Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

There’s a new Lechmere station for the Green Line, but a lot of us remember standing in that cave of a station waiting for a bus or a train. Maybe we were going to Lechmere Sales to buy a Walkman or cassette tape. Maybe you worked at Lechmere, as many of my Somerville friends have. I asked our readers to share the memories of the old Lechmere station.

“I worked at the Museum of Science and took the bus home most days from Lechmere. The thing I remember most was the smell of chocolate and or caramel coming from across the street.” (There was a candy factory directly across from the station)

“Waiting for the bus home in the winter with the wind whipping through. I swear it was the coldest place on earth!”

“Cold wind ripping through the open waiting area and the (terrible) smell in the enclosed waiting room.”

“The pigeons up above your head while waiting for the bus, praying they didn’t poop on you before the bus came, the smell … UGH!”

“Smell of sugar from nearby candy factory and the squeaking sound of the trolley wheels.”

“I would take either the Somerville Ave. or Highland Ave. bus. Whichever came first.”

“It was dirty, sometimes smelly. Had a little waiting room and a phone booth.

“I don’t remember any bad smell … just the freezing, whipping wind. I lived near the high school so the Highland Ave. or the Medford St. bus, whichever came first, I’d take it! Brrr … that wind would go right through you!”

“Lol! I was stuck there 3 hours in the Blizzard of ’78, trying get home from Prudential. Cold and Smelly waiting room.”

I used to take a Lechmere bus and the Greenline to Emerson College in the ‘70’s. I also remember my mom taking me and my brother and sister in to see The Enchanted Village. It was cold! It wasn’t any warmer in that enclosed waiting room.

The store known as Lechmere Sales also had fond memories of the old days. One Christmas, around 1965, we got our first color TV set. My father set it up Christmas morning so that when we got up it was on and we watched colorful cartoons. My brother especially loved that TV. I remember him watching Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in beautiful color.

So, when I go down that area of Somerville/Cambridge I think of all the stuff we got from Lechmere Sales, and we still have a Kenmore washing machine from Lechmere.

And don’t forget that smell of nuts roasting when you went down McGrath Highway past the nut factory. That smell combined with the old smell of the candy factory made for a delicious ride.

I can’t wait to take the train from Park Street to Ball Square. I will especially be paying attention to the surroundings where I basically grew up. It will be cool to get that aspect of the scenery on the ride. Progress can be fun.