automobile engine set him on his career path to business ownership.
Nahant’s former police chief, Bobby Dwyer, worked for Pudgy’s for 23 years and Kasper urged him to pursue a law-enforcement career.
“Pudgy’s a great guy. He’s a hard-working gentleman who treated people with respect, and Tommy’s been there since he was a young kid and with his father through the whole business,” Dwyer once told me.
The Blizzard of ’78 still ranks among the most memorable emergencies Pudgy’s trucks were called out to handle. They shuttled food around waterlogged Nahant and freed stuck fire trucks from snowbanks.
Anybody who got their car repaired on Pleasant Street knew Pudgy was a master car restorer who proudly displayed photographs of the cars he brought back to life, including a 1930 Ford Model A, and a 1930 Packard Model 636.
I never saw a photo of my old 1966 Mustang on the wall in Pudgy’s. But I can still hear him grouching about my decision to drive the car in the winter.
We miss you, Pudge, but we’re glad Tom, Kenny, and the crew carry on your legacy.
