Patrick “Sonny” Carroll, a distinguished Mission High graduate, class of 1943, passed away on April 12. Sonny was a member of the Mohawks, a grand assemblage of Mission Hill youths, bonded from childhood alliances in the ’40s to lifetime friendships. Among the other well-known Mohawks were the late Dave O’Connor, a longtime Mission Hill state representative and John Clifford, my downstairs neighbor.
When the Mohawks weren’t hitchhiking to Nantasket Beach or hopping trolleys at Brigham Circle, they would congregate at Conway’s Market on Calumet Street. The Mohawks loved wearing their famous blue-and-grey jackets with the huge “M” on the front. I wonder if any Mohawk jackets have survived? I’m told that the Mohawks jackets were cooler than the jackets of their rival Mission Hill “gang,” the Worthingtons.
Sonny Carroll, incidentally, was the uncle of Paul Carroll, my high school baseball coach at Mission. Sonny Carroll was a terrific baseball and football player at Mission High. He later became a lawyer, as well as a writer for Stars and Stripes.
In his later years Sonny, reminiscing about his neighborhood, wrote, “Mission Church, the center of all things, rises into the mist with the grand bells solemnly sending messages over the Hill.”
At the Butterfly Café at Roxbury Crossing, check out the terrific abstract drawings sketched by Edie Sorrell. Edie, a charming young lady, is a dedicated worker at the Parker Hill Library. I go to the Parker Hill branch often, and the workers are proficient and oh so nice.
It was nice chatting with Mike Fitzgerald at Mikes Donuts last week. Mike, the son of the late Kevin Fitzgerald, is a fine young man who works for Northeastern University. Anytime I converse with a younger Fitzgerald, I always relate a Kevin Fitz story or two. There are many. I miss Kevin.
I have a new mailman. Mike McNamara has been on the Mission Hill route lately. Mike is a personable guy from the Hill, and he was an altar boy at Mission Church when he attended Mission Grammar School.
Several Mission Hill folks gathered in front of Mission Church on Patriots’ Day to observe the reenactment of William Dawes’ famous ride of April 18, 1775. Dawes rode to Lexington from Roxbury through Brookline and Cambridge to alert the Minutemen of impending danger from the British troops.
It was a heart-warming tribute and fundraiser for Jane Kane Giblin last month at Limey’s pub in Norwood. Jane, who grew up in Mission Hill, is battling cancer. I had an enjoyable day reminiscing with Hill folks at the quaint Norwood bar, in particular Margaret Daley. Margaret, my former Tobin Court neighbor, who I hadn’t seen in decades, is looking good.
Congrats to Tony O’Brien, proprietor of Flann O’Brien’s, and his lovely wife Reiko O’Brien, who became proud parents of son Tighe O’Brien on May 24. By the long arm of coincidence, 11 hours earlier, Tony’s brother Ricky O’Brien became a father when his wife Aine gave birth to their daughter Missie in Dublin, Ireland. Friends are calling the babies the “Transatlantic Twins.”
At Flann O’Brien’s on Saturday from 4-10, there will be a fundraiser for the Mission Hill Little League featuring the terrific band Jason Bennett and the Resistance.
Members of the Mission High class of 1965 are organizing a 50th class reunion this September. For information, contact Eileen Kiley Hastie at [email protected] or call Paul Kelly at 207-282-0413.
(from left) William Dawes re-enactor Paul Tobin of the Massachusetts National Lancers, sitting astride Patriot the horse, is joined by Mossy Martin and Jim Moynihan outside Mission Church on Tremont Street on Patriots’ Day, April 20. (Photo by Nicholas Motsis)
1 comment for “Hill Happenings”