Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

I know my English Composition, sentence structure punctuation, phrasing and spacing in these stories aren’t grammatically correct. They are horrendous. But it’s not the fault of the great Somerville and parochial school teachers I’ve had. They tried, but I never paid attention. Nevertheless 13 years of schooling produced many teachers and a lot of them have remained in the area.

For years after I graduated from Somerville High School in 1971, I’d occasionally bump into a former teacher. One of these past educators was a bartender in a restaurant on Mass Ave. near Harvard Square.

A few years after graduation my friends and I would go down there and have a few beers and reminisce with him. It was cool actually seeing a teacher in a different setting than in the classroom. He was acting like a regular person. We found out that teachers were human.

After college, I got to hobnob with some of my past teachers when I returned as a substitute teacher. I did that for few years at all three junior high schools, Somerville High and Somerville Trade.

Then as time went on I’d occasionally see a former teacher at City Hall or at a Somerville High School event or perhaps at a bar on Somerville Ave. Luckily, a lot of our former teachers are still around. It’s always been fun to see a teacher we had in school, way back when. Except for … never mind!

About ten years ago, I had the honor and pleasure of providing music for my Kindergarten teacher from The Brown School, Mrs Chiulli’s 100th Birthday celebration. A memory of a lifetime.

This past couple of months proved to be quite the stroll down memory lane. (The brain thing not The old Somerville restaurant by the same name.)

Last month, while doing a Christmas show at the Framingham facility for retired Sisters of St. Joseph, I visited with one of my former teachers.

When I arrived at the place and inquired about my old teachers, I ran down a list of as many St. Clements’ nuns’ names as I could recall. Finally, they said, “Yes, she’s here!” Sister Gervasi!

Sister had watched my show on closed circuit TV that each room has. She’s usually quite mobile but decided to stay in her room to watch my little concert. They took me up to visit her after I was finished performing. She had a cheery room with a pleasant view from a sunny window and a sweet smile.

She remembered my brother and sister and me. She mentioned other former students who still visit her. She was sharp as a tack. She remembered so much about the time we shared at St. Clements, over 60 years ago. She was 97 years young. What an unexpected jolt of reminiscence. I felt like I had an Epiphany. Having a special visit like that especially at Christmas time was heartwarming.

Last week, I was having lunch with my cousin Carol who was one year behind me at The Western Junior High School on Holland St., the only junior high school building in Somerville that’s still standing, and serving other purposes. Carols’ mom, all her sisters (my aunts), her two brothers (my uncle and my dad) and all my cousins went to The Western. They lived on the streets directly across from the school!

Last week, Carol and I were in a local Cambridge restaurant when some familiar looking people started filling the tables across from out booth. The first friendly face we recognized was my former French teacher from The Western Junior High School. I’d seen her now and then in my travels during my nine years with the city.

In 1968, when I was in the ninth grade, our pretty young French teacher drove a shiny blue Ford Mustang with a white convertible top. Needless to say all the boys were in absolute awe. Gorgeous teacher, gorgeous sports car, yikes! Everyone remembered the teacher and the car.

She was very fair and everyone liked her. I still remember some of the words I learned in her French class like, French fries, soufflé, oui, oui, and ooh la la, among others.

So we said hello and then I looked next to her and there was another former Western teacher! And then another! They were having a mini WJHS teachers’ reunion. I guess it was only fitting that a couple of former WJHS students were in house.

We were pretty blown away to see some of our former teachers from so many years ago. The most astounding thing we brought away from the pleasant chit chat session was how wonderful and young all the teachers looked. It was uncanny. How could they still look so great?

My cousin and I figured it out, I think. Most of our teachers were fresh out of college, which put them at about 22 or so when they started teaching. So they weren’t that much older than we were, even though it seemed so at the time. Then as more years go by, the already narrow gap decreases and suddenly we are all in our 60’s and 70’s. And now, former students and those young teachers we had are both enjoying grandkids, pensions and hopefully very healthy retirement.

It was nice talking from across the aisle. I truly felt blessed to see so many familiar and friendly faces from yesteryear. I don’t think any of us really changed that much. We certainly kept that special Somerville connection that never goes away.

Seeing Sister Gervasi in Framingham and the teachers from The Western stirred up a lot of memories of a time gone by. But it didn’t seem that long ago after we took that pleasant little unexpected trot down memory lane, my favorite street.

One more thing, we noticed that when the former Western Junior High School teachers first came into the restaurant, they walked single file on the right side. It was just like Principal Horne and Vice Principal Mackey were saying that famous WSNS phrase, “Line over there, line over there!”