The Hospital Hill Gang

Hey everybody, long time no see - huh? Whew, where did the time go? Okay, first things first. I really needed this time away to get my act back together. I do apologize, but now that we're home to stay we're taking the time to enjoy all that the New England coastline has to offer. After being away for so long, we're like a bunch of little kids running rampant through a candy store.

The good thing is that I grew up in Everett. And because of that, I've got a wealth of lifelong friends who watch my back. So while I'm out gallivanting up and down the coast, my good friend, Paul Baker, who grew up on Freemont Ave., is grabbing hold of the reins. He's gonna take you down memory lane to relive the wonder and magic of growing up in Everett from his perspective. Take it away, Paul.

The Hospital Hill Gang

By Paul Baker

Growing up in Everett was a unique experience for me during the late 40’s and 50’s as I was fortunate to have about twenty-five kids to play and interact with on Fremont Ave.

I moved to Fremont Ave from Glendale Street in 1947. Back then, Fremont Ave had a lot of open space and my house was across the street from what we kids called the “Nurse’s Home”. Not sure how it is used today, but back then it was a three year residency program to train RN’s.

The student nurses, for the most part, were very friendly to us kids when we weren’t running down the halls and banging on their doors. They would pass out treats for us during their home economics class. Not sure why they taught this sort of thing to student nurses, but their brownies were excellent.

Sometimes at night we would sit up behind the Nurses Home trying to catch a glimpse of them coming and going from the shower rooms that were on each floor. The adventure gave us some insight on how the girls in our gang would develop, and I think they were sort of baffled when we gave them long stares.

My neighborhood consisted of five identical multi-level houses separated by a narrow driveway. Each house had both a front and rear porch and I remember the view of the Mystic River and down town Boston from my rear porch. These porches were also a communicating spot for our families to enjoy during the warm months.

The Whidden Hospital was only a single building back then, and there was a large field across the street from my house which is now occupied by the new hospital expansion. A large grassy area behind the Nurse’s Home separated the two buildings. These fields along with vacant home lots up and down Fremont Ave., provided a natural and park like environment for us kids to play in.

One of the best fields was the one we called “The Pear Field”. It was near the end of Fremont Ave that intersects with Woodlawn. This field was a joy to play in especially when the pear trees had ripen fruit on them. We would climb these trees, gorge ourselves on the ripe fruit, and then engage in a pear fight where we would smack each other with soft, mushy fruit. Today the field is occupied by three small homes.

We all lived on Fremont Ave except for one who came down from Garland Street so the gang was always readily available for fun and games which usually changed by the season. We also invented games that seemed unique mainly due to the fact that none of us came from rich families and we had to scavenge around for cans, sticks, in order to play.

One game we played was sort of related to cricket where we would take a couple of cans, place a stick over them and one behind leaning up against the stick that straddle the cans. We would have teams, and outfielders, and the object of the game was to hit a pitched ball and try to score a run, or if the cans were knocked down, you were out.

We also played similar games that Paul played on Arlington Street like “Off the Wall”, king of the hill, ball tag, and a host of others. But the best were sled fights and snow ball fights. Sled fights involved one kid steering a sled and another kid kneeling between the legs of the driver. These battles took place on Fremont Ave where it intersects with Woodlawn. The object of the game was to upset the other kid’s sled, and send them chasing after the sled as it took off down Fremont Ave.

We kids did everything together; sometimes we would all march down to Glendale Park and engage other kids in pick-up baseball. Usually our baseballs were held together with electrical tape as we didn’t have the money for new baseballs once the covers came off. Some of us didn’t even have gloves and the outfielders would have to play bare-handed. But play we did and fun we had.

Our biggest source of freedom was our bicycles; we would head out to explore different cities and what they had to offer. With my newspaper money, I managed to save $54.00 and buy myself an English Raleigh three speed bike, man, I was king of the hill with that bike and could climb hills while the other kids had to dismount from their heavy one-speed J.C. Higgins and Columbia Road Master bikes, and walk. They say life goes around in circles as today cycling is a source of fun for me and my bikes cost into the thousands.

As Paul once wrote about the “Million Kid March” to the Park Theater for the Saturday matinees, we kids would gather in front of Sonny Radzikowski’s house, and all head down to the theater to see the fare of westerns and cartoons along with the games that Leo Brotman would come up with during intermission.

Back then I sold the “Daily Record” and always had some extra change for candy and would share my candy with the kids that weren’t so fortunate. When I started selling the Record at eleven years old, it was only four cents and most buyers would hand me a nickel and tell me to keep the change. It went up shortly after that to a nickel which cut down on my tips; I also had customers along Fremont Ave and Garland Street. Home delivery back then was thirty-five cents a week, and on the average, I made about $3.00 a week.

Well, this blog has gotten long and I hope you all can relate to it. Perhaps in the future I’ll write more on Hospital Hill if Paul so allows it. We grew up in the age of innocence and fun, but most importantly, we grew up in Everett!
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