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00:00:08Piano music
00:03:06I realized that for years, flying in and out of Boston, I had seen these neighborhoods
00:03:11from above.
00:03:13I had marveled at how we barely skimmed over the houses and backyards.
00:03:28You enter Winthrop by crossing a bridge over the Belle Isle Reservation.
00:03:35It is the last salt marsh in Boston city limits.
00:03:39All the others were filled in and built on long ago.
00:03:47Old houses hug the water.
00:03:49There are dramatic views of Logan across the harbor.
00:03:53Downtown Boston is often the distance.
00:03:56And the plains.
00:03:57Constantly the plains.
00:04:07I learned that the poet Sylvia Plath had spent her early childhood in Winthrop in the late 1930s.
00:04:15She once wrote,
00:04:17I lived on the bay side of town, on Johnson Avenue, opposite the Logan Airport.
00:04:23And before I went to bed each night, I used to kneel by the west window of my room and
00:04:29look over to the lights of Boston that blazed and blinked far off across the darkening water.
00:04:38The sunset flaunted its pink flag above the airport, and the sound of waves was lost in the perpetual droning
00:04:45of the plains.
00:04:47I marveled at the moving beacons on the runway and watched until it grew completely dark, the flashing red and
00:04:54green lights that rose and set in the sky like shooting stars.
00:04:59The airport was my Mecca, my Jerusalem.
00:05:02All night, I dreamed of flying.
00:05:13Driving through Winthrop, a storefront caught my eye.
00:05:17Bartolo's boxing club.
00:05:20From the street, I could see inside.
00:05:23The walls were covered in old framed photographs of boxers.
00:05:28I hesitated before going inside, but the old photographs intrigued me, and so I went in.
00:05:36There I met Sal Bartolo Jr.
00:05:41He was gruff, but cordial.
00:05:43He became less cordial, though, when I asked if I might film a fashion video at his gym.
00:05:50No, no, no, he said.
00:05:51No filming, no photo shoots.
00:05:55He had a bad experience once before with a fashion shoot, where models in bikinis and high heels went parading
00:06:02around his gym and ruined the floors in the boxing ring.
00:06:06No, this was a serious place, only for boxing.
00:06:10No, no, no, never again.
00:06:34But I was still interested in the photographs, so I asked him,
00:06:37Well, even if he wouldn't let me shoot a video in his boxing club, could I take a walk around
00:06:43the gym right now and get a closer look at those photos?
00:06:46That was fine, he said.
00:06:48And then he started showing me the photographs.
00:06:52A photograph of his father, Sal Bartolo Sr., was centered over the ring.
00:06:59Well, my father was a fighter. He was a world champion.
00:07:02My uncles did some fighting, and I just kept on doing it. I liked it.
00:07:06Sal Sr. had been the National Boxing Association featherweight champion from 1944 to 1946.
00:07:16Gillette presents Willie Pepp and Sal Bartolo in a 50-round featherweight match for the championship of the world.
00:07:23He was known as the Pride of East Boston.
00:07:26To his left was a portrait of Phil Terranova, whom Sal Sr. had beaten to win the title in 1944.
00:07:41And to his right was Willie Pepp, who had taken the title away from Sal Sr. in 1946.
00:07:54Pep won that fight in the 12th round knockout that landed Sal Sr. in the hospital with a broken jaw.
00:08:02There was a photograph of that, too.
00:08:05And now Ray Arcel and Bobby Brown are carrying Bartolo back to his partner. He's back on his feet.
00:08:21I asked Sal about boxing training. What was it like? Were there any women training at his gym?
00:08:27He said yes, there were. His gym had women, men, kids, people of all ages and abilities.
00:08:34Your right hand's gonna come out. Now step backwards. Now pay attention.
00:08:37Anyone could box. It was just a matter of putting in the work, the cardio, the strength training, things like
00:08:44push-ups.
00:08:45I said I had been trying to do a push-up for years and still couldn't do a single one.
00:08:50Hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit.
00:08:54It's so easy.
00:08:55He said, of course you can. And before I knew it, he had ordered me down on the floor to
00:09:00show him my push-up.
00:09:01I was amused, so I obeyed. Then he started barking instructions at me, like an army sergeant.
00:09:08Which, as I found out later, he was.
00:09:16Even with Sal's instructions, I still couldn't manage a decent push-up.
00:09:21But Sal offered me a free boxing class and said if I worked at it, eventually I would be able
00:09:27to do one.
00:09:27But it's all mental. It's a mental game. Relax your mind. There isn't anything you can't do.
00:09:33Hit, bang.
00:09:34Put the hand up. Hit, bang.
00:09:38Throw the apricot. I love that shield.
00:09:41Right hand comes up. Block. Parry. Hit, hit.
00:09:44It's so easy. Go!
00:09:46I thought, no way. Even if it is free. I can't even bear to watch violence in films.
00:09:53I had my eyes covered for half of Raging Bull. There's no way I would ever do boxing.
00:09:59I thanked him and left.
00:10:03But I couldn't stop thinking about the gym.
00:10:06I want five. Go!
00:10:07Sal's description of the rigors of boxing training and his stories about the photographs had intrigued me.
00:10:14So I decided to take that free class, even though I couldn't imagine punching someone.
00:10:19And I certainly knew that I did not want to be punched.
00:10:24And, in the back of my mind, I hoped that maybe if I attended one of his classes, Sal might
00:10:30trust me a little more and change his mind about letting me use the gym as a location.
00:10:38Turn around!
00:10:41I asked Laura, who was going to be the model in the video, to join me for the class.
00:10:46I thought it would be a good idea if Sal met her and saw she wasn't going to prance around
00:10:51his gym in a bikini and heels.
