On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

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Today our kids have computers, games galore, text messaging and the excitement of The New England Patriots to keep them occupied. When I was a kid, there was no “New England Patriots” Рthe team was known as the “Boston Patriots.”

I really didn’t follow football back then and neither did my dad, except for the fact that there were a couple of Italian players that we liked, such as Babe Parilli and Gino Cappelletti. One year Coca-Cola had an offer – the caps from 12 ounce bottles had images of different Patriots players on the inside – you would pick up a big ‚Äúgame board‚Äù from a store (I got mine from Oscar’s Variety on Liberty and Appleton) and glue the caps on the board. They never stuck on correctly and used to fall off, which was pain in the neck. When you collected the entire team, you would trade it in for a brand new football!
I got three footballs because we devised a sly method to retrieve bottle caps – my friends and I got magnets and tied a piece of string to them – we then went around to all the gas stations and stuck the magnets into the cap receptacles and pulled them out. Fred Hubbard’s Gas Station was a gold mine, although I’m not sure Fred owned it back then.

I remember trading them with my friends: ‚ÄúI’ll give you two Nick Bounicontis for a Houston Antwine!‚Äù The hunt for Patriot bottle caps consumed us for a few exciting weeks – I remember going into Mitchells in Ball Square and sticking my magnet on the string into the Coke machine cap catcher. Remember the guys who ran that store? They were brothers and I could never tell them apart – they were nice guys, but they never took an eye off of you – sometimes they let me check for bottle caps, other times I sneaked them. I still can’t get use to seeing that beauty shop on the corner where Mitchell’s was for so many years – I do however wish them luck in their business!

Another activity that kept us busy for weeks was building ”buggies” and go-carts. Remember when Stop and Shop was in Davis Square? There was an alley next to the store that always had some shopping carts sitting there. We used to take the carts home, remove the wheels and build “go-carts.” You had to be very careful though Рthere was that guy in the beat-up station wagon that drove around collecting stray shopping carts. He was the “shopping cart cop.” The rear wheels were the ones we needed Рthey were bigger than the front wheels. We would build these buggies and go-carts and bring them up Powder House Park and have a blast bombing down the paths.

In the summer, we had the great pollywog hunt. On the sides of the railroad tracks (with parental guidance of course) between Cedar Street and Davis Square, were huge puddles filled with tadpoles or pollywogs as we called them. I remember taking a bucket full home, but I can’t remember if any actually grew into frogs. Speaking of the tracks, was I the only one who actually ate the rhubarb that grew down there? When I tell my kids that huge freight trains used to chug along the bike path, they think it’s cool – and it was cool.

There was always a bunch of neighborhood kids outside playing relieve-e-o or buck buck. We stayed out until the streetlights came on or until we heard Dad’s whistle.

With the MCAS testing and the rigorous school schedule the kids have, I am a firm believer in letting them enjoy their off time any way they like (within the boundaries of the law and good taste of course) – I have to monitor and limit the on-line time, but for the most part, they deserve a break (providing the home-work is done).

I loved all the adventures and activities that kept me busy as a kid – we always had something fun to do. We were usually always outside too – until that fateful day in the 70’s when we hooked an Atari up to the TV set – that was the beginning of the end. Who knew what was in store for children (and adults) everywhere from that one little box?

I’ll always have great memories of football bottle caps, pollywogs and go-carts. I’m sure our kids will have great memories too – hopefully not only of cell phones, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and beating level 10 on Zelda.

You can email Jimmy with comments directly at jimmydel@rcn.com