tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post5113105834774594301..comments2024-03-29T07:33:15.505-04:00Comments on Hell's Acres: Spitting to All Fields, Part 1Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-77628802423749606012017-05-21T13:21:38.251-04:002017-05-21T13:21:38.251-04:00Hi J.T.
Thanks for the comment. You must have kno...Hi J.T.<br /><br />Thanks for the comment. You must have known the Bridle Path Gang. Who were some of the members? I can only assume as years went by and the pharmacy was no more the Bridle Path Gang sort of morphed into the Treetops: Matt Wholley, Jamie Gauthier, Brian Rooney. I'm blanking on other Treetops names.<br /><br />According to Coleman's book, the guys from the Bridle Path Gang got jumped one night by the Circle Gang, but who knows? Coleman sometimes changed the incidents a bit in the book to avoid people being identified.<br /><br />There was another gang behind the Eastfield Mall as well. And another at McDonald's on Boston Road. Do you remember them?<br /><br />My last couple of posts have been on the Daniel Croteau murder. He used to wrestle at Coleman's house on Tuesdays. Do you remember him wrestling there at all? I think guys from the Circle Gang used to wrestle there also. <br /><br />Yes, I'm aware of some rumors about Coleman "liking wrestling a bit too much." I always attributed them to possibly some members of the Circle Gang who might have made them up because a handful of them were pissed off about the book. You might have heard some things as well over the years.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-49517783861706807672017-05-21T00:55:16.256-04:002017-05-21T00:55:16.256-04:00I lived on Bridle path in the 60s in the first hou...I lived on Bridle path in the 60s in the first house behind Bridle path pharmacy,I remember riding horses where McDonalds and Wendy's areally now located and all the different shop which were located in the Gaslight parking lot,i do not know what else to call it,there was Armadas grocery store,and I do not recall the rest save for the LIGHT,I enjoyed you picture of the red bridge on Bradley rd..I spent many summer days fishing from the golf course to watershops,as a matter of fact,while attending Talmadge elementary school,we had to do a project in regards to a book we had choosen to read mine was Huckleberry Finn of course and the project I choose was to cook trout caught from southbranch for my classmates,as far as I was concerned it was a hit,though to my dismay there were suddenly tons of kids fishing my stream ,so I moved on and started riding my bike to scandic rivir..I would have to say most all of my friends came from this side of Harkness to the inner nieghborhoods of the Acres, as well as having spent time wrestling in professor Colemans basement, a good man who i.admired though I've heard others have regarded him as something less than a mentor,I myself never experienced anything unusual while wrestling in hiedi basement along with many great friendsAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07918174557280709127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-82169386581421812592013-12-31T21:18:30.483-05:002013-12-31T21:18:30.483-05:00That Gateway access road is so overgrown now. Ther...That Gateway access road is so overgrown now. There was a time when a side path off the road followed the stream all the way to Breckwood Blvd. I tried hiking it around 7 years ago, and there are remnants of the original path, but not much.<br /><br />That access road did look scary at night. One night we left our car at The Gully at Fairlawn and went to Mory's (Chimes) with a friend from out of town and on the way back we cut thru Gateway and he balked at the path to sunrise lol. It looked freaky. We told him to be a man!Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-67629368605643885332013-12-31T16:59:36.947-05:002013-12-31T16:59:36.947-05:00Too bad about no path around what's left of th...Too bad about no path around what's left of the pond area. Been around the whole pond on countless occasions, but yes we could never go around the whole thing because of the houses at the swamp end. I saw about Mike Schiavina on your blog. How sad... I used to play cards with him in home room and study halls. We used to catch the bus right near his house.<br /> How about Dr. Brigada? I went to school with his son also. He was my dentist until I left Springfield in the early eighties.