Bonding With Boston

As winter turned to summer, a new resident in the city’s North End neighbourhood grew to embrace its historic and lively character and colour

- Satya Kandala

I MOVED TO BOSTON FROM THE OVERTAXED SHORES OF CALIFORNIA ON AN ICY THANKSGIVING DAY IN 2020.

My new address was North End, a historic neighbourhood in the city and, on my first day, the streets were deserted and my apartment felt like an ice box. As I hauled many suitcases up several flights of rickety stairs with the help of a friend, I noticed a plaque outside my building that said that John F. Kennedy’s mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born in the same building. “And looks like it hasn’t been renovated since,” I joked to my friend, as I tried to make the old stove in the apartment work

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North End is among the oldest residential communities in Boston, swarming with European inhabitants, especially Italian -Americans, who have made it their home since the 1630s. The next morning, I spied older Italian gentlemen half-hanging out of their windows, watching the garbage truck closely, a routine that would repeat every Thursday and Monday mornings. My apartment stands on the Freedom Trail, a 5.95 kilometre-long path in Boston that connects 16 significant American landmarks. Down the street is the house of Paul Revere, hero of the American Revolution and eminent silversmith. As I settled into life within my Boston pandemic bubble, Thanksgiving blew past and Christmas was here; vaccines were still months away but my house was now chiming with regular visits from old friends and new faces.