***Of This And That In The Old North Adamsville Neighborhood-The High School Cruising For The Heart Of Saturday Nights Time   

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

A while back I went on to the class website established for the 50^th 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.  

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[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 10^th 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 “