Life Stories From Watertown Seniors
Hear from 5 Watertown seniors and their wide-ranging stories of 90+ years of living in the area. I visited The Residence at Watertown Square to chat with Ellen Dupuis, Gene Merullo, Joseph Labianca, Lou Romanelli, and Peggy O'Hara among a room of their peers. They share memories of Watertown over the years and the lessons they've learned from working hard, caring for others, and always keeping a smile on your face no matter what life throws your way.
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This program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Transcript
Matt 0:02
Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode, I sit down for a conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. For this episode, I went over to The Residence at Watertown Square, which is a senior living facility for independent living, assisted living, and memory care. Some of the people who live there have been living in Watertown for 90 plus years. So I wanted to sit down, chat with them, get some of their stories. So we gathered in their function room and had a nice little conversation with a handful of them that were willing to share their stories and others who were just there to listen to their community members, their friends' stories. I thought you would find this interesting, so I'm gonna kick right in with me chatting with Joseph, Gene, Lou, Ellen, and Peggy.
Matt 0:51
So to start off, I'll work my way just to introduce some of those people. So can you just tell me a little bit about how long have you been in Watertown? Yeah, introduce yourself, give your name, and how long you've been in Watertown.
Joseph 1:04
Well, my name is Joseph Labianca, but to my friends and people I love, I'm Uncle Joe. I really never lived in Watertown. My niece Diane Graham and her husband, they live in Watertown. They got me into this place after a real long effort. So I actually lived in Cambridge, Somerville, practically all my life. All my life, until now.
Matt 1:37
Okay, so local. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And did you know about Watertown before coming here?
Joseph 1:41
Oh yes. I've known about Watertown since my niece Diane and her first husband bought a house on Townley Road. Diane and Kevin still live in their house on Townley Road.
Matt 1:56
And do you have any favorite spots in Watertown currently or from years ago?
Joseph 2:02
Oh yeah.
Matt 2:03
Yeah. What are some of your favorite spots?
Joseph 2:05
Well, a couple of the restaurants around there. I don't know, I think Greg's restaurant. Is that a part of Watertown?
Matt 2:14
That is, yeah, I think that's like the last building of Watertown before Cambridge. So yeah, you're in Watertown.
Joseph 2:18
And there was the Star Market where we could buy fresh fruit. As a matter of fact, even when we lived in Somerville, we used to drive to the Star Market in Watertown. So we have quite a few favorite spots.
Matt 2:36
Great. All right. I'm gonna let someone else introduce themselves, but maybe I'll come back to you for another question, all right? All right. Gene, you said you, Gene, right? Yeah, just introduce yourself for people who are listening, and how long have you been in Watertown?
Gene 2:49
Well, I was born and raised in Watertown. I was born in 1931. Oh, you want me to put it real close?. I was born here in Watertown. My grandparents came from Italy. My parents were born here in America. So I'm a native of America. And I was born in my grandmother's the third floor apartment. She owned a lot of property there. She did very well for herself. I went through the school system here. I ended up doing five years of the Navy. And after that, I became a firefighter here in Watertown. And I built a house down in Cape Cod in 1967 and moved down there permanently in 2006 after my mother passed away. She wouldn't come down there with us. So she passed away and we moved down there.
Gene 3:42
And I came back here now. I'll be 95 in three weeks. And I said, you know what? I can't cut the grass anymore. And the bushes are growing, and I can't keep up with the property. So I talked to my kids and said I have to make a few decisions. And I asked my daughter who lives here in Watertown. I have a granddaughter and great-grandkids in Watertown, and around the surrounding communities. And I said, okay, it's time for me to go someplace else. And we've done that now. And I'm here one year, as of September 3rd. I came September 3rd last year. So I'm here one year and trying to keep people smiling.
Matt 4:30
It's an important job.
Gene 4:31
Other than that, that's me.
Matt 4:34
Yeah. And I'm sorry, I don't think you actually said your name for the recording. What's your name?
Gene 4:37
My name is Gene Merullo. Eugene Merullo. Okay. My father was Eugene Sr. I'm Eugene Sr. And my son was Eugene Jr. And the three of us were on the fire department, had careers in the fire department.
