CAPTION: Mayor Thomas M. Menino (at left) is seen presenting the city’s Green Award to employees from Save That Stuff, Inc.

Charlestown recycling company Save That Stuff, Inc. is one of 12 companies citywide that recently received Boston’s first Green Awards in recognition of their environmentally friendly technology and practices.
“We are pleased to have received this award from Mayor Menino, especially since it’s the first time it has been given out in the City of Boston,” said Adam Mitchell, a partner with the company. “It represents the hard work we’ve done to help our customers maximize waste diversion opportunities.”
The private company, which was launched in 1990 and is based out of the Bunker Hill Industrial Park, recycles paper, bottles, cans and cardboard. It currently serves more than 1,000 clients — mostly businesses — and collects approximately 2,600 tons of reusable and recyclable materials each month.
Last fall, Save That Stuff, Inc. began collecting food materials and turning them into compost — a measure that, combined with its other recycling efforts, drastically reduces client waste.
“When a restaurant does this, they can get close to 0-percent waste production,” Mitchell said.
For more information on business or residential recycling pickup, call Save That Stuff, Inc. at 617-241-9998 or visit www.savethatstuff.com.

Now in its 14th year, the Bryan J. McGonagle Street Hockey Tournament offers a free day out for the whole family and encourages sportsmanship over competition.
The tournament is held in memory of McGonagle, a member of the Charlestown Youth Hockey program who died at age 9 in a tragic accident on Sept. 4, 1991. In 1993, the City of Boston named the street hockey area facility at Ryan Playground (the Neck) the Bryan J. McGonagle Street Hockey, which serves as the site of the annual tournament.
This year’s tournament takes place from Friday, Sept. 7, through Sunday, Sept. 9, and has three divisions (ages 3-5, 8-9 and 10-12). The event gets underway on Friday at 6 to 9 p.m., and Saturday’s games take place from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. On, Sunday, the tournament takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes championship games.
Besides hockey, the event also includes hot dogs, hamburgers, face painting and a disc jockey — all free of charge. Each participant will also receive a complimentary T-shirt.
Joe McGonagle, one of the event’s organizers and Bryan’s uncle, said that Massport remains the only corporate sponsor for the tournament, adding that the same family and community members return to the event year after year. In addition, many in participated in the tournament as children are returning to coach in the event this year.
“We just want people to come down and have fun,” Joe McGonagle said. “It’s a great time for the kids and parents.”
The deadline to turn in applications was Sept. 1. For more information on the tournament, contact Joe McGonagle at 617-699-6341 or via email at c21JOE@AOL.COM.

