6/5/09 Update:
The Parkway Reunion 2009 Fundraiser benefits the Fund for Parks and Recreation. Proceeds from this event (after costs) will be donated to improve and maintain the parks, fields and open spaces of West Roxbury and Roslindale.
The Parkway Reunion 2009 will be on Saturday, June 20th, 2009. 7pm-11pm at the West Roxbury High School Football field - 1205 VFW Parkway, West Roxbury, MA 02132.
Tickets are $25 per person. $200 for a table of 10.
Your ticket includes the following:
Automatic entry to win a week’s stay for four in Roscommon, Ireland, halfway between Dublin and Galway. European style residence features a modern kitchen, three bedroom on-suite, overlooking 15 acres of beautiful, green Ireland land! For Golf enthusiasts - Athlone Golf Course - located nearby. (airline tickets not included)
Music and dancing; entertainment by the Richie Travers Orchestra and DJ Dave Solimine of Good Times Unlimited.
Passed hors d’oeuvres and cash bar
Specialty Cake donated by A. Boschetto’s Bakery in Roslindale
Specialty Arrangements donated by Edible Arrangements in West Roxbury
Creative Decorations by All Set Now and Halls of Tara Florist
Raffles
photographers (Judith Sargent Photography)
videographer (services donated by Tim White)
Parking available at the VA Hospital on the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury - Old Towne Trolleys will transport guests to and from; trolleys will continuously loop through West Roxbury and Roslindale to pick up guests at certain locations Please click on Trolley Map for information.
Tickets available for purchase at the following locations:
Remax
2077 Centre Street
West Roxbury, MA 02132
Kalembar Dunne
170 Spring Street
West Roxbury, MA 02132
La Rosa Real Estate
162 Spring Street
West Roxbury, MA 02132
The Cooperative Bank
40 Belgrade Avenue
Roslindale, MA 02131
The Cooperative Bank
1915 Centre Street
West Roxbury, MA 02132
cash or check at the locations above.
Check made out to “The Fund for Parks & Recreation”
Please email info@parkwayreunion2009.com for more information.
The Parkway Reunion 2009 event will happen rain or shine; 21 years old and over event.
Our corporate sponsors:
Chestnut Hill Realty
Comcast
Dunkin Donuts
Energy Credit Union
Faulkner Hospital
Peoples Federal Savings Bank
Prime Motor Group
Verizon
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For the past several months, a group of us from the Parkway area have been meeting about something that is long overdue in our great community. The idea was to set into motion the planning of a large-scale reunion of folks from the Parkway. Here is the biggest thing we have come up with so far:
The Parkway Reunion will be held on Saturday evening, June 20th, 2009, starting at 7pm under an enormous tent on the football field of West Roxbury High School. Rain or Shine.
Want more? Ok, how about the Richie Travers Orchestra and DJ Dave Solimine providing the music of every decade imaginable throughout the entire night? How about a night that focuses on people coming together for one night only - to the likes that have never been seen in the Parkway?
How about a night that will feature exactly zero speeches and every opportunity for people to catch up with each other over their favorite libation and food. How about a night where the proceeds from the evening will benefit our parks and playgrounds in the Parkway?
This will be a night that people will talk about for years. It’s for anyone who has lived in the Parkway for 80 years or 8 months. It’s for people who still live here or don’t. The Parkway Reunion of 2009 will be a chance to celebrate all that is great about our community. From our people to our places, we have a lot to be proud of.
Again, welcome to ParkwayReunion2009.com - your complete guide leading up to June 20th, 2009. Please check in often for updates, read our posts and post your own remembrances. Last but not least, please buy a ticket or two and tell your friends. The Parkway Reunion 2009 will be a night you will never forget!
John Tobin
Chairman
Parkway Reunion 2009
In the year leading up to the Parkway Reunion we hope to use this website not just for announcements and updates, but as a community space where people can share stories of their time in our neighborhood. We’re calling these tales “remembrances” and we invite you to share your Parkway memories by emailing us your stories or just simply commenting on someone’s memory.
It’s important to remember that there is no “magic address book” with names of everyone that grew up or spent time in these parts. We’re relying on you to help spread the word of the reunion through your personal networks. If you have an old school buddy that has moved to the West Coast, send them an email and ask that they save the date for next summer to come back to the block and relive those days.
Please help spread the word about the Parkway Reunion, send our website link to your friends and family and lets all meet next June under the stars and catch up.
