***Of This And That In The Old North
Adamsville Neighborhood-The High School
Cruising For The Heart Of Saturday Nights Time
[One of the innovations that the class website’s wizard webmaster, Donna (who had also been the Vice-President of the class), had placed on the homepage was a survey format to poll fellow classmates about various questions. The first question was about which elementary school you had gone to of the five feeder schools to North Adamsville High and an additional “other” for those who had gone elsewhere to click onto. I had clicked on “other” since I had gone to Snug Harbor Elementary, a feeder school for cross-town rival Adamsville High. Memory is a strange thing so I was not sure whether Sam remembered that I had not gone to one of the feeder school as he had, the Parker School.]
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
A while back I went on to the class
website established for the 50th anniversary reunion of my North
Adamsville High School Class of 1964 (that’s in Massachusetts) to check out a
new addition to the list of those who have joined the site. Now the way this
site works, like lots of such sites, is that each classmate who logs in gets a
profile page with some boilerplate stuff like marital status, kids and
grandkids but also space for each to tell his or her story of what has happened
of interest over that previous 50 years, stuff at least that they wanted
classmates to know about. Over the past
several months the site has been up classmates have done a fair amount of
updating of their profiles, especially adding a zillion photos of those
grandkids. Some have taken advantage of the Message Forum page to let everyone know
some important information while others have, as I know in my own case, used
the private e-mail message system to deliver news to particular fellow
classmates. This sketch is about my remembrances after receiving a private
e-mail from guy, Sam Lowell that I used to be best buddies with but who went
off my radar after high school.
I noticed that I had a private e-mail
waiting for me on my profile page after looking at that information provided by
that new addition, a guy I did not know but who I had seen around the school
(you would have seen almost everybody in the four years you were there with one
thing or another even though the class had baby-boomer times over 500 students).
It turned out to be from Sam Lowell who I used to run around with along with
the great track runner from our era, Brad Badger. Sam was also on the track
team, a high jumper, a tall rail thin high jumper in those days. The gist of Sam’s
e-mail was all about information of his doings since high school which I will
intersperse with other stuff below. That e-mail though got me wondering about
some details of the stuff we used to do then, you know, where did we hang out,
what did we do with our spare time, and most importantly what did we do about
searching for the heart of Saturday night-in short looking for girl companionship.
I sent him a return e-mail asking about such things and the following sketch is
gleaned from that exchange.
****** [One of the innovations that the class website’s wizard webmaster, Donna (who had also been the Vice-President of the class), had placed on the homepage was a survey format to poll fellow classmates about various questions. The first question was about which elementary school you had gone to of the five feeder schools to North Adamsville High and an additional “other” for those who had gone elsewhere to click onto. I had clicked on “other” since I had gone to Snug Harbor Elementary, a feeder school for cross-town rival Adamsville High. Memory is a strange thing so I was not sure whether Sam remembered that I had not gone to one of the feeder school as he had, the Parker School.]
“Hi Sam –Long time no see. Sorry I have not gotten back to
you sooner but I have been out of town. Did you click on and answer that poll
question about where you went to elementary school on the home page? I know
many a summer afternoon and evening, hot and sweaty, we, you, Brad Badger and I
spent hanging around the basketball courts at the Parker School. Spent time
with pick-up games with guys who hung out there or games against other teams.
Remember Jim Slater’s team, beautiful (although you could
not call guys that then) and graceful Jim with that sweet swish jump shot who
fell in Vietnam in 1968, and how the competition was pretty intense but
afterward we went for sodas at Jack and Ted’s Variety, losers buying, and when
we were older (but still under age) we would get some illegal smile beers from
some unknowing father’s stash. Remember too how the corner boy situation
divided up by tenth grade with Jim’s crowd setting up on any given weekend
night in front of Doc’s Drugstore and we, serfs for our lord Frankie Riley,
would perch in front Salducci’s Pizza Parlor looking all college-cool (or so we
thought) and hoping against hope that some passing car traffic girls would honk
our way.
You at six feet-four inches (I think that is right since you
towered over me) were pretty good with those sharp elbows of yours even though
in those days you were a rail at about one hundred and fifty pound. Brad was
pretty good too with that fast break speed but I never had the co-ordination to
play very well, except at the foul line. You guys all used to laugh when I did
those two-hand bucket shots but I was deadly and it helped us win more than one
game and grab those sodas and beers.
