By Sal Giarratani
A DOG NAMED AFTER TOM BRADY IN SOUTH AUSTIN
On my recent vacation to Texas, I was enjoying the fantastic temperatures taking many long powerwalks wearing shorts and cut off tee shirts. Yes, the days start off in the mid-40s but by noon things go up to say 60-65 degrees or maybe better. Not bad for now. About once or twice every seven or eight days or so, the temps can reach 75-80,YES I said 75 or 80.
On one of my walks wearing ,of course, my Boston T-shirts, a guy was walking his yellow Lab and asked what neighborhood I was from. I said East Boston. He responded “Charlestown.” What are the chances that a guy who left Charlestown for South Austin would end up passing me on Cherisse Road at Meridian in South Austin. He told me he was Chris Ferguson and that his dog was named “Brady’ after Tom Brady. Long live the New England Patriots. My nephew Dominic still wears his Patriots stuff when going shopping. You don’t see that much in Austin, which is Longhorns Country
Civil War monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol in Austin
CIVIL WAR ALIVE AND WELL IN TEXAS
The Civil War continues on down below the Mason-Dixon line and the controversy over the Confederacy made daily newspaper stories in the daily Austin American Statesman ( their version of our Boston Globe). Editorials, news stories, commentaries, photos, letters to the editor and the news that the Mayor of Austin would boycott the city’s Veterans Day Parade because the Daughters of the Confederacy wanted to carry the Stars and Bars in the line of march. Austin’s mayor and politics is pretty blue and liberal and an aberration to the rest of this bright red state.
I stopped by the monument to the Confederate dead in the Civil War and saw it as a part of Texas history but like the controversy over Confederate statutes, liberals want them removed by site. Liberals sound like the book burners back in the 30s or the even older book burners like the Puritans here in Massachusetts.
Where would it end over these ‹bad› statutes? Why stop at Gen. Robert E. Lee or Jefferson, why not remove statutes to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson too?
MY NEPHEW DOMINIC GOING TO BERE ISLAND THIS MONTH
I recently visited my nephew Dominic down in Austin, Texas and he informed that he and his family would be taking a vacation to Ireland, going to both Dublin and Cork. While in West Cork, he will visit Bere Island where two of his maternal great grandparents lived before coming to Charlestown early last century. They were both Harrington and Sullivan. However, last I heard the island is loaded with Harringtons and Sullivans. It could be just a great Irish vacation or he could find Irish cousins who never left for America. I will be waiting to see what if anything he finds out about my mother’s family.
Sal Giarratani with his nephew Dominic Giarratani III dining at a great Italian restaurant in Driftwood, Texas.
DON’T FORGET THE
KNIGHTS TONITE
Former state Rep Gerry Doherty is a political star in Charlestown, and tonight down at the Knights there will be a time honoring this Townie and a great book he wrote which he certainly and gladly autograph for you. The book,
“They Were My Friends – Jack, Bob And Ted.” If you like politics, this is your book; if you like politics and are from the town, you will love it even more.
Don’t forget tonight at the Knights.