Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

My cousin, my son and myself were going through some of our parents, grandparents (and my son’s great grandparents’) belongings in the house that my Grandpa bought in 1918, off of Holland Street near Teele Square. My cousins’ mother (my aunt) and my dad were brother and sister and were both born in the house.

We were putting some items that my son was taking into a trash bag. All of a sudden, a strong scent of mint filled the room. I immediately said, “I smell Bengay.” My cousin said, “Oh my God! Grandma used Bengay pain cream all the time, and that’s what she smelled like. Plus, she used to sit right here by the window!”

Grandma lived in that house across from the Western Junior High School, until she passed away in 1975. My son, my cousin and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes! We were in the midst of a spiritual happening! A visit from Grandma! It was quite an experience! We really felt like we were being visited by the spirit of Grandma Del Ponte. It was a beautiful thing. We were awestruck.

On the ride home, my son and I talked about the great grandmother who he never met. We both agreed that our recent psychic visit was probably as close as he would ever get to meeting Grandma Concetta. We concluded that all three of us were chosen to receive a very special spiritual visit.

We arrived at home and took some of the items from grandma’s house out of the plastic bag. We looked at each other with surprise and a little fright! While we were removing the things from the plastic bag, we both smelled …. Grandma again! Wow! Grandma’s spirit came from her house over to our house along with the items from her house! It made sense because we had things from her house in the bag, plus my father, who was born in Grandma’s house, lived in our house until he passed. It was all falling into place!

It was at this point that I put two and two together.

For some reason I took a sniff of the plastic bag. It was …. minty! It turned out that it was a special critter repellent bag to ward off rodents! The smell at grandma’s house was not the Bengay she used daily. It was simply a mint scented trash bag. (Mint-X and TomCat are two brands of these bags.) What a bummer.

There was no spiritual happening at grandma’s house that day. But it was pretty exciting until “the rat was out of the bag!”

Speaking of vermin, The Globe on this past Monday ran a story about the critical increase of rats in Boston. A Somerville friend of mine who lives near the railroad tracks actually shoots at rats in back of his house. File under “fun in your yard!” “Those Miserable Meeces!”

Here is an excerpt from the Globe story: “To be sure, Boston remains a rat capital; in one review of 2015 census data, the city ranked as the second most rat- and mouse-infested city in the United States.”

Somerville has its share of rats too, so let’s be vigilant. Go to YouTube and search for the award winning informational video Somerville Rodent Task Force – Tips for Rodent Prevention.

In the meantime, you can help by lining your trash cans with anti-rodent scented trash bags. And at Grandma’s house we will leave the Bengay in the medicine chest, in case she decides to visit and needs it.