MEMOIRS OF SCHOOL STREET VILLAGE

Throughout one's life memories play a song in the heart.  Sometimes an ode to joy, other times a

foxtrot, and here and there a mournful dirge. 

 If a person is lucky, early memory songs all begin in the same happy place wrapped within a cocoon of nostalgia.  Time does its task and burnishes it in gold.

I grew up in such a place, a Village right here in the good ol' U.S.A.  My village was in Taunton,

Massachusetts, a small New England city.  Geographically, Taunton is 40 miles south of Boston, 10 miles north of Fall River,  25 miles west of Plymouth and 18 miles east of
Providence, Rhode Island. 

 Tucked into the northwest corner of Taunton, my Village was called The School Street Village, or simply The Village.  It was bordered on one end by our Church: St. Anthony's, and at the other by St. Joseph's Cemetery.  Smack in the middle of it - the heart - was the  wooden
5 grade school house: Fuller School.
The Village circled around its main corridor: School Street.

It was a privilege to grow up in The School Street Village, about a 1 x 1 square mile of homes, neighborhood stores and small businesses.  All of these entities  housed families and folks we all knew . Throughout this blog I will share wonderful photographs of many of these.  I will not be

naming names unless you give me permission or unless they are of public record.

As children growing up we did not realize the net of safety we occupied.

We ran around the Village instinctively knowing we could go into
any house or shop if we needed help.

Like a tribal commune nearly everything we needed could be found in those years within its confines.

Later we will talk about the economy, the families of the Village as well
 as the faith we shared there.

I was born in 1940 and these are some of the photos of my years at Fuller School.

I went to Mrs. Cadell's preschool and somehow managed to skip first grade at Fuller, entering in

the second. However, as a child of the Village
it was no great problem.

I already knew and played with all the children I joined.

I do not  remember where Mrs. Cadell's (above) was located in Taunton. Only that in 1945
 she picked each child up in this wooden station wagon.

 I think I recognize many of the children...do you? I am the first on the left.

Above the 1947 first grade class at Fuller School...of course, I am not yet there.

Ta Da - below  in the picture of

the Fourth Grade at Fuller in 1949 there I am second row left from the top.

This would have been Miss Margaret Coleman's class.  Just above me first to left is
the late Cecilia Mendes Rodier, next to her the late Elsie Rapoza. Boy to my left is the
late Norman Da Costa.  Front row: left to right: Elaine Farinha DeMoranville, second in after her is Teresa Rezendes Morris, then Cynthia Luz Mendes, Virginia Lopes McKenna and the
late Beverly Ann Martin. To row to far right is the late Anthony Butler.