On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(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.)

Hooray, it’s the Christmas Season! Remember when you could do all your Christmas shopping in Davis Square? Go to Gorin’s for a nice sweater for mom, then pop over to Mickey Finn’s for a smart shirt for dad РI always made sure it was one that I liked because I always ended up borrowing his clothes. One year I bought one of those loud print two-toned jobs for him because I knew he wouldn’t wear it and he’d give it to me. But guess what? He loved it! I picked up gift boxes at Marks or Sparks or whatever the heck it was Рmaybe it was both Рmy memory fails me about the details sometimes.

Whenever I did my Christmas shopping in Davis Square, I always remembered to stop into the Smoke Shop to get myself a comic book, as my pal Paul Boyle also used to do ‚Äì that was before they started costing $3.99 each. And decisions, decisions…Woolworths or Grants? Where is the scotch tape the cheapest?

I always ended up getting the cheap tape that was like five rolls for a buck – but that tape stunk. It was too thin and I always lost the end of it and freaked out trying to get it to work. I would end up cutting myself with the scissors trying to get the roll going. Then I would always have to run down the square to Fields Stationary and pay top dollar for Scotch Brand tape – which I should have got in the first place.

I don’t remember if they had gift certificates back then, but if they did I would have gotten some for the Ming Toy Chinese restaurant. Speaking of Ming Toy’s, I don’t know if this is truth or myth Рbut legend has it that during one holiday season, when someone tried to chew and skidoo, bullets flew after the car as it sped out of the parking lot. And I remember one particular night after doing some late night Christmas shopping in town – it was pretty late so we decided to grab a bite at Kay and Chips. They had some awesome food, but the late night attracted some unsavory after hours bar people (I was one myself at times). To make a long story longer, some guy was in there threatening people with a cane and it wasn’t a candy cane. So along with the red and green Christmas lights, there were some added flashing blue lights. There was always some holiday excitement in Davis Square.

One of my best memories that lasted all year was when my mother took us to see The Sound Of Music at The Somerville Theatre Рit was 1965 and I remember the song “ My Favorite Things” Рyou know… “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…these are a few of my favorite things…”. That song went on to become a Christmas classic. Well, I had my own words for that song that went something like this – “two bowling alleys, the freight train through Davis, Good ol’ Gene Brune is the mayor who’ll save us…Braciole from McKinnon’s Mom tied up with string, shopping at Davis is my favorite thing”…or something like that.

This year I am going to try to get a gift certificate from Mr. Crepe because my son loves their food РI just have to be careful not to get run over by one of those joggers who insist on running on the sidewalk when I go down the Square to get it (by the way I’d like to point out that not everyone can get away with wearing spandex!).

And these days when I go to Davis to pick up some gifts, I’ll miss seeing Bob Publicover sitting in LaContessa’s – but you know what? We still got one heck of a Square with a lot of great people. So let’s all keep the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts as we do our holiday shopping. The true meaning? Don’t be cheap; buy the good tape the first time around and don’t forget to smile because someone has it worse off than you. Like the guy who got his taillights shot out for not paying at Ming Toy (if that was true).

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