In North Cambridge, He's Just Good 'Ole Tip

When John Gimigiliano, a North Cambridge cobbler, opened his shop 52 years ago, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. had recently graduated from St. John's High School.

Now, as O'Neill is preparing to leave the speakership of the House of Representatives, Gimigliano, still in business, takes great pleasure in tracing O'Neill's career through photos that line his shop's walls.

Starting as a representative to the State Legislature in 1936, O'Neill moved up slowly. He was elected to the Cambridge School Committee in 1946, became the speaker of the Massachusettes House in 1949 and ran for John F. Kennedy's congressional seat in 1952.

But in the 33 years since he left, Tip has continued to leave his mark on the North Cambridge neighborhood that gave him his start.

On his trips back, Gimigliano's small shop at 2386 Mass Ave. is always one of his first stops. "He'll get a shine, a pair of heels, whatever he needs," says Gimigliano.

Moving from his feet to his head, O'Neill then stops next door at 2384 Mass Ave. for a quick trim by barber Frank Manelli. "He waits for his turn just like anybody else," says Manelli, who was sixteen when O'Neill first ran for congress.

According to associates, Manelli is the only barber O'Neill will use. Michael Ralph, who is in charge of O'Neill's Boston office, recalls the time O'Neill was returning from Cape Cod to do a TV show in Boston. Already an hour behind schedule because of traffic, O'Neill called the office and said, "I'm going to Frank's for a haircut--I'll be a little late."

When he returns to the neighborhood, most of O'Neill's friends can tell he's been hard at work. "When I fix his shoes he wants a whole new bottom," says cobbler Gimigliano.

Lately his duties as Speaker of the House have kept him in Washington even more often. Says Manelli, "He lets his hair grow too long. But, he's a busy guy."

Throughout his political career, O'Neill has always stayed in close touch with his neighborhood roots. Every year, O'Neill goes back to the North Cambridge VFW hall for the 'Barry's Corner' reunion, a meeting of people who used to hang-out on the front steps of the Barry house, at the corner of Russell and Mass Ave north of Porter Square.

"He's the same with the gang at [the] Barry's Corner [reunion] as he is with Mrs. Thatcher," says congressional aide Leo Deal. Many of O'Neill's friends and associates say that he still remembers everyone's names, even people he hasn't seen for years.

Another of O'Neill's friends, Frank 'Red' McGrail, who has worked on O'Neill's campaigns since 1952, says of O'Neill's extraordinary memory, "He never forgets a face or a name...In Washington, the cabdrivers, the guys who are raking the lawn at the capital, they all love him."

City Councillor, former Cambridge Mayor, and life long North Cambridge resident Thomas Danehy calls O'Neill "a real down to earth individual who never tried to impress people with his power."

Manelli says that he never realized how influential O'Neill is until he went down to Washington last summer. "We were walking down the corridor and Jack Kemp came up to him and called him 'Mr. Speaker'," Manelli recalls. "I always called him Tom."

For many of his supporters, O'Neill represents a type of ethnic and neighborhood based politics that is rapidly disappearing. Red McGrail recalls, "Tip's a politician 24 hours a day, he doesn't just come out the week before election."

James Rafferty, a Boston lawyer who served as head of the Ward 10 Democratic committee (O'Neill's home ward) says "Tip is an embodiment of the neighborhood."

Many of the people who have known O'Neill from his childhood have continued to help out on his reelection campaigns. Gimigliano would get the petitions signed and keep a stock of buttons and bumper stickers in his shop.

Danehy recalls that several elections back a long-time neighborhood resident told O'Neill, "I voted for you even though you didn't ask me." O'Neill responded, "I shoveled your walkway in the winter when I was young...and I've represented you in congress all these years...I didn't think I needed to ask for your vote." The woman retorted, "It never hurts to ask."

Ever since, says Danehy, O'Neill has walked through the neighborhood and spoken with merchants and residents, asking for their vote.

But now O'Neill's neighborhood is changing, children are moving out after college, and there's a different type of neighborhood cohesiveness.

Rafferty feels the "sense of neighborhood is less pervasive." Gone are the days when Ward 10 caucuses had to be over by 3:45 so the people could attend 4:00 mass at St. Paul's church. "[O'Neill] and the neighborhood itself are representatives of an era of time gone by," says Rafferty.

Although Manelli says his clientele hasn't changed, he feels the area has. "It's not a neighborhood...there are a lot of transients."

Michael Ralph suggests that the younger generation went to college and then moved away. "We've all moved out because we can't afford to live here," he says. Councillor Danehy adds that "a majority of the people who hung around Barry's Corner moved out."

The neighborhood has changed physically as well. The former Oddfellows Hall has been torn down and a Kentucky Fried Chicken now stands at the same site, the old Harvard theatre at the corner of Shay and Mass Ave. is now a bank. The large Knights of Columbus hall has been demolished and the Knights now hold their meetings in a small, rented room adjacent to their former hall.

Leo Pemberton owner of Pemberton's market at the corner of Rindge and Mass. Ave., where O'Neill has been known to shop, also senses that the neighborhood is changing. Pemberton recalls, "It used to be predominantly a two- and three-decker neighborhood; it was all families...Now it's students and professionals."

To keep up with the times Pemberton's has 'upscaled' its stock. "[The yuppies are] big on Haagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry's... We're also selling a lot of Poland Spring water," notes Pemberton.

Gimigliano, who calls O'Neill, "a man that can never be replaced," is worried about the future of the neighborhood. "All the senior citizens are afraid that there's no one to take care of them."

James Rafferty is also concerned about the loss of O'Neill. "[The Eighth Congressional District] was always considered a Cambridge seat...We're not going to have our neighborhood congressman anymore," he says, nothing the the paucity of Cambridge contenders for O'Neill's seat.

Although North Cambridge is losing its favorite son, it will continue to remain an important force in Cambridge politics, according to Danehy, who has comes from a family with an active history in Cambridge politics.

Speaking from many years of political experience, the councilor says, "The neighborhood is a demanding constituency. But it's a fiercely loyal constituency as well.