The dog days of August have passed. Summer has winded down and schools are now opening.
As a summer, 2007 has been near perfect
A child in the 196's had a lot more excitement, adventure, mystery and fun in summer than kids today. Summer a generation or two ago in Charlestown was great fun for kids.
Back then there was nothing you owned that ran on a battery or played music or had moving pictures - no iPods or Nintendo. You just had to go out and find or make your own fun and entertainment, and you had no time to be bored.
I grew up here in Charlestown, down by the Training Field. At the age of 7, you would hang out with your friends and play games and other kid stuff you don't see any more. We had no adult supervision; Dads worked, some Moms were home.
We knew whose Mom stayed home and made sure we’d sit on those steps around p.m. because the chances of a free cookie there were very good.
Early in the morning, we'd wait for the United Farmers Milk delivery truck. The milk was in glass bottles covered in ice chips. The milkman would always give you a chunk of ice to lick.
We’d search the street gutters and the park benches and the trash barrels for the returnable tonic bottles. The two cents deposit was big money back in 1964! It was a city kids’ treasure hunt, and we’d save the money, the 10 or 20 cents for the afternoon.
If we ended up with 36 cents each we’d plan on going to Santoro's Sandwich Shop on Chelsea St for a 25-cent American Spuckie for lunch. We’d walk around town and find the gas or watermen digging a hole and stake that out to watch for a while. If we didn’t have a ball to play catch or stick ball, we headed for a sewer opening and peered down the center hole looking for balls that rolled or washed down in the last thunderstorm. Once spotted, the smallest kid went in head-first and grabbed up a few balls while the older stronger kids held him by the ankles. There was no water in there, just a great accumulation of treasures captured and held by the sewer.
When Engine 50 left on a fire call we’d all run down to the firehouse, run up the three flights of stairs and slide down the fire pole. It had all the fun, screams, and excitement of a 6 Flags amusement park. That was good for about 30 minutes before they returned and we’d all run out the back door.
If it were a hot day we'd get the smallest kid to go into the same firehouse with a sad face and ask if the showers would be turned on today. The sad face pleading for the showers always worked, and by noon, our version of water world was in full swing. A 2-inch pipe with holes drilled in it hooked to the fire hydrant and chained to the concrete bench leg was positioned to force a cascading torrent of water that looked like Niagara Falls over the cement promenade of the Training Field Park.
We'd all run homes to change into our swim trunks and old sneakers, grab a towel and run back to get a good spot at the park. The old sneakers were to keep from getting glass in your feet, and you NEVER wore your new PF flyers or Converse All Stars into the water. For two hours, we’d play in cool water from the fire hydrant.
Around 3 p.m., hunger set in and we’d walk over to Rosie's corner store, where the walls were lined with four cases of penny candy. Smarties, red-hot dollars, jawbreakers, gumballs, fudge squares, licorice laces, orange and spearmint leaves and wax lips. It was a cornucopia of sugary delights. The little kids went for the penny candy, which they received in a little brown bag. Nickel pickles were served in the same bags. Those of us who were older, more worldly and mature held out for the pinnacle of New England Confectionary delights a Necco Skybar. Skybars were five cents, so your dime would buy a Skybar and a handful of red laces licorice - a feast!
Skybars are a New England treat, four flavor squares filled each with caramel, vanilla, peanut and fudge covered in milk chocolate. You won't find them much outside of New England, but if you grew up with them here in New England you don't forget them.
Skybar were the ultimate reward back then, if you did well on your report card, you'd find one on your plate the next day at dinner. They'd be in your stocking at Christmas, or in your birthday package box. Sometimes there were given just because you'd been a good kid.
Around 5:30 p.m., the dads came home from work walking up from the City Square rapid transit stop with the Evening Traveler or late Record under their arm and, one by one, they would come to the door and would whistle or yell the secret code that supper was ready. We all had supper around the same time during the weekdays. Dinner was only on Sundays and very special.

After supper the parents would sit out on the front steps and talk, gathering at a different house to visit each night. The kids would come out with water balloons that started off as a tossing game, but would always end up as a water balloon fight. We filed the water balloons at the water pump, a small concrete fountain just the right height to sit someone from the other team upon. I never knew which team won because we’d all be soaking wet by the end. The streetlights would come on all at once around 8 p.m., and we'd go sit with our parents and listen to their stories. Many nights ended with a spectacular thunderstorm with vivid lighting. You could smell the ozone before the storm hit. By 9 p.m., we'd all be in bed and up again at 6 a.m. to do this summer adventure all over again.
Growing up in the city as a kid was a wonderful adventure. We never were in any danger, and we knew everyone and everyone's parents watched out for all of us. If you did something wrong, you knew your parents would know before you got home so you just didn't do it.
The human memory is a wonderful thing far surpassing any microchip memory in a computer and scientists have proven that certain tastes and smells trigger memories from long ago. Twenty minutes ago on the way home from the evening train I picked up a Skybar as a treat just for me. This story is the result.
My first bite of the caramel square brought a memory of my Irish Grandmother Julia, who always seems to have smile on her face, a laugh in her brouged Irish voice and a Skybar in her dress pocket when we were carrying home the bundles from the First National Store at Thompson Square under the El.. I carried the bundles while she talked to her friends on the way home. The Skybar was my pay for being a pack mule. So those scientists were right, taste and smell do trigger memories, and with Skybars, they are all wonderful memories.
If you're a parent, introduce your kids to a Skybar it is a something that indeed spans the generations. Skybars are hard to find in national and chain stores, We bought them at Rosies, Kay’s , Snappers, Ma Ryan’s and Busy Bee’s just a few of the corner stores that once served Charlestown but now are converted into condos . Someplace in Charlestown must still sell them So on the way home tonight pick an up a few Skybars and rekindle memories or start a new family tradition.
Kevin Carroll is originally from Charlestown.

is an approximately 100-year-old bottle from McCarthy Bros. Liquors that was discovered last week by a construction worker who was digging the foundation for the new police station in Hayes Square.