Matt 4:53
Right. I'll probably come back for more details on that, but to stay in line with the questioning, do you have any favorite spots in Watertown?
Gene 5:01
Do I have any favorite spots in Watertown?
Matt 5:03
Current or past?
Gene 5:04
Well, I heard Joe mentioned Greg's restaurant. That's a great place to eat. And I like Watertown. I think it's a great town. There's no question about it. Well, it's a city now, so yeah, we're getting to be like Cambridge and Somerville and Boston. And I hate to see that, but unfortunately they decided that's what's best for us. So anyway, I came back here to spend time with my family and see what develops and try to keep people smiling, that's all. I'm always smiling, and people say to me, Gene, you're always smiling. Why? And I say, mind your business. Okay. You don't know what I was smiling at. You don't know what I was thinking before I smiled, right?
Matt 5:50
You’ll share your smile, but not your thoughts?
Gene 5:53
Well. No, no. You gotta walk around with a smile, you know. So that's me.
Matt 5:58
Awesome. Well, I'll come around because one of my questionings later is gonna be about jobs, so hearing about your firefighter stories will be interesting. Uh, you two had raised your hands, right? So why don't you introduce yourselves?
Lou 6:10
I'll take it. All these people are my friends. I want you to know that. Gene Merullo, you just talked to him. We’ve known each other since we were kids. Our fathers used to hang around together. And his dad was a prize fighter in Watertown. And he was a captain of the Watertown Fire Department. Now, I will come to my story. I'm a Watertown resident all my life, 90 years. I grew up in West Watertown. I have five children, 13 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. I don't like to say I too much. I go all the way back to Clark’s Corner Store, Watertown Tab, the old police station, Watertown High School. I don't say I. Happened to be captain of the football team and track team in Watertown. We won two state championships, my sophomore and senior year. Very proud of that part of Watertown.
Lou 7:23
I grew up in a very, very ethnic background. All the people in my neighborhood were Loredan, Mariucci, and Cormari. And I was nothing but a connoisseur of Italian cooking. You can tell by the names of the people. Whenever we wanted eggs or chicken, we wouldn't go to the store. We would go to the backyard and get them out of the chicken coop or the barn. So anyway, I told you I raised five children. They went to school. All thank you to Watertown. When I was 14 years old, my dad passed away. And the town of Watertown took me in. The AMVETS Post 14 used to send food over. These fire and policemen used to send food. Make sure my mother was all right. Thank God for Watertown again.
Lou 8:25
I grew up here. The only people I knew in Watertown when I first came here were Irish and Italian. Why? Because I went to St. Patrick's Parochial School. But in the sixth grade, I transferred due to my football coach to Watertown High School. It was like going to college. Let me tell you something. Then I found out there were Armenian people, Asian people, all kinds of people. And I knew right then and there I was in America. It was great. And I learned something every night from these people, no matter where they came from. We sat underneath the grapevine and we listened to stories. Mr. Phillips, Mr. Moxley from Ireland, all the Italian people, all the German people, all the Jewish people. We learned every day. We didn't have to go to college. We learned in the backyard. Hey, I can talk about Watertown for a long time.
Matt 9:26
Oh, yeah, I'll come back to you. Don't worry. But I don't actually think you said your name into the mic for the people who are listening in.
Lou 9:32
My name is Luigi Romanelli. Lou.
Matt 9:35
Great. Thank you, Lou. All right. Ellen, right?
Ellen 9:40
Yeah. Ellen Dupuis. I've been in Watertown since 1955. I've raised five children that went through all the schools in Watertown. So a lot of people here think I know everything about Watertown, but it's not me. They might know my children. I had two boys on the Watertown Police Department. So when the police and fire department come in, they give me big hugs, and everybody say, You know everybody. I don't know everybody. It's my children. They knew my children. So it's great when they came in. But now I don't get any more hugs because they've all retired. And now it's the younger group of young people in the police and fire department. So they don't know me anymore. But it's amazing. It's amazing. Someone the other day that works at the desk says, You're not Jackie's grandmother, are you? And I said, Yeah. Oh, I know Jackie from Newton. I mean, that's how everybody thinks, oh, everybody knows you. That's why. Yeah.
