Don’t recall, but his dad was a retired Navy ADMIRAL.
This was back in the 70’s, and I remember him telling me there were a lot of ethnic neighborhoods around and one of the largest, at that time, was Portuguese.
He told me that if you were not a Port-a-gee, you did not go or even pass thru these neighborhoods..................
Actually, the largest Port-a-gee enclave was (and still is to a certain extent) the fishing and whaling cities of New Bedford and Fall River. They are south of Bahston by about 30 miles or so, and can probably be considered “Paaht” of the Greater Bahston Area.
In the 70’s, it looked like this:
Roxbury-Black
Dorchester-Jewish, Blue-Collar Irish, then Black
Mattapan-Jewish, then Black, then Jamaican
South Boston(Southie) Irish
East Boston-Italian
Hyde Park-Italian, Irish, then Haitian and Black, then “Gentrified”
Jamaica Plain-Irish, then Black, then Hispanic, then Gay, now gentrified
Roslindale-Greek, Syrian, Lebanese
North End-First Irish, then Jewish, then BIG TIME Italian, now Gentrified but still with Italian Flavor
Beacon Hill-Boston Brahmans, Hippies in the 60’s, now Rich Folks
Back Bay-Intelligentsia, Students, Jazz Musicians, etc.
Brighton/Allston-Mostly students
Brookline (a separate town) Mostly Jewish
West Roxbury-A wealthier version of Roslindale, one ZIP Code away.
(This is by no means an extensive list, but shows how Bahston has changed over the years.