By Darlene DeVita
(The following is one in a series of sneak peeks at the upcoming People of Chelsea additions by Photographer Darlene DeVita. The new work will ultimately appear on the fence of the Chelsea Public Library (CPL) this fall in a collaboration between the People of Chelsea project and the CPL.)
Terry and Joe met in Boston at a Valentines Day dance 48 years ago and one thing led to another. Joe was in the navy.
“We bought in 1972 before the fire. It missed us, thank god! The kids were still young when we started to get involved. Within five years the city started to get crazy and this is when we started to get interested in TND [Chelsea Neighborhood Developers.] and SNI [Safe Neighborhood Initiative]. We had a lot of neighbors, back then we knew a lot of people, and the kids played together, but they’ve all moved away.
There were all kinds of people moving in. At first Cambodians moved in, and then Spanish people moved in. The Cambodians all left, just like the Jewish people. Chelsea was very highly populated with Jewish people I heard, and they migrated out too.
I wish people would take pride in where they live. A lot of people don’t care, they just want to pass it on the landlord. If you look up and down the streets all you see is trash. That causes diseases and mice and rats. Just use common sense and put trash in the trash. That’s what I wish would happen, take pride in their city. And the cars with the rolling boom boxes, that drives me crazy. The people are fine, the people are great, that’s not the problem, it’s just the look.
It’s lot better than it was. Everyplace has it’s own problems, but it looks a heck of a lot better now.”