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Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

It seems like only yesterday me and my pal Charlie were pulling wheels off of a shopping cart that we found in the alley of Stop ‘N Shop in Davis Square to build a go-cart or, as we called it, a buggy. Now Charlie is in Florida tooling around in a golf cart and I’m still driving kids to school.

We were best friends then and still are. We both decided to leave St. Clements School after the 8th grade. We went to The Western Junior High for the 9th grade and then onto Somerville High School where we graduated with the class of 1971.
Charlie and I also started many bands together. The first one was The Mini-Squirts when we were around 12, and the last one was The Tools. His sister Kathy always said that we were very lucky because we had such fun filled and exciting childhoods, and we did.

Yes, it seems like yesterday that we were mischievous and adventurous 12-year-olds growing up in Somerville. Fast forward almost 50 years. Charlie just bought a house in Florida and retired. On the day before the moving truck was to arrive, I went over to his house on North Street to say goodbye. Even though we knew we would see each other in the near future it was still a bittersweet farewell between two best buddies.

We reminisced about the old days. We really had a lot in common over the years, both happy and sad. We had both lost younger brothers at an early age and that just gave us another type of bond. We worked at a couple of the same jobs too, starting with The Dodge’em Cars at Revere Beach.

Then, later on, Charlie was the assistant parts manager at a foreign auto dealership in Watertown and got me the job as the parts delivery guy. I worked at it for about a year and Charlie even helped me buy a junk car and completely overhaul it to like new condition.

I was so grateful to him for getting me the job and helping me with the car that I called him up early one Monday morning in January with some news. I said, “I’m sorry Charlie but I have decided to quit and drive to Florida with my friend Jay.” Needless to say he was a bit mad. I was quitting the job he got me, to take off to Florida in the car he helped me restore. Some best friend! But Charlie got over it and even did me the honor of becoming my oldest son’s Godfather. We had many other good times since my Florida excursion back in 1979.

Charlie stayed single, bought a two family house and kept working and obviously saving money. He often spoke about retiring and moving to Florida some day and someday came last month. It’s funny how two kids from Somerville who started out doing the same things at the same time ended up with such different lives.

I actually moved to Florida in 1986 and lived there for a year. Charlie came to visit me for a few days so I am someday hopefully going to visit him in Florida too, so he can return the favor!
But it may be a while because as Charlie is tooling around Florida on his Harley in the sunshine, I will be dropping my youngest son of at high school and shoveling snow. As he is teeing off on the golf course that his condo complex is on, I will be getting teed off as I open more college bills!

But the happy ending is that we are still both healthy and we will always have tons of great memories of growing up in the 60s and 70s in Somerville.