(This article first appeared in the January 29, 2013 edition of The Somerville Times)

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Growing up and living in Somerville has been a blast. There was always something to do and always someplace fun to go close to home. We could walk or ride our bikes to a number of exciting destinations.

Last week I wrote about The Bingham School that used to be on Lowell Street. Well, this week we revisit Lowell Street to reminisce about The Hostess Bakery that was located at number 259.  You read it correctly! They actually used to make Twinkies, Sno-Balls, cupcakes and Wonder Bread in Somerville! Now tell me growing up in Somerville wasn’t the best!

We could walk to what they called the thrift store, attached to the factory, and buy all the snacks we could carry. Until the 1970’s The Hostess Bakery Company occupied the 51,500 square foot building at 259 Lowell Street. I have chronicled statements from people who were there, including me.

My first hand memory of this magical factory being in our area was that my friend’s father worked there. I remember the trunk of his car occasionally containing a variety of Hostess treats. Sort of like junk (food) in the trunk. The Twinkie as we know it may be gone (for now) but these delicious memories will last forever.

“My parents drove there every other Saturday (from Burlington) to stock up,” says a friend of mine. A Somerville kid recalls, “Some of the workers would give us damaged packages from the loading dock while friends that had money were inside buying day old stuff…Sometimes it tasted week old.” (Twinkies didn’t fall into that category because Twinkies were forever!)

Another seasoned ‘Villen shares this: “My mother would give me a quarter…yes, a whole 25 cents…and I could practically fill up my bike basket with Hostess Cupcakes, Twinkies, and Snowballs from the day-old store that was out in front of the factory on Lowell Street. I also toured the factory with my Girl Scout troop and saw how everything was made. My favorite memory was seeing how they put that white frosting squiggle on top of the chocolate cupcakes. Must’ve been early 1960’s.”

KC says, “Ah, the memories. Such a glorious factory right smack dab in the middle of our neighborhood. I’ll never forget its delicious ways, and the creamy filling – LOL.”

CV remembers buying a package of Sno-Balls for a nickel! “My grandmother lived on Alpine Street and we’d walk up the street to Lowell St. and get a treat! If you walked in the other direction to Cedar, you could get a treat at Dairy Queen!” How great was that for a kid? Twinkies one-way and ice cream the other.

JBF tells us that, “The workers would sometimes throw us packages of cupcakes from the window.”

Cuz tells us, “The workers used to leave racks of Sno-Balls near the dock to cool.”  And I know this is hard for some of you to believe, but some kids actually would “borrow” the Sno-Balls off the cooling rack. We would have Sno-Ball fights in July.”

What a great time to be growing up in Somerville. The Somerville Visiting Nurses facility now stands on the site of the old Hostess bakery. We had The Apollo Cake Bakery in East Somerville (see The Somerville Times, On The Silly Side, November 9, 2011) and The Hostess Bakery in West Somerville.

You thought that Somerville was cool with trendy bars that boasts of 250 different ales and brews, and fancy shmancey cupcake stores, and burrito joints? Well, nothing comes close to having the Twinkie factory in your own back yard!