Last July I started off the new SCRAPBOOK series of posts with pics "borrowed" from various web sources of places in my hometown of Woonsocket, RI. I couldn't snag shots of exactly all the locations I wanted to feature in the post since my choices, short of actually traveling to RI and photographing them myself, were limited to what was out there with the only alternative being Google Maps Streetview shots. Back then, Google hadn't shot anywhere near Woonsocket yet. Well, now they have. At least some of the major streets running through town. So, here are a few more pics of some of my childhood haunts.
Here's the weenie place I talked about in last year's post. I have to admit, the interior shots I used were actually of a similar restaurant in Providence. So sue me! ;) But this is the real McCoy here...New York System Lunch on Main Street...a landmark for sure. This and Ye Olde English Fish & Chips sum up 2 of my 3 favorite Main Street area eateries...
This is the 3rd. Chan's. The best fried rice in the world. One of the best lo meins (tied with the Metarie, Louisiana place) and many fond memories of stopping in here after school once a week for a ritual dinner out with John N. where I would always order the Number 4 (Fried boneless chicken in gravy, fried rice, chop suey). It's a wonder I wasn't fat as I am now when I was a kid!
Pretty much halfway between those two Main Street iconic restaurants is Depot Square. On the left is the building John N. and I snuck into to access the 2nd floor public restroom for some teen lust sucky sucky, discussed in this post. On the right is the Providence and Worcester Railroad train station. The spire used to have a brass train engine themed weather vane but it went missing in the mid-eighties. The cops were dumbfounded as to how the thieves got up there. Some theorized they used a helicopter. Ya, right. Ah, donut-drugged small town police dreaming up outrageous capers. How sad.
Across the river is this cool looking stone courthouse. I had to face a judge under a charge of hit and run! Yikes. Thankfully since I was young and cute the closeted gay judge felt sorry for me and let me get off with an expungement after I paid the lowlife owner of the van I'd hit over $400 in damages. That idiot actually ran into me and only got a little scratch on his already beat-up van. How dare he hit me after I'd just drank two bottles of wine. Of course I left the scene! I wanted to wait a few years before I'd get my first DUI.
Just across the square from the courthouse is St. James Church. Here I attended the funeral of a good friend just a couple years after graduating high school. Stephen was a brilliant nerdy kinda guy but he liked to play silly games and one night while home from college he and his buddies got in a car and raced down Gaskill Street. Unfortunately whoever was driving the car he was in lost control and wrapped the car around a tree.
Here's a view of the Hamlet Street side of Precious Blood Church, just a stone's throw from St. James. My parents were married here on September 23, 1963. My aunt/godmother, "Neuna" had her funeral here.
Here we have a pretty much average street corner in the "infamous" Social Corner neighborhood of town. Though a bit less cramped today due to fires and demolitions, the area has long been the denizen of the city's most poor and working-class. And in a poor and working-class city, that's sayin' a lot. Here some of the typical three-story tenement houses seem to have been stripped of their porches. Probably due to age, wood rot, and the landlord's fear of liability if tenants started falling off them after a night out at one of the many corner barrooms. Of course, you know, Kid Chase grew up in this hood.
Here's the weenie place I talked about in last year's post. I have to admit, the interior shots I used were actually of a similar restaurant in Providence. So sue me! ;) But this is the real McCoy here...New York System Lunch on Main Street...a landmark for sure. This and Ye Olde English Fish & Chips sum up 2 of my 3 favorite Main Street area eateries...
This is the 3rd. Chan's. The best fried rice in the world. One of the best lo meins (tied with the Metarie, Louisiana place) and many fond memories of stopping in here after school once a week for a ritual dinner out with John N. where I would always order the Number 4 (Fried boneless chicken in gravy, fried rice, chop suey). It's a wonder I wasn't fat as I am now when I was a kid!
Pretty much halfway between those two Main Street iconic restaurants is Depot Square. On the left is the building John N. and I snuck into to access the 2nd floor public restroom for some teen lust sucky sucky, discussed in this post. On the right is the Providence and Worcester Railroad train station. The spire used to have a brass train engine themed weather vane but it went missing in the mid-eighties. The cops were dumbfounded as to how the thieves got up there. Some theorized they used a helicopter. Ya, right. Ah, donut-drugged small town police dreaming up outrageous capers. How sad.
Across the river is this cool looking stone courthouse. I had to face a judge under a charge of hit and run! Yikes. Thankfully since I was young and cute the closeted gay judge felt sorry for me and let me get off with an expungement after I paid the lowlife owner of the van I'd hit over $400 in damages. That idiot actually ran into me and only got a little scratch on his already beat-up van. How dare he hit me after I'd just drank two bottles of wine. Of course I left the scene! I wanted to wait a few years before I'd get my first DUI.
Just across the square from the courthouse is St. James Church. Here I attended the funeral of a good friend just a couple years after graduating high school. Stephen was a brilliant nerdy kinda guy but he liked to play silly games and one night while home from college he and his buddies got in a car and raced down Gaskill Street. Unfortunately whoever was driving the car he was in lost control and wrapped the car around a tree.
Here's a view of the Hamlet Street side of Precious Blood Church, just a stone's throw from St. James. My parents were married here on September 23, 1963. My aunt/godmother, "Neuna" had her funeral here.
Here we have a pretty much average street corner in the "infamous" Social Corner neighborhood of town. Though a bit less cramped today due to fires and demolitions, the area has long been the denizen of the city's most poor and working-class. And in a poor and working-class city, that's sayin' a lot. Here some of the typical three-story tenement houses seem to have been stripped of their porches. Probably due to age, wood rot, and the landlord's fear of liability if tenants started falling off them after a night out at one of the many corner barrooms. Of course, you know, Kid Chase grew up in this hood.