<br /> Do you remember a fire plug where North Branch and Sunrise split off? It was on the little island there - until one of our friends took it after a late night - TWICE. Haha, good old Mike could never make that left corner after having one too many. After he hit it the second time, they just never put it back. I see on Google maps its just a spit of an island, it seemed much bigger back then and certainly didn't have a crosswalk. We used to cut up the dirt road down near the bottom of North Brook and Grayson Drive and would come out at the back of what used to be The Gateway Apartments. That was the way to Duggan School, it could be pretty scary in there when you were alone in the dark. I don't see it on Google maps at all. Gosh, we used to hang out at the Packie until someone would buy for us and then go hang out down at the dirt road sometimes. I can't remember what package store was there before the Big Y Packie. I worked there one year - we would sit in the cooler and sample all the different beers when it wasn't busy. Now that's a job with perks!Rabbitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-50339730896221671432013-12-28T09:37:22.068-05:002013-12-28T09:37:22.068-05:00Rabbit, unfortunately I found no remaining path on...Rabbit, unfortunately I found no remaining path on your side when I looked a few years ago, except one behind the dam that goes all the way to the intersection on North Brook Rd. and Sunrise.<br /><br />Remember the good old days when the path on the Sunrise side went all the way to the feeder brook and beyond, all the way to the Morrow's back yard on the other end of North Brook? That was before they squeezed in a couple of houses on the pond side of Sunrise.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-450345302647821122013-12-27T18:26:40.536-05:002013-12-27T18:26:40.536-05:00I'll have to be on the lookout down there for ...I'll have to be on the lookout down there for 44-year old plants lol. We used to fish off the Meadowlark pipe a lot. There was always something visible just above the surface about 20 yards out from there. We always thought it was a rock. When the dam broke and the water was gone it turned out to be someone's Xmas tree. We didn't see any records. Sadly, there is no path to the chute any more. All overgrown on both the left and right.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-55703969157525431112013-12-27T16:14:07.141-05:002013-12-27T16:14:07.141-05:00Did you know that we used to call the boat launch ...Did you know that we used to call the boat launch at the end of Meadowlark Lane, "The Chute"? We would always end up saying something like "I'll meet you at the Chute at Six". We caught many a fish sitting on the sewer pipe down at the Chute. Rubber worms were the bait of choice for Largemouth Bass, although you could catch pumpkin seeds on almost a bare hook.<br /> When I was about ten in the later sixties, my friend and I tossed about 50 clay 78's (record albums from the 30's & 40's) that his mother had given us into Putnam's Puddle from the Chute. We sent them flying into the pond like frisbees. Since they are made of clay some are probably buried out there to this very day. I can also recall girls sunbathing down there in the early days before it got all choked up with weeds. Bullfrog hunting at night was also a lot of fun too. In our later years the swampy end of the pond was choked up by a specially planted garden of a different kind of "weeds". By the seventies we had "special gardens" planted in secret locations all over the surrounding woods. It wouldn't be unusual to stumble across someone else's plants. If you were a good "Doobie", you would let the plants be. 'Twas the days of Barny's Hill and Forest Park, you know...Rabbitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-91706496316276855162013-12-08T14:49:03.685-05:002013-12-08T14:49:03.685-05:00I went to school with Frank Jr. We fought a couple...I went to school with Frank Jr. We fought a couple of times in 8th grade, and my dad, a friend of his family, told me to back off lol. <br /><br />All of our fireworks we purchased originated from Meadowlark Lane.<br /><br />Garden raids: hard to explain to wife and others. It was an Acres Thing.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-45108919401813622252013-12-08T14:23:33.875-05:002013-12-08T14:23:33.875-05:00I don't remember the Peeping Tom incident but ...I don't remember the Peeping Tom incident but there were plenty of midnight garden raids back then. I may have been guilty of liberating a few vegetables myself... <br /> I do recall the annual Fourth of July party that Frank Scibelli would throw every year. It was an event that we all looked forward to, with everyone on the street being invited. It was a catered affair with open bar and free soda for all the kiddies. Towards dusk he would light off tons of fireworks and aim the aerial stuff over the pond from the corner Meadowlark Lane and North Brook Road much to the delight of all us kids. We would scramble for the duds almost as soon as they hitting the ground so we could light them off ourselves the next day. One year I grabbed one of those ladyfinger firecracker packs at the same time as another kid and much to our surprise it went off it our hands at the same time. No hand damage other than stinging fingers but I still get a brief ringing in one ear every once in a while ever since that day. Scibelli was an okay guy to us kids