00:10:57Sal showed us no mercy.
00:10:58And at the end of class, after a brutal two hours, Laura and I were dripping with sweat.
00:11:05We'd each lost three pounds.
00:11:08So next year, every time the amps come out.
00:11:11I asked Sal again whether he would let me film at the gym.
00:11:19Slide the balls up, pump the press, get up, get some water, even though we didn't earn it.
00:11:23It's cute.
00:11:24You're killing me.
00:11:26This time, he said yes.
00:11:38Sal was helpful during the video shoot, even appearing in it.
00:11:41And he seemed pleased with the result.
00:11:44But what surprised me is that by the time we finished making the video, I was fascinated with boxing.
00:11:51See how the hand is down here?
00:11:53You stopped at the object.
00:11:55Where's the bag?
00:11:56He's still standing there.
00:11:57You want to go through it.
00:11:59I kept returning to the gym to take Sal's classes.
00:12:02First once a week, then twice a week, until I was going five nights a week.
00:12:08Because I didn't push.
00:12:09You can hear the difference.
00:12:11See how it's going all different ways?
00:12:13Yeah.
00:12:13You're not controlling it.
00:12:15Again, what do you see in here?
00:12:17At the right hand, you're in an orthodox position.
00:12:19Right hand's coming out.
00:12:20But what about the rest of your body?
00:12:24Because I'm not, it's square.
00:12:25You're square, exactly.
00:12:26Now, what do you get your legs doing?
00:12:29Absolutely nothing.
00:12:37I would head down towards the gym an hour or two before class, and poke around the neighborhood
00:12:42with my camera.
00:12:44I liked exploring the edges, where the city met the ocean, where the domestic met the industrial.
00:13:14So you're fighting like you're afraid of it.
00:13:17Yeah.
00:13:18Yeah.
00:13:28Okay.
00:13:28Okay, trying to hang it.
00:13:30Okay, we'll keep you together.
00:13:31Shit.
00:14:02People would come out of their houses and ask me what I was doing,
00:14:05and then they would start talking to me.
00:14:08Hi, my name is Larry Venezia.
00:14:12I've been living in this house for 65 years.
00:14:15Telling me stories about the neighborhood and about the airport.
00:14:19You got it, so there was actually hangers.
00:14:20We used to play in.
00:14:22We used to drive our bikes.
00:14:25Like Sal, many of them had lived in East Boston or Winthrop their entire lives.
00:14:30Underneath the plane wings, driving around.
00:14:33Not anymore.
00:14:34The only thing that you could grab in a hang of those days was salt tablets.
00:14:39And so we'd grab a salt tablet from a dispenser thing.
00:14:44And that was like all that was ever in a hang.
00:14:48East Boston was originally a group of islands.
00:14:53Since the 1830s, the water between them had gradually been filled in.
00:15:01Geoffrey Field, the predecessor of Logan Airport,
00:15:04opened in 1923 on the Tidal Flats.
00:15:11In the early years, the airport was a novelty
00:15:14and a point of pride for the neighborhood.
00:15:41During World War II, any inconveniences from living next to an airport,
00:15:46were set aside for patriotic reasons.
00:15:50But after the war, in the late 1940s,
00:15:53tension between Logan and the surrounding communities started to grow.
00:15:59Politicians and the business community saw Logan's expansion as necessary
00:16:03for Boston's economic growth.
00:16:05But the only direction it could grow was into East Boston.
00:16:12It was a very good day in the early years.
00:16:13In the early years, the city was a very good place.
00:16:16And that치 is a very good place.
00:16:18In the early years, the city was a dark mile of the port.
00:16:18The city was a park to go over home and it was a town.
00:16:26And it was a very good place for us to be full.
00:16:27At theошah.
00:16:31And it was a very good place for us to be here.
00:16:32To be able to take a new space and our nouveau ark
00:16:33To be able to go outside the pool.
00:16:35The river is open.
00:16:35And now, it was a test.
00:16:36The river was a really good place for us to look.
00:16:53Noise from the airport had been steadily increasing.
00:16:58But in 1959, with the introduction of jet engines, the noise levels suddenly became extreme.
00:17:08The new jets were more than twice as loud as the older piston engine planes.
00:17:20They also needed longer runways.
00:17:26So in the 1960s, Massport, the Logan Authority, started exploring further expansion.
00:17:33In particular, they needed a way to extend runway 1533.
00:17:45About those mysterious runway numbers, have you ever stared out the window of a plane while
00:17:51stuck waiting for takeoff and wondered what all those numbers mean?
00:17:561533.
00:17:57422.
00:17:59927.
00:18:01They seem so arbitrary, but of course they aren't.
00:18:05Each runway has two numbers, indicating the runway's orientation on the compass.
00:18:10One is used when the plane is traveling in one direction, and one is used when it is traveling
00:18:16the opposite way.
00:18:18The numbers go from 10 degrees to 360.
00:18:21But, for efficiency, the final zero of the number on the compass is dropped.
00:18:25So, runways are numbered 1 to 36.
00:18:30Runway 1533 pointed straight towards an East Boston Street called Neptune Road.
00:19:02The
00:19:03think of the older industrial city, the city of railroads and ports and factories and low-rise
00:19:10workers housing in that city. The boxing gym was one of the institutions that formed the backbone
00:19:16of the neighborhood. So the union hall and the saloon and the church and the synagogue and the
00:19:20boxing gym was one of those institutions. Every neighborhood had at least one. It was woven into
00:19:26the fabric of everyday life. Carlo Rotella is a professor of English and Urban Studies at Boston
00:19:36College. But he has also spent a lot of time at ringside and has written extensively on boxing.
