MEMOIRS OF SCHOOL STREET VILLAGE

Thanks so much for the great response to this blog!
A special thank you to those who have passed it on to others. We are heading quickly to amazing page visits to this blog! Welcome to folks from all over the country and other countries as well, including Lisbon!!

The "Village", as it was called, is located in the northwest corner of the city of Taunton, Massachusetts U.S.A. It covers about 1 square mile with the center being School Street. A large portion of the Village population was Portuguese when I was growing up.

This blog covers a lot of the history of the Village, much to do with my years as a child there: 1940 through the late 1950's. I do have many wonderful photos and information prior to that that and will share those as well. Always looking for MORE PHOTOS AND MORE STORIES TO TELL.

If you would like to send photos or share a memory of growing up in the Village
e-mail me at spinoart@comcast.net
feel free to comment on the posts. Directions are on the right side of the blog posts. Jump in, the water is fine and it is easy!!!


I will be posting photographs but not identifying individuals unless I have permission or they are a matter of public record. It you wish to give me permission, please let me know.

I am looking for any and all photos of the Village...

Please note: the way blogs work is that the latest post is first. It you would like to start from the beginning of the blog, check out the post labels on the right of the blog and go from there. Thanks.


Thursday, September 5, 2013

The Nose Knows and Nostalgia

This is a personal post a bit aside from our usual research.  I elected to do it since I have just returned from a trip to The Village.  A bit of a pilgrimage I should say.  

On a whirlwind trip to see family in Taunton, one morning we had a free moment and started the drive down at the end of School Street where it meets St. Joseph's Cemetery. The narrator, myself of course, started even before the cemetery.  Isn't that where they raised greyhounds? Was there a pig farm around there as well?

On to the house where my parents lived on School Street when I was born. On and on the Village mantra continued. Just when we crossed Braga Square I noticed that the School Street Bakery was open. We stopped the car on a dime.

As soon as I walked in....BAM, as Emeril would say, the aroma stopped me in my tracks.  IT WAS EXACTLY the same as when I was a child!!!  It looked the same, the little bell rang above the door (or did it, Was it from my memory?)  When the lovely lady came out from the back (as they always did), I told her what the warm aroma was doing for me, and she smiled knowingly.

Off to have breakfast with two childhood friends, I purchased some turnovers and left.  The experience stayed with me all day long.

Driving the Village, I was saddened to see homes not in the best of shape.  Homes where I had known the families who had lived there in my time, and kept them immaculate.  But, now and then, a house shone with loving care.  Sometimes those houses were still in the families I
had known growing up: that felt good.

.....

Time passes and as Thomas Wolfe said, you cannot go home again.  But, Thomas, sometimes a wonderful aroma comes to you....the nose knows, in your mind and with
the memory of your heart, you really can.


Thank you, School Street Bakery, for still being there.....


photo below mid  School Street in the 40's 

Three of us that gathered last week, and one that is always in our hearts
photo 184 School St. back yard.
Graduation from Cohannet School in the 50's.







2 comments:

  1. i lived across the street from tony and his greyhounds rember them well my mother now lives in her childhoud home on winter street

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jerry. It is so good to still have ties to the Village, wish I did!

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