I thought that this November would provide an opportunity for a celebration, nothing fancy, just a gathering of old friends who were present during my first winning election campaign, culminating at St. Mark’s VFW Post on Bailey Street in Dorchester on Election Night, Nov. 2, 1971. But for a number of reasons, I‘m sorry to say, there’ll be no such event.
There is a photograph on the wall at my office showing me and my parents very jubilant, and in my case quite sweaty, savoring victory that evening (or perhaps it was early the next morning) when it was reported that the unofficial tally had me in 7th place, which ensured a seat on the City Council; I was 22.
In addition to my parents – the three of us were standing on chairs so that we could be seen – the photo on the wall shows Norman Workman, a Dorchester friend; Emilio Favorito, who had handled East Boston; Mike Goff, with his mutton chops. He had been one of my many campaign workers in Hyde Park; Jack Ferris from West Roxbury, Bill Guenther, my campaign manager and still my friend 50 years later; and my sister Ginny, then a freshman at Simmons who had worked tirelessly during the summer on my campaign, coming into the office every day. There is also a side shot of John Hogan in whose wedding I was an usher that summer and, I believe, his wife, Jean. There were many others there. We were truly a motley crew; nobody was paid anything. For the most part, we were young and, for many, it was their first campaign. I still think we knew what we were doing!
With all due respect to my other campaigns, there is a certain innocence and excitement that occurs when one does anything for the first time. When one is declared to be the youngest City Councillor in the history of the city of Boston, it was even more exciting.
One of the other attendees that evening was a television reporter who at that time was dating one of my campaign supporters who subsequently married a wonderful woman to whom he has been married for some 40+ years. She was also standing on a chair. I remember looking directly at her when I was speaking.
In that era before email and texting, we relied upon radio or TV, which had given us some idea that we were close. Around midnight, Richard Serino (later to be the director of the EMTs in Boston) ran in from sitting in his car where he had been listening to the radio and announced that the newscast had said that I had won and I had come in seventh place.
To suggest there was excitement in the room was an understatement. The next day the phone rang and John Henning, the late, great gentleman of Boston news, came to my house and interviewed me. We decided that he would stand on the pavement and I would be on one of the steps to my house as my grandmother looked out, as she had been looking out for me for over 20 years, from the front porch. To the camera, we were almost all the same size.
There are aged clips of that evening and the next days. There is correspondence in a safe place in Marion, where I have a place now, including telegrams from people all over the country. It was a wonderful achievement for a 22-year-old candidate. Then it was time to get to work two months later.
Larry DiCara is a Dorchester native.
