THE FAMILY during the 1910's, 20's, 30's, 40's & 50's .>>>. lived successively in 7 Causeway St, Boston (1918), Houlton ME (1920), 412 Newbury St, Boston MA; Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA & at 344 Market St (where trolley cars during the 1930's traversed Market St, beginning-to-end, battery driven electric trucks delivered goods to stores, the McKinney family maintained, in Brighton Center, a horse stable & a horse auction business, and, where in North Brighton, cattle pens, slaughter houses and a "loud" stench permeated the locale whose cheerleader "sloganeering" members sang "1, 2, 3, 4, We're The Boys From The Abortior, Stink, Stink, Stink"), 588 Cambridge St (interim) & 17 Henshaw St in Brighton (final, then the family disbursed).

In John P Costello's 1918 "Draft" registration card it was noted that: he was 37 years old, b: 1881; native b:; self employed Undertaker; of medium height & build with grey eyes & black hair; living with wife Martha at 7 Causeway St Boston....|PIX: Draft Card WW1|....|PIX: Draft Card WW2|

In the 1920 National Census, the family is living in Houlton ME. John Patrick Costello had establish a funeral business there & had introduced the motor hearse to the local industry. Martha Haggerty (pregnant w/Peg) & John are living w/family on Elm St w/kids: Louise & Mary (later moved to Court St) .>>>. The Costello family soon returned to Boston as daughter Mary developed some kind of intestinal telescoping obstruction that was, according to the then family doctor, Dr Joe Donovan, only curable by Boston medical specialists

In the 1930 National Census, the family is ensconced at 344 Market St in Brighton MA .>>>. where the Chinese controlled the retail laundry trade, the Italians the retail mens barbering/shoe repair & the Irish had all of the pubs & retail liquor outlets. (Barkeep Jim Clifford presided at the Brighton Tavern where he would announce nightly at 10:45, "time gentlemen, time, you dont have to go home but you cant stay here". Everybody would, then, repair to the nearest local "Restaurant" which could "serve" til 1:00 AM; "Taverns" ((no food, liquor only)), then, were legally required to close at 11:00 PM." The First National Store's & the A&P were the dominant retail grocers, along with Horrigan's Market, while Lombardi's with its Italian food specialty's served up big "grinders" for the working guys. Charles A Lindbergh, the aviator with his airship, "Spirit of St Louis" was all the rage. .>>>. John Patrick Costello, age: 49 years, was exempt from service during WW1, is self employed as an Undertaker; we have a radio (a "required to answer" question under 1930 census rules); mother is 44 years old, a home maker; Louise, Mary, Margaret, John Jr, & Richard are attending public school; Thomas & Edward are at home & Daniel has'nt been born yet. .>>>. local public schools , then, were the Winship/Bennett (Primary), Thomas Alva Edison (Intermediate) & Brighton High; A sucessful graduate may have received a gift of a mechanical pencil & foutain pen set. St Columkilles Parish also maintained a local Catholic School, grades 1-12, tuition was $7/month, big money then; we never attended, for some unknown reason.

