~ Malden Musings ~ Barry Hitchcock Remembered

By Peter Levine

Warning! The following content includes the word “Edgeworth,” so if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired reading about Edgeworth, “turn the page,” as Bob Seger once sang…

It’s an Edgeworth time capsule. This photo, in all its 1970’s glory, was captured at “The Conna” – Whitman and Highland – sometime in 1972 (we believe). Beer’s Drug Store would have been on the left (before Nick and the Big A took control and expanded with the purchase of Mickey O’Brien’s house), Charlie Moreno’s Sub Shop directly across on the corner of Whitman, DiPietro’s Bakery across Highland, and JT’s (Maher’s) Liquor Store across from DiPietro’s (before it morphed into Pumpsie’s Sub Shop – before Ronny Hogan and Johnny Cagno took control and turned it strictly into a purveyor of fine alcoholic beverages). Johnny Angelo’s Gossip Shop (oops, I mean Barber Shop) was around the corner. A few yards away, China Garden would also bless/enhance our lives and expand our waistlines a mere six years later. The “Crossroads of Edgeworth” – where you learned more at that intersection than you did at Emerson, Beebe, and MHS – combined.

These three fine young gentlemen are classic boys of summer. And what a summer it was! Check out my “Musings” column on the year 1972 a few months back for (if I don’t say so myself) a nice look at Malden during that period. These boyos owned Edgeworth in 1972 with their shaggy hair, suede Converse low riders, classic elephant bells (Sparks specials?) and undeniable swagger. They are, left to right, Johnny “Moe” Molinari, Barry “Hitchy” Hitchcock and Keith Powers; with Hitchy being the impetus for this look back – the 13th anniversary of his passing (March 6). And as my brother Frankie noted on Facebook, Hitchy was a dead ringer for Veronica Lake in this picture (insert smiley face)! The handsome young man on the left with the extra-large bells, cigarette dangling in his right hand, wise guy smirk and fashionably long black hair is Johnny “Moe” Molinari. Moe graduated from MHS in 1973 and lorded over Pearl Street after his older brother Frankie abdicated lordship and right before his youngest brother, Jimmy, took control. Johnny’s family are Pearl Street/Edgeworth pioneers with kinfolk still residing on Pearl in the family homestead (Hi Mary!). By the way, Jimmy just started a new Facebook page, simply called “Edgeworth.” Try it, you’ll like it!

Keith Powers is the young man on the right with the engaging smile and low-cut gold suede Chuck Taylors. Keithie grew up on Folsom Court and, no lie, everybody knew and liked him and his family. The five siblings were legendary in Edgeworth folklore growing up on Whitman: Rab, Cheryl, Candy, Scotty and Keith. Back in the day, if you didn’t know one of the Powers, your membership to the Whitman Street gang was delayed or flat out denied.

Barry was a special youngster as was his twin brother Brian, older brother Billy and sister Carol. All grew up on Watts Street along with the Timmons, the Govers, the Carrolls, the Hallorans, the Edemans, the Paganos and a mess of other neighborhood kids that populated Edgeworth in those days (including Massachusetts Junior Senator, the “Pride of Townsend Street” – Eddie Markey and his two brothers).

Barry was popular, funny, street smart, a wild child and a wicked good kid, as we used to say. As a youth Barry ran the streets of Edgeworth and Malden like he owned them – Coytemore Lea Park, Al’s Pool Room, Granada Bowling Alley, HIBO’s, Devir and Amerige Park, the Conna, Frenchie’s (corner of Charles & Presley), Anthony’s on Canal and every corner bar in Edgeworth – he called them all home. A friend to all, beloved by all (no kidding!). Missing you, Hitchy, 13 years later.

It is said in “Malden Musings”…

• We’re fast approaching the fourth anniversary of the passing of one John Lincoln Coughlin aka Preacher Jack. Covid-19 did what gallons of Budweiser, cheap ciggies and a bad diet could not. Jack was a barroom preacher and had the gift of gab and a killer left hand introducing us to a strange new genre of music, boogie-woogie. His heroes – Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, and Papa Jimmy Yancey – became ours. Over the decades his sermons, to both believers and unbelievers alike, became stuff of legend! At times insane, but mostly the best musical theater you ever witnessed. We miss you, Jasper Jack, Killer of the Keyboards!
• Happy March 5th birthday to hizzoner, Mayor Gary Christenson and happy March 28th birthday to Anna Tse in the Clerk’s Office at Malden City Hall!
• On a back street in Malden a couple mourn. West Street will never be the same again after the passing of George and Lisa MacKay’s beloved pup, Marley. George’s and Lisa’s lives will never be the same again. Their grief will not end soon. This hurts us all who know George, Lisa and Marley. I think I can speak for your many friends when I say our hearts go out to you two. I swiped this but I am sure she will not mind… “Only time moves onto the next scene, memories remain in the heart forever.”