Matt 10:39
Nice. And do you have any favorite spots in Watertown?
Ellen 10:42
I like Greg's restaurant too, but it's difficult to get to now, so I haven't been there for a long time. Yeah. I've been here almost three years. The reason is my son lives in Watertown. We owned the house in the next street in Watertown. So this was close enough for them to be able to reach me. And they didn't want me alone where I was because I fell and they said no more. So they came to this place when I was in rehab. I didn't even see it when I arrived. And I've been here almost three years.
Matt 11:15
Gotcha. Nice. Well, thank you for introducing yourself. Was there someone else who raised their hand that I missed? Okay. Great. Well. If you feel like there's anything you want to add on at some point, feel free to raise your hand too and be involved as well, okay? Thank you, brave volunteers, for being part of this. So now that I know some of your stories of things that you've been involved with, let me follow up on a little bit now. So, Gene, tell me about being a firefighter in Watertown. Why did you want to become a firefighter? How did you get involved with being a firefighter?
Gene 11:50
My father was a firefighter. He was the first Italian appointed to the Watertown Fire Department. Okay. And like Lou says, he was a prize fighter. He's actually the New England champion 12 years in a row. He had over 225 fights and he lost 12. He was a little guy. He fought in the 114 pounds, 118-pound class. Every week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night, he’d go in and fight three rounds, boxing and stuff. And I ended up, when I came out of the Navy, he said to me, by the way, they're having a firefighters exam in November. Are you interested? And I said, Yeah, sure. So I took the exam and I managed to get appointed to the fire department, and I did 32 years there. And my son followed me. So I followed my father. My son followed me, and my son passed away just about a year and a half ago from cancer. He was a captain also.
Gene 13:01
So firefighting was actually helping people. That was the nicest thing you could do. There were some bad things that you didn't like to take home that you saw what went on. One night we lost three young kids in a fire, and that wasn't something you swallow too easily. And I'll never forget my first assignment on the rescue when a man died while we were transporting him to the hospital. And I didn't get over that for about four or five days after it. So, you know, it was always the feeling that you helped people, more ways than one.
Gene 13:46
And like I say, my father built a house down at Cape Cod and you wanted me to build next door to him. And I said, no, I'm gonna try to build on a freshwater lake. And I did. And it was very successful. I built the house in 1967, and like I say, I didn't move there permanently until my mother passed away. She wouldn't come down there with us. So that's me. So I came back here just a year ago, like I say, because I've got my family here. I got married, I married an Irish girl from Ireland. She came over here when she was 18 years old. And I'm gonna tell you that she was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Gene 14:34
And we had four kids. And out of those four kids, we had 10 grandkids. And out of those ten grandkids, we have 11 great-grandkids. So we're doing well as far as production is concerned. And everybody's smiling, so we're a very happy group. I'm surrounded mainly by my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids. And I like nothing better than to have them come and visit me here and crawl all over me and crawl all over my bed and all that stuff. That's what it's all about. So I'm here now. I know what we have to do, and I keep smiling.
Matt 15:13
Yeah. And were you at the Main Street fire station or East End fire station?
Gene 15:18
Well, I did time in all of them. I did 10 years in the headquarters before I became a lieutenant. I got promoted as a lieutenant. Then I moved over to Station 3 on Orchard Street. And I stayed there for 17 years as a lieutenant because I was so busy. I had a part-time job. I worked as a marine cargo surveyor. I ended up working on that job for 44 years. So anyway, after that, I worked on station two. So all three of the stations I worked at. And then I said, you know what? It's getting time, you're getting old, you might be retiring. So I took a captain's exam and I got promoted to captain. And I stayed a captain. They were all after me, you gotta study to be the chief. You can be the chief of department. I said, no thanks. I'll stay right where I am. That's fine as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to go any further. And that's what I did. And like I said, I stayed with the other job 44 years. So it worked out well. Very, very well. So we were very fortunate. And I lost my wife nine years ago. And I tried to stay in the house and keep it up myself, but I couldn't do it, you know. So I said, okay. And here I am. Thank you.
Matt 16:40
Thank you. Thank you for sharing a little more. All right. I’ll move over to you. So what was your work? What kind of job did you have in the area? Did you work in Cambridge and Somerville when you were there?