00:19:44If you think about the boxing gym in the post-industrial city, that is the city organized
00:19:48around handling information. It's the city of, you know, airport, high-rise buildings,
00:19:56big suburban surround, expressways so people can drive in and out. That city, the boxing gym,
00:20:02was a kind of esoteric leftover, sort of a way that the neighborhood was that doesn't really
00:20:07exist anymore. But the gym's still left. I was reading Catherine Dunn's writing on boxing,
00:20:17and this passage resonated with me. If home and streets are fraught with chaos,
00:20:23order still prevails in the gym. The violence is ritualized and contained in the ring where there
00:20:30are rules and bells, protective helmets, and a coach in the corner watching carefully.
00:20:36Her observation helped explain my surprising comfort with boxing.
00:20:42In the boxing gym, there are rules to the violence. You choose to enter the fight. It doesn't just happen
00:20:49to you. I also came to appreciate that boxing is not just about offense, about hitting, but just as much,
00:20:56if not more, about defense.
00:20:59So there are different kinds of defensive fighters. There are defensive fighters who
00:21:04build a fortress out of their arms, and it's just hard to get through. But then there's, to me,
00:21:10there's the even higher art of someone like Bernard Hopkins, whose defensive genius lies more in
00:21:16arranging so it's never a good time to hit him.
00:21:19Or, as Sal often tells us, never be a punching bag for nobody.
00:21:25Well, this is all inside fighting.
00:21:30See how I'm using the ropes, bouncing off the rope every time he hits.
00:21:37See? Now, look how fast his hand's on him. He still can't get any punches in him.
00:21:46See what I mean? Watch my hands. Nothing's getting in.
00:21:53A large part of being in the gym is listening to Sal's stories.
00:21:59Sal makes no mystery of the fact that he comes from a background populated by wise guys.
00:22:05All these guys was getting ready for the gyms. That's Anthony. And that's Gary. Both of them
00:22:15I got ready for the Marines. He's in jail now.
00:22:23He's in jail for attempted murder. He used to be a wise guy. And he went to make a collection
00:22:29when the guy screwed with him, so he shot him in the ass. He went to court and the judge
00:22:38gave him like
00:22:4090 million years. He picked up the chair and threw the chair with the judge and he gave him another
00:22:4510 million years. Two tough kids.
00:22:53I love these stories. I know the wise guys are no laughing matter, but they're intertwined with boxing
00:23:00and with East Boston. Sal will point to a photo of a boxer on the wall, say something about his
00:23:06technique,
00:23:07and inevitably, which wise guy owned him or his bleak end.
00:23:15Sal comes from a time when being a bookie was just another job.
00:23:23In 1959, there was a widely reported FBI raid of the Ringside Cafe, the bar that Sal Sr. owned after
00:23:31he retired from boxing. Sal Jr. was just a child at the time and doesn't really remember it. But he
00:23:38does have all the newspaper clippings. I was a soda jerk and Bartola's Cafe was right next to the drugstore.
00:23:47As a teenager, Mary Ellen Welch worked in the drugstore next to the ringside cafe.
00:23:53But they had a big, let's call it a booking industry there, and they would come in the drugstore
00:24:01and they'd use our telephone, rare telephone books. They would use our phones to place their bets because
00:24:09it couldn't be traced on a public phone, or at least they thought it wouldn't.
00:24:15Along with boxing, Sal passes on other wisdom such as,
00:24:19hang your pants with the betting money in them on the wall. That way, when you are raided,
00:24:25the money is not on you and can't be used as evidence. This is why bookies often worked in their
00:24:31underwear.
00:24:42One wall of the gym is covered with photographs from Sal Sr.'s life,
00:24:47including photos of Sal Sr. with John F. Kennedy, who was a family friend.
00:24:53Family lore is that Sal's uncle in East Boston had been a bootlegger with JFK's father Joseph,
00:25:00and that when JFK and Jackie Kennedy would come to Boston,
00:25:04JFK would ask that Sal Sr. be his personal driver rather than his usual Secret Service chauffeur.
00:25:15On the opposite wall of the gym is Sal Jr.'s life story, his amateur and professional boxing career,
00:25:22his medals and souvenirs from his years in the U.S. Army and with NATO peacekeeping troops in Bosnia,
00:25:28where he opened a boxing gym for fellow soldiers, Sal's House of Pain.
00:25:58So I'd play army in the daytime, do missions, and then nighttime, I'd train fighters.
00:26:12The last and longest wall in the gym is covered with snapshots of Sal's students over the years,
00:26:19each dated with their first names written in marker on their image.
00:26:23And if you look over there, it's all past students. I have 40 years over,
00:26:27over 40 years worth of students on that wall.
00:26:31Since I've been at the gym, Sal's students have included
00:26:34an army officer on leave, an events planner at a hotel, an airline pilot, a welder,
00:26:42a tattoo artist, a grave digger, a Secret Service agent, a guy just out of prison,
00:26:50a seven-year-old boy that had to stand on a box to reach up to the speed bag,
00:26:54and a middle school girl who had wanted to be a fighter ever since she was three.
00:27:10In the gym, everyone had to spar with everyone else. When there was a huge mismatch, Sal would insist
00:27:18that the stronger, bigger person had to adjust their fighting style so no one would get hurt.
00:27:24Exactly what he's going to do. Come on, focus. Step over, step over, keep moving.
00:27:32That meant I had to crouch way down to gently tap the seven-year-old,
00:27:38and so did the Secret Service agent when he sparred with me.
00:27:42Go to that gym. Go to that gym. Go to that gym. No wonder. Step, crack, crack.
