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Ask anyone who grew up in the Riverdale neighborhood and you will find similar stories of fishing tournaments at Tropicland, dancing at Moseley’s on the Charles, getting penny candy from Hellman’s Variety Store and Joe Lynch’s driving range.
Perhaps, these shared memories are why the bonds of friendship are still strong, Lisa Mullinix said.
“Growing up in Riverdale gives you a unique closeness with your friends and neighbors…I am still close with all my teenage friends,” she said. “This alone is a rare thing.”
On Saturday, Jan. 21, the Friends of Riverdale will host the first Riverdale Reunion at Moseley’s on the Charles and everyone is invited. The event will feature music, food, drinks, photos, speakers and, of course, memories. Tickets are $20. To get your tickets and for more information visit the Friends of Riverdale Reunion page on Facebook.
“It really took off in October,” Jim Amos, one of the event organizers said. “And from there it just snowballed.”
What sparked the idea for a reunion was the Friends of Riverdale Facebook page. The page has over 350 members.
“We started posting pictures and people were just going nuts,” Amos said. “And then someone said, ‘We ought to get together.’”
Mullinix, another one of the organizers, said the group hopes to have the reunion every year “to educate the younger crowd on what ‘old Riverdale’ was like.”
The Dedham Transcript recently asked Riverdale residents to share memories of growing up in the neighborhood.
And now for the memories:
Lisa Mullinix
In an email to the Dedham Transcript, Mullinix talked about growing up in Riverdale.
“I have lived in Riverdale all but seven years of my life. We moved here in 1963. When I married (Tom, another Riverdale resident), we bought a house across the street from my parent’s house. We raised two boys here in Riverdale, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in town.
“Growing up here, I loved the fact that we had a park on the Charles River to “hang out” in, a river to fish in and boat on and a golfing range to hit a bucket of balls. As a teenager, we would spend time in the woods at “Candy Mountain,” Noble and Greenough School and the Riverdale School itself.
“I remember as a child, sledding down the hills, across from the school in the summer, on pieces of cardboard and roaming the woods off of Vine Rock Street. Spending lazy summer days playing on the cement animals in the Riverdale Park. Going to Hellman’s Variety Store on Bridge Street for penny candy and riding my bike to the pool at the Dedham Community House.”
Ask anyone who grew up in the Riverdale neighborhood and you will find similar stories of fishing tournaments at Tropicland, dancing at Moseley’s on the Charles, getting penny candy from Hellman’s Variety Store and Joe Lynch’s driving range.
Perhaps, these shared memories are why the bonds of friendship are still strong, Lisa Mullinix said.
“Growing up in Riverdale gives you a unique closeness with your friends and neighbors…I am still close with all my teenage friends,” she said. “This alone is a rare thing.”
On Saturday, Jan. 21, the Friends of Riverdale will host the first Riverdale Reunion at Moseley’s on the Charles and everyone is invited. The event will feature music, food, drinks, photos, speakers and, of course, memories. Tickets are $20. To get your tickets and for more information visit the Friends of Riverdale Reunion page on Facebook.
“It really took off in October,” Jim Amos, one of the event organizers said. “And from there it just snowballed.”
What sparked the idea for a reunion was the Friends of Riverdale Facebook page. The page has over 350 members.
“We started posting pictures and people were just going nuts,” Amos said. “And then someone said, ‘We ought to get together.’”
Mullinix, another one of the organizers, said the group hopes to have the reunion every year “to educate the younger crowd on what ‘old Riverdale’ was like.”
The Dedham Transcript recently asked Riverdale residents to share memories of growing up in the neighborhood.
And now for the memories:
Lisa Mullinix
In an email to the Dedham Transcript, Mullinix talked about growing up in Riverdale.
“I have lived in Riverdale all but seven years of my life. We moved here in 1963. When I married (Tom, another Riverdale resident), we bought a house across the street from my parent’s house. We raised two boys here in Riverdale, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in town.
“Growing up here, I loved the fact that we had a park on the Charles River to “hang out” in, a river to fish in and boat on and a golfing range to hit a bucket of balls. As a teenager, we would spend time in the woods at “Candy Mountain,” Noble and Greenough School and the Riverdale School itself.
