Maggie's Farm

And you wonder why black youth unemployment is so high...

Somehow I posted my comment in reply to yours. That was not my intent. My comment referred to the text of the song/chant in the article.

Coincidently I was born and lived in Lynn until I was 21. The "sin" was merely that it rhymed with Lynn. Not that there was no sin back then but no more or less then other cities. I go back to visit Lynn and other cities where my relatives still live and it's still a pretty good city. Certainly there are parts you wouldn't want to walk in at night like so many of our cities. You may already know that "Massholes" is what people in New Hampshire or Maine call those who come from Mass or move up there from Mass. It is nothing more then a perjorative not based on much of anything. In fact the people who usually use that term are those residents of New Hampshire that move up there from Mass the year before and now wish no one else would.

I grew up in Lynn in it's hayday; lots of shoe factories, leather factories, Machine shops, GE, etc. Plenty of jobs for everyone and the city was well run and clean. Now the beach looks like a dump, the biggest industry is welfare and most of the industry is been long gone. Back then Revere was the place to be on a Friday or Saturday night. It was a great place to grow up.

I have not read any of his books I will have to look for them and read one. It sounds like it would be a familiar story. Revere Beach had an amusement park along the beach. Largest wooden roller coaster East of the Mississippi. One casualty on the rolloer coaster and it was the only night I ever saw them use both sets of cars. One passenger stood up in the tunnel and was knocked unconsious and ouy of the car by one of the wooden timbers as it came out of the tunnel. My friend and I were in the second set of cars which ran over the unconsciouse victim. If they hadn't been running both sets of cars he probably would have survived. They also had the first double Ferris Wheel I ever rode. The top wheel would hang out over the street and seemed to be over the beach too. But the best part of going to Revere Beach was the fried clams. I can still taste Ipswich fried clams. It's one of the first things I love to eat when I visit back home. The beach itself had a fatal flaw, small stones everywhere. You couldn't walk barefoot on the beach. Otherwise it was a beautiful beach; clean very long sweeping curved beach. The town itself was a lot of three story walkups, almost no single family homes. Lots of first and second generation immigrants from Italy and South Eastern Europe. Usually peaceful and safe but sometimes when a large navy ship was in the Boston Navy Yard the navy men would get into some trouble, usually fights over a local girl or drunk.