Joseph 16:50
Well, actually, after the army, I went into Gillette Company, and they had a program where you could sign up and they'll help you get your degrees and all that, with the monies involved. But anyway, I ended up with an associates degree in business management. And I ended up with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. But the biggest thing was that with Gillette's support, as I increased my education, they increased my ability to get promotions, bids on two different jobs. So I really went from place to place with Gillette. I worked in South Boston, the Prudential Center, all over. Then when Proctor and Gamble was gonna take over, we had a program where if you took an early retirement, Proctor and Gamble would give me a big bonus for, you know, quitting at 62. So I decided to take the big bonus and that turned out to be quite well because I could do things with my family that I couldn't do while I was working. You know, not that they were bad, but I had to get permission to take vacation days, etc. etc. Whereas if I was on my own and I could go do a lot of activities with my family, naturally. I chose the big bonus and I decided that it would be best to go with my family.
Matt 18:35
Yeah. And during the work, was there anything about the work that you did that was your favorite part of it?
Joseph 18:41
Oh yeah, I loved every part of what I was doing. And then when I got my Bachelor of Science degree, I started to work at the Prudential Center. And my official title was Assistant Financial Control Administrator. Don't ask me what power, but I really didn't have the power, but I was there with people that I got to talk with, that I would never have gotten the opportunity to talk with if I had not gotten my Bachelor of Science degree, and Gillette's support of me.
Matt 19:20
Nice. Thank you for sharing about that. All right. Yes, Ellen.
Ellen 19:24
I would like to do a little brag. I had five children, nine grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.
Matt 19:32
Someone's been keeping count of the numbers thrown around.
Ellen 19:34
I’m beating everybody.
Matt 19:36
Yeah. Well, what was your work, Ellen? Tell us about that.
Ellen 19:39
I was an RN. I went into nursing school, graduated from high school at 17, received my RN when I was 20. So I was working most of the time as nursing in a hospital and enjoyed every minute of it. And I'm still putting my two cents in here when I see someone that doesn't look like they're okay. They're telling me, didn't you retire, Ellen? But when I see something wrong with someone, I'm usually clue right in and help them. You can't lose it.
Matt 20:09
Yeah. And what hospitals did you work at?
Ellen 20:11
I worked at, the last hospital was Winchester, and I worked at Sancta Maria for a long time, but it closed. And then I went to Winchester. We all went, the whole group went to Winchester or Newton-Wellesley. So that's where I retired from. I'm 67 when I retired. I retired when all this extra electronic stuff came in. I said, no way.
Matt 20:35
Yeah. And why did you get into nursing to begin with?
Ellen 20:38
I don't know. I remember walking through to go to the high school, and my mother said, What do you want to be? And I blurted out nursing, and I don't know why. It just came out of me. But that was young. I think I was one of the youngest. Three of us were only 20 when we graduated. Most of them were 23 or 4. So it was fun. We had to live there, though. We lived, it was a three-year program. However, we worked 12 months. We only had a couple of weeks off of vacation. And then after the second year, we were really in charge of a whole floor. You know, as a student, we were in charge of the floor. No RN there because it was evenings and nights. No, they made us do that.
Matt 21:20
Do you remember a first impactful story from those early years?
Ellen 21:24
I just remember the first person that died. I think I was a wreck. But I had just graduated and we went in and found it. It was hard. Yeah.
Matt 21:34
What were the best parts of the job?
Ellen 21:36
Just enjoying helping people and seeing people get well. Everybody comes in the hospital scared. You know, nothing bothers me now. But they laugh at me here because I'm always saying when something's wrong with someone, they say, You're retired.
Matt 21:50
Yeah. You can't lose the knowledge, you can't lose the instincts.
Ellen 21:54
No. You can never lose the nursing.
Matt 21:55
Yeah. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, Lou. What was your work experience around here?
Lou 22:00
Okay. You need about a month to talk to me and Gene.
Matt 22:04
Let me hold this for you because you're a hand talker, so I'll let you use your hands.
