Finneran: Joe the Plumber Makes his Exit

Friday, February 28, 2020

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Tom Finneran

Joe was a plumber, a typical Dorchester kid with typical Dorchester instincts.

He was a good husband, a good father, a good friend, and a good plumber. He made an honest but modest living, giving his kids a fair shot at college and his bride a couple of weeks each summer at a Cape Cod cottage rental.

There will be no memorial statues raised in Joe’s name in any of the town’s squares, not because Joe was a bad guy, but because there are hundreds, even thousands of guys like Joe in every Boston neighborhood. In truth, he was just an ordinary guy leading an ordinary life. And therein lies the story of being a city kid in a city parish, where you learn about life and death and kindness and respect at an early age.

Many moons ago, when I hosted a morning drive-time radio show, I would often appear in the studio in a suit and tie. Please keep in mind that we’re talking about radio where there is no visual engagement whatsoever with the audience. In fact, most radio hosts dress in what I would call extreme casual/basic slob style. And here I was, sometimes two or three times a week, dressed in a dark suit, shirt, and tie.

Upon inquiry from my co-hosts or technicians regarding my business formal dress, I would explain that I had to go to a wake or funeral later that day. Now, these colleagues were of my generation or perhaps slightly younger, but there was no obvious age difference which might explain their comparatively infrequent engagement with families who were grieving the loss of a loved one.

Rather, the difference was what kids from Charlestown, Southie, Eastie, and Dorchester see early on and re-learn every day, that life can be tough and unfair and sad. And that your presence at a wake was a meaningful consolation to a family and a sign of respect for the loss of a loved one.

My radio colleagues could not fathom the frequency of these events in my life and I could not fathom their blithe blindness to such events.

Back to Joe the plumber, the ordinary guy living an ordinary life. When he was waked the line was out the door, stretching a couple of blocks down the street. His funeral Mass was similarly packed with neighbors and friends and colleagues. Keep in mind that Joe was no celebrity athlete, no accomplished pol. He was not some bigshot businessman or some rock star. No, there was none of that ersatz fame. Joe was just a plain and simple guy, a plumber, husband, father, and friend.

His wake and his funeral were a tribute to him and his family. And that packed funeral home and church said as much about his neighbors and his community as it said about Joe.

He was an ordinary guy from an extraordinary place.

And some of us are lucky enough to call that extraordinary place home.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.