Hospital Hill Gang - Part 3

Hospital Hill Gang - Part 3
By Paul Baker

In the last article, I mentioned about a gang of kids from Malden St. who decided to invade our turf, but before I get into this turf battle I want to mention one thing. Though we use to be referred to by the “Kids on the Hill”, or Hospital Hill Gang”, by others, we were never a gang in the true sense of the word. We never went out looking for trouble and generally played on Fremont Ave amongst ourselves. There were twenty five of us and we never had a lack of playmates. I’ll write briefly about this encounter due to the fact it was the only one I remembered we ever had.

We were sort of an enigma to many other kids throughout Everett due to the aforementioned statement, and I guess when you’re different, others want to find out why. We got wind that a large group of kids from Malden St. were coming up Lawrence St. to beat us up. Our big advantage was that we knew our area, and if we figured we were going to lose, we had many escapes routes that would take us though familiar territory.

I use to read up on military tactics especially when it came to outflanking the enemy so I hide some kids on both sides of Harvard St. and the rest of us were exposed to show how few we were. The Malden St. kids arrived in force and when they saw our number, gained confidence in every step as they came up Lawrence St. We were all armed mostly with rocks and sticks.

As the Malden kids advanced we moved up Lawrence St. in order to lure them up beyond Harvard St. When they passed Harvard St. we charged them and at the same moment, the kids hidden along Harvard St. charged out. Rocks were flying everywhere and the Malden St. kids soon panicked when they were being hit from three sides, they broke and ran back down Lawrence St. and then down Malden St.

We chased them, but stopped at Malden St. We were satisfied with what we had done and didn’t see any use in chasing them further, plus they would see how few we were and might come back after us. Thus ended our brief encounter with another gang of kids, and we were never bothered by them again or any other invaders. We were free to continue playing the way we always had amongst ourselves.

Garland St. was the highest point of our hill, but we use to also play on the other side of the hill which we called “back of the hill.” This area is all built up now with homes, but back then it was wooded and had trails leading to a steep slope that lead to other neighborhoods. This area was one of our first gateways to exploring other sections of Everett and we would go into Chelsea sometimes.

In the winter we would actually do some skiing on these slopes and it was a blast especially at night under a full moon when the snow would reflect the moon’s light and brighten up the entire area. I can’t put into words how lucky we were to have these fields, and it was the main reason we hardly ever left our neighborhood, we had everything a kid could ask for.

At this time I would like to write about the families that lived in my immediate neighborhood of five identical two family homes. My mother was Italian, and was born in the North End of Boston to parents from Sicily and Italy. My grandfather and uncles ran a barbershop in the North End, and I have a book about the history of the North End that has pictures of this shop and of my grandfather and uncle along with their quotes about life in the area. I was shocked when my sister discovered this book as there were pictures of them that I had never seen along with how Italians lived in this area with fruit vending carts and fresh meat hanging in butcher shops.

But let’s get back to Everett before I wander too far. We had three Jewish families in the neighborhood, and we would exchange ethnic foods whenever the smell of my mother’s sauce filtered through the neighborhood, they would kill for my mother’s sauce which she flavored with pork, veal, and beef that would simmer all night on the stove. One of the kids would go around stealing flowers to give to my mother for a bowl of pasta such was the reputation of my mother’s sauce.

At the far end of the neighborhood was a family whose mother was from Newfoundland. They had two daughters, and I had a crush on Lillian, a tall pretty brunette. I bet you readers use to remember a game called “spin the bottle”. Well I use to play that game on Lillian’s garage roof with two other neighborhood girls, man, what a treat it was kissing three girls, you could just never lose.

Do any of you remember “Jimmy the ice cream man?” He would come through our neighborhood every day during the warm months and when we heard him ringing his bell, we would all go running to our parents for a dime in order to buy an ice cream cone. Many a time our parents would come out and engage in conversation with Jimmy and other neighbors, such was the closeness of our neighborhood. This is just something you never see today as most neighbors in today’s time don’t even know each other.

Well my friends, I’ll end this episode at this point, but I still have much to write about our adventures growing up in Everett, so stay tuned and pass the word that Paul’s site is alive and well, and till he finds time to get back to his great writings, I’ll try to keep you all amused about growing up in our fine City of Everett.