The Market St residence, |**PIX: Bill of Sale**|, tel no.: STAdium 7312 (subsequently lost to the mortgage holder, ~1940) .>>>. a Federal style brick structure historically dated from the very early 1800's; once belonged to the Sparhawk family, an early Brighton family .>>>. and where Richard Joyce, Thomas Augustus, Daniel Joseph & Edward Daniel were b: .>>>. had 8 rooms: living, dining which contained a print of the 'Horse Fair', kitchen, 5 bedrooms, 8 kids, 2 parents , 1 bathroom , a half busted furnace & an "ice box"; it also had hot water heat, electric toaster, radio, vacuum cleaner, telephone, a disfunctional washing/ironing machine, a single bed for each kid & 2 automobiles (preowned & for business purposes) .>>>. where P&G "laundry" soap was preferential to "ivory" for family use since it lasted longer; it was akin to "GI" soap which lasted for "the duration" .>>>. & where the 3 girls had the big bedroom, w/Queen Anne 4 posters, at the front of the house, 4 boys bunked in 2 smaller BRs in the rear & Tom was stashed, to keep him out of the way, in a mid-level room over the bathroom between the 2nd floor & the attic .>>>. & where dinner was the noon meal & supper the evening one; they served up shredded wheat w/ banana's, oatmeal w/ banana's, boiled dinners, roast beef or leg-of- lamb, as well as some exotic dishs like ox-tail soup, finnan haddie or a souffle & an occasional batch of brown bread from Annie Meikle's Bakery to go with the family baked beans, all served on Blue Willow plateware, glass milk bottles, no cartons then, were disallowed from the table set,(declasse) .>>>. Thanksgiving with its accompanying mid-day meal was a major family event; Mothers old nurse pal always attended, Ms Minnie Fraser, from NS Canada & a lifetime practising Boston RN. The king of the meal was a 25/lb turkey with all of the "fixin's". The day was previewed by an auto trip with all of the kids aboard to the "Benson Animal Farm" in Nashua NH; a necessary trip to keep all of the kids occupied with viewing wild animals/acts & out from underfoot while the main production activities were being enacted at home in Brighton. .>>>. & where ice cream was served only on one's birthday or when one was sick & at no other time .>>>. "Moxie" was the elixir of the "soft drinks", then, but was overwhelmed by "Coke" later on; WW2 turned "Coke" into an international drink .>>>. & where one phone dialed CAPital 1000 for the correct time-of-day if all of the family clocks were exhausted .>>>. & also where most of us, since it was a family business, experienced our first funeral wake .>>>. where brothers John & Dick shoveled snow from the household driveway every winter & were, also, required to put out the ash barrels weekly at the curb side with other household disposals for the city trash collectors to pickup; everyone had coal furnace, thus residual coal ash; no oil heating, then .>>>. where neighbor Mrs Sullivan of Bently St gave us kids money for odd jobs, snow shoveling, leaf raking .>>>. where all of us kids sold magazines to neighbors including Dr Fitzgerald who would always buy the "Saturday Evening Post" but not the "Womens Home Journal", he a retired MD living in a house to the rear of our house with his sisters, .>>>. where brother Dick was allowed to borrow the family car to transport the rest of us & neighboring kids on evening swimming excursions to Lake Walden, now in elitist fashion, known as Walden Pond .>>>. where, in the field next to the house, Italian immigrant women hunted & picked wild dandelions; mother had tried cooking them for the family, but they were a little too edgy or pungent for a meat & potatoes family .>>>. where during Boston's very cold winters, Mr Cusack, a native of Ireland & our USPS mailman, during his rounds was assured a cup of hot black coffee with a shot of whiskey .>>>. where, during "spring cleaning" (every one did it, then) with few vacuum cleaners available, everyone beat their rugs with metal beaters .