The Rhythm of Another Village Memory

We wrote of the Taunton Band Club earlier in the blog, and at length.  Now, here is another musical memory interlude...thanks to Arlene Gouvia for the memory description and the photo.

This entire post belongs to her.

.....

The Village produced two marching bands that were quite good.  There was the "Drill Team",  a group of young boys and girls who participated in the religious and patriotic parades.

The group was founded by Charles and Valentino Fostin, and the drillmaster was Wilfred Mador.  They practiced at the end of Winter Avenue, a dead end

 and were quite a sight in their red and white uniforms.

(Wilfred Mador was my classmate Sonny Mador's Dad)

                                                     The Village Drill Team  in the 1930's
                                                             Photo from Arlene Gouveia
                                         

The other group was the Liberty Guards, a group of young men who belonged to the Taunton City Band Club in the early thirties when it was also a social club and not just a practice hall for the band. The Guards were quite a colorful sight as they marched up and down School Street wearing white sailor suits (probably WW I surplus).  They practiced their intricate drills at the School Street Corner (now Braga Square).   The group participated in all sorts of parades and amassed quite a few trophies in competitions in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  Their drill master was Joseph Rose.

Addendum...The head tall girl in the front has been identified as Marie Vincent and one of the houses in back of the team that of Joe and Hilda Vincent.  Thanks to a relative that gave us this help.

Arlene gleaned these memories from Jeanette Nascimento who was a member of the drill team, and

Arthur (Baron) Lopes who was a member of the Liberty Guards. Arthur Lopes

recently passed away at nearly 100 years of age.

.......................

Thanks, Arlene.  The memories you share with all of us help take us back to a totally different time.  These days that is a welcome trip.  Having grown up in the Village in the 50's it is not hard for me to go back just a bit more to imagine what it must have been like.  In a way it was a microcosm of so many villages or small neighborhoods in the U.S. during those years.  Simpler, somehow more intimate and meaningful.  A time long gone but hopefully never forgotten.  It is the reason I began and continue this blog. It is my hope that children and grandchildren and on from there will read these pages 

and try to understand what can be and what once was.

Thank you to so many who have spread the news

about this blog.  At this point the blog has gone international, readers as far away

as Russia and of course, Portugal, routinely check in to read new posts.

Once again I invite readers to comment and share their own stories.

It enriches all of us.

This post has received lots of good notice, and I am especially pleased to
identify a few more members of the group in this picture.

Marie Vincent is in the front.

Also, in the group: Jackie Bernadino Rogers, Jeanette Rose Nascimento 
and Janet Perry Santos.

The group is in front of the Ferreira House with Joe and Hilda Vincent's house in
the background.

Thanks to the contributors including Arlene herself.