By Patrick McGroarty
Reporter Staff

Steven L.W. Dhooge grew up in Fields Corner in the 1960s, playing ball at Town Field and working as an usher at the Park Theater. Though he's been out of the neighborhood for more than 20 years, those memories have never left him, and when he retired from the Postal Service in 2004, he decided to immortalize them in a book titled, "A Wicked Howl."

The plot follows four Fields Corner friends, who Dhooge says are an amalgamation of more than 30 people he knew growing up. After several of the book's main characters are involved in fixing the campaign of a state representative, there are major repercussions in a mayoral race the following fall. Along the way, the friends follow the Red Sox and bum around the neighborhood in a mix that could only take place in Boston.

Dhooge said the plot has been stirring in his head for more than 30 years, a collection of tall tales he used to tell coworkers while working the night shift for the Postal Service in South Boston. More than anything, Dhooge said, the book is a chance to tell his friends' stories.

"The publisher gave me three copies, and I've already given them and my manuscript drafts out to friends," said Dhooge. "I don't even have a copy myself."

He has changed all the original names: The Town field Tavern is the Tick Tock Tap, Sonny's on Adam's Street has become Santino's (A nod to the Godfather) and Whitey Bulger even makes a periphery appearance as Lefty O'Toole.

But the spirit, if not the nitty gritty details, is real.

"There are some guys around that if they decide to write their own book, I'm moving to California," he said.

Dhooge went to grammar school at St. Ambrose, and later made the daily trek to Christopher Columbus High School in the North End.

"We took a count one day just in my group of friends, and we went to something like 15 high schools between us," Dhooge recalls. "They couldn't have made one high school for all of the kids in the neighborhood back then."

In his senior year, Dhooge was kicked out of school in a grade fixing scandal involving his football coach and a biology teacher; a period he brushes off with a laugh.

"There's probably a book in it, but I doubt anybody would be interested."

He married Paula Renehan in 1978 and the couple had three children while living in Dorchester. Only when his kids reached school age did he consider leaving the neighborhood. In 1984, the Dhooge family moved first to Hull, then Weymouth. Dhooge wrote "Howl" in just six months, his first attempt at putting pen to paper.

"So far people have really liked it," he said. "It reminds them of where we grew up."

"A Wicked Howl" is available from Rosedog Books.