A Look at Edmunds Street 1930-1945

Edmunds Street Looks Better Today

Looking south  on Edmunds Street --2009

You could probably live in North Cambridge for years – even for a lifetime –  without ever visiting Edmunds Street.   Most people probably never heard of it, and wouldn’t know where it is.  A very small, dead-end side street off Massachusetts Avenue,  Edmunds Street was like a tiny residential  island with only four houses.  It was surrounded on all sides  by  active  business and busy commercial properties, including the Boston and Maine Railroad. All four of its houses faced Massachusetts Avenue to the east.

            Families who lived on Edmunds Street all greeted each other politely, but none seemed  very close socially.  The Callahan family lived in the first house.  The second house was occupied by two generations of the Larson family, one family on the first floor, the other on the second floor.  The younger generation had a son about my age, Jack Larson, and we were childhood friends while he lived on the street.

The third house—next door-- was occupied by the Cassidy family, who lived on the second floor.  Sometime around 1938 the Bettini family lived on the first floor.  In our house, the two generations of the Poirier  family lived on the second floor, and the Baldwin family lived on the first floor.  Some  other families lived  on Edmunds Street during the 1930s  or early 1940s, but  I can’t remember the names.

Edmunda St. Looking north - 2009

            
The view to the east faced busy Massachusetts Avenue.   All four homes on Edmunds Street faced the sights and sounds of the constant flow of traffic, including electric streetcars, on Massachusetts Avenue. A Socony-Mobil gasoline station stood on the northwest corner of the street, and in the 1930s a Sunoco gasoline station was built on the other side, the southwest corner of Edmunds Street.  Adding to the sounds of autos and trucks, you could hear the grinding whine of the electric streetcars.  Especially from the second-floor porch of each house, you could see all the traffic activity on Massachusetts Avenue.  There were no trees, no foliage to block your view on Edmunds Street..  The only tree I can remember on the street was a big cherry tree in back of our house, and even that one was blown over in one of the hurricanes--possibly the great hurricane of 1938.

Electric Streetcars had a spring-loaded arm with a wheel at the end that  reached up to  contact  the high-voltage wires that were suspended  openly,  about 15 to 20 feet above the roadway on Massachusetts Avenue..  These wires would often make a clicking sound as streetcars traveled back and forth from the end of the line at Arlington to the subway station at Harvard Square.    All four houses had a porch on the first floor and another on the second floor. We lived upstairs on the second and third floors, so we enjoyed the view from the open porch on the second-floor.

South side--2d floor large  kitchen window

Looking out our second-floor kitchen window toward the south we saw the Clark coal yard, and on the other side of it, the Boston and Main Railroad tracks.  The railroad tracks may have been about 150 feet from the house, close enough to hear the roar of the steam engine and feel the house shake when a long freight train came by.   The six-foot wooden fence that encircled the Clark Coal Company closed off the end of Edmunds Street.   Looking out across the railroad tracks we could see the old, three-story brick building that once was the Catholic “French school” attended by my father.  Next to it was the old, wooden “French church” as it was called in North Cambridge.  Both of these old buildings had been sold to local  businesses when the new Catholic church and school buildings were built at Rindge Avenue.

The view from the second-floor dining room window, facing north, was the side of the Cassidy family’s house.  Houses were built fairly close together on Edmunds

Street, with about 10 feet of space between them.

Looking westward,   the view was from the back bedroom on the third floor.  This was our Grandfather’s bedroom while he lived with us.  From there you could look down over the Metropolitan Ice Company’s plant covering around a half acre.  You could see the office building and the large, wooden barn-like buildings built along the railroad tracks.  They held old electric ice delivery trucks – retired years ago -- and equipment.  Ice delivery trucks were coming in and out of their plant during business hours. 

It was a cool place to work.  On the west side of  the Metropolitan Ice plant there was a large refrigerated warehouse-like freezing plant that produced large  “bars” of ice overnight, and pre-scored them for cutting with an ice pick.  One of the marvels of the day was a drive-up, coin-operated ice-dispensing unit where you could get a 15-pound block of ice or a bag of crushed ice.   

