Sunday, December 20, 2020

Rare Photos of Locust Street, Medford 1969....by your very young editor

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Image is a scan of the original photo; I can have them professionally upgraded at some point. 

TRANSAMERICA FREIGHT LINES, INC.

LOCUST ST.

MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS   1960s


 

Back in 1969 my dad moved A & A Trucking (which he founded the year I was born) from Boston to Locust St., to what became Shaws and then the new condos on Locust St. Photos Copyright (C)1969, 2020 Joe Viglione. 

 So go back in time...51 years...Transamerica Company. They also hired my dad to help run their operation as well as his own. He's a brilliant guy.  Interesting that he rented space for his trucks and the other trucking company figured out that he'd be great directing their company.

 

Locust St. has changed from a drive-in theater to a mall to Wegmans, and across the street from Transamerica to Shaws to the condos near Eastern Bank. Time travel. 

 


 At the age of 15 I started publishing movie reviews in a fanzine we called Varulven Magazine.   My girlfriend from journalism class at Arlington High  and other friends at 17 (well, she was 18, I dated an older woman!) would write reviews when we went to the Meadow Glen Drive In and the Wellington Drive In week after week.  The reviews appeared in Varulven Magazine, of course.  My best buddies would come with us, double dates, one writing for the magazine.  We're still best friends to this day, though he's married and out in California.  We also worked on the school paper, the Chronicle, which I've published on this blog.  Yours truly as Entertainment editor or some title.   So at 15 I always brought my camera around....51 years later....I still bring my camera around...much to City Hall's chagrin!  HA HA

So Medford Information Central is truly transformation from the movie reviews from the Meadow Glen Drive-in to Medford city hall.   These pictures proof of our documenting Medford spanning 51 years!   Great stuff!


Across the street from Transamerica Freight Lines, Inc. was and still is CARR DEE TEST BORING which was then owned by the late Al DeSimone.  Great guy.  We miss him. Al being the uncle of one Johnny Byers....

I was Al's personal caddy as he and my dad won golf tournaments up in Andover...they were a team.    

In the 1970s dad left the trucking business and we opened a wholesale company on Park St.  Johnny Byers father worked for our new company there on Park Street as did Johnny's grandma Natalie and aunt Josephine.   I would drive Josephine home every night to Chipman Ave.    Carl Galusi from TV3 worked for Hunt Pharmacy (now Hunt Photo and Video) and would visit us as did manufacturer's rep Paul Donato.  From manufacturer's rep to state rep...with mayor in between.


In a total coincidence, my dad lived on Park Street with my and his uncle Benny when he was dating my mom.   Mom lived on the same street in Somerville as Bob Penta.

 BUT - before nana and grandpa moved to Somerville, they lived in a duplex in East Boston.  The people on the other side of the East Boston home?   Natalie, John Byers grandmother lived next door to my grandparents and my mom.  Which is how we knew them.

 
I only met Johnny Byers, host of TV3 Medford, at City Hall in 2010.  My dad saying to me "that's the son of John Byers who worked for us."   And that's how I met my good friend Johnny, at Medford City Hall.   It's a small world.


There's some real Medford history for you.

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