City Voices

LANDGREN WORCESTER FILLING CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER POST AGAIN

BAD ADVICE

Celebrate ‘parade activities’ all year long

Shaun Connolly

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

DEAR SHAUN: I realize Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17, however Worcester tends to have their parade on the Sunday before. I was born and raised in Worcester. I have no intention of leaving. I want to ignore the actual holiday and only celebrate on Worcester’s Parade Day. Should I do this?

DEAR WORCESTER IRISH: The Worcester parade’s already passed, but for next year, I say go for it. March to the beat of your own Bodhran drum and pennywhistle. The parade is a weird and wild time, you should enjoy it. Whether it is publicly drinking with strangers, lifting your child up to catch frozen candy thrown by a man in a fez, or catching up with people you haven’t seen since high school, the parade is a time to connect. And yeah, that Sunday is a lot. If you’re marching in the parade they ask you to start to line up at 9 a.m. in Webster Square. If you’re really into the parade (which it seems you may just be) you’re at Breen’s or Leitrum’s pregaming and mumbling the Irish folks songs I’m convinced no one actually knows all the words to, they just get super loud when it gets to a part that says, “Wild Rover!”

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrating the

WORCESTERIA

Worcester Telegram & Gazette Executive Editor David Nordman brings all five storytellers to the stage during the Storytellers Project at The DCU Club at

Polar Park on Tuesday. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Stor ytellers Project puts ever yday tales in perspective

Victor D. Infante

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

There was a moment, perhaps a half hour before the start of the Worcester Storytellers Project event in the DCU Club at Polar Park, when it was clear the room was going to fill up. We knew it was going to – people had bought tickets, after all – but still, no matter how many shows you've worked on, you never quite believe things are going to happen until you can see physical bodies in front of you, especially these days, when 1 in 5 concert tickets reportedly go unused. Seeing is believing, now even more than usual. That, perhaps, was the key to the event's success and power: People want to hear their own stories, and the Storytellers Project allowed us to present five stories from different corners of our community, in the words of the people who lived them.

I'm not here to review or rehash the show, although our storytellers Dave McGrath, Arnold Pulda, Lou Ramos, Ashley Wonder & Shweta Bhatt knocked it out of the Polar Park. Rather, the show has me thinking about the nature of stories themselves, how they seem to echo across time, how they seem to repeat and rhyme at unexpected intervals. All five of our tellers had unique experiences – from health

HARVEY

Remembering the original ‘ Tender Bar,’ Stoney O’Brien’s

Janice Harvey

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s official: Nick’s Bar & Restaurant, the wonderfully eclectic, lovingly renovated beer garden at the corner of Millbury and Ellsworth streets, will soon be christened the Steel & Wire Cocktail Lounge, sold by Vincent Hemmeter to Frank Inangelo Jr. Everything Vincent touched always turned to gold — or at least into something worth visiting, if only for its décor. Frank knows this, as the assistant manager and bartender of Vincent’s on Suffolk Street, since 1998, also owned by Hemmeter. The Millbury Street establishment is in good hands, I’m sure, but a bar by any other name will always be Stoney O’Brien’s to me.

Back in the mid-’90s, the bar was owned by Billy Collins (not to be confused with the former U.S. Poet Laureate of the same name, who attended the College of the Holy Cross). Billy was not what you might expect from a barkeep; he was a savvy, well-read fount of sarcasm, much of which flew over the heads of patrons. He loved a debate, and sought out opinions that seemed rooted in actual subject knowledge, as opposed to typical barstool nonsense. Billy had hair like Gene Wilder, and he would let loose a stream of Irish malarkey sprinkled with an occasional Shakespearean quote — or something that sounded Shakespearean, anyway.