00:27:52Inside the gym, we formed a community, like a team or members of a band,
00:27:58or sometimes, I thought, like members of a cult.
00:28:04Many of the institutions that have shaped my life, libraries, schools, honky-tonks,
00:28:10you know, blues clubs, are all like that, where you come in and you say,
00:28:14this is a very specific and unique place. It's like all the other places in its category that
00:28:19are distributed throughout the world, but each one is sort of like the mystical body of honky-tonks.
00:28:23And anywhere you're in a honky-tonk, you're like, hey, it's a honky-tonk. I know how this works, right?
00:28:26And boxing gyms are really like that, and they have that real feel, and as soon as you're in one,
00:28:31you feel at home. If you feel at home in any boxing gym, you feel at home in them all
00:28:36to some extent.
00:28:45Sometimes after class, some of us would go for a drink at Kelly's Square Pub,
00:28:51John Mastrangelo's bar in East Boston.
00:28:54John is a former boxer himself. His career was in the 1960s.
00:29:00There are photos of boxers and local celebrities covering the walls of his pub,
00:29:05and a large signed photo of Sal Sr. right over the bar.
00:29:13One night, Sal Jr. joined us at Kelly's, and at the end of the evening,
00:29:17we discovered he had secretly picked up the tab.
00:29:21One night, Sal Sr. right over the bar.
00:29:23One night, Sal Sr. right over the bar.
00:29:42Driving to the gym each night, I passed the Wood Island Park train station.
00:29:47But where was Wood Island Park? I didn't see anything like a park anywhere around.
00:29:55Just the T station, the highway overpass, and the edges of the airport.
00:30:08It turned out that the park was long gone.
00:30:19Wood Island Park opened in 1898.
00:30:22Wood Island Park was what I would consider a smaller version of Central Park.
00:30:29An Oceanside Park overlooking Boston Harbor and adjacent to the tidal flats that would become
00:30:35Jeffrey Field and later Logan Airport.
00:30:41It had, when I say rolling hills, I mean rolling hills surrounded by beach.
00:30:48We used to sled. Brave people would actually try to ski with the old leather bindings and wooden skis.
00:30:57It was 70 acres, as large as the Boston Common and public garden downtown,
00:31:03and was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted,
00:31:08the same designer of Central Park in New York, in Boston's emerald necklace.
00:31:13It had ball fields, all kinds, baseball fields, football fields.
00:31:19Wood Island Park had paths for strolling.
00:31:22Every single day after school, we would get together.
00:31:26Beaches, running tracks, a tennis court, and picnic areas.
00:31:31And, you know, take a blanket off, whatever, and get a space.
00:31:51In 1963, Massport announced plans to expand Runway 1533 by demolishing Wood Island Park.
00:32:00They went like after midnight one night in the state legislature.
00:32:03And under the guise of a bill to address mental health issues,
00:32:09they snuck in the taking of Wood Island Park with eminent domain.
00:32:15The neighborhood responded with protests and lawsuits.
00:32:19Yet in April 1967, despite the public protest, Massport took Wood Island Park.
00:32:26And according to one historian, in one day,
00:32:29Wood Island Park was graded to the level of the existing runway.
00:32:36The park also designed Neptune Road, a wide residential avenue lined with elm trees,
00:32:43as a grand entrance to Wood Island Park.
00:32:47After the park was leveled, the houses on Neptune Road were less than 2,000 feet from the new runway
00:32:541533.
00:32:57Residents were subject to even more noise and vibration as the planes took off and landed directly over their houses.
00:33:07One day, I was filming the airport from Coleridge Street, a small, dead-end street
00:33:12where there is a row of houses with backyards overlooking Logan.
00:33:19I was peering into one of these backyards, holding my camera,
00:33:23when Donnie, who lives in that house, came up and asked what I was doing.
00:33:27I told him about my interest in Wood Island Park and Neptune Road.
00:33:32Donnie told me that these five houses were originally located on Neptune Road.
00:33:45Larry Venetia, Donnie's next-door neighbor, still lives in the same house he grew up there.
00:33:52The planes that came in a little too low used to knock our TV antenna down.
00:33:59Oh my god.
00:34:01You can actually still see a broken TV antenna up on this house.
00:34:06Really? From one of the planes?
00:34:08Yeah. It's been there forever.
00:34:15I can remember my dad, especially on a Sunday,
00:34:18we're having the spaghetti and meatballs big Sunday dinner and the planes would come.
00:34:25So every four minutes, a plane would either take off or land, depending on the wind.
00:34:31And he'd call up the airport tower and tell them that he's going to go up on the roof
00:34:41and he's going to punch a time card and sweep the bottoms of the planes with room.
00:34:49That's how low they were.
00:34:52And everybody would laugh, but it was serious.
00:34:55I mean, I swear I'm half deaf because of the planes going over so close.
00:35:01I always slept on this side.
00:35:04And that's my only good either.
00:35:31I don't know.
00:35:35Wood Island Park, 35 workmen with 35 chainsaws appeared on Neptune Road and cut down 35 elm
00:35:43trees. They also seized 720 feet of the road and four houses by eminent domain, evicting eight
00:35:53families. Over the next few years, the remaining residents tried to hold out and fight back
00:36:00against Massport. Massport gave residents on Neptune Road a choice. Sell their homes to Massport
00:36:20or have their houses moved.
00:36:30Yeah, that was moved.
00:36:31Yeah.
00:37:00No.
00:37:01No.
00:37:12No.
00:37:13No.
00:37:14Yeah.
00:37:28Oh,
00:37:54It's like a pure march.