>>>. where, during the Holy Season of Lent, the entire family recited the rosary on their knees every night; & then, during the autumn, Catholic Missionary priests visited each parish to preach & sermonize the local parishioners every day for a full week; all Catholic's were obligated to attend &, of course, Friday was a fish day, eating fish was substitute for meat; Catholics were prohibited, under the, then, Church rules, from eating meat; it was a symbolic Religous Sacrifice. .>>>. then the Ryan's lived on one side of us, the Sullivan's on the other .>>>. Mr Ryan was a carpentry contractor (put 2 kids thru Harvard) & Mr Sullivan (aka "Son Sullivan") was a competitor Funeral Director/Undertaker. Across Market Street were the Smith's (he was an independent job printer, son Red Smith once saved neighbor kid Buddy Foley from drowning in the Charles R, one could swim there then); the O'Donnell's lived next door to the Smith's (he was a news printer), downstairs from the O'Donnell's, a two family house, lived the Vail family (they lost a son from TB which rendered them exceptionally distrought & depressed which resulted in them succumbing to alcohol; the Foley/Kiernan's were next door (totally poor, had nothing, WPA employed @ $7per week with 8 kids to house, cloth & feed), Wright's & Vanelli's were next, the Vanelli's (grew grapes for wine making, but did'nt share) & Billy Wright exited his priestly study's for the rough & tumble of the retail Pharmacy world .>>>. also across the street, as in most neighborhoods, was the neighborhood candy store, purveyers of milk, bread, cigs which cost 1 cent each or 10 cents per pack & a few groceries, where there was a pay-telephone available to the neighboring residents since many homes were without telephones, this candy store which at one time was operated by Eddie Kiernan, who 'drank' a little & sold a little, followed by Hymie Rudolph, who was somewhat stout & finally Harry Fershpan, a somewhat meek guy, who followed the Red Sox faithfully & had a daughter named "Frenchie", the WW2 "economy" put him out of business, he, then, progressed to the Fore River ship yard at more pay .>>>. Father Coughlin, the radio priest, active radical Socialist & anti-semite could be heard on any Sunday afternoon belching his wrath in most any Boston/Brighton household, but not ours, father did'nt think much of him; the RC Hierarchy, meaning the Catholic Church, belatedly shut him down .>>>. Boston, then, had seven newspapers, a "daily" at 2 cents each & the "Sunday" at 10 cents .>>>. during the 1930s, unemployment peaked at 25%, +/-, of the workforce; most men, that is, those who had jobs, worked 5.5 days per week, while most women were homemakers; after the start of WW2, everybody, man, woman & child was employed in either industry or the armed service .>>>. our radio fare (no TV then) was generally conservative, an occasional broadcast by President FDR, his "Fireside Chats", so called; Lowell Thomas w/Blue Sunoco (gasoline) & the 6:00 o'clock news; on Sundays there was Walter Winchel with "Hello Mr & Mrs North America & all the ships at sea", a sensational kind of news program; also there was: Bob Hope with his comedy; Kate Smith w/"God Bless America", but no "Gangbusters" or "shoot-em-up" serials/programs, bad for kids --

At the Henshaw St residence |**House Listing**|, there were 10 rooms , less people but still only 1 bathroom although mother had her own chamber pot and where for varing periods of time Aunt Mary Haggerty & various Haggerty cousins Alice, Jack&Alice (Jack d: in Boston from an ulcer operation at Boston City Hospital), Louise & Margaret-Mary came to live, work, get educated & acculturated in Boston preparatory to transiting to the real world) & where, coming to visit, was Rev. Canisius Abbott, OFM (AKA Cousin or Father Bill), he was then stationed at a Catholic Shrine listening to "confessions" that may have been rather earthy & related by those who would'nt dare relate them in their home parish's, his Superiors may have thought he needed the wordly experience, he was a little "sissified".

