MEMOIRS OF SCHOOL STREET VILLAGE

Thanks so much for the great response to this blog!
A special thank you to those who have passed it on to others. We are heading quickly to amazing page visits to this blog! Welcome to folks from all over the country and other countries as well, including Lisbon!!

The "Village", as it was called, is located in the northwest corner of the city of Taunton, Massachusetts U.S.A. It covers about 1 square mile with the center being School Street. A large portion of the Village population was Portuguese when I was growing up.

This blog covers a lot of the history of the Village, much to do with my years as a child there: 1940 through the late 1950's. I do have many wonderful photos and information prior to that that and will share those as well. Always looking for MORE PHOTOS AND MORE STORIES TO TELL.

If you would like to send photos or share a memory of growing up in the Village
e-mail me at spinoart@comcast.net
feel free to comment on the posts. Directions are on the right side of the blog posts. Jump in, the water is fine and it is easy!!!


I will be posting photographs but not identifying individuals unless I have permission or they are a matter of public record. It you wish to give me permission, please let me know.

I am looking for any and all photos of the Village...

Please note: the way blogs work is that the latest post is first. It you would like to start from the beginning of the blog, check out the post labels on the right of the blog and go from there. Thanks.


Saturday, November 3, 2012

LITTLE MARKETS AND THEN SOME....

Having spoken of the little markets that dotted the Village, one must remember
that if you required other items, they could usually be found in yours or a neighbor's yard.
They might also be found in any of the wagon or truck vendors that traveled the Village such as
The Fish Man who parked in the square while women stood in line to buy fresh fish. Soda from
Gus, the Soda Man (Gus Duarte with his cases of White Eagle Soda), the Korman Water man whose name I do not recall but who was red cheeked and jolly.  Korman Water was added
to the laundry to whiten whites.   Why do I remember more people smiling and taking time to talk in those days?  Maybe because of low overhead: people working for themselves and taking more pride in what they did? Their customers were friends, after all.  People taking time to smell the flowers and enjoy friendship. The lost art
of conversation...either in English or Portuguese.  


                                                    Sandy Souza and Theresa Rezendes
                                                               circa 1944 -1945 
                                                    in the Rezendes vegetable garden on
                                                                     Floral St.


People canned garden produce and "put up" fruits and vegetables.  Large blueberry bushes flourished in the swampy areas along Longmeadow Road. We children, with our parents, would tie bandanas around our waists, hang clean tin cans from them 
and get to picking as much as we could.
Pies, cobblers, muffins, etc would follow and then when freezers became more common, be a taste of summer in the dead of winter.  No one ever heard of toxic preservatives and pesticides then. They were never used.  There was a ubiquitous grapevine in every yard.  It provided shade under which to enjoy a chat, or a place to keep a rabbit hutch.  But, it provided grape juice and jars and jars of home preserved grape jam. The Village was a center of the so-called and very "in" green movement, long before it came into fashion.


                                     My sister Kathy, age 3 or 4, under one of those grapevines.



Some wonderful comments have been shared with us.  The memory of Fuller School being torn down and the children in fourth grade having to be bussed to Hopewell School, the sweet tradition of going home to your parents for lunch no longer a fact of life.  The memory of small market owners keeping their customers fed during the Depression, often forgoing credit payments.  The loyalty that was engendered in Village families right up until those markets finally closed.  Families kept that loyalty in spite of the large supermarkets coming in to the City.   
A very sweet memory of a Halloween party being given by my incomparable Tia Eleanor Souza
whose personality was a light to all who knew and met her.
The memory of Rose Serras who had Serras Market with her husband
with roughened hands doing the math on
 paper bags for a purchase.
Finally, the little boy who was afraid to go into a garage that said: For Tenants Only...thinking Ten Giant Ants lived there!  The little boy down on School St who sold pony rides for a dime....

The Hood milk bottle brought memories of the scoop that took
 out that wonderful cream on the top.
Another gentlemen recalled that when the milk froze out on the stoop, the cream rose up and
pushed off the bottle cap.  As soon as he said it, I remembered it!  Bingo.

Keep them coming!  


2 comments:

  1. Sandy,I just loved the picture of you and Theresa in her backyard at 11 Floral St. I am very familiar with that backyard as my mother was very friendly with her family.I remember her father's garden and the flowers.I also remember the pig pen. Every year her father had a pig slaughered.That was a three day celebration.My mother,Mary Rose,Seraphina Martin from Floral St., and Mrs.Semas from Benefit St.Dennis's mother would help Theresa's mother stuff the linguicas,chouricos, and the morcellos. Why those ladies? They all came from the same village in the old country and were very friendly!

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  2. I had forgotten the pigs...what a great memory: the women making the sausage all coming from the same village. I remember Mr. Lawrence on Blinn's Ct. slaughtering a pig as well...not a good memory for me. Glad I am now vegetarian!

    I just love this photo of Terry and I....it means a lot to me, especially now.

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