Ah, Veterans Golf Course in the winter: a scenic place to walk or ski.
Anyone know the story behind the little dog statue at Veterans? It’s on the Camp Wilder edge of the course, by the woods, on the front nine. Rumor has it he was the dog of a worker who used to chase the geese away.
At the stables where the Pride station is now you could ride an old horse around in circles for $1.50 an hour in the 1940s and 1950s. Gebo’s Gulf Station replaced it.
An ad from the 1930s: Fast forward a few decades, and 1340 Boston Road was the address of the old Fox Theater, in front of Loon Pond, in the 1960s and 1970s. This must have been quite a sight where there was once Joyland Beach: a building shaped like an ice cream container. From what I could see, there was another Honeymoon Ice Cream in Agawam.
Near the Honeymoon was another amusement: pony rides, at 1396 Boston Road.
The lamp from “A Christmas Story” at the Springfield Museum of Science’s gingerbread house competition a few years ago. This display is usually a boring affair, so when I saw this I had to take out my phone and snap this photo. I believe the annual exhibit took on a movie theme that year and there it was: Old Man Parker’s “major award.” The movie was based on short stories by Jean Shepherd and the lamp’s first appearance was in his 1966 short story, “My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award That Heralded the Birth of Pop Art.” Shepherd said it was inspired by Nehi soda ads showing two shapely legs up to the knee that he remembered as a boy. Yes, he might have had a leg fetish (ya think?) but who doesn't appreciate a pair of nice gams?
While I’m posting phone photos, here is a “fern-y” forest floor in the McDonald Nature Preserve in Wilbraham:
Here I’m atop the Conant Brook Dam in Monson:
Built between 1964 and 1966, the Conant Brook Dam is a 85-foot-high dike prevents the Quabog River from flooding.
One of the mountain biking/hiking trails in the dam’s reservation does a loop around this really cool swamp:
Here’s my view from a much bigger dam: the Quabbin Reservoir’s Winsor Dam—one of the largest in the eastern U.S. It’s 295 feet high and 2,640—exactly to the foot a half-mile long.
These are some shots I took of the dam and its view back in May of 2000 when the coronavirus lockdown was driving my family nuts and we had to go out and do SOMETHING. It was my wife’s idea—I had never been to the Quabbin growing up, if you can believe that.
Actually, I might have faint memories of being there as a toddler. I remember standing above roaring water on a trip, and when I went there last spring I swear I had a flashback of being on the bridge over the Swift River spillway (above).
Below is the spillway when it opened in 1946. There are guys taking photos on the right:
We returned in March of 2021, when there was still ice on the reservoir, but the drought had dried up the spillway to a trickle under the bridge and downstream:
In high school, a friend of mine invited me to come out to see his band at Ye Ole Whip in Westfield. “What the hell is that,” I thought, “some kind of bondage and discipline bar?” It didn’t really connect with me that Westfield is the “Whip City.” Anyway, I did drive out there and saw his band.
Anyone remember Richie’s Speed City at the X? I did slot car racing a couple of times on my family’s way back to Forest Park. There was a scoreboard on the wall, I believe, that recorded your car’s time.
Richie’s was replaced by Central City Gym. The bodybuilders at Central City who got REALLY serious ended up across the street at Big Daddy’s gym.
Speaking of The X, this is the only photo I know of showing the Cliftwood Street side of the old Blake’s building.
The infamous blizzard concert by Aerosmith at the Springfield Civic Center on February 11, 1983. The band went on at 11:00 p.m. when Steven Tyler arrived after being snowbound in New York, and then, after the show’s 12:45 a.m. conclusion, Civic Center management let 400 fans spend the night. Another 200 trudged over to the Holiday Inn.
In all, 21 inches of snow fell. The fans were treated to a popcorn and soda snack at 3:00 a.m., and then donuts and coffee at 10:00 a.m. The guests at the Holiday Inn slept in beds, I presume, instead of snoozing on the hard floor at the Civic Center, and they didn’t have to use their coats as their pillows like their counterparts—the 400 who had stayed put and cued into payphone lines to tell their parents they weren’t coming home that night. At least they got free food!
RIP Eddie Van Halen. I didn’t go see the band at the Civic Center in ’79, amazingly. For me, the jury was still out on VH: I believe I was still iffy on the quality of Davie Lee Roth’s vocals, so I made other plans. I did finally see them in the now-demolished New Haven Coliseum in their 1984 tour. Of course, Eddie was great. Of course, Roth was so-so, missing a lot of vocals because he was jumping and running around on their expanded stage and bantering with the chicks in the crowd: “Girl, don’t stick your tongue out at me…unless you intend on using it!”
It is incredible that Belmont Records didn’t let Eddie and Alex in the store because they had a cigarette and an ice cream cone. Then again, that place was particularly strict—they held cassette tapes in one of those clear plastic box containers with holes in which you could stick a hand in and examine a tape, but the tape was in another box so you couldn’t just pull it out and buy it. You had to get an employee to unlock the case. Annoying.
I had always wondered where exactly the Round Hill Drive-in was, but this photo of Birnie Avenue makes it clear—where Birnie and Plainfield meet, I believe. It’s hard to tell. Some say the site is where I-91 is today. The area is so different now it’s hard to get your bearings.
Here is a 1957 aerial shot. Looks like Pynchon Park, the baseball stadium, was across Plainfield Street, close to the river:
The Round Hill opened in 1951 but I-91 construction closed it in 1966. Read more about old drive-in theaters here.
I came upon another newspaper story of the 1932 fatal drinking party at Watershops Pond, an event that I had written about a few years ago. A group of guys known as the Wood Dogs used to buy denatured alcohol at hardware stores—or “milk” it from the radiators of parked cars—and one boozing session killed at least nine of them.
In the “so Springfield it hurts” department, there’s a mural for a guy who used to harass drivers, passing out “lucky lottery numbers” for “donations” at the corner of State and Oak. In fact, he was once arrested for breaking into that building—no small feat, because the first floor windows and doors were boarded up LMFAO.
Sadly, The Preacher died in the Ludlow jail in 2017. He was arrested “around 90 different times,” according to masslive, which has to be a record…even in Springfield.
AIC almost immediately regretted allowing The Preacher’s likeness to be painted on one of its buildings. They didn’t really vet his past. Oh well, he’s an institution—or, as masslive put it, a “cult figure.”
See you in a month—unless you want to check out my Facebook page from time to time. Once in a while I post stuff on it that isn’t on the blog yet, so like and follow, man!