Next month (Oct) I will have lived in West Roxbury all my life, 74 years. We lived on New Haven St. I went to the Kilmer and Shaw schools. Behind our house, beyond the Railroad tracks was swampland (Joanne’s Fabric/ Sarom) that’s where we skated in the winter. We had Caladonia Grove beyond that (across Rte 1). It was a very large parcel of land. They held Scottish picnics there.
People came from everywhere on the “Boston El” There was also Caladonia Bowling alley long before Sammy White. Further down Rte 1 was a restaurant called “Sailor Toms” all you can eat. It had a bright blue roof. After World War II. George Fontaine bought it and made it a landmark. We had beautiful sunny/ sandy Harvey beach along the Charles with a nice Ice Cream stand. Many people canoed along the Charles.
People were coming out of the depression and the war in the 30’s and 40’s so on. They had “Victory Gardens” they grew their own vegetables. We would go into the Quarry to pick tall bush blueberries. Many streets were “unfinished” dirt roads. when they finally paved Glenharen St we had some place to roller-skate and play hop-scotch. Joyce Kilmer Rd was Elmwood Street after they built the school they changed the name of the street to Joyce Kilmer, after the poet who wrote “Trees”.
At Baker/Spring Streets they had a carnival each year and they had one where Holy Name School is today. Before we had CVS’s, Roche’s we had 7 pharmacies along Spring/ Centre St, 8 small grocery stores, 4 bakeries, and 3 large restaurants – Centre Brunch (W. Rox) Dan’s Diner (Macy’s parking lot) Howard Johnson’s (Hess Gas Station), as well as Brigham’s for ice cream.
The post office was on Corey St (small brick building across from City Lot) People walked and paid for stamps, went to Earl’s Pharmacy to pay utilities then Hanley’s for children’s center. We used Bellevue Tower for picnics and to see Boston. We had Bellevue Theatre on Belgrade Ave, that’s where they got the name for the railroad station and one Centre/Corey Sts. We had Highland Hall a stately yellow building with a function hall for weddings and bowling alley. That’s where they got the name for the railroad station.
St Theresa’s had a large brown building called “Community Hall” where we had band practice on Thursday night, “Record Hops” – dances on Friday night. The “Y” had there dances on Saturday nights. When I moved to St. Theresa Ave 56 years ago it was a dirt road beyond Howitt Rd and called Cottage Ave but we had Cottage Rd in the grove so it was confusing and they changed it to St. Theresa’s up to Maplewood, paving most of it.
Life now in West Roxbury is different. No swimming, theatre, bowling, small grocery stores, pharmacy’s. Everything is in big scale, more banks, hairdressers, nail salons and moving fast.
Mary Norton
I remember Burke’s Drugstore on the corner of Centre and Temple Streets. (where Hollywood Nails is now). My father would take me there after church. There was a spa fountain and counter with spinning red leather top stools. I would sit atop the stool and spin around, sipping my vanilla coke out of a thin paper straw, from the paper Dixie cup atop of the silver holder!!
P.W.
“Memories of the fourth of July at Fallon Field, fire works, foot races, free hoodsies!”
Pat M.
Fallon Field with baseball games: six of them, going on at the same time, skating on Fallon Field, skating on Swede’s Pond sometimes at midnight. Saturday at the Rialto for the adventure serial for 10 cents, the Charter Sumner schools with Officer Browneis directing us across Cummings highway each day, the summer reading club with Miss Warner at the Library, hot dogs and banana splits at the Five and Ten.
Dave Hallahan
“I loved Roslindale”. He remembers the “school boy parade” with Major Kelly.
Bill Mulhern
“I remember the Anne Hutchinson and the Charles Sumner schools with Officer Browneis (‘Brown Eyes”) directing us across Cummins Highway each day.”
-the summer reading club with Miss Warner at the library
-hot dogs and banana splits at the Five and Ten
-drinking coke and learning to smoke at the Parkway Spa
all memories of growing up in Roslindale fondly remembered.
Florence Hallahan
Thanks for the Memories West Roxbury! Where to start? The public library in the heart of our community is a logical place. When our five children were babies, my night out involved a trip to Decelle’s to check out the sales on baby clothes, especially pajamas, then on to the West Roxbury library for my week’s escape reading.