Lou 22:07
That's because I'm Italian-American. First of all, I'd like to meet my girlfriend. They call girlfriend, but more than that, Gerry is my friend. That's more than a girlfriend. That's a friend forever. She comes from Watertown. I went to school with her brothers in St. Pat's, which is defunct now. I have an advantage here. I went to two schools, St. Pat's, all Irish, a few Italians. And I went to Watertown High School. Armenian, Jewish, Italian, Greek, Turks, a different world, but a very good world to know how to handle people.
Lou 22:55
So after high school, where I told you we won the championships of the state, I took an apprenticeship. Brick laying, cement, fence, and tire work, Local 15 in Waltham for three years. Just like going to college. Better than going to college and made a good living, as you could tell, by my family and my friends. Okay? After that, I left for the construction trade, which I was a foreman in reinforced construction on high-rise houses, all kinds of construction. I left there. I didn't know my credentials from Watertown construction were going to lead to something even better. I became the superintendent of buildings, grounds, and the athletic fields at Brandeis University, where they found out they had someone who wanted to learn, sending me to school to learn how to take care of athletic fields. I already knew about the construction part.
Lou 23:58
So I was in facilities management. If they want to know something about this place, I'll tell them. And you know something? I do tell them. And they listen. But sometimes they said they're full of baloney. But I have the credentials for that. And I can tell you about Watertown, the Shamrock Athletic Club was right in Watertown. AMVETS Post 14, the fellows came over the Second World War took care of me when I was a widow kid. I mean, they were very good to me. People like Gene, his dad, those people came and helped us kids. We made them proud, really. So that's what I got to say. But like I say, you need a couple of months for us two to tell you about Watertown.
Matt 24:44
Yes, I know I'm just scratching the surface today.
Lou 24:46
I would like to mention a few names if this goes on TVs. People that, families that helped me with the Brandolinos, the Moxleys, the Phillips, people like that took us in when we were kids and showed us the right way. We became good Americans. Thank you. Thank you Watertown very much.
Matt 25:10
Thank you. Excellent. Did you want to share anything, Peggy? Or did you want to stay?
Peggy 25:15
There's nothing really important.
Matt 25:17
Well, it doesn't have to be important. Other people always find other people's stories interesting. Yeah.
Lou 25:22
Matt, excuse me. I'd like to mention one more thing. The fellow who lives right on the fourth floor here. He's from Watertown High. His name is Jim Lopez. He was my idol when I was a kid playing ball in Watertown. Jimmy went to Yale University and was recruited by Vince Lombardi. Jim Lopez on the fourth floor here.
Matt 25:47
Okay, thank you. I'll squeeze through here. Hi. Do you want to just introduce yourself?
Peggy 25:54
Oh, my name is Peggy O'Hara. I'm one of the Irish people from Watertown. I was born and brought up in Watertown, went to St. Pat's school and church, and I still go to that church. I've got three siblings. My parents were from Ireland. My father was one of 13 children from Galway. But I didn't know my grandparents on his side. And I didn't really know my grandparents on my mother's side because her family came from Ireland also. I became a nurse and I, like Ellen, I don't know why, but my mother just said that you always said you were going to be a nurse. So that's what I did. I was working at Sancta Maria where I met Ellen. Then I went back to school to get my BSN and my master's degree in teaching. So I taught nursing school at a couple of colleges. And that's what I retired from, the teaching part of it.
Peggy 26:47
The only thing I can think of that was of note, not on my part, but my mother's father worked at Lewandos. It was a cleaning place right at the delta there. There was a fire there, and he was severely burned and passed away from it. So that, I think that was in the paper. So I think that's about all. I don't have any children, but I have 11 nieces and nephews. One of my nieces said, Well, you have children. You've got us and you've got all your students. But I had adult students, which was great. They were great to work with. And I've got nine great nieces and nephews.
Peggy 27:21
Awesome. And do you have a favorite spot in Watertown?
Peggy 27:23
Oh, we never went out to eat much. My father didn't like eating out. So the only thing we did to go out was every Sunday after church, we'd come home and have dinner. And then my father would take us for a ride around different places. But he always stopped at an ice cream place on the way home. Wallace's was in Framingham, and Woodlands was the place in Watertown. So that's probably my favorite place.
Matt 27:48
Nice. Thank you.