00:38:03Of the original elm trees, a few survivors can still be found at the outer edge of Logan,
00:38:09on the remnant of Neptune Road, which dead-ends into the wall surrounding the airport.
00:38:16A people part of it was not even considered.
00:38:19They said, oh, these people, we'll give them money for their homes, but it was a minuscule
00:38:25amount, and they didn't value all of the things that a truly diverse neighborhood can offer
00:38:32you, how close families were, how you brought up each other's kids.
00:38:37If somebody was working, they'd watch the kids next door.
00:38:48One day, I met Nelson, a little boy who lives in one of these houses that had been moved
00:38:53from Neptune Road.
00:38:55He shyly watched me filming, circling around me with his bike.
00:39:00I know a great idea for a movie, he said.
00:39:03What is it, I asked.
00:39:05Me, on my bike, chasing you.
00:39:09So, we filmed this great movie.
00:39:11Me, on my bike.
00:39:24Me, on my bike.
00:39:27Me, on my bike.
00:39:31Me, on my bike.
00:39:33Me, on my bike.
00:39:33Me, on my bike.
00:39:34Me, on my bike.
00:39:36Me, on my bike.
00:39:49My thoughts after sparring for the first time.
00:39:52I need to stay calmer, not be frantic.
00:39:56Sparring, I had felt completely overwhelmed.
00:40:00Half frozen and unable to move,
00:40:03and half wildly pawing at the air, trying to box.
00:40:10That night, after class, I thought about all the time that I spent as a child, unable to defend myself.
00:40:18My father, who I adored, frequently would fly into rages,
00:40:23screaming and repeatedly hitting me and my brother.
00:40:27It always happened after he and my mother had been fighting.
00:40:31He never hit her, but in the aftermath of their arguments,
00:40:35he would come to the back of the house, where we were hiding, and hit us.
00:40:41Then he would abruptly stop and go away.
00:40:45Later, we would all pretend nothing had happened.
00:40:50I also thought about my mother.
00:40:53Either I was the perfect daughter, or I was the enemy.
00:40:57It depended on her shifting reality.
00:41:02Often, she wandered around the house at night, unable to sleep.
00:41:06If I angered her, she would complain to my father, and that would set him off.
00:41:16I clung to my father's affection for those other times with him,
00:41:20the times when he was in a good mood,
00:41:22and would let me sit in the darkroom while he printed his pictures.
00:41:25If I upset her, that would be lost to me.
00:41:31It wasn't until well into my adulthood that she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
00:41:38She was hospitalized during episodes of psychotic depression later in life.
00:41:44I was afraid of the dark for so many years.
00:41:47Only after I learned to say to myself,
00:41:50it's not the dark you are afraid of, it's your mother,
00:41:53could I walk down the hall at night without turning on the light.
00:42:00As a child, I had learned to be inert,
00:42:02to be stone cold,
00:42:04to be non-reactive,
00:42:06to be as if I were dead,
00:42:08to be as if I had no feelings,
00:42:10to be as if I did not notice the craziness or the cruelty of it all.
00:42:16I tried to disappear,
00:42:18the only way I thought I could be with you,
00:42:21when a lyric I wrote years later.
00:42:26It was a survival technique.
00:42:28I hope that if I didn't respond,
00:42:31didn't exacerbate the situation,
00:42:34my father's mood might pass more quickly,
00:42:36that he would finish hitting us sooner.
00:42:40I hope that if I didn't react to her erratic behavior,
00:42:43that my mother would not become angry or hurt.
00:42:46The only thing that diffused the situation with her
00:42:49was complete compliance.
00:42:55That night, after my first sparring session,
00:42:58I realized that I had been trained not to fight back.
00:43:08I think about the first time Sal did pad work,
00:43:12a boxing drill, with me.
00:43:14It was early on,
00:43:15maybe the second class I took.
00:43:18He was holding out the pads,
00:43:20telling me to punch them with my gloved hands.
00:43:23I couldn't.
00:43:24I could only give his outstretched hands a half-hearted tap.
00:43:29Come on, he said, punch it like you mean it,
00:43:32like you were really angry.
00:43:34I could only giggle and laugh nervously,
00:43:37and barely punch the pads.
00:43:38I wanted so desperately to punch them hard,
00:43:42but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
00:43:45I felt like I was outside my own body,
00:43:49looking down from the ceiling.
00:43:50I watched myself unable to control
00:43:53my uncomfortable, stupid giggling,
00:43:56unable to punch his hands.
00:43:58As I watched myself, I was thinking,
00:44:00if I can't even pretend to conjure up anger
00:44:03without embarrassment or shame,
00:44:05if I can't hit back,
00:44:07even when I want to,
00:44:09even when I am being told to do so,
00:44:11I really need to learn this.
00:44:20Boxing training is repetitive.
00:44:22Muscle memory as well as conditioning.
00:44:25What else is held in muscle memory?
00:44:28The flinch as the hand comes towards you,
00:44:31when as a child you cower
00:44:33in the furthermost corner of the closet
00:44:35or in the backseat of the car?
00:44:37Can you learn not to flinch
00:44:39as a hand comes towards you?
00:44:43Catch and counter, says Sal.
00:44:45You catch the hand coming out,
00:44:47stop it from hitting you,
00:44:49and then, with split-second timing,
00:44:51almost at the very same moment
00:44:53as you block that hand coming towards you,
00:44:55you hit back.
00:45:12I was introduced to Mary Ellen Welch
00:45:15by Regina Markey,
00:45:16a fourth-generation East Bostonian
00:45:19and author of a book about East Boston history.
00:45:23Regina told me that if I wanted to speak with someone
00:45:26who had been a defender of East Boston,
00:45:28I should meet her godmother.
