History time: Frank Norton explains 1940s, 1950s in JP (Part 1 of 3)
28.03.11
By Frank Norton, Guest Columnist
My name is Frank Norton and I was born in Jamaica Plain on May 7, 1943. By the time I came along my parents already had one son named Larry. He was a year and two months older than I was. Unfortunately for Larry, I came along to rain on his parade. Both Larry and I were born during the years of World War II, so I can only guess what kind of a world we were living in at that time. My brother Larry and I are shown in the photograph above in 1947.
We lived on the second floor of a three-decker at the corner of 51 Custer Street and Goldsmith Street. There was a corner grocery store right underneath us that was owned and operated by our landlords Harold and Laura Poppleton. As far as I can remember, the Poppletons didnt have any children. Mr. Poppleton loved the Red Sox and golf. He had all of these small homemade boxes with holes in the middle of them and ramps leading up to them all over the back yard. This was his miniature golf course. He allowed Larry and me to play along with him when we were old enough to do so. Archie Scott lived on the third floor. The surrounding three deckers were home to the families King, Panos, Duffy, Bowes, DiAmpolo, Sullivan, Cotter, Sevigny, Burdell, and McPartland to name a few.
Source: Boston Globe
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