The period of a person’s or thing’s greatest success, popularity, or vigor. With closed eyes, imagine the opening number to a musical set in a small town. Maybe, a woman dumps a bucket from a second-story window, a huckster hawks tomatoes, old men gather on stoops to discuss world events, before breaking into song. If it were on Broadway, the story of the North End would open just so, with shopkeepers sweeping, cuts of meat swinging in butcher shops, while children played baseball in vacant lots and linens hung high above the street. This was the North End in its heyday.