00:45:31She's the most dynamic, strong, you know,
00:45:34she was a feminist before people were feminists,
00:45:36before my own mother was on board with that.
00:45:38But long story short, I said to her yesterday,
00:45:40told her about you and said,
00:45:41would you ever feel up to doing an interview?
00:45:46When I met Mary Ellen, she was in the hospital,
00:45:50frail, but her passion undiminished.
00:45:55I've been involved in East Boston politics
00:45:59and community action since about 1965.
00:46:09Mary Ellen Welch was a schoolteacher
00:46:12and lifelong activist.
00:46:14In her second grade classroom,
00:46:16she wrote the number to call
00:46:18with airport noise complaints
00:46:19on one corner of the blackboard.
00:46:22One of her students wrote to the head of Massport,
00:46:26Dear Mr. Davis,
00:46:28the planes hurt my ears.
00:46:29When I do my work, I get disturbed.
00:46:32Miss Welch is getting mad.
00:46:34Can you make the planes quieter?
00:46:36I hope so.
00:46:38Please make the planes stop.
00:46:40The end.
00:46:45In 1968, Mary Ellen Welch
00:46:48was part of the Maverick Street Mothers' protest.
00:46:51Dump trucks carrying landfill for Logan expansion,
00:46:54up to 600 trucks per day,
00:46:57had been speeding down Maverick Street,
00:46:59a residential street on the other side of the airport
00:47:02from Neptune Road.
00:47:04The airport at the time was leveling
00:47:07what was then called Bird Island Flats.
00:47:09It had a hill and they were leveling the dirt
00:47:12and taking the dirt away in these great big dump trucks.
00:47:15And they were using Maverick Street as their way to get back and forth
00:47:18to take the dirt away.
00:47:20The protest was organized around the kitchen table of Anna DeFronzo.
00:47:28Anna DeFronzo was very much a respected matriarch in the community.
00:47:33She was a woman of the neighborhood that everyone looked up to.
00:47:36And so her kitchen kind of was a natural place for organizing around this issue.
00:47:41She was joined there by Mary Ellen Welch and other neighborhood women.
00:47:47People saw what was going on in the South on civil rights issues.
00:47:53They saw people, young and old, going into the street
00:47:57and subconsciously, in my opinion,
00:48:01people formed ideas that said,
00:48:05hey, if that's a way to fight,
00:48:07we're getting nowhere writing letters
00:48:09and going to one meeting a year,
00:48:11maybe we should take matters into our own hands.
00:48:16They decided it should be a women-only demonstration.
00:48:21We didn't want the men to, you know,
00:48:24be macho and go against the truck drivers
00:48:27or the police or whatever.
00:48:29So mothers with baby carriages, if you had kids,
00:48:34we went into the street.
00:48:39The Maverick Street mothers showed up
00:48:41on the morning of September 28, 1968,
00:48:44and blocked the street.
00:48:49And so, when the first truck came,
00:48:53they threatened, they were screaming and hollering at us,
00:48:57get out of the way, we'll run you over,
00:48:59they were tooting, you know, the horns.
00:49:01It was scary.
00:49:03But the women didn't move.
00:49:05We just stayed there.
00:49:07And then, so they called the cops.
00:49:11When they came, they got very rough with the women.
00:49:15And they would, like, take you by the shoulders
00:49:17and shove you from the street
00:49:19into, like, the steps of somebody's house
00:49:23or the fence.
00:49:24Very rough because the women were on the roof.
00:49:26And so when they saw the TV films
00:49:29went right on the evening news at supper time.
00:49:32So a lot of people saw it
00:49:34and got all up in arms.
00:49:36As a matter of fact,
00:49:37they use this alternate route
00:49:39in the wee hours of the morning
00:49:41so that if they can do it then,
00:49:43they certainly can do it during the daytime.
00:49:44And the politicians and the business people,
00:49:47they said, we can't have that going on.
00:49:49Women and children getting on the street.
00:49:52And they were crazy when they heard it.
00:49:57And simply stated, it's this.
00:49:59The protests continued over the next few days,
00:50:02prompting Mayor Kevin White to come down to East Boston
00:50:06and speak directly with the protesters.
00:50:08Freddie Langone, John Stahl
00:50:11to try and provide
00:50:15for the people of this area
00:50:17free access on this street
00:50:20without worry of getting hit by trucks.
00:50:30The trucks won't roll tomorrow!
00:50:40And by the end of the week,
00:50:42Massport had found an alternate route
00:50:44for the trucks.
00:50:46When that happened,
00:50:48that was, and the trucks went home,
00:50:51we counted that as a significant victory.
00:50:59When I first screened this footage,
00:51:01I caught a glimpse of a familiar face
00:51:04at the right edge of the frame.
00:51:06I realized it was Mary Ellen Welch.
00:51:14There she was in 1968,
00:51:18watching with satisfaction
00:51:20as the trucks backed down Maverick Street.
00:51:24And so it spread
00:51:27from that small group of mothers
00:51:29on Maverick Street.
00:51:32From that emanated, you know,
00:51:35a lot of community action
00:51:37to right the wrongs
00:51:39that were going on.
00:51:46In the subsequent decades,
00:51:49Mary Ellen Welch
00:51:50and other activists
00:51:51have lobbied tirelessly
00:51:53to bring more green space
00:51:54back to the community.
00:51:57They worked to establish
00:51:58the East Boston Greenway,
00:52:00a linear park
00:52:02along the path
00:52:03of abandoned railroad tracks.
00:52:05And they were able
00:52:07to turn East Boston
00:52:08from a neighborhood
00:52:08that had the second lowest level
00:52:11of green space in the city
00:52:12in the 1970s.