and never gave us a hard time. His wife and kids were very nice people. I even hung out with his son from time to time whe I was a pre-teen. I had been in their house on quite few times and it was decorated in a Mediterranean style - really classy. I remember seeing pictures on the wall of him posing with celebrities such as Milton Berle and the like. I met Ann Corio the burlesque star over there once and got her autograph - I still have it somewhere - I wonder if it has any value? I don't think my mother was too pleased when I came home with that...lol! In my later years our gang, The Moochi would often meet on the other side of the street from Frank Scibelli's until we all gathered and figured where were going for the evening, and he still never gave us a hard time. Archie Poon owned that side of the street and he sure didn't like us hanging out there even though there was a fence and a bunch trees and bushes in between us and his yard. I guess we did look like a bunch of hoodlum hippies hanging out on the corner. That's why we retreated to the woods most of the time until some of us started getting apartments and then we would hang out there if we weren't at the Chimes on Breckwood Blvd. Anyone remember Ray Boston playing there? We must have been his biggest fans. He even played at the wedding of some us! We sure logged lots of hours at the Chimes when we turned 18...<br />Rabbitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-83380194624900716982013-12-06T21:59:10.020-05:002013-12-06T21:59:10.020-05:00Did your side ever experience that bald Peeping To...Did your side ever experience that bald Peeping Tom in the early '70s? He used the woods as cover and an escape route when the cops were called. The freak used to steal women's underwear and break into houses. We he'd several experiences with him. Always got away. One fast SOB.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-45845640952578972042013-12-06T21:42:58.431-05:002013-12-06T21:42:58.431-05:00OMG I am loving these pond stories . Keep them com...OMG I am loving these pond stories . Keep them coming! I know there are more! I feel like writing another Putnam's Puddle post!Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-42236125640994474722013-12-06T21:06:15.499-05:002013-12-06T21:06:15.499-05:00Damn, Rabbt, I always catch your comments after wo...Damn, Rabbt, I always catch your comments after work, when I can't respond at length on the iPhone. Glad you found Hell's Acres. Always wondered who dug that hole.<br /><br />Heard Fleming was in the Circle Gang. Maybe, maybe not. I remember skating at night at the feeder stream area, the ice cracking under my skates.<br /><br />Glad to see the animosity between the sides predated our days down there. You're OK for an Other Sider lol.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-61803652137443292862013-12-06T19:38:16.573-05:002013-12-06T19:38:16.573-05:00I am thinking we dug the pothole in maybe 70 or 71...I am thinking we dug the pothole in maybe 70 or 71 in late fall. It was just something we did while hanging out down there until we moved in more officially to the bottom of Sparrow Drive and joined forces with some of the older guys on our side. I never thought much of it after the cop fell in because it wasn't the place to be if the cops are ticked off at you. There was one cop who always seemed to have it in for us, but I can't remember his name.<br />Here is a good story about one the friction between our side and your side of the pond - we were anticipating you guys to come around to our side and start some trouble with us and our campfire spot. So some of us grabbed about a 12 foot long log, maybe a foot or so in diameter, lashed some ropes to it and tied it up between two trees probably 15 feet up in the air like a big swinging medieval weapon ready to sweep lengthwise directly into the oncoming path in the woods - quite a project, really. Next thing you know someone yells "here they come!", and down comes this big old honking log only to knock a mini bike out from underneath one of our guys younger brother - lucky he didn't get killed! <br />Does anyone remember the raft that used to be in the pond? I don't know where it came from, but it seemed like it belonged to the pond and whomever wanted to tool around on it could. Just leave the raft poles on it for the next users. With 3 or 4 us on it, it would kind of just barely stay above the surface - it was pretty well water logged.<br />In the winter we used to do something called "Playing The Hots" down in the swampy end of the pond where the feeder brook came in. It was shallowish (1 - 3 feet deep) water that was only frozen slightly. We would see how far we could travel among the cat tails on 1/2" or less crystal clear ice without falling in, which of course one of us would, and get a leg wet and then it was off to build a fire and dry out grabbing some cat tails to burn while we're at it - those puppies will burn like wild fire when crack them all open.