Lou 27:50
Matt, can I tell you one thing? When Peggy O'Hara came here, that's Miss O'Hara. I met her and I said to her, Is Buddy O'Hara your cousin? Why? He was a character of Watertown, right, Peg? A great guy, a hell of an Irishman, but a good friend. His name was Buddy O'Hara. Gene knows him. We had a lot of fun. But a Watertown character. I thought I’d mention his name.
Matt 28:20
All right. I'm getting a whole list of names here I'm gonna have to look through. Yeah. All right. Maybe, I mean, you've already mentioned some things, but what is one thing about Watertown from decades ago that you think people, like I moved to Watertown 15 years ago, what wouldn't I know about Watertown that you think would be interesting for us to know about? Or Cambridge, Somerville, you know, this local area, anything interesting that someone who moved here just in the past 15 years wouldn't know about this area that you think we should know?
Joseph 28:49
Well, actually, like I say, when I was still living in Somerville, there's a place called Eastern Clothing. And if you want to look like a successful business person, you should go to them. And sometimes when they give you a price, just close your eyes and say, okay. Because if you want to look like a successful business person, you just go in there and ask for Maria. She will see what you want and she will give you a price. And like I say, you gotta close your eyes and say, okay, Maria, do it. So a lot of people don't realize that Eastern Clothing exists. And I asked my niece about it, like I say, this is way, way beyond her. She says, oh yeah. But she gave me the same advice. Talk to Maria, close your eyes, and say, okay. So if Maria is seeing this, hi Maria, love ya. Maybe, maybe next time a little more discount. Thank you.
Matt 30:05
Yeah. Thank you. How about you, Gene? You got anything interesting that you think someone who only knows Watertown the past 15 years would find interesting about the Watertown of old?
Gene 30:15
No. you know, on the fire department. The unfortunate thing about being a firefighter is you get to see the nasty side of life, okay? And you gotta keep an eye open and that smile on your face and bring people together again. And that's the difficult part about that. But you always felt good when you helped somebody and they appreciated it. It's wonderful, wonderful. I worked hard all my life. I worked two jobs, like I say, all my life. And I did a little education for an associate degree, and I was successful. God was good to us. You know, family came by, everything worked out great. I have four kids that are wonderful kids. They're all college kids. They did a very, very nice job. I'm very proud of them. So Watertown itself was always good to me. I'd go to war for Watertown. Well, I actually did. Five years in the Navy. I was on aircraft carriers on the flight deck, so.
Matt 31:20
Where did you get this philosophy of needing to smile through everything? Where did that come from?
Gene 31:24
Well, I don't know. I just, that's me. You know. Unfortunately, I have to wear these pressure socks, and I have the girls and the guys come in and take them off at night in the morning and stuff, and I say that now when you come through that door, I want to see your teeth. What do you mean? I want to see your teeth. You wear a smile on your face, and you keep people guessing why you're smiling, okay? And you'll get a lot further in life with a smile on your face. If you come in with a frown, I'm gonna tell you to get out. So now it's got to a point where I've been here a year, but I got most of them now that come walking through the door, and they'll come walking through with a frown, deliberately. And I say, wait a minute, wait a minute, turn right around and get out. And then they turn around. I know what you want to see. Good. And when you leave, I want to see the teeth again because that means we had a good relationship.
Gene 32:24
So I got people smiling, and they all say to me, well, not all of them, but 99% of them, you know, you're fun to work with. I like to come to you. When I see 410, I come running right away. I say, well, that's nice to know. And you know what? The smile pays off, doesn't it? So I'm getting good attention around here, right? I'm happy and you're happy. So that's good in that respect. All right? I'm not talking about Watertown, I'm talking about people in general. And Lou mentioned a lot of people that we've been very friendly with over the years, and yes, they've been good friends too, so.
Matt 33:08
Thank you. All right, Ellen, do you have anything that you'd like to tell people about Watertown of the past?
Ellen 33:14
No, I think Watertown, when we had the marathon bombing, boy, it was unbelievable how close everybody got. It was wonderful. I come from the West End, but in the East End, when it was all over, I heard that the people lined up on the street with American flags and were waving them. And it was like, whoa, what's going on here? Well, that's something we can be proud of, too, how much we helped. But Gene has a saying, as long as we wake up and can put both feet on the ground, one day at a time, at this age.
