Growing Up Poor in Irish Boston
"Growing Up Poor in Irish Boston” is a podcast series, colored with humor, nostalgia and pathos. It’s about a Boston tenement kid, born in 1939, clawing his way out of poverty by being hard-working, creative, persistent, entrepreneurial and by taking risks often. There are also stories of my later life in Boston, Cambridge and New England. If you like old Boston stories or Irish-American stories or old Cambridge stories, this is your podcast. If you like Pull-Yourself-Up-By-The-Bootstrap type stories and/or down-to-earth philosophy with a Roman Catholic, funny and relatively conservative slant, then this is for you.
I am Roderick Patrick Murphy, born into a large, loving Irish family in Boston, widowed after 50+ happy years. So I am now doing some writing, volunteering and learning how to be a bachelor again.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 7 minutes
- Episodes
- 100
- Years Active
- 2025
Ep. 67B The Murphys Honeymoon & Jean's Acadian Ancestor
Ep. 67B The Murphys Honeymoon & Jean's Acadian Ancestor. This one talks about our honeymoon trip to Quebec and Jean's long ago French ancestor, Pierre Michaud.
Ep. 17 Big Brother's Brutal Swimming Lesson
Ep. 17 Big Brother's Brutal Swimming Lesson relates how Little Roddy learns to swim.
Ep.23. World War 2 Patriotic Homefront
Ep.23. World War 2 Patriotic Homefront Unlike the Vietnam War homefront openion which was contentious. America's citizens were very patriotic and supportive of our soldiers and sailors…
Ep. 45 Where to Dissipate in My 1950s Boston
Ep. 45 Where to Dissipate in My 1950s Boston describes drinking, chasing women and carousing in my youth in Boston and Cambridge, etc.
Ep. 67A O Canada & Our Gaspe Adventure
Ep. 67A O Canada & Our Gaspe Adventure. This episode is about being 13 years old and going on big adventure with my big brother, Garry to the Gaspe Penisula in Eastern Canada.
Ep. 48 Polyglot Boston & Cambridge
Ep. 48 Polyglot Boston & Cambridge is an episode spelling out ethnicity and language differences in Greater Boston.
Ep. 53 Vengeance at Murphy Flat
Ep. 53 Vengeance at Murphy Flat describes the Murphy kids and how we indivually handled getting even for ratting out a sibling. It wasn't pretty.
Ep. 35 Hotel Commander Notes
Ep. 35 Hotel Commander Notes This one relates my first part time job where taxes got taken out. I was a busboy at the Hotel Commander in Harvard Square.
Ep.44 Quincy Market Wildcat Strike
Ep.44 Quincy Market Wildcat Strike describes my mugging and unhappy experience with labor unions.
Ep.58 Savage Amusement
Ep.58 Savage Amusement. Outdoor and often really dangerous fun and games were my daily life as a kid.
Ep. 55 Neighborhood Creeps & Verboten Coal Yard
Ep. 55 Neighborhood Creeps & Verboten Coal Yard discusses what jailed convicts consider lowlifes. In prison child molesters are called "Short Eyes" and they punished by other cons ever…
Ep. 40 Shooting Crap & Other Gambling Stories
Ep. 40 Shooting Crap & Other Gambling Stories relates how kids and adults engaged in gambling in my youth. It was less organized and "offline" rather than as it is today.
Ep. 14B My Pond in the City
Ep. 14B My Pond in the City details a little bit of heaven for a little boy in a noisy, crowded city.
Ep. 34 The ER Was the Murphy's Health Care.
Ep. 34 The ER Was the Murphy's Health Care. The Murphys did not have Medicare or other employee type heath care plans. They didn't exist. We had the Cambridge Cityy Hospital Emergency R…
Ep. 26B Do We Have A Choice?
Ep. 5B Do We Have A Choice? This is a true story in two parts about many Laotian refugees brought to Southbridge by my wife and I from Thailand Refugeee Camps after the Vietnam War.
Ep.26A Do We Have A Choice?
Ep.26A Do We Have A Choice? This is a true story in two parts about many Laotian refugees brought to Southbridge by my wife and I from Thailand Refugeee Camps after the Vietnam War.
Ep. 25 1940-50s Radio & TV
Ep. 25 1940-50s Radio & TV talks about that era, popular radio shows and later how the Murphys got their first television set.
Ep. 4 Growing Up, Unwashed
Ep. 4 Growing Up, Unwashed is a colorful description of where and how my large, unprivileged family lived in the 1950s Metropolitan Boston and thrived despite the financal hardships.
Ep. 61B Fort Jackson & Cops
Ep. 61B Fort Jackson & Cops. This episode continues my peasetime Army experiences in the Jim Crow South.
Ep. 61C U.S. Army Mess Hall Follies & Myrtle Beach
Ep. 61C US Army Mess Hall Follies & Myrtle Beach. This episode continues to tell some anecdotes of my peacetime military experiences.