Recently, I’ve met two interesting, high-profile people who live in Milton, author Suzette Martinez Standring and Laura Fitton, social media guru aka @pistachio.
They live in parts of town different from the one in which I grew up.
In those days, Milton was balkanized: you might visit other parts of town, but your identity was firmly fixed by your address. Which means that even if those interesting ladies and I were in Milton simultaneously, it’s unlikely we would have met.
There was the “Jewish” section around Temple Shalom and Blue Hill Avenue; the Irish* Catholic neighborhood where my sister and I grew up, East Milton Square and St. Agatha’s parish; Milton Village, which included a trolley stop on the line to Ashmont Station and is now a posh yuppie enclave; Randolph Ave., leading to nurseries and the Blue Hills reservation, which includes Houghton’s Pond, the Trailside Museum, a small ski area, and the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory; Town Hall and the Library; Milton Hill, the birthplace of President George H.W. Bush and the site of magnificent views of the Neponset River valley; and the real blue blood section of gigantic estates and the historic Suffolk Resolves House along Canton Ave.
Through the years, the town has struggled with racism and other social anomalies, but it seems to have grown up since I lived there.
We’ll be selling the old house on Franklin Street in a few months, and to tell you the truth, as much as I hated it when I was growing up, I’m almost sorry that I can’t afford to buy it now.
*According to ePodunk Irish Index, Milton has the highest percentage of residents citing Irish lineage of any town in the United States per capita – 38%. Other Massachusetts towns Pembroke, Marshfield, Weymouth, Scituate and Braintree aren’t far behind.