In those years, many homes had iceboxes.  Few had electric refrigerators until around the 1940s, I believe.  Our family bought its first refrigerator around 1940 when my sisters both had jobs and could help our parents buy it.  Later on, during my first year of high school, I worked as a part-time helper on an ice delivery truck—Crystal Ice-- that served a good part of North Cambridge.  

The ice truck was  a 1938 Dodge one-ton, dual,  flat bed with a red cab and solid sides, designed so that a heavy canvas could slide over the ice on board to shield it from the sun and dust.    It also had a fuel oil tank installed behind the cab, and was equipped with a metered pump and long hose reel.  This enabled the owner to deliver heating oil to  families along the route during the winter.  The business owner printed square cards, with large numbers on all four edges.  The customers would place the card in a window with the desired number at the top,  signifying a delivery needed for  a  25-pound, 50-pound or 100-pound block of ice  to be placed in  their icebox.  Some customers lived on the third floor, and that was a workout with a heavy block of ice.

There was a big, old cherry tree in the back yard between our house and the Metropolitan Ice Company.  It was blown over by one of the hurricanes.  In those summer seasons when it was still standing, the foliage blocked  most of the view of the commercial scene below.

There was another industrial building nearby.  Cottage Park Avenue was another tiny dead-end street off Massachusetts Avenue, the next street north of Edmunds Street.  Cottage Park Avenue curved around until it reached the entrance of the Metropolitan Ice Company.  Adjacent to the Ice company was another industrial site,  The Emerson Respirator Company.  This three-story brick building could be seen from our house, too.   

            Although Edmunds Street ended  at that time at the coal company fence,  local young people  had -- for years – walked through  the back yard of our house as a short cut  to cross the railroad tracks and get to Harvey Street on the other side.  They would pass through a hole in the short section of wooden railroad fence.  It was only about 20 feet wide, closing a gap between the coal company and Metropolitan Ice Company’s sheds next to the tracks.  Somehow, there always seemed to be one board missing.  So we were resigned  to  not knowing  who may come walking through our back yard from one day to the next.  In the years of the Great Depression, we didn’t complain about small stuff, because we were thankful for the roof over our heads and the food on our table.  We still feel that way today.

I believe this may explain how Edmunds Street was truly a tiny residential island, its four houses almost surrounded by business and commercial property and activities including the Boston and Maine Railroad.  .  This was the neighborhood setting I lived in for 17 years.  I really loved to get a change of scenery now and then when the family went on “Sunday drives” through the farms and countryside or to the Atlantic beaches.  As a child, I really looked forward to these drives, especially because there was usually a stop along the way for a treat -- a big ice cream cone or some delicious fried clams. These were the good family memories that I still treasure.

I admired the great family  neighborhoods surrounding me in North Cambridge where kids had a lot of other kids on the same block to play with.  I visited friends who lived in other neighborhoods.  I  played stick ball with a broom stick and an old tennis ball on Harvey Street.  Occasionally I could join in a spontaneous baseball game at Rindge Park.  So in spite of living  isolated in a kind of  small island,  I nevertheless experienced the good family neighborhoods  that were typical of North Cambridge in those years.

I was blessed by being born into a family of faith

A child of the 1930s,   I was born in August, 1930 at my family’s home on Edmunds Street.  Our house was about 200 feet from the west side of the  busiest main thoroughfare, Massachusetts Avenue  in North Cambridge. Because of the hot and humid  days and nights  in August  folks  described  the weather muggy, or  “dog days.” A doctor came to the house to perform the delivery. A close relative--possibly a great-aunt—Minise Perreault assisted the doctor in a kind of midwife role.  My brother and sisters were discreetly sent to visit a nearby relative, and when they returned, they discovered a new baby brother.

I was born into a bilingual Catholic family. I was the fourth child of Adelard Daniel (Al) Poirier and Regina LeBlanc Poirier.  They were devout French-Canadian-American Catholics.  My father loved music and sang in the church choir.   My parents  were faithful members of Our Lady of Pity Catholic Church on Rindge Avenue.  To its parishioners, it was L’eglise de Notre Dame de Pitie.  To others it was called “the French church” in North Cambridge. Both of my parents spoke English and French in the Canadian dialect, fluently.   The Irish and other English-speaking families were members of nearby St. John’s Catholic Church with a much larger parish, on Massachusetts Avenue. 

