Bytes from the Bean by Joe Manning 4-12-9912:00AM / Monday, April 12, 1999
I was up for a visit on April 1st after a three-week hiatus. This was the longest stretch of time I haven't been in North Adams since my first visit in July of 1996. It was hard. I get the Transcript in the mail, and several lovely photos of the city by Gillian Jones made me miss the place even more. I couldn't sleep much the night before, and I would up pulling out of the driveway at 5:15. With daylight savings time kicking in again, it was pitch black when I left.
Around the table at the Bean, someone remarked, "All the great people have died." I found this statement astonishing, especially since everyone was talking about the "Local Heroes" supplement in the Transcript the day before. Sure, some of the persons who were mentioned have passed on, but most are still very much alive, and still heroes.
It got me to thinking about the people I've come to know the past several years. As an outsider, one tends to avoid the trap of taking things (and people) for granted. It's going to take two or three more supplements to include all the folks I could nominate. My hat is off to the Transcript for a great idea executed well. I hope it continues.
Two of my friends who were interviewed in Steeples passed away recently: Theresa Aubin and Jerry Gamari. Both went about their lives quietly and with humility. They were good people who would probably be embarrassed if they knew their names were being mentioned here. From "Steeples," these are Theresa's own words.
THERESA AUBIN
"Life was tough when I was growing up...a tough road. I got this far anyway, and I met my husband, so it was much better. Forty-five years Sunday that we've been married. I went to Houghton School first, and then I went to Notre Dame. I had to go out in the eighth grade to go to work at Newberry's when I was only fourteen years old. I didn't care for school too much, and I had to help the family because my father was away. I had a hard time learning things, you know. For some kids, things come easy. I was a sales clerk in the toy department at Newberry's. I made a dollar an hour. I didn't mind it at all. Mr. Lewis there told me that if I got my working card, I'd have a job. I could quit school as long as I helped out at home. Otherwise, I probably would have worked after school, which today I wish I could have. I worked forty hours a week. I could make friends with anybody, and I still had my classmate friends. I was there seven or eight years. I got married when I was twenty-two, so I worked till the year I got married.
It was terrible here during the Depression. My mother had to go on WPA and get clothes, and we had to get those coupons to get butter, not butter really, but that oleo stuff. You mixed it with orange. She had to wait in a long line every two weeks to get it. Later on it got a little bit better. During the war, the guys were gone, so we had to make our own happiness, you know. I was a homebody. I never went out too much. I used to like to do jigsaw puzzles and help my mom with the cleaning. I enjoyed doing chores and errands for my neighbors. I used to do volunteer work for the elderly, get their medicine, or take their rubbish out for them. That was when it was a caring world.
I was brought up with nothing. I have more now that I ever had. I'm thankful that I have a good husband, and I have my health. I have lovely grandchildren and two lovely daughters and two nice sons-in-law. Thank God my daughters turned out good; I mean, I have a lot to be thankful for. They had a good education and good bringin' up. They were brought up clean. We didn't have much, but I did the best I could. In other words, everything wasn't handed to them. My youngest daughter put herself through college. I told her, if she needed some money, I would help. When she got married, we paid for the reception, and I helped her pay for the wedding gown. Every month I'd give her five or ten dollars towards it. Hey, it was a lot of money then."
Again, from Steeples, here is part of Jerry's interview and some comments from Michael Gamari about his father
JERRY GAMARI
"When I was going to grammar school at the Johnson School, I hope you don't think I'm bragging, I was told I was an excellent athlete, both baseball and basketball. They had three high schools then, St Joseph's, Drury, and Notre Dame. I wanted to go to Drury, but my father died when I was eleven. Later, I had to go to work to support the family, so I couldn't go to high school. Jeez, that hurt bad.
They had the high school band at Drury, and it was the largest high school band in the country at that time. I played the trumpet. I loved music. But I couldn't go into the band because I had to work. I said, "Jeez, I get no breaks at all." The mayor of New York, Fiorello LaGuardia, said he wanted the Drury Band to march on 42nd Street, but I couldn't go. After that, they were invited to Washington.
I worked in a dozen places, the Clark Biscuit Company and plenty of others. I had the worst job in North Adams. A friend of mine got me a job in the Hoosac Cotton Mill. Worst job I ever had. It was noisy in the first place, they had all those machines going, about fifty machines in one room spinning around. Jeez, if you wanted to talk to someone, you had to holler in their ear. You'd go outside, and you could still hear those machines.
I think I worked in every place in North Adams. At the Clark Biscuit Company, I used to run the oven. The oven was like a Ferris wheel. It would have all these shelves, and the cookies would go around; and by the time they made the circuit, they were done. When the cookies came down, they would go down a chute and into a basket. I would rake the cookies into the basket, send them down on the elevator, and the girls would pack and ship them. The company would give you some cookies to take home, and you could also buy them by the barrel, and they'd give you a break on it.
The big one was when Sprague Electric came into this city. They started off in that brick building over on Union Street. Little by little, they expanded and expanded and became one of the biggest plants in the country. I had a good job with them. I worked there twenty-eight years. I was a supervisor. I worked from seven to five. I had a big room with mostly women in it, and they made all types of materials, especially during the war. I would check up on them, and I had some fun once in a while. I had one woman who called me and said, "Jerry, what am I gonna do? The sun is in my eyes." I says, "You want me to move you or do you want me to move the sun?" I used to get a lot of laughs from them, and they liked me."
MICHAEL GAMARI
"My father was thirty-eight when I was born. He was a workaholic. He got up at six o'clock in the morning. I often wondered where the energy came from. He was involved in the Moose, the Knights Of Columbus, charity events, and always seemed to have time for us. I used to bug him all the time, and I don't ever remember him refusing a game of catch. He wanted me to get interested in fishing, and I made a bat out of the pole. He wanted me to get interested in swimming, and I refused. There are still a lot of dads like that, but he was kind of special."
Theresa and Jerry, local heroes. My heroes.
So, in my last column, I said I would tell you about some of my favorite places to walk. Right at the top of the list is the Little Tunnel under West Main. I get on the tracks behind the American Legion and walk through the tunnel and out the other side. I love looking through the railroad bridge near Heritage Park. Did you see Gillian's great front page photo on Thursday, the 8th? Walking in the tunnel is a spooky challenge, and I'm always glad when it's over. When I get through, I never cease being fascinated by the flatiron tenement that hovers over the tracks. For me, this is the most startling and haunting image in North Adams. I have taken perhaps two hundred photos of this building from virtually every angle. From there, I proceed along the tracks until I get to Hillside Cemetery, and then I climb all the way to the top.
More of my favorite places later. Do you have any? Let me know.
Visit Joe's website at: www.sevensteeples.com.
Email Joe at: manningfamily@rcn.com.
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