Friday, May 1, 2020

Miscellaneous Shit, Part 6




Any readers play miniature golf, par 3 golf, or drive a bucket of balls at B & M Golf on Boston Road? It was next to Zayre, where the Salvation Army is now, and across from A & W Root Beer. I thought I had found all the photos of it that exist on the web so far, but then I found another one of the mini golf course (complete with lighthouse and windmill) and the front and back pages of a scorecard (below)! That’s what the Internet is all about, as far as I’m concerned! Get these gems out of obscurity and online! Is that what the sign really looked like! I want a picture of it!





B & M was run by the late Louie Bracci, who lived behind his golf place on Newport Street. It was named after him and his brother-in-law James Manoni (Bracci & Manoni). Bracci was a man who hated bad language enough to put up a “profanity prohibited” sign. I vaguely remember it. I found an archive story of him applying to the city for an expansion of his driving range at 802 Boston Road in 1953, but it wasn’t there THAT long, was it? Maybe it was.


A guy from the Growing Up in 16 Acres Facebook group lived on Elmore Ave., behind the first hole, and he used to collect the balls that came over the fence and sell them back for 10 cents each. He wrote that Louie, who he ended up working for when he was 14, was "a cranky old man but had a good heart."






Speaking of that Facebook page, here are the 1961 Sixteen Acres Wasps. Recognize any of them? A couple were Motleys, the first gang to rule “The Center,” including Skip LaFleche, who drove his motorcycle through one Friendly’s door and out the other. Other names in the photo: Gallerani, Meaney, Ahlberg, Houghton, Doten, Ed Sheehan, Bussing, Keleher, and Kibbe.


And while we’re in The Center, here is an old sign. Burger King is now Wings Over Springfield.



I know this isn’t The Acres or Boston Road or Pine Point for that matter, but there aren't many photos of the Liberty Theater (1928-1958)  in Hungry Hill. Apparently, in the 1940s, the theater’s manager, “Butterball” Autry, used to get tormented by the rowdy kids in the place. Sometimes he turned off the projector to lecture them, and they responded by throwing stuff. Kind of reminds me of the treatment we used to give the ushers at the Bing during Saturday matinees.




The Liberty Theater block today





I found another couple of photos of the Stateline Potato Chips sign.

The last time I saw the sign? I took this photo pretty recently (2014) on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, where there a bunch of old neon signs in some kind of public art project:





The old St Catherine pool! They filled it in about 10 years ago after it was leaking into neighbors’ basements.


THIS must have been quite the party. A little before my concert-going time, unfortunately. Wow: NRBQ, James Montgomery, James Cotton…and cold Beer!

Did you say NRBQ?


Here is a photo of Buckey’s corner on the Longhill end of Sumner Avenue. Buckey’s begat Friendly’s, which begat…an abandoned Friendly’s.




Down the road…look at that, in glorious color: Blakes!



Winchester Square in 1997. The mural on the building at the bottom of the black-and-white photo below is called “Heritage on the Wall,” painted in 1972 by Donald and Paul Blanton. Funded by a grant from the Springfield Arts Lottery Council, the mural is kind of obscured by trees today when you drive down State Street. According to the Springfield Republican newspaper, during riots and looting in Springfield in the turbulent 1960s, the brothers used art to try to calm down crowds.





Don Blanton


How many of you had this Evel Knievel motorcycle toy?


I think I must have been the first person with carpal tunnel syndrome cranking that damn handle—not to mention skinned knuckles. As every owner of one of these knows, the motorcycle was pretty durable, but when you performed some of the more insane jumps (like off Rick Riccardi’s garage roof), it was bound to break, and then you were just stuck with the doll.

The doll, like the real Evel, was impossible to destroy. We tried to blow up Craig Stewart’s Evel Knievel doll with an M-80, but it just flew high in the air from the explosion. We tried to burn it, but the fire never stayed lit.

One day, tired of torching and torturing the disfigured Evel, Craig and I thought the best course of action would be to throw it at a car. It’s perplexing that we’d burn the doll of our childhood idol, leaving half of him black charred rubber, but it even more curious that we’d hide in the woods on Sunrise Terrace and terrify motorists with it. In broad daylight, no less. Oh well. We were bored, I guess.
We hid behind trees on Sunrise Terrace. My first throw was right on the money. Thunk! The driver slammed on his brakes, hesitated, and then kept going, like so many of our snowball victims. Perhaps he thought he kicked up a branch. It’s not like I threw a G. I. Joe at him—just a puny, seven-inch Evel Knievel doll. We retrieved it to try again.

What if we got chased? Remember, these were the woods around our fishing hole, a pond called Putnam’s Puddle. We knew the trails like the backs of our hands. No one would be able to catch us.