His sidekick in the business was Donald “Ducky” Mallett, a hard-drinking, easy-going guy with a Jack Elam eye and a perpetual tremor. Ducky was lovable, unlike the irascible Billy, who probably pissed off as many people as he served. Ducky was Billy’s unofficial PR man, and his warmth and popularity brought in more customers than Billy could chase out with sarcasm. Both men have long since left this world. Stoney’s had a loyal patronage, many of whom remember the watering hole fondly, though not for its ambience. In a word, it was a hellhole, interior design-wise.

“The décor was shabby before shabby chic was a thing … grunge before grunge was a style,” said Worcester Public Schools educator Angie Moore. Along with her husband, Jim, who moonlighted from his teaching job as a Stoney’s bartender, Angie was among the crowd that gathered at the end of the bar dubbed “Asshole Corner.” Saturdays were celebration days, when birthdays, deaths and anniversaries were reasons to lift a glass. When Ducky’s wedding anniversary rolled around, the fact that he and his wife had been separated for over a decade was no reason to ignore the date. Billy dressed in drag and Ducky was wrapped in what looked like 500 feet of aluminum foil for the renewal of vows. It brought a tear to many an eye, and a lump to the throat, but that may have been the result of being overserved.

Crusty old Billy Collins did have a soft side. It was Billy who made sure that the late down-on-his-luck Francis X. Leonard, a Worcester character well known as a perennial candidate for various seats, had an income. In his youth, Francis was a tireless self-promoter, having himself paged at Foley Stadium football games, and calling into WTAG on snow days to cancel meetings of the “Francis X Leonard Booster Club,” which didn’t actually exist. At Stoney O’Brien’s, Francis X., as he was known to patrons, was a night custodian earning a wage when employment for the quirky Francis was hard to come by.

Stoney’s loyal patrons included many of “The Light Boys” from Shrewsbury’s power company, and ComGas guys dropping in for a couple cold ones before heading home. It was proudly a blue collar establishment. No doubt Nick’s drew its own following, though much of the Stoney’s crowd migrated to The Banner on Green St. after Billy died of cancer and his wife, Renee, sold the bar to Vincent. I remember visiting Nick’s when it first opened, and marveling at what the entrepreneur was able to unearth. Who knew a gorgeous tin ceiling hid under those god-awful stained tiles? I never would’ve imagined the back room that housed cases of empties could be transformed into a charming cabaret, complete with a curtained stage. The ladies’ room finally had a commode I wasn’t afraid to use.

Stoney’s will always be the original “Tender Bar” for many, a place where friends came together, even vacationed together. They knew each other’s stories, attended each other’s christenings, funerals and weddings — including my own, to a tall guy I met there. He was holding a book, of all things. Talk about a lure — it was a better chick magnet than a puppy.

With the rebirth of the canal district, the corner of Millbury and Ellsworth is prime turf. May the Steel & Wire Cocktail Lounge create its own memories with Frank Inangelo at the taps. I think Billy and Ducky would approve.

A new bar and music venue will take over the spot of Nick’s Bar & Restaurant on

Millbury Street. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Bad advice

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arrival of Christianity in Ireland. Irish Immigrants made it something else entirely here, to have a reason to show their homeland pride when they were feeling ostracized and left out in America. Today it is less a Christian celebration and more a hedonistic cacophony of Dropkick Murphys songs, women named Shannon yelling at men named Sully, and eating boiled beef and cabbage.

I think about Worcester, especially when walking around the Canal District, and you can see all of those “parade activities” on any weekend night. Saint Patrick’s Day is an idea that keeps getting folded in on itself and you have every right to celebrate it when and how you want. Worcester Go Bragh!

DEAR SHAUN: My job is telling me that I will need to return to the office soon. However, I like wearing pajamas all day while I work and during my breaks I like to play my XBox. How can I remedy this?

