Before Tom Brady was born

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.)

Today our kids have computers, games galore, text messaging and the excitement of The New England Patriots to keep them occupied. When I was a kid, there was no “New England Patriots” - the team was known as the “Boston Patriots.”

I really didn't follow football back then and neither did my dad, except for the fact that there were a couple of Italian players that we liked, such as Babe Parilli and Gino Cappelletti. One year Coca-Cola had an offer - the caps from 12 ounce bottles had images of different Patriots players on the inside - you would pick up a big “game board” from a store (I got mine from Oscar's Variety on Liberty and Appleton) and glue the caps on the board. They never stuck on correctly and used to fall off, which was pain in the neck. When you collected the entire team, you would trade it in for a brand new football!
I got three footballs because we devised a sly method to retrieve bottle caps - my friends and I got magnets and tied a piece of string to them - we then went around to all the gas stations and stuck the magnets into the cap receptacles and pulled them out. Fred Hubbard's Gas Station was a gold mine, although I'm not sure Fred owned it back then.

I remember trading them with my friends: “I'll give you two Nick Bounicontis for a Houston Antwine!” The hunt for Patriot bottle caps consumed us for a few exciting weeks - I remember going into Mitchells in Ball Square and sticking my magnet on the string into the Coke machine cap catcher. Remember the guys who ran that store? They were brothers and I could never tell them apart - they were nice guys, but they never took an eye off of you - sometimes they let me check for bottle caps, other times I sneaked them. I still can't get use to seeing that beauty shop on the corner where Mitchell's was for so many years - I do however wish them luck in their business!

Another activity that kept us busy for weeks was building ”buggies” and go-carts. Remember when Stop and Shop was in Davis Square? There was an alley next to the store that always had some shopping carts sitting there. We used to take the carts home, remove the wheels and build “go-carts.” You had to be very careful though - there was that guy in the beat-up station wagon that drove around collecting stray shopping carts. He was the “shopping cart cop.” The rear wheels were the ones we needed - they were bigger than the front wheels. We would build these buggies and go-carts and bring them up Powder House Park and have a blast bombing down the paths.

In the summer, we had the great pollywog hunt. On the sides of the railroad tracks (with parental guidance of course) between Cedar Street and Davis Square, were huge puddles filled with tadpoles or pollywogs as we called them. I remember taking a bucket full home, but I can't remember if any actually grew into frogs. Speaking of the tracks, was I the only one who actually ate the rhubarb that grew down there? When I tell my kids that huge freight trains used to chug along the bike path, they think it's cool - and it was cool.

There was always a bunch of neighborhood kids outside playing relieve-e-o or buck buck. We stayed out until the streetlights came on or until we heard Dad's whistle.

With the MCAS testing and the rigorous school schedule the kids have, I am a firm believer in letting them enjoy their off time any way they like (within the boundaries of the law and good taste of course) - I have to monitor and limit the on-line time, but for the most part, they deserve a break (providing the home-work is done).

I loved all the adventures and activities that kept me busy as a kid - we always had something fun to do. We were usually always outside too - until that fateful day in the 70's when we hooked an Atari up to the TV set - that was the beginning of the end. Who knew what was in store for children (and adults) everywhere from that one little box?

I'll always have great memories of football bottle caps, pollywogs and go-carts. I'm sure our kids will have great memories too - hopefully not only of cell phones, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and beating level 10 on Zelda.

You can email Jimmy with comments directly at jimmydel@rcn.com

Comments

[JARfromWard3]

JD:

Thanks again for more great stories.

My cousin, Joey Gordon, and I used to build go-karts and race them down the hill on Liberty and cut hard left onto Appleton. Same thing, too: the wheels off of shopping carts that we usually found along the tracks were the most coveted parts. Oscar's variety store was gone by that time I think, and I forget what was there (it may have been just an empty storefront). I know that some time later there was a cabinet shop there.

Joey lived on Newberne St. next to F.B. Jones. His driveway was used by their guys for access to the back of the plant and I remember playing in the yard with forklifts whipping by(!). That building belongs to Moriarty Woodworking today. I remeber also the bulkhead door on Newberne that the trucks used to dump sand into the hopper through. The sand, of course, was used to make the cast concrete swill buckets that are still found in many back yards in the city (I busted ours up a few years ago but, packrat that I am, saved the cast-iron hinged top). Remember the clunk-clunk sound on trash day when the barrel tosser came around to the back yard to get the insert pail out for the honey wagon?

Remember when you could burn leaves in the yard and how pissed off everyone was when they went to requiring plastic bags for them? My mother used to say it was done so the plastic bag companies could get rich. F.B. Jones also made the "Fire Chief" leaf-burning barrel. I'll have to check eBay to see if there are any around.

One of the places I remember also was what we used to refer to as "Hot Rod-ville". This was the row of garages in back of the old Moose Lodge (which became the Diamond Club) that were rented by a bunch of guys who built dragsters and the like (but no stock cars) that they used to race up at Epping. We used to stop in there and watch them work, shoot the breeze, etc. Some of the guys were pretty good to talk with and would take time to talk to kids. A few were not that aproachable. One guy had a pro-mod built around '48 Dodge delivery truck. Years later, when I saw the front end of the re-designed Caravans and then the PT Cruiser, I realized where the inspiration for the grill design came from.

