Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

This is another story by my friend, Somerville’s own Anthony Accardi. Anthony has contributed stories to this column in the past and he always has interesting things to talk about.

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

I was reading in the news recently that a group of students from the Arthur D Healey School went to the White House and visited First Lady Michelle Obama. They went there to help her plant herbs and vegetables in the kitchen garden on the White House South Lawn.

When I read the article, I could not help but think about the days when I attended the Arthur D Healey School. You see, I attended the original school building that stood in the same spot as the new current building.  The building that now bears the “Arthur D Healey” name replaced the original building sometime in the middle of the 90’s decade.

The original Healey School was built sometime in the mid 1950’s and opened in 1955. It was meant to replace the old Glines School that stood on lower Jacques Street, near Grant Street. An elderly housing complex now stands where the Glines once did.

The original Healey School building was more or less shaped like an “L”. It was two stories high and was built using a light tan colored brick, which at the time gave it a more modern look compared to the old red brick schools that still stood in Somerville.

The two kindergarten classes and most of the first grade classes each had their own entrances that from the inside led directly to the schoolyard. The kindergarten’s schoolyard was separated from the rest of the main schoolyard. The main schoolyard was a huge field of asphalt. It had two baseball diamonds of which a football field ran directly over both diamonds. In the middle of the field was a huge “S” that was painted with a multi colored spoked/striped look. At the back right of the playground, there were two sets of swing sets of which from my recollection, never had swings attached to them, just the structure. The entire schoolyard was surrounded by a cliff that many brave students climbed up and down. The cliff led to the Mystic Housing Projects of which many of the students of the school lived.

Ms. Gasparina Messina was the principal of the school. She was also the principal of the Grimmons School in the nearby Ten Hills neighborhood. Ms Messina was a no-nonsense administrator and was very much feared by the students, and probably by many of the teachers as well. Even as young kids, we could tell she demanded respect and high standards from the teachers, custodians and other school personnel.

Each classroom was equipped with a loudspeaker that hung from the ceiling at the front of the class, usually above the teacher’s desk. When the light on the loud speaker was illuminated it meant one of two things. Either an announcement to the entire school was forthcoming or she was listening in on the class. When she passed away 10 or so years ago her obituary mentioned that she was the very first female school principal in the City of Somerville. I guess that explains her demand for respect and high standards. I can imagine, being a woman, she knew she had to prove herself even more as a new principal.

In the years I attended the Healey School some of the teachers that come to mind are Miss Helen Rooney, Miss Ann Fitzgerald, Miss Laurette Waters, Miss Patricia Rumney, and Mr. David Jolly. We had two teachers whose name was O’Brien. We had a Mrs. O’Brien who taught the 3rd Grade and a Miss O’Brien who taught the 4th grade. Mr. Paul Rappoli, Mr Joseph Healey (they were good friends and often combined classes, so if you had one, you also had the other), Miss Kane, who was the Vice Principal for a few years and was replaced by Mr. Maurice Pomfret.

Now, the Vice Principal back then, was a title given to a teacher. When we got up into the Junior High and High School levels, the Vice Principal was a non-teaching administrative position. Other teachers were Mr. John Madden, Mrs. Janet Galvin (formerly Buscanera), Mrs. Guinee, Miss Martha Quirk (later Mrs. Wilder), Mrs. Frances Gadsby and Miss Mary Degregorio (whom to my knowledge is still teaching there to this day).

I have to say the teacher that had the most influence on me was my 6th grade teacher, Mr. Hollis Graves. He was from the “new school of teaching.” He was “hip” to us kids, yet he treated us as adults. He wasn’t afraid of challenging us and taught us higher levels of subjects that were probably meant for students in higher grades. He was our friend and knew how to handle us “city kids.”

In the years I attended the Healey School hockey was very popular due to the great Bruins teams back then. All of us can agree that gym class was our favorite subject and playing hockey was what we always wanted to do in gym class. Other activities we did during recess or gym were dodgeball, kickball, relievio and a little known game called “stinger.” This was a game that we played with Mr. Healey and Mr. Rappoli. The way it worked was Mr. Healey and Mr. Rappoli threw sponge balls as hard as they could at a group of us students who were standing about 30 feet from the two teachers. The object was to try and catch the sponge ball either with your coat or, for the “sting” part, with your bare hands. By today’s standards it doesn’t sound very appropriate for teachers to do this, but back then, believe it or not, it was very fun.

When the original Healey School was razed to make way for a new and modern school building, they held a reunion. The reunion was meant for anyone that either went there as a student or taught there as a teacher. I went down there that night and the line was out the door, down Meacham Street all the way to Ash Ave. Sadly, I could not wait in line that night and I always regretted that.

The old Healey building was built in a time when school design lost its charm and architectural beauty. When schools like the Glines or the Hodgkins were knocked down, they were stunning and beautiful buildings. Looking back at pictures of them, you have to ask yourself “What were they thinking, knocking down such an awesome looking building?” The old Healey School looked like a school, pretty plain Jane and vanilla. When it was knocked down, only the memories that were created inside the building or outside in the schoolyard were missed and not the building itself.