Hungry Hill: A Memoir

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction: Limelight 1 1 Last Rites 5 Mother’s Day 1992 11 2 Gone 15 3 God Takes the Saints Early 18 4 Chocolate Cake 27 5 Perfect Skin 31 6 Anne of Green Gables 38 7 Graduation Dress 43 8 Honor and Privilege 51 9 Complete Change of Scene 57 10 Kelsey Point 60 11 The Boys at the Corner Drugstore 65 12 My Mother’s Closet 72 Saint Michael’s Cemetery 76 13 The Boys’ Bathing Suits Are Missing 80 14 An Evening of Informal Modeling 86 15 The Jewel of the Diocese 89 16 The Dark Horse 92 17 Campaign 95 18 The Dating Scene 98 19 Cheerleading and Candy Striping 101 20 Clip-on Tie 105 21 Auxilium Latinum 109 22 A Buyer of Sofas 112 Mother’s Day 1993 115 23 The Doctor’s Revelation 117 24 Casanova at the Beach 121 25 Stage, Left, Stage Right, Entrances and Exits 130 Armistice Day 1994 137 26 Party Time 140 27 Joey, the Bird 147 28 Fledgling Journalist and Mad Scientist 150 29 Under the Knife 154 30 Dress-up Day 158 31 Sweet and Sour Times: Easter, the Election and (Step)Mother’s Day 162 32 Fifteen Forever 167 33 The Ambush 170 34 Planning for the Future 177 35 Lil’ Kiss 180 36 Skidding 184 37 Snowbound 188 38 Down the Drain 192 39 Hold the Fort 196 40 Imperfect Prayers 200 41 A Yellowed Cheek 203 42 Cashmere Sport Coat 207 43 Dr. Blackmer’s Magic 211 44 Job Market 215 45 Bargain Tables 220 46 Beautiful 222 47 A Ten-Second Phone Call 224 48 Rich Woman Someday 226 49 Handbag 230 50 Best Tunafish 234 Scotch and Soda—A Transcription 238 51 Only a Dish 249 52 Term Projects 253 53 Runaway 256 54 Prom Fever 261 The Nuclear Option 268 55 We’ll Remember Always Graduation Day 273 Epilogue: Fade Out 276 Acknowledgments 281 vi The area bounded by the hillsides of Liberty Street, Carew Street, and Springfield Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, long home to the city’s Irish, is known as “Hungry Hill.” While the origins of the name have been lost in the shadows of history and folklore, the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum offers several theories. Since many of the Irish immigrants in Springfield hailed from County Cork, an area particularly hard hit by the Potato Famine, these hardscrabble newcomers in longing for a connection with the Old Country may have christened this section after a mountain in southwest Cork, which had itself received that alliterative name well before the nineteenth-century devastation. Another hypothesis is far more practical: the Irish Catholic families who settled here bought enormous quantities of groceries to feed their many children. The police in Springfield tell yet a different story; they claim the name arose because of a luxury the community lacked: restaurants. Policemen walking the beat on the “Hill” had to brownbag it. Whatever its origin, the name bespeaks times of tightened belts and growling bellies. Back when I grew up on Hungry Hill, I was suffering from an emotional hunger. = hungry hill = ...