The library was a magical place with something for everybody and our children claimed they learned to be quiet in the library before they learned to be quiet in church. On Memorial Day, in 1973 the West Roxbury Congregational Church next door to the library was destroyed in a fire. Fred Kerrick and the Elders of the church decided to donate the land to the Trustees of the BPL. In 1974 Fred Kerrick and I formed the Friends of the WR Branch and after years of hard work, perseverance and community input, on September 24, 1989 an expansive addition with a separate room for West Roxbury’s Historical Society collections was dedicated. The Friends have grown to approximately 535 members and sponsor varied programs for the benefit of library users.
West Roxbury is not only a very learned community but it is also a very caring community. In 1981 a group of like minded people formed the West Roxbury Friends of Rosie’s Place and pledged to support the women and children at Rosie’s Place. This past year the Friends purchased, prepared and served more than 90,000 meals for the women and children at Rosie’s Place and sponsored 13 children for camp at the Vacation House at Sunset Point. West Roxbury residents don’t want any woman or child to go to bed hungry.
One of my favorite memories is of working with the West Roxbury community to create Millennium Park. When Tom Menino was first running for Mayor the people of West Roxbury made it clear that they wanted the Gardner St. Landfill closed and capped. In August of 1994 Mayor Menino asked me to head up a 20 person Advisory Committee to work with an environmental consulting firm, city agencies and the academic community to develop a plan to revitalize the Gardner St. Landfill for public access and use, as well as to protect natural habitats on the site. After an intensive public process and close cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection, closure requirements and a reuse approach were established to ensure public health and safety and environmental quality.
With input from the entire community through monthly meetings and updates and in close cooperation with the local schools and sports leagues as well as the Audubon Society and the Charles River Watershed Assn. the Park was designed and built. In November of 2000 the 100 acre Park larger than the Public Garden and the Boston Common combined was completed with 56 acres of restored side slopes, 26 acres of all purpose playing fields, six miles of walking, hiking and biking trails and a two mile nature trail, picnic areas, bike racks and a canoe landing. Now enjoyed by thousands for passive and active recreation and accessible by public transportation the Park is a cherished green space and common ground and an oasis of tranquility in a turbulent world.
West Roxbury residents have it all, informed minds and caring hearts in sound bodies.
Alice M. Hennessey
Growing up as a child and now at adult, I always love the closeness of the West Roxbury neighborhood and the fact that everyone knew the names of all the families and the children. Back then, there were 5-8 kids to a family. All neighborhood families watched out for one another.
One of my earliest remembrances was coming home from the Patrick F. Lyndon in 1963 with my siblings and neighbors, walking down Schirmer to Garth to Maple, where we lived; and walking down these three streets going by the Carney family, Keneavey family, then by the Joyce Family, the Flaherty’s and the Moussali families, and the Pender family to the Bruen family. Every single family was outside, conversing, women crying - we knew something had happened. We learned that John F. Kennedy, Jr had been assassinated. His death affected every family; the neighborhood was physically and mentally shaken. Years later, as little kids then, we learned the impact this had on a greater scale.
Chucky Bruen
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Parkway Memories
Father Nason,Anita Bryant and marching practice Friday evenings in the Holy Name parking lot.
Lunch at Arthurs Deli after shoveling snow.
Hockey on Trout and Elephant Ponds.
Beercan rock and a case before the CM dance.
The movie theater at Hancock Village.
Joe B.
I can think of the “Greeks” that was at the corner of LaGrange and Centre Streets where the Corrib is now. We used to go there from Billings Field and from band practice at St. Theresa’s School. Of course the Corrib was the infamous Cronin’s Bar. That was where Parrelli Optical was.
Charlies - the penny candy store on Weld and the old-time favorite was Dute’s Delicatessen on the corner of Manthorne and Centre Streets. Growing up here was great. Everyone new each other. You left your house in the morning and just played baseball or basketball at Billings and went home in time for dinner. On our street, there were about 15 kids within 10 years of each other’s age. Never a dull moment.
Ginny C
I remember working at Value Village from 1994 - 1996. Carol, the manager, scared the bejesus out of me initially, but I learned what a great friend she was to all the VV employees. I also remember the huge line extending around the corner waiting to get into Club Buck’s - AKA Buck Mulligan’s at 12am in the late 1990s. Most of the time I snuck in the back way so I didn’t have to wait. I’m pretty horrified now to know that was a major highlight of my college years!
KT
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