Matt 33:48
Thanks. All right, Lou, do you have anything to tell people about Watertown of the past that they wouldn't know about from looking at it now?
Lou 33:54
I remember all the people that came from Europe that worked in the factories, Hood Rubber, Haartz-Mason, Bemis, Odell's, all those factories. I remember being a kid bringing their lunch down, peppers and eggs, Italian bread. They all sat outside, 100 some degrees, with paper hats on. You know why? Because they want us kids who are the kids and part of the greatest generation of America ever lived. I remember them poor souls, giving their life up, working hard. That's all they did was work hard. I don't care what nationality were. They came to America to work. Beautiful. I'm just going to say that's old fashioned. I remember them all. I can still see them going to work, midnight shift, 7 o'clock shift, unbelievable. Here we are. The kids of them. Thank you very much, Mom and Dad, and everybody. Thank you for Watertown. Thank you.
Matt 35:03
Thanks. Great. Well, I mean, I've gotten a lot of information from you guys from stories, but is there anything else that you feel like any of you want to get off your chest, you feel like you didn't get out there, or that you want people in Watertown to know? Just putting that out there. If not, that's fine too.
Lou 35:19
You know, I don't want to, you keep asking for something. I would like to tell you. When I first came, went to the football team at Watertown High School, my father, he was alive then. He said to me, Junior, where are you going tomorrow? The Waltham supermarket just opened up, they're hiring kids and stocking shelves. I said, Pa, I'm going out for football at Watertown High School. Don't waste your time over there. He said to me, Who's the coach? I said, Joseph Veno. He said, Oh, Joe Veno used to play for the Washington Redskins. I said, yeah. He said, okay, go over there. Go out for football. I did. I walked in the field. I was only 15, 16 years old, and I looked at all the kids. Armenians, Italians, Greeks, Turks, and Irish. I said, oh my God, he's never going to teach these kids how to play team sports. Their fathers never played team sports.
Lou 36:25
Well, three years later, with his teaching and the help of his coaches, they turned out to have a championship state team. All foreign kids. Never knew what the hell a football was. He turned out amazing. I said, that can happen. That can happen through life. Give these kids a chance. Let them be an apprentice boy. Let them learn. Don't give them everything. Let them work for it. Don't say, here, here, here. Go to work. You want skates? Yeah. How much? $15. That's what they were then. Go to work. I can't buy you skates. I can't buy shoes for myself.
Lou 37:08
This was great. It was the great experience. You should have more shows like this. I wish more people came. Very interesting. A lot of good stories to tell you. I'm very happy with the situation. A lot of things I ain't happy with, but I'm very happy with these people here. Everybody I met. It can get better, it can get worse. But you want to know something? As long as my generation is around, it will get better. Thank you.
Matt 37:39
Thank you, Lou. Great. Well, I'll wrap this up then so you can, I hear 11:30 is a transition time for you guys. We're at 11:27, so this is like perfect timing then. So thank you all for coming out, for sharing your stories, and for listening to each other. And I hope you had some fun. Thank you.
Matt 37:56
So that's it for my conversation. Hope you enjoyed getting to know Joseph, Gene, Lou, Ellen, and Peggy as much as I did. So again, they're over at the Residence at Watertown Square, senior living facility, and you can hear, by the way they talk about each other, that they have a nice community over there. All right, if you want to listen to other episodes of the podcast, you can head on over to LittleLocalConversations.com. You can find upcoming events, you can find my weekly newsletter if that's your type of thing. If you'd like to help support the podcast, you can click on the button in the menu that says Support Local Conversation, keep more of these community conversations coming. And you can support at whatever amount is comfortable for you, get to call yourself a Little Local Friend. Again, all of that is over at LittleLocalConversations.com.
Matt 38:41
Alright, I want to give a few shout outs here to wrap things up. I want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council, who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shoutouts to promotional partners. First, the Watertown Business Coalition. Their motto is Community is Our Business. Find out more about them and their events at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper. It's a great place to keep up to date with everything going on in the city. Check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