           

When I was an infant, my parents named me.  Then, as now, it is a Catholic custom to name a child with a saint’s name. Since I was born so close to August 10^th -- the feast of St. Lawrence, a deacon and martyr -- my parents gave me that name when I was baptized  at Notre Dame Church late in August.  My mother’s youngest sister was a nun, Mother Madeleine LeBlanc.  She was my godmother.  The middle nam Alfred was given to me in recognition of my father’s cousin and friend, Alfred (Benoit) Bennett, who was my godfather.   Being the youngest of the family, my sister Anita was ten years older.  My  brother Gerard (Jerry) was eight years older, and sister Germaine (Gerry) was six years older.  It was good to have two older sisters.  They loved to hold their little baby brother, I was told in later years.  They probably spoiled me but I imagine they were a big help to our mother when I was an infant.  I grew to love them both. Anita died of a heart attack at a young age in 1949, and Germaine died in 1979 after suffering many years with the complications of multiple sclerosis.  I have greatly missed both of them in this earthly life, and I look forward to seeing them again in the eternal life to come, God willing.

Parents, Teen Behavior, and Consequences

Conversations with fathers.  During the past month I have had conversations with several of the fathers in our family. We talked about the almost daily trials in family life.  When a teenager reacts with a  rebellious attitude when parents set family rules, and especially when the parents consistently enforce these rules,  parents and the family all suffer.  The job of parents becomes very trying..   The atmosphere in the family is made uncomfortable.  Yes, this is part of the growing-up process.  This painful process usually ends sometime around the age of 24.

Grandpa says:   This is what I would like to say to all of my beloved grandchildren.   You know your parents love you.  Your Grandparents love you.  Remember that all of us were teenagers once.  Your aunts and uncles too, were teenagers once.  None of us were saints.   For a while, as teenagers, we all thought we were up-to-date with times.  We thought we knew better than our parents. 

But our parents loved us.  They set the family rules and enforced them.  We learned how to live successfully later on in adult life by suffering those consequences.   We took our parents and their love for granted then.  We just thought they were being “way too strict.”

Eventually -- having grown into our twenties, we began to perceive that our parents were really quite smart, after all, and they were actually getting smarter each year!  It seems funny now.  But it wasn’t funny when the rules-and-consequences process was taking place.  In later life, some of us went to our parents and had the humility to say something like, “Mom, or Dad, I’m sorry   for giving you such trouble when I was growing up as a teenager.  I can see now what you must have gone through.”  And sometimes the Mom or the Dad has to turn away to hide  tears.

This, too shall pass.  So be encouraged, and thank God for parents who love you and care enough to go through the pain of disciplining you. Young people believe they can make their own decisions, or do whatever they feel like doing.   But, times and customs may change, and technology may change, and morality may change for the worse, but human nature does not change.

Humans  face basic temptations and  the same behavior problems that existed from the beginning. There is a basic weakness in human nature that is always  trying to draw a person  to do the wrong things instead of doing the right thing . Your parents understand this, and that is why they must make some decisions for you until you grow up and become independent.   

The Apostle  Paul talks about this human weakness in one of his letters.   This basic human weakness is called concupiscence—you can look it up.  It is inherited from Adam and Eve, our first parents.    It affects all of us., and it really helps to be aware of it in making all your choices.  So don’t be discouraged.  This, too, will pass.

Stand United Now with Other Christians to Defend Religious Freedom

 The Manhattan Declaration is a public statement supporting religious freedom   by Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Orthodox Christians.  It defends  religious liberty in the face of growing attacks..  I have signed The Manhattan Declaration.  I invite you to sign it, too.  .Learn more by  clicking on this link:  http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/home.aspx

Religious freedom as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States is  under attack  by  a Godless movement:   secular progressivism.  The issues today  have reached the level of crisis---this is no exaggeration--with the attack on  traditional marriage.  All three branches of our government -- the executive, the legislative and the judicial -- have people working to promote and increase the power of  secular progressivism.  Take a stand with the majority of American citizens to stop this attack.  Our future, and the future of our children, is at risk.

