By Lawrence S. DiCara, Special to the Reporter
I read with great interest that the Old Dorchester Post No. 65, which has stood as a sentinel in Adams Village for decades, will be torn down and that housing will be built on the site.
Of course, we need housing; no one will deny that. Thankfully, Dorchester is a desirable place to live in the current era.
The closing of Post No. 65 is indicative of dramatic changes in American life. When soldiers came home from World War I, they continued their fraternal ties by joining veterans’ organizations and constructing buildings where they could gather.
At one point, I spoke to a group at the Belmont Legion Post, all of them World War I veterans who met in Town Hall. After I spoke, they sang, in French.
Some 16 million Americans served their country in one capacity or another during World War II. When they came back, they joined the World War I Legion Posts or created their own organizations.
The historian Robert Putnam wrote that civic activity peaked in the mid-1960s, perhaps because of disillusionment caused by the assassination of President Kennedy or by Lyndon Johnson’s lying to the American people about the Vietnam War.
In the modern era, many Americans, including veterans, secure entertainment and establish personal relationships while sitting at home. As I have lectured on many occasions, the Legion Post has been replaced by Starbucks. To me, it is just not the same. Knights of Columbus Councils, Legion Posts and the like were the cornerstones of cities and towns across the United States for decades.
The Old Dorchester Post is where the Cedar Grove Civic Association, which I joined in the late 1960s, met each month. I sat inside that Post, listening to haranguing against infill housing, the rumored construction of a stadium at what had once been a landfill in Neponset Circle, and many other issues. It prepared me for my first campaign.
I spoke at a Candidates Night there the week before the 1971 preliminary election and reminded people “I am a Dorchester kid. I have a Tenean Beach tan.” Two years later, I had an election night party at the Old Dorchester Post in September. I had come in 4th place, which was extraordinary in and of itself, but of course there is drama in any campaign.
One of my neighbors and an avid supporter – a Boston police detective known as “Ramrod” to all of us in the neighborhood – announced to me that he had a warrant for the arrest of one of my poll workers who was across the hall from him. I told him not to serve it that evening.
That same night, Randy Beach showed up with a sunburn, having stood at Ward 21, Precinct 2 in Allston-Brighton for 12 hours. He came back to the Dorchester Post and announced, “You came in second; six people voted; the Socialist got four, and you got three.”
I think of the Memorial Day luncheons held at that Post where World War I veterans were honored. I think of Bill Coughlin, who had the courage to put up a campaign sign for me at 390 Ashmont Street during my first campaign at the urging of his son, even though he didn’t agree with much of what I stood for.
May all our memories of Post 65 be happy ones.
