Goodbye neighbor!

On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

( The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Well we just lost another longtime family home on my street (near Davis Square). They had been here for over 50 years - both parents are deceased and the adult kids decided it was time to sell - they had been my neighbors for 48 years. I heard that the new owner is going to convert the two-family into condos - what an original idea!

Though I am sad to see the family leave, I stand to get something out of the deal - the common fence between our properties needs replacing - go get 'em, Carli Fence! You know what they do when they perform a condo conversion. They'll give the joint beautiful hardwood floors, except the kitchen and bath, which will receive some kind of extravagant tile. They'll throw in central air conditioning, and divide the basement into equal storage stalls with chicken wire and locks. They'll update all the systems. The kitchens will have shiny stainless steel appliances and marble counter tops. Then the price tag will be at least $450,000 each (location, location, location).

The first thing I will do is buy one of those bamboo curtains to put on my back porch so I don't have to watch the emotional metamorphosis. It's going to be noisy and dusty over there for a while that's for sure. One neighbor sold her duplex for around $800,000 and they got nearly a million each for them after the conversion - I'm holding out.

What I am mostly sad about is that another family home that was up and running when we moved on the street in 1960 is gone. I know it's the circle of life and all that stuff, but it still makes me a little blue .I think back to a time when the street was full of kids playing relieve-e-o, buck buck, and dodge ball. We had a mob of kids.

I can remember hearing the Beach Boys playing on a radio coming out of one of the older kids rooms. Sometimes we would all flock into someone's yard, but we rarely left the street. Hall Avenue was a two way then, but it seemed like cars never came by. Mr. Pine, who lived across the street from us, worked for Drake's Cakes and sometimes brought Ring Dings and Yankee Doodles home in his trunk for us kids.

The O'Neal's owned Alpine Tree and Landscape Company - when they were finished with a day of cutting, pruning and de-stumping, a convoy of trucks came by on the way back to the garage up the street. One family had six girls and one boy and another had five girls and one boy. We had three, and most had at least two. There were kids everywhere!

Summer vacation seemed to last longer back then, but the same thing always happened - we would find a really cool new activity three days before school started. One year it was making bows and arrows out of sticks, string and bottle caps. It was someone's bright idea to bend the cap over the stick to make an arrowhead. We were inventive but not necessarily safe. We didn't always get along great either. I seem to recall being called a certain derogatory Italian slur, which prompted a visit from my older cousin.

I remember sitting in my backyard playing Mr. Tambourine Man on guitars with my friends. When we could finally afford electric guitars one of my neighbors called the cops on us for being too loud. We called her Mrs. Rat lady. There was a rock group rehearsing on both ends of the street. The PJ Five up the top of the street, and the Mini-Squirts at our end.

It's also been a plus having my godmother, Auntie Marie living on the street - she and my Uncle Carl have added a nice feeling of security for me over these many years. I can go up and down the street and remember each house and the families that lived there. There are only a few parents still in the homes. The grown kids come over to visit occasionally, and finally, sadly to pack up and sell. The list keeps growing.

So with the passing of another family home into history, I will as always cherish the memories.

Occasionally, I would clear snow off my departing neighbors walk and the mother would make me the most delicious cookies ever. She use to give me an “atta boy Jim” when I was outside cleaning my trailer park of a yard, once a year. There was never anything but a friendly word between us. I miss the dodge ball, the cookies and the Ring Dings, but not as much as I will miss my neighbors and friends.

Please e-mail your comments to Jimmy at: jimmydel@rcn.com

Comments

[hk]

They say that everything usually changes for the better. who's better. your street is not alone. I myself have seen the same on my street. Been here 40 plus years too. You talk about the old neighbors and friends, What about the new ones that move in. Do you know their names? Neither do I. There are no more "Neighborhoods" in Somerville. Who's better?

[Somerville n00b]

Jimmy, you are getting confused with the way things were a few years ago. Right now, stainless steel appliances and marble counter tops used just to jack up the price of a unit won't find many buyers, IMO. Even at your prime location. If these people are smart, they will go with basic, to keep the price down so they can find some buyer.

[Frank Bucca]

I have been saying goodbye to old neighbors for 77 years...same street, same house-[all five of us siblings were born IN this house]

For the most part, new ones come and go within a year or two.

51 houses on this street...singles, doubles, one 3-decker, and one 6-unit brick apartment house....built later on an empty lot.

Our neighborhood was no different than what Jimmy described for his old neighborhood.

Street games,-[no neigborhood city parks, other than Trum Field, Foss Park, and Dilboy... at the time.] Just empty neighborhood tracts of land, and grammar school-[grades K-6]- schoolyards]

When those grammar schools gave way to middle schools that was the beginning of the end for the tight neighborhoods....ours was the Bingham School on Lowell Street....now a multi-unit apartment complex.

A good many of those great teachers lived in the neigborhood.

What was, no longer is!!

[Grog29]

This writer is a sign that the hype in the realestate market around here
is still going on. He's delusional. Boston area realestate is going to bottom out at 30-40% declines from the 2005-2006 hyped up (fake document /cash out/stated income/inflated appraisal/illegal alien
mortgages) prices. The party is over and nobody has told him. Davis Sq. isn't what it is cracked up to be. It's Union Sq. with more litter and
a Social Security Office where the people living off the syatem go.

