Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Every time I drive by Somerville High School my memory starts going wild. The term “old school” takes on a new meaning now that the “old school” is mostly gone. I can’t help but think about my days at Somerville High in the hectic late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s.

I still get a little anxious and stressful at this time of year when the kids are on the home stretch of summer vacation. I still hate seeing school clothes ads and back to school sales.

Most of my Somerville High memories are set in the auditorium doing music or sitting in my building master’s office doing time. I was always in trouble. So the part of the old school that they kept is my favorite part.

It was Christmas time around 1970 and the Boys Glee Club was all dressed up, on stage, on risers, with the curtains closed. Mr. Andy Smith, the director was a very serious and passionate guy. He didn’t put up with any baloney.

Now you have to remember that the Boys Glee club was made up of a few kids serious about singing, and the rest were just looking for an easy period or needed the few credits. I don’t like to name names here but the roster included some of the most colorful people ever to have come out of that high school. Football stars, wise guys and just fun people.

So Mr. Smith is on stage introducing the Glee Club to a packed house in the Somerville High School auditorium. We were still behind the closed curtain. All of a sudden we broke into the popular Schaefer Beer jingle really loudly. “Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one!” The audience began to laugh hysterically until Mr. Smith barged in behind the still closed curtains and ripped us all new ones. I’ve never seen a teacher get so upset and furious. His face was beet red and I swear smoke was coming out of his ears. We did a lot of detention for that stunt but it was worth it. Mr. Smith was a great guy who for some reason or another left Somerville and finished his remarkable career in Arlington.

Somerville High School had a Ski Club, but hippies like me and my friends thought it wasn’t cool. But it was cool enough for two of my long haired spaced out friends and me, another guy and a young lady, to sneak on the bus heading up to a ski trip in North Conway, NH.

We had two duffel bags each filled with two six packs of 16 oz. Budweiser cans, two bottles of Ripple, chips and Cheez-it’s. We were hidden all the way at the end of the bus, but were caught by the advisor and kicked off the bus.

We immediately headed to 93 North and started hitchhiking. We got a few rides but one in particular took us into a pizza joint and treated us. We got back on the highway and stuck our thumbs out. We made it to the designated ski lodge in NH, got a room for the night, and went outside and sat on the steps to have a Bud and a smoke.

About 45 minutes later the bus carrying the Somerville High ski club pulled up. We greeted them with waves and loud laughter. We beat the bus even though we “thumbed” and stopped for pizza! Sweet! The look on the advisor’s face who tossed us off the bus was pretty much the same look that Mr. Smith the Glee Club director had! Flabbergasted!

These are two more tales of a time gone by. A time when Somerville High School had a smoking area, we wore bellbottom pants, protested against the Vietnam War and enjoyed six channels on TV. We had big hair, big dreams and big fun.

Good luck goes out to the returning Somerville High students. I hope you have as much fun as we did. Soon you’ll have a nice new state of the art building for you to create lasting memories. Enjoy!