When conscience clauses are struck down, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others will be facing the decision to follow their consciences or be unable to work in their profession. Your taxes and mine will be used to provide abortions, and possibly euthanasia.Medical ethics on issues of life and death will deteriorate.

Clergy who preach the Christian gospel in its fullness may be brought to trial for hate speech.  This is already happening in Canada.  It is unthinkable that it would happen here in the USA..  The threat is real.

Sign the Manhattan  Declaration -- online at  http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/home.aspx.  
Almost a half million Americans of all faiths have signed to date.  Join us.

Let's all resolve to do our  duty  to vote in November .

Reflections on Reaching My 80th Birthday

I can't help feeling very grateful to God  for allowing me to live to see my 80th birthday.
When I was young I wondered if I would live to see age 70--the beginning of this new century--in 2000.
When I was a child in the 1930s, children got polio and were crippled; some died.
The Salk polio vaccine had not been discovered yet.
In those years, I think  the average life expectancy was around 40 to 50 years.
Many people died from pneumonia and various infections.  Antibiotics had not been discovered yet.
I remember in the 1940s,  penicillin was discovered, and began saving lives from pneumonia and other things.
What a blessing it was to have seen these advancements.  Today we take them for granted.


Yes, I am grateful.  I thank Almighty God for the gift of each new day.
In fact,I know that  my next breath comes for God,and the next beat of my heart comes from Him, too.
There are a couple of passages from Sacred Scripture that come to mind:  What is man, mortal man.  that You should care for him?  and,  You even add years to our life to teach us wisdom..


Life is precious.  My brother in Christ Rene Gonzalez died Sunday night. He was married 55 years.
We visited him, prayed and talked with him and his wife Sunday morning.  We all felt  the end of life was near.
He lost a three-year battle with cancer.  We plan to attend his funeral Saturday.

We learned of the  sudden death yesterday of a relatively young man  (probably in his 50s) whose widowed mother we know.   Frank was involved in a deadly vehicle accident.
No one knows the year or the day, as Sacred Scripture tells us.


When I was young, like most young people, I felt invincible.  Death happened to other people.
Today I have a very different outlook on life and death, as you would expect, at age 80.
I always believed that death was not an end of life, but a beginning of a new, eternal life beyond all imagination.
In ancient Catholic tradition, the saints are honored on the day they died, not the day they were born.
In effect, we are  observing   a new birthday, the day of entry into eternal , everlasting life.

It is good that we can talk about these things in an honest and direct way, on my birthday.
Our burial plots have been chosen in in St. Mary's Cemetery in the town where we live.
The funeral director has our instructions.  We want to be considerate of those we leave behind.
In a sense, this is like making plans for a new birthday for us, and a very important one, indeed.

Please pray for us that we will remain faithful until the end, so that on our "final birthday" we will begin a new journey into eternal life, light and peace. By example, we hope we are providing a road map for all our family through this life, so that we all may arrive safely at the beginning of the next one.

God bless you all.

Welcome to This New Blog

                                                                                                                                     AMDG


Greetings I  hope you are having a blessed day and that everything is well with you and yours.

Questions and Answers:  Occasionally I receive questions about the Catholic faith from my family or my friends.  I believe it is very important no only to get the answers if I can, but to make sure they are  correct answers. I hope to use this blog to try to answer questions and make the information available to all.  In this process I may be able to provide links to  some trusted resources for more information.