<br />I also remember Jimmy Flemming passing away down at the dam. We hung out with him from time to time even though he was much older than us. He came home from Vietnam with a drinking problem and had fallen into the pond near the dam that night and couldn't make it up the hill to his house because of the snow and him being all iced up. Very sad. He was good guy that got messed up by the war. That was a tough hill to climb up in the winter, but nobody wanted to walk all the way around since we had to up Pineview and catch the school bus.<br />I didn't realize how many blogs are on this site til just now. You know, I just kind of bumped into this blog and it has stirred up a lot of old memories of my delinquent youth. I have lots more stories rumbling around in my head. The guy's father who owned the Arco Station at Breckwood Blvd and Wilbraham Rd probably wouldn't appreciate the story about us twisting a coat hanger around the posts on a battery stacked with all the other used batteries at the back of the station and then walking off to Duggan Jr. High to school only to hear a pretty hefty explosion about 5 minutes later...Rabbitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-82546664737736903332013-12-05T22:29:27.096-05:002013-12-05T22:29:27.096-05:00Wow, to think that The Pothole was dug by "Ot...Wow, to think that The Pothole was dug by "Other Siders" for a cop trap! I don't remember which one of us first found The Pothole, but we quickly took it over. What year did you dig it and when did you abandon it? Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-79153095773644962722013-12-05T21:27:04.698-05:002013-12-05T21:27:04.698-05:00I hung around on the North Brook side all through ...I hung around on the North Brook side all through the early seventies. We practically lived in the woods next the "Pond" as we called Putnams Puddle back then. Normally we hung around in the woods between Meadowlark Lane and Sparrow Drive. We were the "Moochi" (Mooch-eye) because everyone was always mooching cigarettes, beer and whatever else we could off each other and even the the other neighborhood younger kids. The "Pothole" you refer to was dug by us as a trap for the cops to fall in when they came to hassle us when we would sit around a fire and party down at that end of the pond. The best happened one night when the cops (they always traveled with partners back then) came along their usual routine to roust us out of there, but we were ready with the pit covered with branches and leaves. We hid off to the sides and waited til we heard the clanking of keys and some cuss words as one of the cops fell into the hole! We laughed about that one for a long time. I have tons of memories from my years hanging around the pond. I went to Cat High and graduated in 75. My nickname was Rabbit - I haven't been there in 30 years since I moved to CT - man, those were the good old days!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-16616397375283666282013-02-09T02:42:38.438-05:002013-02-09T02:42:38.438-05:00We used to refer to bumper sliding as "hoppin...We used to refer to bumper sliding as "hopping cars". It was a popular winter pastime in Cleveland, Ohio back when cars had chrome bumpers.<br /><br />Great memories, and I'm glad to know that the "hobby" was more than just a local thing!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-53701990960635541362012-05-08T08:57:42.567-04:002012-05-08T08:57:42.567-04:00Hey koshercop,
Looks like we were just amateurs. ...Hey koshercop,<br /><br />Looks like we were just amateurs. You took bumper sliding to an art form!Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-34271443361863814222012-05-07T22:12:38.492-04:002012-05-07T22:12:38.492-04:00so many bumper sliding stories...one was on new ye...so many bumper sliding stories...one was on new years eve, about 20 yrs ago in a vt. hotel parking lot, with about 2" of snow on the ground, just enough snow for perfect bumper sliding conditions...instead of the normal crouched bumper sliding position though, we would prone our bodies out, on our backs, so the bumper was above our heads...the rider then might do chin ups underneath the bumper, sometimes dangling by one arm, and sometimes switching arms...then the 2nd "team-mate" would grab onto the 1st slider's legs and form a chain...we imagined making this an olympic event...but the best part was looking from the hotel room in the dim hotel parking lot lights, at the tracks left behind from our swinging and swaying bodies...we would also pick tiny pebbles and feathers from our shredded down filled jackets, and imagining if we became olympic heroes, that we could sell them on hsn...<br /> another story involved attaching skis and a long cord and slaloming in and out of the tree belts...<br /> another story involved my friend bumper sliding in the summer in his bare feet at pufferbellies parking lot...needless to say he has the ugliest feet around...