Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

This article first appeared in the August 4, 2012 edition of The Somerville Times

I can’t let the summer go by without doing a blurb on my favorite spot in Somerville.

We in the Davis and Ball Square areas have been blessed with a gem known as Powder House Park. Many of us have memories of sledding, picnics, playing on the rocks, snowball fights and first kisses at the park. A friend of mine was a recreation leader many years ago and he has remained friends with a lot of the kids, who are now grown up. How many of us made “gimp” key chains at Powder House Park? Remember when the draft board was in that building on the lower part of the park? I sure do because thankfully my number was a few digits off.

I recently asked my Facebook friends for their memories of Powder House Park. I have written about the park many times but this time I wanted to share other people’s comments.

One of my favorite memories was in the summer of 1978 when the bands Dillinger, Zenophon and (my band) Shadowfax played a concert at the park.

Back in the day, when I was a pre-teen, we had clubs for the kids who hung around in surrounding neighborhoods including the park. I was a Bay State Ave kid, so we called ourselves the BSABs, for Bay State Ave. Boys. The Josephine Ave. boys were the JABS and the Powder House Terrace kids were known as the PHTBS. Try saying that! Us BSABS had the letters sewn on the back of denim “Ponderosa” pullovers with rawhide strings in the front. But the tough kids hung around at Powder House Park. We weren’t tough, but we tried to stay on the good side of the kids who hung in the park. They had leather baseball jackets with “Powder House Park” emblazoned on them.

Here are some more memories of Powder House Park. Debbie says she really can’t mention too many of her memories because some were not “legal.” More than one of my friends ended up in the emergency room with stitches from falling on the rocks. A lot of kids had the perfect setting for playing “army” up the park. There used to be huge bushes around the tower but because of drinking and other illegal activity, they were cut.

Many wonderful times have been had at the Mayor’s Annual Senior Picnic at Powder House Park. This year it will held on Wednesday, August 8. As the director of The Sunsetters, I got a big thrill last year. I actually got to drive my truck right through the park to unload equipment.

How many of us used to gather acorns (for acorn fights) or just to make whistles out of the caps? Remember the “water bubbler” made out of stone? Were you one of the participants in the May Day Parades that marched through the park? Did you pay parking tickets in that building that used to house the draft board that we mentioned earlier? Are your initials carved in a tree in the park? (are you JF?) Did you think that there were bullet holes in the rocks? Did you ever hear that there was an underground tunnel that connected the Powder House with the Prospect Hill Tower?

A lone bagpipe player was standing in the park performing a tribute for my friend’s dad’s wake at Doherty’s Funeral Home. That was a memory never to be forgotten.

The park has to be respected for the beautiful treasure that it is. People need to stop making bonfires near the tower and leaving their beer cans all over when the barrel is a few feet away. Also, people have to stop treating it like it’s an off-leash dog park. Can’t people read or do they just enjoy ignoring the law? As a matter of fact, just this morning a young man had his huge Boxer mix off-leash. Now, to look at this guy it would seem like he was able to read, but I guess not. My small dog wanted to go over to sniff him but I didn’t want him to be a snack.

Powder House Park holds tons of memories for Somerville people, especially those of us who have been in the neighborhood for years and years. The tree that is dedicated to my friend Tony’s grandfather who lived nearby is one of my favorite landmarks. Long live the park, and long live the memories.