I know the Parker was where you went to school but I am not
sure if you knew or not but I went to Snug Harbor Elementary down in the Adamsville
projects from grade 1 to 6. I recently went down there to take some photos (see
Message Forum #30) and the place has not changed all that much structurally
since the later 1950s when my family left. A number of NA64ers went there at
some point, including our old friend Brad. That is where I met him and where he
went to school until fourth grade, then left for Holden to return to Adamsville
showing up at North in the 10th grade. I was in contact with him
about five or six years ago after my mother died in 2007. After her death I all
of a sudden after many years of statutory neglect I got North Adamsville patriotic
for the old days. That’s when I contacted him on an unrelated commercial
classmates site and we stayed in touch for a while but then as such things do, we
faded out again once the glow of talking about the old days wore off and we
found we had little else to talk about now. I recently noticed that Roger French
who still lives in North Adamsville and who has stayed in contact with
Brad all these years from what Brad had told
me back then is also on this site and I sent him a note asking Brad’s
whereabouts since he is not at the last address and telephone number I have for
him. You don’t know where Brad is, do you?
The main reason for
this note however is to mull over some of the olds days in NAHS times. I have
gone back to North Adamsville a number of times over the past few years
thinking about such things. As I said before I remember we hung out at the
basketball courts but also at the drugstore (no longer there) near your house
on Flynt Street. What was the name of it? I know it had a soda fountain and we
used to sit in there and talk to the soda jerk (what a description) and mainly
about the ugly Red Sox of those years. Also didn’t we hang also around that Mom
and Pop variety store toward the Downs run by a couple of brothers?
Moving on-I will always remember those trips, mainly futile,
down Adamsville Boulevard and on to the Southern Artery for pizza at that
Leaning Tower of Pizza after we had struck out in the girl department on any
given Saturday night. That sounds about right doesn’t it? I know we were crazy
for girls but they did not then, at least NAHS girls, give us a tumble. I know
that I never had a date with an NAHS girl while I was there. ( I did later
after graduation and I will tell you about it sometime and about the things she
told me about some North girls that will surprise you. What about you? I noticed
the name Betty Thomas with a note to you recently on your profile page but did
you date her? I don’t remember if you
did or not. I know I never saw in the car when we were around but you could have
at other times.
Funny about all the times we struck out with girls who
mattered, who more than one time desperately mattered when dance times came, wherever
we went. Let’s face it we weren’t exactly anybody’s choice for best looking
guys, or best dressed, or best athletics, probably most girls didn’t even know
we had a track team. I remember once telling a girl, Sarah Lane I think who was
in my Problems in Democracy class senior, that I was on the track team and she
was clueless that the school has such a team. Even with all the publicity that
Brad received over the PA system from Coach Lyons, in the school newspaper and
in the local newspapers. I bet the lowliest scrub football player got more
notice than us.
Here is the other funny thing though I would have thought,
although this might be in hindsight, that the “boss” ’57 Chevy that you had and
that we drove around town in would have been a “babe” magnet. Remember how you
would have us shut up when the Supremes’ Baby
Love came on WMEX on the car radio so the girls could hear what was playing.
Hah. Today anyway if you see one on the street everybody looks, looks more than
once too, and from what I hear guys who own such vehicles have no problem
getting women, good-looking women too, to ride up front with them. I forget the colors of your car, were they
red and black that two-toned combination that everybody was in to back then.
I remember that time when you sold me your old car, some
junk box Plymouth that you had gotten from your father after he traded up, for
about ten bucks or something when you got that ’57 Chevy. I know you had it the
summer after graduation when we were still in touch after Brad went into the Navy
rather than go to college but how long did you keep it for? (Brad’s home-life was
so bad that he decided he had get out right away and there was really no family
money for college anyway.) Until you went into the service in 1966? Interesting
how you kept in the same banking profession all your life. I remember you
taking business courses in high school and then later at Bentley figuring that
was the way you were going to make a name for yourself. And you did so kudos to
you.
I will let off for now and let you answer my questions if
you like but I hope that things have gone well for you since the old days. By
your profile page that seems to be true. A proud many times over grandpa and tinkering
around with antiques now that you are retired. Later Frank Jackman “
No comments:
Post a Comment