<br /> another story involved hitching up an old metal boxspring to my friend's internantional, in the woods of westfield near the buck and doe bar....we would scream " through the woods!" through the woods!" as we proceded to rt 202...i would be holding on for dear life as sparks would come up from the road, and an ear piercing screech would be heard, and the box spring would get very hot...my friends would be throwing bud cans at me, and i was dying of laughing...SICK!kosherkophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15874216126066361631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-81521519138812158112011-06-21T22:31:33.185-04:002011-06-21T22:31:33.185-04:00RE the fountain at Wilbraham & Bradley Roads, ...RE the fountain at Wilbraham & Bradley Roads, my dad was the original owner of the Atlantic (later Arco) gas station where the fountain was located. I remember him complaining about the soap in the fountain when I was a kid. Soadfixer is right on, I remember the Sox pictures, and will never forget the styrafoam 'Red Balls' for the car antennas. When my dad sold the station around 1973, we ended up with cases of those balls in our garage at home. They all ended up in our pool years later during a drunken teenager pool party when the parents were gone for the weekend. <br /><br />Thanks for the memories from an old acres kid.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-58375487265364892212011-05-11T08:57:33.846-04:002011-05-11T08:57:33.846-04:00Hey Sodafixer,
I do remember Arco giving away car...Hey Sodafixer,<br /><br />I do remember Arco giving away cardboard Red Sox portraits, and I still have them!<br /><br />It's funny you mention Jumbo and Gas Town, because I'm going to mention them in my next entry. I remember Jumbo burning down on Xmas eve '69 or '70.<br /><br />I'm glad you remembered the name of Electronic Circus, because I couldn't. It was a big deal the day that opened. Lots of kids used metal slugs, screwing up the machines. Once I put a quarter in a pinball machine and Tiddlywinks disks came out of the change slot!<br /><br />By the time we started going to Treats nobody hung out there anymore. I remember the jukebox on the right when you walked in.<br /><br />Some day I'll write about that dive The Chimes. Do you remember the year that off-duty cop shot two guys in there? Mid- to late-'70s I believe. One of them lived on Pineview Street.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-29911078173237136442011-05-10T20:40:38.905-04:002011-05-10T20:40:38.905-04:00Great blog... Glad you found my Duggan Yearbook on...Great blog... Glad you found my Duggan Yearbook online, I got a kick out of seeing it here.<br />Funny when Tracy described the way the HOT sign blinked...I never would have remembered that...but I sure had a vivid memory of that sign blinking exactly as described! <br /> The fountain was in front of Arco (later named am/pm) I remember my mother getting an orange styrofoam ball from there as a "free gift" which was designed to place on your car antenna, so you could find your car in a crowded parking lot (why do I remember such usless things?) <br />Do you remember the grocery store named Jumbo? it was in the parking lot where Lousi and Clark is. That store burned down in the early 70s I believe. Also in the parking lot was Treats...where I was never allowed to go because the big kids hung out there (you know...the teenagers) later on the site of Jumbo...was the Electronic Circus, pinball joint...where if you reached around the back of some of the machunes...you could set it for free pinball.You only did this if you were too lazy to hammer out some pennies to the size of a quarter and use them to get 2 games....5 balls a game. How about the Pool tables they had...if you inserted your quarter...hmm...maybe 50 cents...and stuck a matchbook under the coin ratchet...it would stick in and you could play all day for free! (not that I would have done any of these tricks...that would have been dishonest)<br />Next to that was Gas Town...<br />Thanks for your great blog, I look forward to your next entry.sodafixerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09731653984709675068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-14155780032994441232011-05-06T21:33:30.816-04:002011-05-06T21:33:30.816-04:00Mark Gilfoil graduated with me from Tech High in 1...Mark Gilfoil graduated with me from Tech High in 1972, I believe he was killed in a motorcycle accident.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-80901333425733462232011-05-06T07:55:56.654-04:002011-05-06T07:55:56.654-04:00I'd have to cast my vote for bumper sliding ve...I'd have to cast my vote for bumper sliding versus snowballs at cars. We rarely were able to manage bumper sliding on a stranger's car so we slid behind our friend's cars. While you've stated that "it doesn't count", my friends loved trying to toss you off going around corners. So, a couple of fishtails later and bumper sliding become bumper scraping. Plus it was a real challenge hanging on and going through entire neighborhoods' worth of side-streets.