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THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, November 21, 2025 Page 19 MUSINGS | FROM PAGE 6 in the evening the Norman Prince Band played on top of Amerige Hill. People danced on the tennis courts all night. Fireworks followed at Devir Park later in the evening. It was a prosperous time for Americans and times were good. I was six years old and already had played ball with the big kids, gone to Junior Police, came in 1st in the 6-year-old race and won a cowboy hat. I was on a roll with bigger and better things just around the corner!” • A1963 VIP inadvertently left out of last week’s column... Charles Frank Desmond of 107 Newland St. was vice president of his sophomore class, a popular member of his class and an indoor/outdoor track star. My note: Charles had really excellent taste in music, “enjoying jazz especially the singing of Jimmy Smith.” Jimmy Smith was an American jazz musician who helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, creating a link between jazz and 1960s soul music. • Speaking of 1963... Who remembers the famous Bill Marinelli–owned Stadium Café (pre-Settemio family) at 265 Medford St. across the street from Brother Gilbert Stadium? According to the ad in the MEN, “Daily Italo-American Specials.” My note: I ate there maybe once, steak tips and steak fries. I remember working-class gentlemen drinking beer/shots and smoking Marlboros. That’s it. Billy & Dommy Settemio will fill in the blanks for me on Stadium ambience at a later date. As Peter Falk’s iconic TV character Columbo would say, “Just one more thing, sir” — we get letters... my recent column about Malden, Back in the Day, struck a chord with many Maldonians. It was a pleasure to write, and I sincerely appreciate folks reaching out to me. I’ll let my newest Facebook friend, Barry Crotty, take it from here: “Great writeup! Brought back many memories. I was a summer park instructor in 1960 at Roosevelt Park. Grew up in Forestdale surrounded by immigrant families from Nova Scotia, Italy, and Ireland, interspersed with many Jewish families from all over the world, one of which took the time to teach me some Yiddish while I was learning German at MHS.” “The ‘Poor Farm’ (McFadden Manor) was still in operation, with cows and a bull, a two-story barn, a silo, and hundreds of chickens in a long, two-story coop. The farm had horses, and there was an underground stable in the rear of the extensive living quarters. Mr. McGuire was in charge and every spring he tilled the fields and planted vegetables. One of their fenced-in fields had several huge chestnut trees, now rarely found in the USA. “Forestdale Park was originally located on Sylvan Street at the bottom of Kimball Street (replacing ‘WW-2 Victory Garden’ plots planted by Forestdale neighbors). Next to it the city grew trees for replanting around the city. The Poor Farm and the Forestdale Park property acreage were incrementally developed into old-age housing, the current Forestdale Park, and a new school. “The Forestdale Cemetery still had lots of open space at the Forest St/Sylvan Street end, where us kids would roam. It’s now filled with gravesites. Pine Banks Park had a large dump next to it, largely hidden in the woods, and when they closed it for good, they bulldozed it flat and trucked excess dump material as fill to make the current ballfields. For years afterwards lots of glass shards would work their way to the grassy surface. “Maplewood, Linden, and Forestdale comprised our stomping grounds. Our schools were very old, Ayers, Maplewood, and Browne, all replaced over the years. Malden had 5 movie theaters in ‘The Square’ and candlepin bowling alleys. Automated pin setting machines existed but some alleys still used boys to reset the pins! Many of our streets were still paved with cobblestones and roads were still unpaved dirt. The city started to dig up many cobblestones and stored piles of them at the old City Yards near the Pearl St Stadium, but that was too man-intensive, so they just paved over many streets, leaving the cobblestones as a base.” “Malden’s main streets were crisscrossed with trolley wires about 15-20 feet high. The trackless trolley buses had two poles attached to the rear of the buses which connected to the overhead electrical wires. One pole would often detach from the wires when the bus made a tight turn around a corner. The bus would immediately stop, and the driver had to go out and swing the pole back into position. The Service Bus Line with blue buses replaced the red buses of the Warwick Line in the mid- LEGAL NOTICE - Malden Contributory Retirement System Request for Proposals Investment Management Service The Malden Retirement Board (MRB) seeks proposals from qualified investment managers for the Malden Contributory Retirement System’s entire balanced portfolio. The total market value of the portfolio was approximately $411 million as of September 30, 2025. The selected firm will be responsible for managing a well-diversified allocation that aligns with the investment objectives and risk tolerance of the MRB. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS The preferred manager should have experience managing accounts in excess of $400,000,000, specifically as separately invested balanced portfolios rather than comingled funds. Additionally, the firm must be familiar with and agree to comply with Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 32, as well as the regulations set forth by the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC) under 840 CMR. To obtain a copy of the Request for Proposals or to make general inquiries regarding the RFP, please email Robert Soohoo, Director, at rsoohoo@maldenretirement.org with the subject line “Investment Manager RFP”. To ensure a fair and equitable evaluation process, and to ensure all prospective bidders receive the same information, we kindly request that all inquiries regarding this RFP be submitted via email. No phone calls please. Proposals are due no later than Monday, December 15, 2025, at 5:00 PM EST. The address for submissions is: Malden Contributory Retirement System 215 Pleasant Street, 5th Floor Malden, MA 02148 November 21, 2025 1950’s. Ten cents a ride! “I left Malden in 1961 for four years in the Air Force, returned for a year, working for Household Finance on Pleasant Street, and then off to a 40+ year career as a civilian in the Department of Defense at NSA and the Pentagon. Lived in England, Italy, Texas, Florida, Maryland, Hawaii and now Oregon but always remembered how places like the Salemwood Grille, Jessel’s, and others were not just bars, they were neighborhood gathering places, where (as you mentioned in the past) ‘they knew your name, what you drank and what your parents drank.’ “It took us YEARS to find the same feeling of ‘belonging.’ I still have family in Malden. My father and brothers worked for the city as the Inspectors of Wiring and Code Enforcement, and my nephew is a current police officer. We still return for visits and noticed that The Square is looking much better each year. All the best in the future and thanks for listening.” —Peter is a longtime Malden resident and a regular contributor to The Malden Advocate. He can be reached at PeteL39@aol. com for comments, compliments or criticisms. LEGAL NOTICE CITY OF MALDEN REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS DESIGNER SERVICES For SALT SHED & BOAT HOUSE Pursuant to MGL Chapter 7c, Section 47, the City of Malden (City) requests proposals from registered and qualified firms to provide professional design and construction administration services to construct a salt shed and a boat house. Request for Qualifications (RFQ) can be obtained on or after December 1 @ 10:00AM by email. Inquiries to be submitted in writing to Rebekah McPheeters at rmcpheeters@cityofmalden.org. Proposals must be delivered on/before 10:00 AM on December 16 to The Office of Strategic Planning & Community Development, Malden City Hall, Room 350, 215 Pleasant St, Malden, MA 02148. Proposals submitted after this time will not be accepted. A detailed description of the requirements of the proposals is included in the RFQ. The City is NOT planning to conduct an informal briefing session in Malden prior to the proposal submission deadline. November 21, 2025

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