Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

This story is not funny, light hearted or whimsical. Sorry. It’s one account of a dark time in our city’s history that affected me and a lot of my friends profoundly.

Not all memories of growing up in Somerville are sunshine and lollipops. It’s easy for us to grumble about traffic, taxes, bike lanes and potholes and reminisce about how great the old days were. Well, I was there and we had our problems just like any growing city in the late 60’s and 70’s. As a matter of fact, at one time you couldn’t walk through Powder House Park day or night, top or bottom, without the threat of real danger. People feared for their safety. That’s where some of the toughest and meanest kids hung around.

It was truly a gang with all the bad things that go along with it. They wore fancy winter baseball jackets that were blue with white leather sleeves. On the back, “Somerville” was embroidered. On the front was an emblem of the old Powder House, and I believe the kids’ name was stitched on one of the sleeves. They also had blue and red summer windbreakers similarly monogrammed.

My friends and basically everyone who wasn’t accepted by them were afraid of the kids up the park. Some of them would pick fights with weaker kids for no reason. It happened a lot. Some were drunken and drugged up bullies.

Along with the booze, they were taking LSD, mescaline, a variety of barbiturates and they were drinking cough medicine. It was a deadly combination. Romilar was the most popular cough medicine. It came in two sizes that they nicknamed “biggies” and “smallies.” On any given day the top of Powder House Park was littered with lots of empty Romilar boxes and bottles along with the many empty beer bottles and cans.

The bottom of the park was still relatively safe during the day. Shops like Bella Meo Sub Shop, Loud’s Candy Shop and Goodell’s Drug Store we’re prospering although the drug store was constantly running low on cough medicine.

One of the more colorful characters was a heavy set fella. He was a sweet former St. Clement’s kid with a high capacity for drug and alcohol consumption. He had a talent of being able to recite all the drugs, booze and cough syrup he had consumed that day. Someone would say, “What did you do tonight?” He would slur, “Ten beers, vodka, mescaline, orange double barrel sunshine (LSD), two biggies and three smallies.” I didn’t know how he could still function at all. He was a gentle soul that didn’t participate in the random beat downs of the weaker and innocent kids. Sadly, he died on a barstool at a local barroom a few years after the reign of terror had ended.

We had a city run teen center that a local social worker got funds for. I remember him excitedly saying, “We got the money!” He set it up for us, on the top floor of the library on College Ave. around 1972.

My band Shadowfax was playing on a Friday night. The place was packed but I don’t recall any cops being there until the “you know what” hit the fan. Some of the drunken park bullies decided to beat the ever loving crap out of one of my fellow musician friends who came to see us. He was on the ground being kicked in the body and head by four Powder House kids. He was unconscious but still continued to be beaten relentlessly. I saw it but was helpless because I would have been next.

Finally, the police and ambulance arrived. He suffered severe head trauma, many lacerations, lost some teeth, and when he finally recovered there was a huge trial against some of the perpetrators. Some kids had to testify against the scary ring leader. It scarred my friend for life.

Years after that incident I was walking home with a friend and he wouldn’t walk by a certain house and wanted to go way out of our way. I asked him why, and he told me that he was afraid to go by the guy’s house who he testified against. I informed him that he had passed away years before. He was scared out of his mind needlessly for all that time. We all prayed for him and his family.

All four of the beaters unfortunately died from drugs or violence within a short span. It was a terrifying experience. I still get chills when I pass the library. Eventually, they cut back all the bushes, trees and shrubbery around the Powder House tower to try to discourage groups of rowdy teens and take away hiding places.

The 70’s in Somerville saw a lot of my young friends meet violent and unnecessary deaths due to drugs, alcohol and criminals. The stories that will never appear in this column are the most horrifying.

Happy to say that many of the less violent members of that gang of wild men went on to live very productive, family oriented lives. Sadly, many others never saw their 20’s, or 30’s.

God bless the victims and their families. We lost many friends while Somerville was growing. I’m sure some of you reading this have your own horror stories and sad memories that pepper the happy times we had in our youth.