The family churched & had "Field Day's", an out-of-doors carnival-like merry-making fund raiser, at St Columbkilles RCCh where Sundays at 9am were reserved for the childrens Mass followed by Sunday School at the local Catholic HS and again followed by more Sunday School at 2pm at the local church, following this, if one hustled, the local Egyptian Theatre, a cinema palace, featured a main attraction, a "B" pix & a couple of "shorts", all for 10¢ but one had to hurry to get it all in .>>>. schooled under a number of Principal's: Miss Barry at the Winship primary school, Mr George Gammon at the Thomas A Edison junior high school along with Mr Somebody (?) at the William Howard Taft school & Mr Rich and Mr Joseph Leary at the Brighton High School and I dont know who (?) at St Columbkille's school or at Boston Latin School... barbered by Frank Curatola @ 25¢ per head .>>>. tooth fixed, that is "fixed-for-a-fee" by Forsyth Dental Infirmary, then operated by Tufts Univ School of Dentisty for the benifit of their intern students ; brother Dan had a strong aversion to amateur tooth fixers, then, he ran away at their sighting; additionally there were sidetrips to the MFA, a museum, which was next door .>>>. Sunday visited Benson's Animal Farm in Nashua NH, which, truly, had wild tigers & lions, but now GWTW, Franklin Park Zoo & relatives, (Costello's, Doyle's & Casey's ) in Franklin, Monson & Arlington MA & .>>>. summered in Houlton ME during the 1930's, a logistic monster that required the tranportation of 10 people, 8 kids & 2 adults, in an old Pierce-Arrow touring car, or something like that, with all of there summer belongings in one automobile a distance of 300 miles in a day & 1/2's time; the seating arrangements required that Dan be in the rear near a window because he suffered from "car sickness", the "regurgies", simply put & that Tom be put in a front seat near a window for the same reason & also because he battled with everbody else, Louise was suppose to keep him calm, while mother from her rear seat kept Dan's head out of the window & in her spare time kept eveybody else who were strewn about in "jump" seats etc referee'd/separated; the first journey leg took us to Old Town ME, just north of Bangor where we picnicked, looked for Indians, viewed the Penobscot River & bunked overnight. The next day brought us to Houlton where we searched for a summer place to stay & "settle in" which included the following: the McLoughlin's, a farmhouse on the Ridge Rd where we slept on canvass cots, cooked with a 3 jet oil stove, fished, swam & bathed in Bee Stream & roamed the adjacent country side, Haggerty's, also on the "Ridge", i.e. Ridge Rd, ("The Ridge" where mothers old boyfriend Walter Logan farmed & lived with his wife & son Asael who was somewhat weird and referred to by the local & visiting girls as "Ass-el"), Donovan's, in nearby Ludow where we visited often for they had a very scarce telephone although an upteen party line where everybody in town answered it when it rang, Duncan Woodworth's cabin on the Wiley Rd, (where Bernie Mahoney summered with us once & ultimately served in the China-Burma-India Theatre of Operations in the USArmy; he also taught me to "tell time") Dora Adam's farm where Dan & Ed summered in ~1942 & learned to pick mustard weed, Aunt Mary's house "in-town" where all the family girls lived, sometimes to their mothers chargrin, congregated and competed for the available men, where Mary Costello first met Jimmy Rush, a swain (d:24Nov1999 in Houlton) & at Riley's cottage at Nickerson Lake where the Bermans lived next door & his kids: Malcom, Elliot & Charlotte summered, Mr Max Berman had a retail shoe store "in town", & nearby were the Frenchs, who owned a drug store "in town" & where Oscar & Jane French summered (he died young) .>>>. swam in Carey Lake .>>>. bathed in Bee Stream where everybody bathed .>>>. picknic'ed at Burnt Bow [aka as Burnt Brow] .>>>. picked choke cherrys, goose berrys & hunted for spruce gum .>>>. helped with the hay & potato harvests .>>>. went to the "lawn party" for the benifit of St Mary's Church & School fund .>>>. attended the Woodstock Fair .>>>. visited Laverty relatives in Benton NB .>>>. boated, swam & fished in Nickerson Lake, now suffering from overbuilding & soil leaching into the lake, 1995 .>>>. went to "town" every Saturday night where the men stood about talking "farmin" & the women shopped & talked .>>>. danced & had "refreshments" at the "Burdock" [in later years, that is, unbeknownst to any parents] which was a "roadhouse" located on Littleton Ridge where Jimmy Riley played the drums .>>>. churched at St Mary's every Sunday and visited its graveyard where many of the Haggerty bones reside .>>>. after church, went to Grand Lake or Birch Point at Pleasent Lake for swimming & picknic'ng with all the relatives .>>>. returned to Boston just prior to Labor Day each year (dodged Bostons infantile paralysis outbreak one year [mid 1930's] and stayed an extra 2 months at Nickerson Lake, very cold in November).