00:52:14Aside from Chinatown,
00:52:16East Boston was the neighborhood
00:52:17of Boston
00:52:18with the least amount
00:52:19of green space.
00:52:20And today it is
00:52:21one of the neighborhoods
00:52:22with the most amount
00:52:23of green space.
00:52:27One of those green spaces,
00:52:29named Neptune Road Edge Buffer Park,
00:52:32is a sliver wedged
00:52:33between the highway,
00:52:35the Wood Island T-Station,
00:52:36and the airport.
00:52:40In homage to the Neptune Road homes
00:52:42that were destroyed,
00:52:43there is a ghostly footprint
00:52:45in stone
00:52:45outlining the floor plan
00:52:47of one of the houses.
00:53:02For many years,
00:53:04having an airport
00:53:04in their backyard
00:53:05kept housing prices down
00:53:07in East Boston
00:53:08and the neighboring towns.
00:53:17Recently,
00:53:18this has begun to change.
00:53:20And now these communities
00:53:21face a new challenge
00:53:23of how to remain affordable
00:53:25amidst the real estate boom.
00:53:33And that's what residents here,
00:53:35who had their, you know,
00:53:37grandparents living here,
00:53:38their parents,
00:53:39they lived here,
00:53:39they want their kids
00:53:40to live here.
00:53:41These types of long-term
00:53:42community residents
00:53:43made all the difference
00:53:45in getting East Boston
00:53:47to become this desirable place
00:53:48that now so many people
00:53:49want to move to.
00:53:50And there are still
00:53:52a lot of long-term activists
00:53:54still here
00:53:55who are hoping
00:53:56that some of the newcomer
00:53:57populations
00:53:59will want to join
00:54:00some of these organizations
00:54:02and they need some new blood
00:54:04to keep the fight going.
00:54:14I guess,
00:54:16I will just,
00:54:17I guess I have one more question
00:54:18for today,
00:54:19which is just,
00:54:21the thing that struck me
00:54:23when I,
00:54:24because I didn't intend
00:54:25to start boxing.
00:54:28I went there
00:54:29to use it
00:54:29as a video location.
00:54:31Right, you said that, yeah.
00:54:32And,
00:54:32and then I was really struck
00:54:34by this idea
00:54:36of having to
00:54:38defend myself,
00:54:39having to
00:54:40hit back
00:54:41and,
00:54:41and how hard it was to do.
00:54:43Right.
00:54:43How it was just like,
00:54:44I was like,
00:54:45no, like,
00:54:46Oh, because you were brought up
00:54:48not to do that.
00:54:49But that action,
00:54:51it felt to me
00:54:52at that moment,
00:54:52like,
00:54:53oh, that's a really important thing
00:54:54to be able to do.
00:54:55Yeah.
00:54:55You were hesitant
00:54:56to strike back.
00:54:58And as some people
00:54:59in the neighborhoods
00:55:01might be afraid
00:55:02to go on the street
00:55:03or confront the police
00:55:04or speak up
00:55:06on a controversial,
00:55:08a so-called
00:55:09controversial idea.
00:55:10They might be,
00:55:11be derided
00:55:12by their neighbors
00:55:13or their family
00:55:14or, you know,
00:55:15whatever.
00:55:16That's all part of life.
00:55:17And that's how,
00:55:20why some people hesitate
00:55:21to speak out
00:55:24or participate openly
00:55:27in something.
00:55:28But it gets easier.
00:55:56One night,
00:55:57another gym
00:55:57came to our gym
00:55:58to spar with us.
00:56:00It was a massacre.
00:56:06Our guys didn't crumble
00:56:07or collapse.
00:56:08They fought back.
00:56:10But they were overwhelmed
00:56:11with the brawling techniques
00:56:13of the other gym.
00:56:14And they didn't manage
00:56:15to muster up
00:56:16all they knew
00:56:17about defending themselves,
00:56:19about parrying the punches,
00:56:21stepping around,
00:56:22moving their heads.
00:56:24Since there were no women
00:56:25from the other gym
00:56:26to spar with,
00:56:27I was spared.
00:56:32Sal was dispirited
00:56:33in the days that followed,
00:56:36alternately blaming himself
00:56:38for not teaching us
00:56:39well enough
00:56:39and blaming the guys
00:56:41for not listening
00:56:42to his instructions.
00:56:51Sal is teaching us
00:56:53to defend ourselves.
00:56:55But that doesn't mean
00:56:56it always works.
00:57:01We're boxers.
00:57:02We're boxers.
00:57:03They're brawlers.
00:57:04It's a totally different animal
00:57:05altogether.
00:57:06Don't get them confused.
00:57:09A brawler,
00:57:10all you're doing
00:57:10is standing
00:57:11and throwing punches.
00:57:12Still,
00:57:13we should have beaten
00:57:14every one of those fighters.
00:57:17it is easier to get
00:57:19to a level
00:57:21of minimum effectiveness
00:57:23as a brawler.
00:57:24And so,
00:57:25a brawler
00:57:26with rudimentary skills
00:57:27will almost certainly
00:57:28overwhelm a boxer
00:57:29with rudimentary skills,
00:57:30right?
00:57:31Even if they're
00:57:32at the same stage
00:57:33of development
00:57:34because a boxer
00:57:34is going to have to
00:57:35take longer
00:57:36to develop
00:57:36into what they're
00:57:37going to become.
00:57:39Don't be a punching bag
00:57:40for anybody.
00:57:41Why should you be
00:57:42a punching bag?
00:57:43What are you getting
00:57:44out of being
00:57:44a punching bag?
00:57:46Here.
00:57:46Go back to this fight.
