Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

In my travels, it always seems I bumped into somebody from Somerville. I’m sure we all see somebody we know in popular places like Old Orchard Beach, Nahant beach, and especially York Beach, Maine. Somerville people are everywhere! But when you run into somebody from Somerville in Aruba, we’ll that’s really something.

Back around 1992 I was on vacation in Aruba with a girlfriend and we went into a restaurant and bumped into my aunt and three cousins. We were all extremely surprised to see each other in such a faraway place.

Also, in the 90s I was in Disney World in Florida when I bumped into a former neighbor. He was with his new girlfriend and asked me not to tell his young sons that I saw him. Nice guy.

Back around 1986 I had moved to Florida and joined a band. The manager of the band owned an exclusive catering company that had lots of high-end rock bands for clients. He used to hire the guys in the band to help out serving and preparing the meals for the rock stars.

On one occasion we went to Lakeland Florida to cater an Aerosmith concert and I met one of my best friends from my own street there. He was Aerosmith’s drum technician, and we were able to spend about an hour just chitchatting and catching up. And the funny thing is that neither of us knew the other one was going to be there. That’s about my best Somerville connection story.

After living in a city for almost 68 years you’re bound to see a familiar face in your travels. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a former classmate from the Weston Junior High School in line at CVS or a friend from high school at Dunkin’ Donuts. My kids are always amazed when we ran into somebody I knew. They would say things like, “Daddy, you know everybody!”

Occasionally, it came in handy even running into police officers in the city that I went to school with.

In a city like Somerville, where we all grew up so close to our friends, it’s nice to expect to see a familiar face basically anywhere you go. Unfortunately, you may see a face you don’t like too once in a while!