Memories of Rhode
Island ___________________________________
"I just love your site. The memories it brings back are wonderful. I grew up in Pawtucket - in the Pleasant View area. I went to Sacred Heart School on Park Street in Pawtucket. My uncle would pick up my sister and I up and we'd go to my grandmothers house in Central Falls and from there my cousins and my sister and I would go to the Lafayette Theater on Broad Street on a Saturday afternoon. There usually were two movies and if you hid after the second movie ended, you could stay for the next show and see them all over again. We used to make "goggles" out of popcorn boxes to see the movie better. It would be a real treat to go to the Leroy Theater and the Darlton once in a while, but the Lafayette was our favorite. We used to get penny candy at a store called Taylors on Washington St. in Central Falls. My uncle had a barber shop there. As we got older, we used to hang out after school at Damarises on the corner of Broadway and East St. You could get a vanilla coke and a small bag of State Line Potato Chips for $.10 and fit as many of your friends as you could in a booth in back. You could also go to Flanagan's Spa for a cherry coke for a nickel. My dad worked at the A & P on Broadway and we would go to Barry's drugstore for sodas. My dad was good friends with Mr. Barry and we could go in back and watch him mix compounds to fill prescriptions (definitely not like today's pharmacy's). We used to go to the Economy Market that was on Benefit Street and later moved to Broadway and Schaeffer's Market (little corner store) on the corner of Benefit and Bates Street. You could get fish and chips from Larry's Lunch on Broadway for $.25 on a Friday. The tough crowd hung out at Hovie's Grill on Broadway. There was Ziggy's and the Peppermint Lounge. There was the FEI Club in Cumberland (remember the stripper Busty Russell???). We used to hang out at the John Street playground. I graduated from Tolman and got my first job as a secretary at Jade Rubber company on Conant Street. Got married a year later and moved all the way to Fairlawn. Raised a family there and finally moved to Florida in 2005. I get back to Rhode Island every year and miss it dearly. I still listen to WPRO via web radio because I'll never outgrow my love of 'Rhode Island. Most people think I'm from New York because of the accent, but I'm always proud to say I'm from Rhode Island. Your web site brings back so many fond memories and no matter where I am, I will always be a Rhode Islander." Lois Genereux logen726@comcast.net ______________________________ "I recently acquired a copy of the movie "Festival" which is a distillation of several years of raw footage of the original Newport Folk Festivals. The movie is described as follows:(from RottenTomatoes.com) "Long before it became
inextricably linked with Bob Dylan's infamous "electric"
performance, the Newport Folk Festival was the premier event of the
burgeoning 1960s music scene. The brainchild of Newport Jazz Festival
founder, George Wein, and his business partner, Albert Grossman (who later
went on to manage Dylan), Newport introduced the world to a then-unknown
folk singer named Joan Baez and nurtured the talents of more established
artists such as Donovan, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, and
Peter, Paul and Mary. Veteran music director Murray Lerner (MESSAGE TO
LOVE: THE ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL) presents a collection of archival
footage from four of Newport's '60s-era festivals featuring these and many
other legendary musicians for a vital historical document of an American
cultural institution." I have fond memories of attending
both this Festival and the Jazz festival. I remember seeing many memorable
performances in the open field. The review above gives the names of many
of the folk stars. At the jazz festival I saw such greats as Frank Sinatra,
Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and many more. The two
festivals were marvelous entertainment which I eventually ended because of
some small riots. The crowds grew to become too rowdy to control and the
concerts were cancelled for a number of years and came back in a different
venue and alcohol free. As a summer resident of South County, we got to
Newport by driving over the Jamestown bridge, with its ten cent toll, and
parking in downtown Jamestown. The next leg of the journey was by ferry,
and once we reached the ferry there was the long hike up the hill to the
concert site. At that time downtown Newport was still very much a Navy
town with lots of bars. The scenes from Festival show throngs of "preppys"
heading to the concerts. I will admit to looking closely to see if I or
one of my friends were there. ______________________________ Wow....I just
stumbled upon your site when I was searching for photos of Chepachet's
Ancient & Horribles Parade! I didn't find any of those, but was very
excited to read all the great memories written by Liz McIntyre BrownandHopkins@aol.com ______________________________ "Fantastic website: Here's some memories: I grew up next to the Providence Barrington Bible College on State Street in Providence during the 50's. Every night during the summer the neighborhood guys would meet at Mary's Variety store on the corner of Chalkstone Avenue and State Street. I could here the loud political discussions from the small apartment house that my grand mother owned. We were right next to the bible college dorm and adjacent to radio station WPTL-FM which played classical music. The transmitting tower was huge. The campus was my playground and my friends and I were always exploring. At night the place got creepy because the campus officially closed. What a hike it was to Candace Street school (four trips a day!) Is there anyone who lived on State Street during the mid 50's. Love to hear from you." Thanks, ______________________________ "This was such a special treat, sent to me by my brother Chris, who is now living in Washington State. We emigrated to California in 1959. Here is what I remember.
Thanks for the memories." Eunice Larkin of Pawtucket eunicelarkin@earthlink.net ______________________________ "OMG... what a
GREAT site. Thank you SO much for the opportunity to reminisce. I have
SO many fond memories of RI, but I seriously don't miss it, except for
the food... LOL! Something that really scared me as a kid was the RAG
man. I read about the ice man and the ice cream man, the milk man and
various other 'men', but no mention of the RAG man. Was I the only one
who remembers him. The hideous old truck and the toothless old man
sitting on the old flat bed yelling, "RAGS" as he was driven
through the neighborhood, ever so slowly by his chauffeur... LOL! My
mother scared the livin' daylight outta me concerning that guy. Funny
how that goes. BTW, born in St Joes Hosp, I grew up in Hoxie. Remember
Hoxie 4 corners, anyone? Went to Warren A Sherman School, which was 1st
- 6th back then. Off to a "Catholic" school in Providence for
7-12. St Charles Borromeo. Cranston St near the Cranston St Armory.
Penny (actually sometimes more than 1 piece for a penny!) candy at,
"Mary's", on the corner after school while waiting for the
school bus, which came later because it had to run the public school
kids first. And there was a NY System nearby that I remember stopping at
on the way home from visiting my grandmother, in Warren one time. My
oldest brother had a hankerin' for some 'gaggers'. I was only about 3 or
4 and had never had one. The smell made me SO sick my Dad had to stop
the car so I could get out to puke... LOL! Never had ANY desire to eat
them from that day forward...until I was grown and married and my
husband wanted to get some and I tried one and the hook was set... I was
a junkie! LOL! Jeanne Tessier jmtess@yahoo.com ______________________________ Memories of Rhode
Island
Stay Tuned For More!....(or else!) Bada Bing!
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