We waited. Car came and Craig fired. His throw was spot-on, too, but there was no “thunk” sound. The car didn’t even slow down. What the hell? We emerged on Sunrise Terrace. Maybe Craig had sailed it over the roof, but no—that was a perfect throw. But where was the doll? The car had its windows open. Could Craig have possibly....? No. No way. We searched the street. Nothing. No way? Yes way. The doll had to be IN THE CAR! Wow. We didn’t have Evel Knievel to kick around anymore. We imagined the scene when someone in the family found the sucker. “How did this burnt doll get in here?”


Poor Evel doll. Like the clay Mr. Bill on Saturday Night Live, he met an untimely fate. Nooooo!


“Why must you torture me so?”

I’ll leave you this month with the Evel Stunt Cycle commercial:




19 comments:

  1. What the hell was Insight 70's? Great to have you back!

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  2. Great article, I loved the bike Evel Knievel toy as well. You have a duplicate statement in the post about selling the balls back for 10 cents.

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  3. M Lefebvre: thanks for your comment. Somehow I deleted it, so I restored it. And thanks for the duplication catch.

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  4. Insight '70s appeared to be a substance abuse agency. Weird name. Outta sight!

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  5. Growing up in Springfield I remember Yellow and red tags day at Forest Park pool.and Hitchhiking and not worrying about who picked you up wow have times changed

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  6. great job with these posts, really, so much nostalgia. I grew up on Florentine Gardens, so the Buckey's pic brings me back. Don't really remember going in, but I def remember it being demoed to make way for Friendly's. Believe the owner Buckey lived on Magnolia Terrace. anyway, keep it up!

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  7. I wonder what Buckey's real name was. Any ideas?

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  8. Buckey’s was great, I grew up on Florentine Gardens too, and was in Buckey’s all the time , candy bars were a nickel then. Insight 70’s was where Nagle’s drugstore used to be. Great neighborhood!

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  9. so the owner of buckey's was w buckley clark. according to masslive he passed away in '95..

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  10. Absolutely LOVE the reference to pegging cars (that's what we called it..few years behind you). Our hot spots: Along BicentenialHighway (there was a ditch which put you at front quarter panel level) with an absolutely foolproof escape route. Also along certain areas of the 10th hole at Vets. Go ahead and TRY to chase us! We'd be across the fairway and popping out onto the 12th hole by the time they stopped skidding!.

    Hey maybe someday you can post about the community pool up on Squire Lane. It backed up to a fence which belonged to Kiley JHS. Made it insanely easy to pool hop it at night in the summer. If you ever went, there was an annual membership and had this horrendous whale (with a little hat) painted on the poorhouse wall. the Ding-Dong cart would show promptly at 2pm. The whole damn place reminded me of the pool scene in Caddyshack with complete mayhem and a super hot lifeguard named Martha who didn't give a shit about anything except working on her tan.

    Please keep up the good work. This blog is the highlight of my month!

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  11. Hey 11th Hole,

    Thanks for the comment. It definitely adds to the entertainment of the post for readers! It also reveals Acres stuff I and other never knew about, like the community pool on Squire. Who ran it?

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  12. I don't know of a specific person. It was an association. It was located at the current location of 101 and 115 Squire (you can tell they are the "newest" homes in that general spot). Directly across from the top of Deepfield St. Heyday was about '75 to late 80s.
    After many Cat High kegger bashes off the 12th hole tee, a late night drunken pool hop were in order.

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  13. Yea! Just noticed you’re back, we missed you!

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  14. Hey FranJC,

    Good to be back! Spread the word!

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  15. I love your blog! I just recently discovered it and enjoy it so much. It's so interesting hearing of your adventures and your retelling of pieces of Springfield history. I grew up in East Forest Park and love seeing the old pictures of the city.😊

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  16. Glad you are back and blogging! Yup, I played mini-golf at B&M Golf as a kid. I lived across Boston Road. I went to high school with Manoni's grandaughter. I also remember getting little chocolate and apple pies from the Dolly Madison bakery that is/was a tire store. Next to the former VIP Lounge. Ah, the good ole days. . .

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  17. I saw NRBQ numerous times- Once the crazy piano player Terry was locked out of the piano keys and they had to wait to unlock it! Good fun and he banged on the piano with his elbows and feet...no wonder the piano tried to take revenge!

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  18. Will you ever do anything on the North Branch Mill Park?

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  19. The pool at St. Catherine's actually was not leaking into the neighbors' basements. The folks on Sara Lynn Drive did have a lot of flooding and they always suspected it was coming from St. Catherine's parking lot or pool. In the end, St. Catherine's contracted with a company to perform an evaluation and they discovered a major blockage in the drainage pipe around the halfway point of Sara Lynn that was caused by the woods across the street from the houses. The city came and cleared it up and that was the end of the flooding.

    The pool was closed because the membership had declined over the years and the parish was picking up most of the expenses.

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