00:57:50It's so hard
00:57:50in the moment, though.
00:57:51It doesn't make
00:57:52any difference.
00:57:53You've got to get
00:57:53your head out of your ass
00:57:54when you're fighting.
00:57:56Either fight
00:57:56or go home.
00:57:58What do you see?
00:58:00Brawler.
00:58:01Left right,
00:58:02left right,
00:58:02left right.
00:58:03Now, one is coming
00:58:04from the shoulder.
00:58:05I've been boxing
00:58:06for two years now.
00:58:08It all started
00:58:09with me feeling
00:58:10I had to learn
00:58:11to punch back.
00:58:12But though Sal
00:58:13tells me many
00:58:14of the same things
00:58:15time and again,
00:58:16they're still not
00:58:17instinctive,
00:58:18not in my muscle memory.
00:58:23But they are
00:58:24more than they were,
00:58:25more than when
00:58:26I didn't even know
00:58:28I needed to do
00:58:28these things.
00:58:31I know now
00:58:32to keep my hands up,
00:58:33but sometimes
00:58:34they aren't,
00:58:35even when I think
00:58:36that they are.
00:58:37And I am surprised
00:58:38when Sal reminds me
00:58:39by tapping me
00:58:40on the side of the head
00:58:41with his mitted hand.
00:58:42See you.
00:58:46Now,
00:58:47that's all you're
00:58:48going to do.
00:58:48Take it down,
00:58:48you pick up the point,
00:58:49you lost.
00:58:50Take your time.
00:58:52Take it before
00:58:53you execute.
00:58:54One step,
00:58:56one punch,
00:58:57combination,
00:58:58one round.
00:59:01Most boxing films
00:59:03end the same way.
00:59:06Against all odds,
00:59:08the underdog
00:59:08wins the big fight.
00:59:12A neighbor
00:59:13who is a boxing fan
00:59:14advised me,
00:59:16you need to enter
00:59:17a boxing competition,
00:59:18and when you walk up
00:59:19those three steps
00:59:20to the ring,
00:59:21you will understand
00:59:22why you took up boxing.
00:59:37Tuss D'Amato
00:59:38was a famous trainer
00:59:39known for his words
00:59:41of boxing wisdom.
00:59:42I like this quote of his
00:59:44about boxing and fear.
00:59:46The hero and the coward
00:59:48both feel the same thing,
00:59:50but the hero
00:59:51uses his fear,
00:59:52projects it onto
00:59:53his opponent
00:59:54while the coward
00:59:55runs.
00:59:56It's the same thing,
00:59:58fear,
00:59:58but it's what you do
00:59:59with it
01:00:00that matters.
01:00:04I'll tell you right now
01:00:06that this film
01:00:07doesn't end
01:00:08with me winning
01:00:09the big fight.
01:00:11If you think about
01:00:12the contrast
01:00:12between hurting people
01:00:14and all the tenderness
01:00:15that you find
01:00:15in the gym,
01:00:16it doesn't strike me
01:00:17as weird.
01:00:18You raise your kids
01:00:19with great tenderness
01:00:20and love,
01:00:21but you also think
01:00:22it's a big,
01:00:22terrible world out there
01:00:23and you want them
01:00:24ready to do
01:00:25what they got to do.
01:00:28And of course,
01:00:29it doesn't end
01:00:30with the airport
01:00:31disappearing.
01:00:34Because even if
01:00:35you can't win
01:00:36all the fights
01:00:36in the present,
01:00:38and even if
01:00:39you can't go back
01:00:40and win the fights
01:00:41of the past,
01:00:43you can find a way
01:00:44to use your fear.
01:00:47In my opinion,
01:00:49all of those ways
01:00:51of protest,
01:00:52they were used
01:00:53as vehicles
01:00:53to give people
01:00:55more integrity
01:00:56and more power
01:00:57to control
01:00:58their own destinies.
01:01:19very soon after
01:01:20I first started
01:01:21going to the gym
01:01:22regularly,
01:01:23I asked Sal
01:01:24if I could photograph him
01:01:25in the style
01:01:26of the large portraits
01:01:27of boxers
01:01:28on the wall.
01:01:29He was up for it.
01:01:33Hey, Sal,
01:01:34do you want to try
01:01:35just going standing
01:01:36there for a minute or two?
01:01:37My friend Ali,
01:01:38a cinematographer,
01:01:39wanted to come
01:01:40with me that day.
01:01:41Yeah, great.
01:01:42She wanted to document
01:01:43me taking this photograph.
01:01:47Look in the lens.
01:01:48Look in the lens
01:01:49the way you look
01:01:49at the opponent.
01:01:53Yeah, great.
01:01:55Camera, and one, two, three.
01:02:01One, two, three.
01:02:03I need you to step
01:02:03half a step that way.
01:02:05Your arm is going
01:02:06all the way.
01:02:07Make sure you can,
01:02:08if you can make sure
01:02:09that when you do
01:02:10your head,
01:02:10you're still looking
01:02:11at the lens
01:02:12with both eyes.
01:02:12Can you do that for me?
01:02:18Yes, good.
01:02:19How about a right uppercut?
01:02:23Okay, but I need you
01:02:24to step back a little
01:02:25so that you're in a light.
01:02:27One, two, three.
01:02:29Great.
01:02:32Okay, great.
01:02:33I think we got it.
01:02:34We got lots of great ones.
01:02:35Sweet.
01:02:36All right.
01:02:49It now hangs
01:02:50on the wall
01:02:50of the gym
01:02:51with the photographs
01:02:52of the other fighters.
01:02:58All right, that's it.
01:03:00Time's up.
01:03:01All right.
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