<br /><br />On to sites around the Acres Center: Don't forget the stereo store that was next to the Christian Reading Room. The name escapes me right now but my older brothers would frequent it and come home with promotional posters that they used to give out. They were of seventies rock artists promoting the equipment that they used. I'll have to see if any are lying around the old house. How can we not mention Burns Liquors as well? While it came to prominence in my life after the period in which you are writing, you can never forget your first – first as in first underage purchase of beer.<br /><br />Your reminiscing does bring back many memories of the Acres and as a younger brother, I got the honor of repeating the antics of my older brothers while knowing how to escape punishment and knowing who to stay away from. Although, I didn’t escape punishment for driving golf balls out of our front yard towards houses on Plumtree Road like they did! There are more stories like that but I digress.<br /><br />Thanks for mentioning my bro – he is missed. If anyone could ever write a blog about the antics of youth to top yours, it might’ve been him. His subject matter would be far superior I hate to say but don’t think he could match your writing skills.Parker Househttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10930101245936461831noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-54630866163572061022011-05-04T09:15:06.018-04:002011-05-04T09:15:06.018-04:00Hi Randy,
Yes, a future blog entry will undoubted...Hi Randy,<br /><br />Yes, a future blog entry will undoubtedly be reserved for recollections of hitting cars with snowballs, the inevitable skid sound, and the chases that ensued. Once a Hood truck driver followed our tracks through the yards, found my friend hiding behind a dog house, and kicked him in the head a few times.<br /><br />I believe Popular Market occupied the space prior to Marshall's, and the ice cream place on the left was Princess Parlor. I do remember Bing's Gulf with the old pumps.<br /><br />Thanks for the link! The Outer Belt stuff is interesting. It looks like they were thinking of putting it right along the shore of Bass Pond.<br /><br />This scheme reminds me of how the state had planned to run I-95 through Milton, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, and the South End of Boston, and tear down everything in its path.Hell's Acresnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8436846479279507747.post-71025866949895497752011-05-03T22:48:05.042-04:002011-05-03T22:48:05.042-04:00Okay, where do I begin?
Yes, I remember the A&...Okay, where do I begin?<br /><br />Yes, I remember the A&P and the Plywood Ranch, et. al., but bumper sliding I really remember well. As to which one was more fun, bumper sliding or hitting cars with snowballs, I'd have to come down on the side of bumper sliding. We actually had a bus driver in junior high school that made Otto look like a devout mormon. He would actually dare us to hang onto the back of the bus while he gunned it -- full of kids inside and with about five of us hanging off the back -- up Glenoak Drive. Oddly enough, he lost his job after that. <br /><br />Snowballing cars also made for some laughs, though I eventually got suspended from school for a week for doing it, even though we always through at a six-wheeler that gave us his permission. I have to say that it was always quite a thrill when you could hit a speeding car from 100 feet away with perfect timing. Then you'd hear the skid, and you'd take off like a bat out of hell into the woods to safety. <br /><br />When we first moved to Sixteen Acres in 1971, it had both Acre and Parker Drug, HOT, the A&P, Friendly's in that plaza, and there was a restaurant behind what is now Dunkin Donuts. On the other side, there was Marshall's, Big Y, another ice cream parlor next to that (where Johnny Mac's is now), and some stores next to Marshalls on the other side. Pizza Palace wasn't even there yet. On the corner where Pride is now was a smaller Gulf station, and the Mobil Station sported the Eliot Noyes design with the cylindrical pumps and round canopies that no one ever seemed to have the foresight to preserve. Those are now ALL gone. <br /><br />If I might suggest some future material, you might want to look up a little on the history of what we once called the "Outer Belt Highway." Do you know why they called it that? Planners at one time proposed a highway linking I-91 at Forest Park with the Mass Turnpike at Ludlow with a belt highway that would have plowed right through Forest park and Sixteen Acres. Check out http://homepage.mac.com/kefkafloyd/valleyroads/oldspfld.htmlRandylouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15395085556145687438noreply@blogger.com