Bytes from the Bean by Joe Manning 6-24-9912:00AM / Thursday, June 24, 1999
The first time I traveled to North Adams to give it a serious look was in August of 1996. After a morning bagel and coffee at The Bean, I took a walk around town and happened upon a door which led up to some apartments. I walked in. Why? Because I was curious. I was rewarded. I immediately noticed a skylight that illuminates the landing at the top of the second staircase. I snapped some photos and hurried up. What a surprise! The sunglight exposed beautiful old wood around the windows and on the banisters, a charming relic of the city's past. The windows faced out into thehallway as if looking out on some imaginary street. When i got the photo's back, I showed them to a lot of folks i met in the next few months. You know what? No one recognized then or had any idea of the location of the skylight. That's why I always show this spot to the Conte Middle School students when I take them on field trips downtown. Wher is it? Read on.
Several years ago, Deborah Bullett, a seventh grade teacher at Conte, started the Oral History Project at my suggestion. She has five History classes, about 100 students in all. The students are asked to interview an elder family member or friend, using a tape recorder. After the tapes are completed, the students discuss what they heard. I present a forty-five minute program to each class, which is designed to teach them the technique of oral history and to stimulate their interest.
I play a short excerpt of my taped interview with Venice Partenope, which appeared in Steeples. I ask the students to tell me what they heard and what was interesting to them. This always provokes a lively and animated discussion. Then I interview a volunteer in front of the class, usually an authority figure (like Principal Joe Rossi). After a few minutes of my questions, I turn it over to the students. The kids have a ball. Most of their questions are thoughtful, and a few are playfully embarrassing. Last year, some of the students didn't own tape recorders, so this year I was able to get a grant from the Conte Program To Prevent Teen Pregnancy to buy some.
Last winter, Ms. Bullett told me that many of the students wanted to know if I could take them on a field trip, so they could see some of the things I had told them about. In March and April, I took all five classes, one at a time, on a forty-five minute walk downtown. For the first field trip, I had no plan mapped out. I decided to improvise, because I wanted the students to share my sense of discovery.
We left school by way of the exit facing East Main. I stopped and asked them to count the steeples. Four, five, six, eight…they were all right answers, depending on what one calls a steeple. We wound up doing this at three or four other spots. I took them to the area behind the Post Office at the corner of Ashland and Main (Pizzi's Corner for you old-timers). There is a fence that faces Main Street just behind the stores at roof level. From there, you can see the facades of all the buildings on the north side of Main Street from the second story to the top, but not the storefronts. I love this view. It forces one to concentrate on the architecture. Most of the kids had never really looked at these buildings before. It was a good lesson. How did I discover this spot? I was curious.
Then I took them to the building with the skylight. When we got to the top of the stairs, the students were startled by what they saw. It was all "Wow," and "Awesome." Even the teachers were excited. One boy said he could imagine people leaning out of the windows and talking to each other across the hall or hanging clothes on lines strung between the windows, just like it was outside. I told them about the history of the building and asked them to guess how old it was. Later, we learned when it was built when some of the students saw "1873" written on the building. When we got back to Conte, we gathered at the top of the hill facing South Church Street and I asked them to tell me what they saw.
Several days later, I was downtown, and two of the students rode up to me on their bikes and told me that they were going to various places and counting the steeples. Another seventh grader passed me and said she had taken her best friend to see the skylight. Three kids came out of the Sports Corner and asked me if I could take them on a field trip immediately, because they didn't want to wait until it was time for their class to go. So I showed them the skylight. So where is the skylight? Read on.
A reporter from a national magazine spent the day with me last Thursday. She met me and my friends at The Bean at 7:00 in the morning. Tony Talarico, Tony Sacco, Bob Field, Carl Robare, Marsha Goldstein, and I talked about the city for an hour while the reporter took down notes and asked a few questions. Tony T. had some little gifts for her. Tony S. described the Richmond Theater, and Carl talked about urban renewal. Bob did his Walter Brennan impression, and Marsha tried in vain to get in a word or two. The reporter ate it up. Then she and I left for a tour that was to last until nearly 4:30. So, what did we do for eight-and-a-half hours?
For most of the day, the reporter followed me around with a tape recorder and a notepad. We walked through the Little Tunnel and looked up at the flatiron tenement on West Main above the railroad tracks. She kept looking back while we were in the tunnel, obviously afraid that a train was going to come any minute. We kept going until we reached Hill Side Cemetery, then climbed up to the summit on the north side and sat down on one of the big flat marble monuments. This was a nice spot for an interview, so we stayed there for about twenty minutes. We walked back into town on Route 2, took the path under the bypass, and crossed the footbridge toward Heritage Park. Just as we got to the top, a train passed under us and through the tunnel, hooked up to some railroad cars, and came back through again. What great timing!
I took her up Furnace Street to show her the view and the big houses and tenements, and then we watched the Hoosac Tunnel movie at Heritage Park. By that time, we were ready for lunch at The Bean. But not before I showed her the skylight. She was very impressed.
After lunch, we took a tour of MASS MoCA. We ran into Doug Bartow, a graphic artist who works for MoCA. He's the one who coined the slogan, "Infinity Capacity." He asked me what I thought of MoCA, and I told him that I had already visited five times. I mentioned that I spent six hours there one day and sat for over an hour on the café terrace just staring at the buildings. He remarked, "There are therapists you can go to for help with problems like that, you know."
We found a quiet spot for an interview, and we talked for about an hour. Then I took her to see my 100 year old friend, Julia White (see my column dated 3-14 for more about Julia). She was a delight as usual.
Julia: I have been having a lot of dreams lately. They seem so real. I had a dream about you.
Joe: Okay, so I will go home and dream about you tonight.
Julia: Where will you be in the dream? I want to be there, too.
Joe: How about California?
Julia: Okay. What time?
Joe: 3:30.
Julia: I'll be there.
I drove the reporter back to her car, and she headed home. Two days later, I got this email from her. "I've been all abuzz about my North Adams adventure since I returned. I'm ready to move there! There is nothing quite so seductive as potential. I keep thinking about the flatiron building…both of them, in fact."
So, where is the skylight? Not so fast. Do you know where it is? If so, let me know. If you don't know where it is, go look for it. But you have to be curious. I was curious. That's why I found it. That's why I keep discovering little things in North Adams every time I visit. People keep reminding me that curiosity killed the cat. That may be true, but it took NINE times to do it.
Visit Joe's website at: www.sevensteeples.com.
Email Joe at: manningfamily@rcn.com.
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