More “Musings” from the incomparable mind of the late John O’Brien, whose wit and very large brain endeared him to generations of M.H.S. students, Maldonians and faculty members at Malden High (inspiring the name of this column). Here are 10 more witticisms from his iconic “Musings” column:

• “Some pump oil, some pump gas, some pump iron to impress a lass.”
• “My friends call me candle because I am burnt out.”
• “When she met Mr. Right, she left.”
• “A square is someone who thinks ‘Fear of Flying’ is a biography of Jackie Jensen.”
• “Whenever I see my shadow, I am beside myself.”
• “Does John Wayne live in a Hondominium?”
• “An insecticide salesman in Bangor is a herbicidal maniac.”
• “If age brings wisdom, why is ‘old-fashioned’ an insult.”
• “Queen Elizabeth doesn’t need karate. She can handle her dukes.”
• “Erin, go ban the bragh.”

As Peter Falk’s iconic TV character Columbo would say, “Just one more thing, sir” – the Blizzard of ’78 as remembered by a young Jeff Carroll – the cute little redheaded cherub who would later go on to run “The Connah” like a good-natured mob boss:

“It has snowed for two days in a row. All day. All night. When it stops, the whole neighborhood – all of Whitman Street – start digging out. The elderly were dug out first. The snowbanks on Highland Ave were left 10 feet high on both sides. No cars, of course, they were all safely parked in the Immaculate schoolyard.

“Me, my brother Greg, Al Fucci, Prisco and Libby Mancaniello, and Jeff Butt start a game of touch football right in the middle of Highland Ave! No cars in sight for miles.

“After a while, food starts running low in the neighborhood and becomes a major necessity. Mrs. Fucci, Alan, and I go to Star Market down Highland Ave. Me and Alan had red plastic boat sleds. We went around Whitman before we left asking who needed what. We get to Star early that morning. I had a small list for my mom and the neighborhood; ten gallons of milk, ten loaves of bread, and ten dozen eggs. While Mrs. Fucci was doing her shopping, me and Alan played ‘King of the Hill’ on a 30-foot snow pile in the parking lot.

“While we were playing, Donald and Will Chaney, who lived upstairs from Gobeo’s paper shop on Highland Ave, came walking by. Of course, we let them play, but within 5 minutes Donny and Alan are throwing roundhouse at each other – for real! Me and Willy just slide down the hill and watch. Alan nails him a couple of punches and Donny falls backward down the pile. Out for the count as Alan starts yelling, ‘King of the Hill!’ Me and Willy start telling Donny, ‘Just stay down,’ as Donny’s lip bleeds out on the snowbank.

“Mrs. Fucci is done shopping and signals she is ready for the trek home. We race over with our sleds and load up the groceries then start hiking back home. We get to Whitman where we start delivering the goods to hungry neighbors. Happy to have food again, they tip us generously. We pocket ten dollars apiece and have a memory that is still with us today. It was an awesome day which I couldn’t forget if I tried!

“Days go by, the older kids from the corner – Mickey O’Brien’s gang – build a snow house right next to JT’s Liquors (later Pumpsie’s). It had three openings and was the best snow fort I ever saw (outside of a real igloo). One night they had a small steel barrel inside and had a roaring fire going and the coldest beer in the city.

“The next day my crew as well as Kevin Hannon, Johnny Fields, and a bunch of the other older corner kids built an eight-foot round snowball which 15-20 [of] us rolled it in front of Nick’s ‘Big A’ front door. When Nick opened it the next morning, the mammoth snowball was sitting right where we left it. We told Nick we would call the DPW who came down with a backhoe and made quick work of it. Nick duked us free subs, never knew we were behind the mysterious and intrusive mound of snow.”

Jeff, as Bob Hope once sang, “Thanks for the Memory.”

Postscript: Just because. Malden Police Commissioner Salvatore “Butch” Gennetti, Malden loves you. Just because.

—Peter is a longtime Malden resident and a regular contributor to the Malden Advocate. He can be reached at PeteL39@aol.com for comments, compliments or criticisms.