DEAR PAJAMAS: OK, you’re going to have to spend a little money, but you’re employed so it will be worth it. Go to Spencer’s Gifts and buy five Tshirt Tuxes. Then, head to any Target and get five pairs of black sweatpants. This is a very black tie casual outfit. You’re wearing a tie without the hassle of having to wear a tie. You’re professional, yet comfortable. Then, while I know you most likely love your XBox, you will not be able to have that at the office it is too recognizable and you really can’t sneak playing it. However, get yourself a Nintendo Switch, call it your tablet and if anyone asks, you are “running a predictions model for our futures.” The sentence seems important

Members of the Worcester County Shrine Club ride in the Worcester County St.

Patrick’s Parade March 13. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

enough to be believable and at the same time bland enough that one one really wants to follow up with you about what that means. So I say, head back to work, and bring your home with you.

Worcester comedian Shaun Connolly provides readers bad advice in his weekly column. Send your questions to woocomedyweek@gmail.com.

Cabin

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savings bank, constructed in 1902. The next day, we followed up our hike with a stop at Yankee Cider Company — a charming dog-friendly post and beam barn serving cider that goes from pollination to press right on site.

The Price Tag: Rates vary from day to day, but most of the cabins run about $300 on weekends and $150 on weekdays. You can request a cabin with bunk beds for a very small upcharge if you want to make it a family affair. Our weekend dog fee amounted to $40. We brought groceries with us and made use of the cabin’s complimentary dining ware, salt, pepper, and olive oil. We also sprang for the packets of pour-over coffee at $2.50 a pop.

I was surprised how relaxing I found our little cabin. We brought along a squillion postcards to address and completed the task comfortably, free from distraction. The ads on Instagram are a fair representation of what a standard Getaway has to offer. Fresh air, a reprieve from the chaos of the city, and a captivating performance by the critters of the forest.

Are you thinking of taking your own trip to a Getaway Outpost? Find me on Instagram at @sarah-Connell if you have any questions before you hit the road.

Tales

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emergencies to a surprise encounter with a celebrity – but within each of those stories, there were things to which almost anyone could connect: We've all either been ill or watched someone wrestle with illness. We've all lost people, or had experiences that changed the trajectory of our lives. We've not all encountered comedian Tracy Morgan in a bar, as Ramos did (to hilarious effect), but we've met people who've changed our perspective. We sat in the DCU Club and listened to five very different people tell five very different stories, and yet we could see ourselves in each one of them. They resonated with something inside of us.

I've been a journalist for more than 20 years, and a writer for even longer. I've published poems and short fiction, literary essays, concert reviews and more, and I spend a lot of time thinking about stories: How to present them, how to shape them, how to make people care about them. Still, it was pretty deep into the process of being a coach on this project when I realized that stories are what we're in the business of selling. True stories, certainly, but stories nonetheless. Newspapers and websites are just the mediums in which we deliver those stories. And ultimately, those stories are about the people who live here in Worcester County, not just the institutions and elected officials. We sometimes feel as though news happens in a vacuum, and obviously it doesn't. Polar Park, the beautiful ballpark where we held the event, was the biggest story in Worcester of the past few years, and it's affected nearly everything around it, both for good and ill, often at the same time. It's big and it's complicated, and that's what makes it interesting. Normal people are just as complicated, and they're much bigger on the inside than they seem. Their movements affect everything around them, too, one way or another.

“Anyone on that stage could have been a column,” remarked a retired T&G reporter and columnist who attended the show, and he was right, but the magic wasn't in that they were extraordinary people, it's that they were, in a lot of ways, ordinary people, and that was magic enough. We all have stories worth sharing. All of us, whether we're an unhoused person or a city councilor, matter. As journalists, we're forced to pick and choose the stories we tell, and to make decisions on how to shape and present those stories. There are, after all, more than 200,000 stories in Wormtown, and only so many hours in a workday. Some stories can't be ignored, of course – the mayor running for state office, for example, or a local favorite bar changing hands – but all the other stories matter, too. If projects such as Storytellers help us find and present a few more of those invaluable stories from everyday life, then that is very much a good thing. None of this is anything I didn't already know intellectually, of course, but it's good to have a tangible reminder of what's important, to watch the stories unfold in person, in front of my own eyes.