Page 6 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, July 17, 2026 ~ Malden Musings ~ Saint Rocco Feast August 7, 8, & 9 By Peter Levine S tone-cold Edgeworth William Joseph Nutile Sr. was born January 15, 1929, and passed January 23, 2021, but not before contributing some of the finest, most interesting Malden history — via this column — that has ever been documented. Married to his lifelong love Evelyn Perry Nutile (Pappy) for 66 years, Billy graduated from Malden High in 1946 and shortly after graduating went on to serve in the US Army as a Staff Sgt during World War II in the 796th Military Police Battalion in Austria. While serving he found time for hockey as a member of the Army Ice Hockey team. Here I have something he wrote for me back around 10 or so years ago. It is timeless. It is vital. It is something really special if you eat, sleep, breathe Malden... “I tried to identify some of the Summer is Here! Established 1978 Mid-grade Regular 3.83 4.34 4.83 $4.47 Full Service ULS $3.999 Order online at angelosoil.com Kerosene Now Available! people in your recent ‘ancient’ photos of the Saint Rocco Feast and could only pick out Father Donovan, Pastor of Saint Peters for sure and maybe the short guy was Mimi DePietro. A Malden Councilman at the time, except that I remember Mimi with one arm. It, nevertheless, brought back a few memories. Saint Peters was a ‘sub’ church, for lack of a better description, for the Immaculate Conception. The Edgeworth Italians were ‘relegated’ to Saint Peters because of the many immigrants from Italy at the time who could only speak Italian and of course Father Donovan gave his sermons in Italian. I was told back then he had spent three or more years in Italy learning the language for that purpose. ”The early mass at Saint Peters ALS Hope Walk of for Registration at 9:00 a.m. Angel Fund for The RESEARCH AN INDEPENDENT NON-PROFIT CHARITY Benefiting ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) research at UMass Chan Medical School was for the Italian kids Sunday School. My kid sister, who you know now as Elsie (Nutile) Kerrigan, was as blonde as blonde could be. She stood out like a sore thumb at an Italian kids Sunday School Mass. She’ll recall now, with a chuckle, how Father Donovan singled her out one Sunday and told her to remind her mother that Sunday School at Saint Peters was for the Italian kids and that she should probably go up to the Immaculate Conception for Sunday School. I guess his thinking was maybe she was an Irish kid or something. My sister politely told him she was Italian and had always gone there for Sunday School. He was a great priest, everyone loved him, as Irish as ‘Paddy’s Pig’ but he fit into the EdgeLake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, MA Saturday, September 12th, 2026 …a 3.5-mile walk around Walk begins at 11:00 a.m. • Build a team and obtain a sponsor • Collect pledges as a walker • Be a corporate sponsor • Make a tax-deductible donation to The Angel Fund Call 781-245-7070 or visit our website for more information. The Angel Fund for ALS Research • 649 Main Street • Wakefield, MA 01880 781-245-7070 • theangelfundals@gmail.com www.theangelfund.org worth scene like a glove. “The Saint Rocco celebration conjures many memories for me back when I was growing up in the 1930s and ’40s. Not the least of which was the Grease Pole. When I was a kid the rest of Malden didn’t come down to Edgeworth for anything. The neighborhoods were as independent from each other as could be. The ‘West Enders’ wouldn’t be caught dead in Edgeworth, nor over in Suffolk Square either, or vice versa. The only time we kids found ourselves up in the West End was after a snowstorm when we would shovel snow off their front walks for a dollar or two. We were like ‘pariahs’ to the rest of Malden. Hell, San Rock Procession 2024 leaving the Italian American Club for the Friday night opening festivities they wouldn’t even let the Italian American Vets Club (ITAMS) band march in the 4th of July Parade one year! “Lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Back then we were able to tell the police cars (cruisers as we called them) by the spread of headlights. We could tell they were coming a mile away and it gave us time to scatter. Always a crowd of us hanging on the corner in Edgeworth or at a crap game behind some house on Pearl and they would come down and cruise around three or four times a night let alone the daytime constantly. Had to keep those ‘bad kids’ in Edgeworth in line! “A generation changed the thinking of many of the so-called ‘White Anglo Saxon’ crowd who pretty much dominated the rest of the city. Opposites attract and over time many of the guys found their loved ones in high school and such and well.......you know the rest of the story. Although it appears to me, ‘a transplanted Maldonian,’ that Edgeworth may still be Edgeworth. I got a feeling that there might have been some changes over the years? At 88, pushing 89...it would be wonderful to be able to go back for just one week.... to maybe the early forties......? “There were still many immigrants back then....plenty of what we called the ‘OODEES’ (the older Italian immigrant ladies, who only had one dress - the color BLACK) that would be at the wakes and rocking back and forth moaning ‘oo dee’ ‘oo dee’ (Oh God!) and plenty of older Italian men with their gardens in every back yard growing tomatoes, and more tomatoes and even more tomatoes. Many are seen collecting horse droppings on the streets to mix with water in 50-gallon drums in each yard that they would use to water their ‘tomatoes’!! While the rest of their offspring crowd were growing and trying to acclimate being Americans with Italian descent.... the first American born generation had survived the 30’s somehow. “The 2nd World War helped by getting most of them out of Edgeworth, going off to fight, and then.... in my era, the second generation of kids......well, we were trying to find our own way. We made up songs ‘Oh we are the boys of Edgeworth, a part of Malden, Mass. surrounded by the rubber shop and a place where they make gas!!’ (can’t print the rest....) When we were not getting in trouble, we had to learn some Italian words so we could speak to the newly arrived and we had to deal with the immigrant store owners, some of which only spoke Italian. Charlie and Katherine’s, (Gustanz and Caterine’s) come to mind on the corner of Malden and Pearl. We started to make a little headway as we grew older, new homes were being built ‘out in the country’ after the war and we started to spread out of Edgeworth with our ‘out of town brides’ and we sired the third generation. That was the crowd of kids that started to be the ‘good kids.’ They didn’t have the struggle like we did. They didn’t get into trouble. They did what they were told to do by their parents, sometimes grandpa and grandma lived with them in their houses. And of course, then came the fourth generation. The immigrants were ‘Italian Italians.’ No question about that! Their offFLEET CARD Check Out Our LOW PRICES!
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