They grew up in the area of Dorchester known as Meetinghouse Hill, in the shadows of the tall white steeple of the First Parish Church and the imposing square tower of St. Peter's Church.
They lived in three-deckers, went to the Mather School, attended Mass at St. Peter's, and organized their own street hockey and touch football games at Ronan Park.
Many of them left this part of the city years ago, and moved to the suburbs on the South Shore and beyond. But their old neighborhood still lives on in cyberspace, on a website called RonanPark.info.
The website was launched last year in anticipation of the 2007 Meetinghouse Hill Reunion, which took place Oct. 13. But instead of going dormant after the event, the site has since evolved into an unofficial clearinghouse for memories of the old neighborhood, a virtual place where Dot natives from near and far can reminisce and reconnect any time.
The site can be accessed online at MeetingHouseHillReunion.info as well as RonanPark.info. Visitors can browse through newspaper clippings, yearbook pages, letters, and hundreds of photographs, which range from the 1890s to the present day. With St. Peter's School now facing the prospect of being closed, alumni can revive the old school spirit by calling up the lyrics to the official school song. ("Saint Peter's School we cheer for you and that for which you stand / God's loving justice for our country and for every land . . .")
The site was designed by John J. "Red" McLean, a Dorchester native who heads the computer crime unit for the Medford Police Department. Another law enforcement official with local ties, Boston Police Sergeant Detective John "Dino" Donovan, keeps the site up-to-date and posts news and photos as they come in.
Many of the photographs were taken by Kevin "Sammy Snapshot" Sampson. "We used to call him 'Trinkets,' that was his nickname," said Donovan, 56. "He had all these gadgets, and cameras. He used to take pictures of us all the time, at Ronan Park in the '60s and '70s."
Another popular feature is the online forum where people have been posting their recollections about this particular section of Dorchester. The old neighborhood gangs like the Saints, Red Raiders, and Parksmen. Playing half ball. Hula hoop contests. Smoking cigarettes behind the Mighty Midget convenience store. Drinking beers at Eddie's Tavern.
"Does anyone remember Irving's at the corner of Hamilton and Bowdoin Street?" an online visitor inquired. "We used to get our green knee socks and white Peter Pan blouses there." Another wrote: "Behind the Mighty Midget is where we would go in the morning to sneak our cigarettes before entering good ole St. Peter's . . . wondering if anybody reading this remembers joining me there."
The website was key to the October reunion's success, according to event organizers. People came from as far away as California and Florida to attend the event at the Boston Marriott Quincy hotel.
"It really helped," said John MacIsaac, 55, who grew up on Clarkson Street from 1956 to 1973, and served on the reunion planning committee.
The website provided a way for the event organizers to solicit feedback and suggestions from people, he said.
As people bought tickets, their names were listed on the website. Tables were reserved under such names as Conroy, Corliss, Costello, Fitzpatrick, and Hurley. The event sold out, with about 1,000 people attending.
On the night of the reunion, Chris "Capum" Harding, 45, pulled out his old street-hockey shirt for the occasion. He showed up wearing the vintage orange and white mesh jersey with black letters on the front spelling out "Bellevue," which was the street he grew up on, and where his teammates lived.
"You know what someone said to me? 'That shirt's in better shape than you are!' " said Harding with a laugh.
Like many of the people who attended, Harding had looked at RonanPark.info to see if he recognized himself or any of his friends in the photos.
And although the reunion is over, the website remains a popular destination. Photos from the event have been posted there. Last month, there were about 50 new messages posted on the forum every week.
People are still digging through their old albums and submitting photographs, according to Donovan.
He's posted photos from the annual Dorchester Day parade, school pictures, and other images that would have otherwise remained tucked away in family photo albums. Shots like the 1967 photo of Charles Boyajian standing in front of his shoe store at 152 Bowdoin St., and the 1956 view of boys in baggy baseball uniforms marching in a parade on Bowdoin Street, with the Irving's store awnings visible in the background.
Or the photograph of a group of young men covered in mud. This black-and-white photo was taken on a rainy weekend in November 1986, after a game of touch football in Ronan Park. Among the smiling faces are those of Richard "Ricky" Dever, a correctional officer for the Suffolk County sheriff's department who was fatally stabbed outside Sullivan's Pub in Charlestown in 2005, and Mark Charbonnier, a state trooper who was murdered while making a traffic stop in 1994.
Donovan only recently learned the names of all the young men featured in the mud football photo, and knows some of them through his work in law enforcement.
A few of them are Boston police officers, it turns out.
"I didn't know all these guys in this picture are cops," said Donovan.
Hundreds of photos have been compiled into a DVD slideshow available on the Meetinghouse Hill website, and planning for a sequel is underway. For information on how to submit additional photos or to purchase a DVD, visit RonanPark.info.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
