Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Disclaimer: in no way does the following story endorse, recommend or approve of going near any railroad tracks. It is extremely dangerous.

We had a lot of fun growing up in Somerville during the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s etc. Sometimes we refer to that time as “the good old days.”

Sometimes we say, “back in the day.” We may even say, “way back when.” Lately, I find myself saying, “seems like yesterday.” All these phrases run through my mind when I write these stories of the Somerville I grew up in. “Remember when…” is a good one too.

I loved most of my experiences being raised here and I try to share the memories that I think may be entertaining. If nothing else, my little stories will be saved in The Somerville Times archives so my grandkids can read about the fun their crazy grandfather had growing up. They will also learn that their grandpa used poor sentence structure, run on sentences, and too much punctuation!!

Here’s another page out of Somerville’s past that I feel should be chronicled. Just a little tale about a fun summer pastime activity we enjoyed before cell phones, laptops and Netflix.

Somerville has a wide array of wildlife within its boundaries. We have many varieties of birds, wild turkeys, squirrels, and lots of bunnies. There’s even a family of coyotes living under a porch behind my house on the next street over, which has us very nervous. When we were kids there were lots of baby frogs in our neighborhoods. Yes, baby frogs.

When I first asked my friends to share their memories about catching pollywogs in what I like to call Yester Ville, some were baffled. It seems most called the baby frogs tadpoles but my Davis Square area crew always called them pollywogs. They use to be abundant in the puddles that formed along the B&M railroad tracks. The stretch of track that we hunted the squirmy little creatures at was between Davis Square and Willow Ave.

We would go down the tracks with a bucket and come home with a bunch of pollywogs. I have to mention that we would also chomp on stalks of wild rhubarb that grew free down there. I realize that hanging around the railroad tracks was very dangerous and we were very careful. On that stretch there were usually only freight trains that used the tracks and we could hear them coming with plenty of time to get to safety.

Here are some stories that friends shared about their pollywog hunting days.

“We used to catch them in the puddle that formed on the tracks next to the White Banner laundry (Cedar St. area) we even called it pollywog ponds.”

“We caught ours on the tracks between Davis Sq. and Cedar St. All along the side of the tracks in those huge puddles. Good memories.”

“The trick was if you found and old board or cardboard, flip it and you were almost guaranteed to find a snake.” (yes, snakes also.)

“We caught a lot of grasshoppers by the train tracks by my house. Grass snakes made you jump when you saw one … you would run away … then be back the next day.”

“I brought home a bunch of pollywogs from the puddles down by the tracks (now bike path) and filled the tub for them to live in. My mother was not happy!”

Speaking of animals in the old days, when my cousin was about seven she went a step further and “borrowed” a baby turtle from Woolworths in Davis Square. It was kind of like entrapment for an animal loving kid because the pet section was right next to the rear exit.

Has anyone else noticed that there seems to be hardly any more pigeons around? Remember when flocks of cooing and flapping pigeons used to be inside the old Sullivan Square station? Thankfully, there are still lots of robins and cardinals around. But I haven’t seen a wild Somerville pollywog in years.