“I remember as a child, sledding down the hills, across from the school in the summer, on pieces of cardboard and roaming the woods off of Vine Rock Street. Spending lazy summer days playing on the cement animals in the Riverdale Park. Going to Hellman’s Variety Store on Bridge Street for penny candy and riding my bike to the pool at the Dedham Community House.”
Bob Begin
“I was born and raised in Riverdale and I left when I went into the service in 1983,” Bob Begin said about his time in Riverdale. He now lives in Norwood.
When asked about his fondest memory of growing up in Riverdale, Begin shared a tale of fishing.
“I was probably 10 or 12 at the time. Me and my cousin Billy went fishing a lot. My whole life at that time was fishing. The challenge of trying to catch something was always there. I remember we had seen this fish; it looked like a great white shark every time it was going after anything floating. You would see the white wake, then a fin would come up and then the whole thing would disappear. We had seen this for a while and we had been fishing for it. The thing had some size to it.”
With perfect detail, Begin shared the day the fish took the bait, a piece of bread, and grabbed the line.
“ He just took it down. I was watching it and my line was going down with it. I knew there was a current coming,” he said and explained that he was trying to figure out if he actually had the fish when the line turned against the current. “I was like, alright I got him.”
The two worked hard to pull the fish up over rocks and over the bridge.
“We ended up bringing that fish over to the Dedham Transcript and we got our picture taken standing side-by-side with the fish in our arms,” he said.
Mary Hathaway
Mary Hathaway’s journey to Dedham started when she left her home in Ireland on Dec. 19, 1947, for Boston. She lived with an aunt before starting her family. She eventually moved to a home on Massachusetts Avenue Dedham in 1960.
“I lived in Jamaica Plain and I had four children and lived on the third floor and my landlord said I had to move out (because of the noise),” she said. Her family eventually grew to 10 children, many still live in Dedham and all attended Riverdale School.
“When we moved to Dedham we didn’t have a church; St. Susanna’s Parish broke ground in 1960,” she said. She said the monsignor at the time of the groundbreaking presented a shovel to her infant son Kevin in hopes he would follow in his footsteps and become a priest. “Of course he didn’t.”
Hathaway said the church would meet at Moseley’s until it was built in 1962. “We had our first Mass in the basement of the church because upstairs wasn’t finished.”
With 10 children in Riverdale, Hathaway was always on hand to take the neighborhood children on adventures.
“I used to take the kids on field trips and would say it would be a mystery ride,” she said. The ride was simple, she would drive down the street and if she saw a kid out walking she would invite them for a ride. “They had no idea where we were going.”
The trips often ended at Franklin Park or the Arboretum for Lilac Sunday.
Now living at Doggett Circle, Hathaway is active in the town. She’s served as a Town Meeting member for over 40 years and knits hats and mittens for students at Riverdale School.
Michael O’Brien
In an email to the Dedham Transcript, O’Brien shared his Riverdale memories:
“My folks bought their home in Riverdale in 1967. Riverdale School was a great school with teachers that cared about each student. The principal at the time was Mr. Raffa. He was a pretty nice guy and you could go to him about anything.
“When I was in the fifth grade myself and lots of other kids would wake up early and go down to what was Joe Lynch’s driving range and mini golf. We would have a broken hockey stick with a can nailed to one end for scooping golf balls. We got paid 25 cents for a peach basket, 35 cents for a milk crate and 50 cents for a bushel basket. We would pick in the morning then run to Hellman’s Variety Store for penny candy. Then run to school.
“Sometimes we would go behind the boathouse at Tropicland and fish. We would visit Tropicland (on Bridge Street) and see all the different fish and in the back of the store they had a room with all kinds of other pets sometimes they would have monkeys.
“I remember my first true love high school sweetheart who is from Riverdale and to this day we are still close friends. The day we moved to Riverdale I met a guy that became my best friend and remains so still. Riverdale isn’t just a place to live or grow up, it’s a way of life to be experienced.”
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Want to go
What: Riverdale Reunion
When: Saturday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.
Where: Moseley’s on the Charles, 50 Bridge St.
Tickets: $20
How to Order: Contact one of the organizers: Jim Amos 508-584-1499; Beth Cormack 781-326-2858; Mike Gorse 781-320-0681; Lisa Mullinix 617-750-2796
