Where are They Now? Peter Lucas: A Former West Ender - In His Own Words

My father, Andon Lucas, emigrated from Korca, Albania to Boston as a young boy in the early 1900s. He later went back to marry my mother, Andromarche, and returned to Boston with her.
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My brothers Dan and Louis, and I – all born in Boston or Cambridge – lived with our parents in the old West End at 73 Poplar Street on the top floor walkup of a four-apartment brick building. A Greek family lived below us, a Jewish family below them and Burke, who was African American, below them.

I remember the father of the Greek family used to receive boxes of grapes from which he would make homemade wine in the basement of our building. The owner would come around once a month with a black bag to collect the rent in cash. I believe it was $25 a month. My father, who did not drink, would nevertheless provide the man with a shot of whiskey.

The West End was an interesting place to grow up. Everybody was poor, but nobody knew it. My older brother Dan, who has passed, was in the fencing club at the West End House. His teammate at the time was Leonard Nimoy, later the famous actor. There were concerts at the Hatch Shell that all the immigrant families attended – Greeks, Italians, Albanians, Jews, Russians, Polish, etc. There were also a number of African American families in the neighborhood, and everyone seemed to get along.

As kids, we had the Charles River (before Storrow Drive) as well as the parks along the river, plus Scollay Square and the Boston Common. I shined shoes in Scollay Square, which was jammed with sailors during WWII. I set up my station right outside Joe & Nemo’s near the Bowdoin and Scollay Square movie theaters. The steamed hotdogs there were delicious.

We later moved to Somerville after our father got a World War II job at the Ford Motor Company that, at the time, manufactured tanks for the war. It was located at what is now Assembly Square.

My brothers and I all served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, but only Dan saw combat. One of our friends back then, an African American young man named Lester, was killed in combat in Korea. Our family was lucky none of us suffered that fate.

I worked as a political reporter, bureau chief and columnist for the Boston Herald for 25 years. I have covered events in Northern Ireland, Cuba, Central America, the Balkans and the war in Vietnam, as well as many national and state political campaigns, including the riots at the 1968 Chicago Democrat convention. In between two stints at the Herald I worked for the Boston Globe for two years. Now I do the same for the Lowell Sun and, ironically, my column is back in the Herald, too. Talk about coming full circle.

I got interested in Albania when in 1986, I was the first western reporter allowed into the country in more than 30 years. I was able to gain entry because Enver Hoxha, the hard line Communist dictator who had shut down the country to outsiders, had just died, and because I am of Albanian descent.

I have published five books, three of which deal with Albania, two with Massachusetts politics. I graduated from Somerville High School in 1952, went into the U.S. Army in 1954, and then graduated from Boston University in 1960 with a degree in English Literature. I always wanted to be a writer and a newspaperman, and I have been a newspaperman most of my life.

My wife and I lived in Somerville for a while, then Lexington for a long time, and now in Westford to be close to our grandchildren. My wife passed six years ago.

When I drive to the State House, where I am still based, I return to familiar ground, and I walk through the places I have lived in the past. Memories come alive.