[Susan Rooney]

Yes the neighborhoods are changing and maybe not necessarily for the better. But the condo-ized house next door has a lovely couple living on the first floor who have two children. The older boy stops by our house regularly to say "hello" to our kitty. Another house accross the street was bought by the new people (15 years ago) and they are very nice also, always enquiring after my mother's health and so on. Even with the downturn in the real estate market, these old houses are worth more than our parents ever dreamed. It's good that there are people still living in Somerville who remember those times. Keep posting Jimmy, and happy birthday.

[Paul Boyle]

Jimmy! Great article. I was one of the original PJ Five but I had no musical talent whatsoever! We must've been about 10 years old! We lip-synced the Dave Clark Five over and over. My backyard on Hall Ave was a dust bowl from us playing whiffle ball all summer. The fall turned to touch football between the only two telephone poles where there weren't any trees! My mom still has the house but she's in an assisted living/nursing home so my brother and sister (I now live in Maryland) do the up keep and collect the rent. Keep posting your articles. I love to go back in time every now and then! Paul Boyle

[Jimmy]

Dear Grog29.. you sound a bit bitter my friend. Must be nice to know everything.So I got some numbers wrong... Sue me . After all, I AM dillusional.

[Jimmy]

Hi Susan .. Nice to read your comments .Do you remember a young boy named Norman who use to serenade you near Oscar's Store?? And Paul...remember singing "Bits and Pieces " up and down the street? Your sister Donna use to babysit us. Take care... PS Susan...how did you know my birthday was near ?? Jimmy

[Mike Bonanno]

Happy Birthday buddy. Keep up the great work.

[Bill Shelton]

Thanks for this, Jimmy. It puts a real human face on the gentrification and public policy stuff that I write about. It's also a very specific case that expresses why Save Our Somerville exists.

You write,"I know it's the circle of life and all that stuff..." Yeah, but it seems like that circle is spinning faster and faster and it's not taking us to a better place.

Here's a line from a song that you listened to about the time that you were playing those guitars in the back yard:

"There are places I remember in my life, and some have changed, some forever, not for better."

[kathryn]

you know, it's funny - i moved in to somerville because i wanted neighbors, and guess what? i found them! that's right - i said hello and began chatting over the fence, talking about gardening and the weather and how summer has been. neighbors are what you make of them, and if you extend yourself instead of sitting around waxing nostalgic and wishing for your old neighbors, you just might make some new neighborhood friends.

i think it's funny that you (gently) complain about people turning the house into condos, but don't complain about the people who sold the house knowing that would happen.

[Somerville n00b]

Kathryn has this right! I'm new to Somerville and I already have many friends in the neighborhood. Sure, it takes time to cement relationships, but people are quite open. They are all busy people, but we can still find some time to talk. So, old-timers, stop getting nostalgic flashbacks when you are drunk. The city is different, but there are many new good people around. And very tolerant people, for what I can see. Perhaps that's what you are scared off?

[Some Ole Villen]

To Kathryn and n00b:
It is true that the new people couldn't have moved in if the old people didn't move out. Many of the old Somerville people who moved to the suburbs wish they could move back but can't afford it. Others fondly recall the good old days but are quite content where they now live. I have many nice people in my neighborhood who don't have roots here the Ville. The problem as I see it is that the people who are moving in do not have children or if they do they generally move out when their children reach school age. This trend does not bode well for the long term future of Somerville.

[Somerville n00b]

Perhaps they don't have children because they cannot afford them. If they had children they'd have to live somewhere else less expensive too. It seems to me that this is just called being financially responsible. You cannot have everything in life. And if they move out because the public schools suck, just blame the sclerotic school system, where seniority is valued over talent.

[My Two Cents]

To Noob: Why do you make the assumption that someone's nostalgia was caused by being drunk?
To Kathryn: Perhaps he didn't complain about the people who sold the house 'knowing' (your assumption)it would be turned into condos, because they might not have wanted to sell. Anyone on a fixed or limited income is finding it very hard to stay in Somerville because 'gentrification' has caused taxes to rise. Many cannot afford the new tax rate, and the house is the only real asset they have. For many it is not a choice, but a necessity.
To the others who say you should just talk to your neighbors: Most of the so-called old-timers in my neighborhood are very friendly to newcomers. With some it is reciprocal, with others not. Many will not return a smile or a hello when offered. They are too busy working, and checking out the Davis Square nightlife. That's what they're here for, and they have little interest in making friends among older neighbors.

[Another One Cent]

I'm glad I moved to Billerica.

[Yorktown Street]

Two words for people who want to bring old and new neighbors together: block parties!

[Frank Bucca]

To noob:
Who wrote on 7/25/08 "So old-timers stop getting nostalgic flashbacks when you are drunk."

I'm an old-timer, going on 78 y/o.....funny thing, I posted "nostalgic flashbacks".....after drinking water, cranberry juice, and diet drinks all week long. So who needs expensive alcohol beverages...to get a "buzz" on.

I wonder....what was the "status" of the neighborhoods that you and others decided to leave and come to Somerville?

You wrote/indicated us "old-timers" are "scared" of something?? or other??....Really??

The day will NOT come when new-comers to Somerville will "scare" me out of a house that me and my four siblings were born in; and has been in my family for five generations....and I have lived in with my Bride of 55 years, and raised our kids, for all of my upcoming 78 years on this earth.

My Bride born and raised in Somerville also.
Somerville High School, 1948, we met.

Yes...that's my real name on this post.
What "scares" you to not post yours?

Maybe if you get "drunk" you will get/find the courage to do so.