South Boston, Massachusetts

Who would want to live in a place where backyards are the size of postage stamps, where you can reach out your kitchen window and turn down your neighbor’s TV, where a good parking spot is more valuable than gold? Me. And plenty of others. Just walk down Broadway any Saturday or Sunday and you’ll see the real estate offices jammed with people trying to get into South Boston.

Though I wasn’t born there, South Boston, Massachusetts is my hometown.
I rented my first apartment in South Boston, or “Southie,” as it is widely known, with my sister in 1997 and I have never left. When my husband and I got married last year and began our home search, the more we looked elsewhere, the clearer it became that Southie is where we belong.

Though we’re only about two and a half miles outside of the city (the commute to my downtown office takes me all of seven minutes), when Summer Street (Boston) crosses over into L Street (Southie), it’s like a different world. We have tree-lined streets, beaches, boardwalks, parks and bandstands. The only traffic to contend with is that of joggers and rollerbladers making their way around Castle Island.

Historically, Southie was predominantly a close-knit, working class, Irish Catholic neighborhood. It’s where many Irish immigrants settled and stayed for many generations. Three generations of my father’s family lived in the same Triple Decker home on M Street. My mother-in-law’s family lived on K Street. My parents met at Blinstrub’s Village nightclub on Broadway, where they used to go hear Della Reese and Frankie Lane sing.

Recently, it was depicted as a blue-collar wasteland in Good Will Hunting and a gangster’s playground in Mystic River (a few scenes were even filmed on my street), but it’s so much more than that.

Today, Southie is a mix of young families and professionals and life-long Southie residents. To me, this is what makes it so special. It is becoming a modern, multi-cultural area, but is still steeped in history and tradition. Stately family homes that have been passed down through generations stand next to Triple Deckers that have gone condo. On the way to the Irish Step Dancing School, you are passed by Mutt and Jeff’s minibus, picking up neighborhood pets to go to Doggie Daycare.

There is such a feeling of change and possibility. Located just outside the city, we have a front row seat to the development of Boston, with the multi-billion dollar “Big Dig” sending our highways underground and replacing them with green parks, the new convention center that will host the Democratic Nation Convention in July, the expansion of the waterfront Seaport District, with its planned restaurants, shops and Museum of Contemporary Art. There is a revolution brewing in Boston and we are the witnesses.

The influx of young people gives Southie a vibrant nightlife. Bars are speckled up and down Broadway, but feel less like nightclubs and more like Irish Pubs, with pints of Guinness and plenty of blarney being spread about. During the warm months, many of the bars open their full-length windows so the streets are full of the excitement spilling out.

Because of its Irish roots, nobody celebrates St. Patrick’s Day like Southie. Our state senator hosts a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast for the people of Southie and, along with our city councilor and state representative, sing, “Southie is My Hometown” and “The Wild Colonial Boy” to the crowd. Our parade is so large that streets all around Southie are closed down for most of the day, but nobody seems to mind. The celebration is so all-consuming that city and state workers actually get the next day off of work, under the guise of observing Evacuation Day (the day the British left Boston).

It’s great to be out and about in Southie, but sometimes the best time is to be had on your own back porch. In the warm months, my favorite thing to do is go to Joseph’s K and 8, the butcher shop owned and run by the same family for over 20 years, to buy the best steak tips in the world. Next I’m off to Miller’s Market, where they advertise the “Coldest Beer in Southie.” Then I go home and enjoy a grilled picnic with my husband in our double hammock on our back porch. Later, we walk down to Kelly’s at Castle Island, past the old-timers listening to Irish music on the benches, and get an ice cream. We stretch out on the lawn and watch the kite boarders in the water until it starts to get dark. On the way home we see one of our neighbors walking Ginger, a beautiful honey colored lady Bulldog. She’s older and only goes for walks in the evenings because she gets too hot in the daytime.

To some, this might seems mundane but to me, it’s just perfect. We are creating our own traditions everyday. I can’t think of anyplace I would rather live.

Jenn M

Submitted: Friday 27th February 2004, 12:10 PM

Privacy - Submit - Prizes - Conditions - Contact Us - HOME