Take that day in the '50s when Hynes was mayor. 'Well, oldJohnny Hynes, I loved him, a good, honest man, and there was anewsstand in front of Filene's run by a guy named Max, and we gavehim space and a heater to keep warm, but he was a bad actor. Addedorange crates for magazines and loused up the corner, and when wecracked down, he squawked to Hynes. Seems they had gone to schooltogether, and so at lunchtime, Johnny Hynes, bless his heart, hewalks down from the mayor's office to plead for this crooked littlenewsguy, and I admired Hynes for that, because he went to bat fora friend.'
Infirmities have taken a toll on Holmes, who is blind andsuffers from emphysema. 'If I gave you the 'organ recital,' you'dbe amazed.' Yet he retains a lovely humor. Years ago, whilechopping wood, a chip pierced an eye, and he saw five images. 'Thevirtue was that when I looked at Sophia Loren, I saw 10 of whateverybody else saw only two of.'
In an age when the art of conversation is reduced to swatchesof thought compressed into a TV commercial break, Holmes is areminder of a thoughtful, graceful time. A man of myriad interests,Holmes is a banjo player and was an expert photographer of horses,and has built an extraordinary collection of lead soldiers,recreating the Battle of Bunker Hill with 4,000 figurines now ondisplay at the Monument. Each Christmas, from 1957 to 1973,Filene's bought a full-page in Boston newspapers to publish hiswitty, affectionate verse, full of colorful observations aboutBoston: 'With tinkle of spinet and warble of flute, we offer ourannual Christmas salute . . . '
His imitations of Cardinal Cushing and Mayor Curley werehilarious, and we talked for hours, or, more precisely, I listenedas he spoke in words that sparkled about writing, politics, sports,business, books, the power struggle in Boston among Republicans,Democrats, Catholics, Protestants and Jews, but especially betweenBrahmins and Irish, and there were names galore, from Noel Cowardand Galbraith and Saltonstall to Julia Child and the day GloriaSwanson's limousine was towed from Hawley Street in back ofFilene's and the time in London when he chatted for nearly 12 hourswith Alistair Cooke. 'Alistair married a girl I used to chase,although I didn't catch her, and in 1936 while he was working forthe Guardian and before he became famous, I visited them to deliversome silk stockings, which were hard to get. He and I began talkingabout 10. She went to bed, and we stayed up all night talking andthen went out to breakfast next morning.'
On warm days, Holmes often spent the lunch hour munching asandwich as he walked the streets, and his observations areassembled in three scrupulously neat loose-leaf books that includethe fact that Gilbert Stuart's father was a snuff grinder, and thatthe musket used by James Otis at Bunker Hill was borrowed, and thatone Lent, Isabella Stewart Gardner scrubbed the steps of the Churchof the Advent, although on another occasion, she shocked Boston bydrinking beer at the Pops, and that Long Wharf in the 18th centurywas a hangout for pirates whose favorite drink was a Stone Fend,hard cider mixed with brandy or applejack. 'George Weston wrotethat the center of Boston is in Roxbury at Westminster and Walnutavenues, due north is the South End, not to be confused with SouthBoston, which is east of the South End. North of South Boston isEast Boston and southwest of that is the North End.'
We listened to a tape of Edwin O'Connor reading from 'The LastHurrah,' and to a 1936 speech by Curley that began: 'The facilitiesof this radio station have been engaged for the next 30 minutes byhis honor, James Michael Curley, former mayor, who speaks on thesubject, 'Is Mayor Mansfield a prevaricator or just plain stupid?'We laughed at Brahmin Francis Hatch singing 'Our Wild PurpleShamrock,' a ditty about Mayor Curley that Hatch sang at theTavern, St. Botolph and Union clubs with the warning: 'The days ofthe Brahmins are numbered/They're standing at bay in Back Bay/They're all in retreat up and down Beacon Street/With Curleythere's sure hell to pay.' JTHOMA;11/18 NKELLY;11/19,07:53 OURTOWNE
