Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

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

There used to be three junior high schools in Somerville for grades 7,8 and 9. The Western Junior High School on Holland Street near Teele Square, The Northeastern Junior High School on Marshall Street near the High School, and The Southern Junior High School on Summer Street near Union Square. My mother graduated from the Southern in 1941 and I was a substitute teacher there in the 1980’s. It’s now basically a dog park and a pretty nice field.

I went to the Western but I had a lot of friends and cousins at the Southern. When The Western Junior High School burned down in 1968, Western students had to attend half-day sessions at the Southern. Some of my Western Junior friends recall being able to sleep late and have a nice breakfast because they had the afternoon classes at the Southern. As you can see in the photo, the Southern was a beautiful building.

One time, Principal Walsh kept the corridors in order and made sure all the students stayed “on the right” side. Hall monitors were known as “marshalls” and wore armbands with a red letter “M.” Former students seem to agree that the lunch ladies at the Southern were extremely nice. However, this one teacher who shall remain nameless was remembered like this: “He was a character from swatting kids with his whiffle ball bat, to throwing chalk or an eraser, if you weren’t paying attention, to collecting a penny, if you were chewing gum (and doubling the price every day that you didn’t pay), to having you write a page of dictionary if you were acting up in his class.” Sounds like a nice guy! Boy, times have changed, haven’t they? Kids came to the Southern from The Carr and Morse elementary schools, among others.

Some of the teachers at the Southern Junior High School were Mrs. Mosley, Mr.Izzo, Mr. Silk, Mrs. Greeley, Mr. Walsh, Mrs. Bingham. Mr. Piro, Mr. Mitchell, Mrs. Cambpell, Mr. Diehl, Miss Gufsterson, Miss Catnazarno (spelling?) Mr. Galligani, Mr. Driscoll, Mr. Fedele, Miss Collins, Mr. Carroll, Mr. Roberts, Mr. McDonald, Mr. Madden, Mrs. Guftsuson, Miss Davis, Mr. Palumbo, Mr. Radochia, Mr. Ozzie, Miss Murphy, and my old pal Ken Lonergan, who also did his student teaching there while he was at Boston College.

The schoolyard was a great place for playing stick ball because, as Phil recalls, “Before the school succumbed to the wrecking ball someone got op on the roof and saw thousands of rubber balls trapped for the ages.” Well, trapped until the grand old building was demolished.

They made a big deal out of graduating from junior high school back then. We had dances, and class photos and we all dressed up and felt pretty special. I believe the last class that graduated from the Southern Junior High School was the class of ’87. Today, The Western Junior High School building is the only junior high school still standing. I actually get to work there at The Council on Aging once a week.

The Northeastern, and Southern may be gone physically, but hundreds of Somerville “kids” will always have fond memories of their junior high school days. Some of us still have our class photos and beanies! Mary M actually has two bricks from her beloved Southern Junior high school.