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.


Monday, July 15, 2013

Cooling off ---way back when

Doing research for a blog like this is a journey easily detoured.  Often one finds treasures just a bit removed...or even a lot...from the subject at hand.  Such was my experience when I wandered through old photos of Taunton summers on the net.  To be sure, all Tauntonians, including Villagers, enjoyed these cooling venues.  Come along, then, who knows where we will end up.  I do not have a whole lot of information on these photos, but we will let imagination roam.....and also hope some readers who chip in with stories and photos.

Here is a 1908 photo of what must be Bay St. but is labeled Sabbatia Lake Road and Lake.  The lake is just off Bay St. in the Whittenton.  Only memories of what is was, remain in the soft echoes of the water sounds.

But, back in the early 1900's this was a destination!  The trolley took Tauntonians all the way to "Sabatia Lake Park."  According to this old linen map shared by a fellow Tauntonian, Dave Melanson, there was a Merry-Go-Round there which has its own place on the map.  Incidentally, in a story worthy of The Pickers on T.V. Davefound a whole set of linen maps blowing in the breeze on a table at a flea market.  Apparently, in those days architects often recorded plans and maps on linen.  The moral of that story is always to treat flea markets with respect, one never knows the finds awaiting discovery.  Here is  one of Dave's maps, for which we are grateful,
showing Sabbatia Lake, the Pavillion and Merry Go Round.





Below a postcard photo (source:Cardcow) of
Main St. in Taunton in the early 1900's.  You can see the
web of Trolley tracks crisscrossing the streets.




Here is another postcard, but taken in 1946.  So clearly, when I was a child,
Sabbatia was still a destination where families could cool off.



The Park reportedly included amusements, such as the Merry Go Round we mentioned.  Also, dancing and such as well as places to purchase food.  Knowing my folks, we probably brought our own however.  As cars because more commonplace, fathers drove families further and we were to be found in the early 50's at Swift's Beach and such. The highway system that has become a voracious beast needing constant feeding and a technological age has taken our focus from simpler pleasures and gathering places of generations past.  Yet today, many of us seek out remnants of those places, get excited when we actually get to stroll down a country road or is we can, go for a quiet bike ride. In the days of yesteryear those were the norms....we still seek out those norms today.

                                                                                           
 1940's photo from Pinterest that could 
    have been taken at the old Sabbatia Lake Park...





        Here is a little musical interlude helping us to get in the mood for a different day long ago....



5 comments:

  1. Many families moved to simple cottages all around the lakes (Sabbatia and the Nippenicket (the Nip) and Lake Rico)surrounding our city. Of course those are all year round homes now. The Prospect street depicted could also be the one off Church Green area down town off Dean Street. The houses look the same. We could spend a family day at our lakes or those in Carver near by. All our cousins, Aunts and Uncles would show up. Great memories.

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    1. check out the post on Myles Standish....yes, many memories.

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    2. You are right...I forgot that street....thanks.

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  3. Mothers would pack lunches and we would go off in a caravan of cars to Myles Standish Reservation in Carver near the cranberry bogs to spend the day. My Aunt Mary Bernadino and family, my Aunt Eleanor and family, my Aunt Alveda etc and us. So many cousins. Of course the Dads all came as well. I remember my Uncle John Bernadino always smoking a cigar. In those days less fear of strangers so made many friends at the lake.

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