Regarding the Boston Patriots; I remember going over to the Garden probably around 1968 or '69 and there being guys getting petition signatures out in the lobby at N. Station where you went to the ramp walks, for the Patriots to build their own stadium in Boston. I believe it was Readville that was the site chosen for it. Of course, the Sullivans ended up in Foxboro and, being as that was outside the city, was renamed the New England Patriots. Shoestring-ish and undercapitalized as it all was, I have to figure that Billy Sullivan is smiling somewhere, seeing the institution which he helped to create at the apex of the football universe.

Go Pats!

73
JAR

[JARfromWard3]

BTW, Fred Hubbard's Gulf used to be Tony Bent's Shell.

[Ron Newman]

Where was the Stop & Shop?

[Howie]

Stop And Shop was Where the Jimmy Tingle Theatre was ...I think or maybe where McDonalds is. Right around there.

[JARfromWard3]

Actually, it was where the McDonald's USED to be. The alley Jimmy referred to was, I believe, in back next to the parking lot on the west side of Grove Street. Remember how McDonald's had a doorway that led out there? That used to be the back of the Stop & Shop.

73
JAR

[Ron Newman]

JAR - is this where Cristos 7 Star Pizza, Martsa on Elm, and CD Spins are now? McKinnon's and Sligo look like they've been around longer than any of us.

[OldSchoolItaliano]

Davis Square sounded better back then. Better not tell people there was a Stop and Shop because I am sure someone will demand a Whole Foods there. Once that happens, Somerville is officially Cambridge.

[JARfromWard3]

Ron:

I'm thinking the Burren/Family Dollar Store frontage was the Stop & Shop's. It was definitely where the original McDonald's location was (that McDonald's was the direct business locational successor of the S&S) and was east of Gorin's. One thing which stands out in my memory at Stop & Shop was the rotating upright chicken oven. Jimmy DelP, I'm sure, remembers that. Another thing that stands out from that era was the prevalence of Cott and Fanta bottled beverages--two names you don't really see any more.

Mickey Finn Sporting Goods was located more or less where the Diesel is. Seems there was a shoe store in there somewhere as well, but the name escapes me at the moment (Florscheim?).

Also, I apologize that I erred in saying it was a '48 Dodge truck that the guys at the garages behind 313 Highland Ave. had built a dragster from. Turns out it was a '38 Dodge--an "Airflow"--which was sort of a funky, radical design that--if you ever saw it--you'd never forget. I remember one of the guys there explaining front end suspensions, steering linkages, etc. to me. I was probably 9 or 10 years old at the time, but I never forgot it.

73
JAR

[D.J. Sullivan]

Dear Jimmy,
For one sheet of bottle caps you got a sheet of plastic AFl flags or plastic mini helmets, it took five sheets to get an AFL regulation football and to redeem them you had to go to the Coke Bottling plant on the corner of Storrow and River St (yes the one with the Great neon Coke sign and clock, that I still miss!

[Howie]

The Shoe store was THom McAnns...and there WAS a small "ALLEY" or space between Stop And Shop And the building next to it.

[Jimmy]

Hey DJ Thanks for the correction about the Coke Caps. Your memory is better than mine. Your not the same DJ who had the dog named SHEP on Hall Ave are you ??

[How long before Brady's g-friend moves on?]

How long before Gisele moves on. Its all down hill from here. I give a 7 months before Tommy and his g-friend are finished. He's got no business and should be ashamed of his performance. He's the quarterback, take the good with the bad! Tushhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Frank Bucca]

I don't believe it was the Stop & Shop in Davis Square.
The store there was named the Publix Market. I worked there as a boy stocking shelves.

The forerunner-(and first)- to the Stop & Shop Supermarkets was the Economy Grocery Store Company; located at the northeast corner of Cedar and Highland, where the East Cambridge Savings Bank now stands.

Frank

[Frank Bucca]

We got our pollywogs between Cedar and Lowell Streets.

Also watched the freight trains, slowing down, coming into Boston carrying coal and all other kinds of industrial goods.

But what we were particularly interested in was seeing the live cattle coming in destined for the slaughter houses in East Cambridge/Somerville.
They were shipped in open-slatted box-cars, plenty of ventilation; but the odor lingered for hours after the train was out of sight.

The other item of interest was seeing the once a year occurrence of the freight train carry the elephants, tigers, horses etc., for the circus at the old Boston Garden.

BTW--during the great depression years,trains that were hauling coal and/or scrap metal were traveling slow enough for our older brothers/cousins to grab on to a ladder, climb up into a car, and throw off scrap metal and lumps of coal.

The metal was then sold to local scrap dealers; and the coal went into home furnaces or stoves.

Frank

[Ron Newman]

These days, the circus train parks on the tracks alongside Albany Street, in Cambridgeport.

[Imux]

Let the kids play, you dumb shit!

[Howie]

Hey Imux..........What the heck are you talking about... ? And there WAS a Stop and Shop in Davis. Just because YOU dont remember dosent mean it wasnt there. HA HA !! I shopped there .I