Prayer petitions can be  requested  online.   I deeply appreciate your prayers, and as some of you know, I send special prayer requests online by email to Our Lady Queen of Angels Monastery at Hanceville, Alabama.  These cloistered nuns participate in perpetual (24/7) adoration prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
This is the monastery of  Poor  Clare nuns founded by Mother Angelica, who began the EWTN international Catholic television network and short wave ratio network.  The incredible story of how these TV and radio networks  began, in my view, is in itself a testimony to the power of prayer.  I am advised not to include their email addresses on this blog, but I will gladly email it directly to you at your request.  And therefore, in the Catholic tradition,  I begin my blog asking for God's blessing In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Political and social issues of the day
I hope to begin a separate  blog to cover issues like the following.  If this happens, I will provide the link in case you are interested.
What is the Manhattan Declaration, and should Catholics sign it?
What is the authentic Catholic position on capitalism and free enterprise?
Why are people leaving  AARP and joining  AMAC?

(and a wide range similar  topics)




Blessings to you and your family.

Finding Faithful Catholic Media

Global Catholic TV  Eternal Word Television Network EWTN  link:  http://ewtn.com/

EWTN is available on  Dish TV, Direct TV, most cable TV.

Global Catholic Shortwave Radio  link:  http://ewtn.com/search.asp
Local AM and FM Catholic Radio in the USA
            Texas -  Guadalupe Radio Network  http://grnonline.info/station-list.php
            Mid-America - Relevant Radio Network   http://www.relevantradio.com/

            (more information on other regions of the US will be added to this post)

Faithful Catholic Books,  eBooks, Videos, Audio

            Ignatius Press  http://www.ignatius.com/

            Emmaus Road Publishing   http://www.emmausroad.org/

            Scepter Press http://www.scepterpublishers.org/

            Sophia Institute Press  http://www.sophiainstitute.com/

            (others may be added later)

Faithful Catholic Newspapers

            The National Catholic Register   http://www.ncregister.com/

            Our Sunday Visitor  http://www.osv.com/

Books, Media  for Daily Personal Prayer and Devotions

            Magnificat – the daily Mass readings and prayers  http://www.magnificat.com/

            Daily  Prayer of the Church  worldwide: 

The Liturgy of the Hours  online:  http://www.universalis.com/

The Three Pillars of the Catholic Church

Like a 3-legged stool, all three pillars work together, and no one pillar can exist alone without the other two. For example, a 3-legged stool cannot stand with only one leg, or with only two legs.  It will fall over. It takes all 3 legs to stand.  In the same way, all three pillars of the Catholic  Church stand together.


The Three Pillars of the Catholic Church are:
1-Sacred Scripture.   All of the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
2-Sacred Apostolic Tradition.  The living tradition of the Church,  the Church Fathers, the Sacred Liturgy
3-The Church’s Magisterium -- the teaching authority of the Pope and all those bishops worldwide united  with him.


Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum, SubSection 3
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I approved 25 June last and the publication of which I today order by virtue of my Apostolic Authority, is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium. I declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion. May it serve the renewal to which the Holy Spirit ceaselessly calls the Church of God, the Body of Christ, on her pilgrimage to the undiminished light of the Kingdom!      (Pope John Paul II)

Want Truth? Go to The Catholic Encyclopedia

The Catholic Encyclopedia online:        http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/

The  Knights of Columbus participated in and supported the monumental task of compiling The Catholic 
Encyclopedia.  It is a trusted source of facts needed by clergy and lay people to support and defend the truth.

Catholic Faith References Online

The Bible Online

New American Bible, Catholic Edition http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.shtml

Old Testament and New Testament.  There are no books missing in the Catholic edition.

Click on Book, click on chapter, scroll to read online

The Catholic Catechism Online

The Catechism of the Catholic Church  http://www.kofc.org/un/catechism/search.action

Enter key word, or chapter number.  Read online.

The Vatican – Rome - The Holy See Website

Official site of the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm

Includes a virtual tour of St. Peter’s Basilica

Click on Library resources, etc.

Year-Long Rosary Prayer Crusade

Rosary Crusade starts Sunday Aug 15.   Sunday August 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.-- a great time to begin this prayer effort.  A complete description of  this crusade is shown on the website of Mary, Mother of All Peoples.motherofallpeoples.com  The crusade is being prayed in several  countries with the encouragement of many bishops.   It continues through  next year, Aug. 15, 2011.

Important current world issues are connected to this effort, including the message of Fatima regarding the promised triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and a time of world peace.