Sea-Ment

I was 13 years old in 1958. I had a job working for Rene Comeau Trucking. In Adams we pronounced the French name "Rainey," but thinking back 60 years, properly he should have been called Renee as in “Don’t walk away Renee.” But his nickname was Smokey. 

There were Comeaus forced out of Acadia by an English general whose house still stands in Marshfield from 1699. Adams was a manly town and you would not call a man a girl's name. You also would never wear a tie into Chick's Café. Unless you wanted trouble. Mr. Comeau would have been appropriate. Mr. Comeau owned the trucking company that hauled the limestone products from New England Lime Company on Route 8, Howland Avenue. Rene always drove a beautiful Cadillac. That's when Cadillacs were Cadillacs. He had pure white hair and a permanent smile. Nice fella. Mom waited on him at Eileen’s Dairy Bar in the Italian Zylonite section of Adams. Eileen's lunches were wholesome and awesome and there was a lot of limestone covered parking lot in which to park your big tractor trailer rig. Mom got me the job to keep me out of trouble. The $15 a trip, 15-hour round trip to NYC wasn’t bad either.

So Rolland the tractor trailer driver and I are at a dock at 7am in Brooklyn -- it is in New York City kind of -- unloading 100 pound bags of limestone dust. At the end of that particular dock stood the Statue of Liberty. Quite a sight for someone who had never been out of the Hoosac Valley. We would handcart it to the end of the trailer box and unload it onto a wooden pallet. The handcart took seven 100-lb. bags. Then a forklift operator would pick it up and bring it to a ship. Not all of it left the country. A lot of it went to line the ball fields of the old Yankee Stadium. No wonder that almost everyone in Adams was a Yankees fan. Some went into toothpaste, and the rest to animal feed. 

So around the corner comes the fork lift operator. To my total surprise, he is a black man. Possibly the very first one I ever saw.  He is well dressed, and his handsome smile shows some silver or gold teeth. He hollers out to us, “What you boys got in dem bags -- sea-ment?"

Why do I remember this so well?  It probably is the reason why today I am in the sea-ment business. And that's the truth. I am sure of it. Besides I would never lie to you, mi amore. Never.

- Bobby Bacon

Zylonite

Handwritten Letter to David Bongiolatti in Round Rock, Texas - November 19, 2017

We were friends from Kindergarten until the end of high school. We played football. Dave was a tackle at 6 foot tall and 285 pounds. Albin Mosher was the center at 210 pounds and six foot tall. I played guard and linebacker at five foot eight inches and soaking wet 160 pounds. We grew up in the Italian section of the mill town of Adams, Massachusetts called Zylonite. It was a kind of plastic that I am sure was environmentally friendly.

Hi Dave,

I know! I know! We just talked twenty some years ago, and now I am back.

People say that life is a circle. Well the circle is back to Zylonite. Check out this 1904 map of Zylonite. Pretty awesome, eh?  I have almost no one to share it with. Sandy did not grow up there. Bucky Volpe and Karen Bechard are muerto.

The Adams Historical Society newsletter map is wonderful. It was originally taken off glass plates. Check out Zylonite. It was all Irish in 1904, compared to all Italian in the 50’s and 60’s. Did you know that the street we both grew up on was named after a wealthy Quaker named Abraham Howland? Remember the Arcadia? That was their house.

Recently there was a story about Apremont Street in the Historical Society news. In 1904 it was known as Kipper Avenue. Kipper Avenue was the first place my ancient family moved to, from Savoy. The street name was changed to Apremont to honor the men from Adams who fought a tough battle and won against the Germans in WWI in Apremont, France. My daughter says the name means "at the foot of the mountain," and Apremont Street does sit at the base of Adams' Mount Greylock. The beautiful elm trees that bordered Howland Avenue are all gone, and the carved-out and blasted mountain looks like hell, but Mount Greylock is still there.  Some things never change.

Who grows up with a friend named Sterling? Well that mystery was also solved in a previous Adams Historical Society newsletter.

I send an occasional e-mail to Betty Hish. I was in contact with Beverly Banas until she got bored with me. She worked for the CIA in Russia. Really!

Eileen Blanchette and Albin Mosher are still married, and have done really well. They live in Rhode Island. They both attended Brown.

September 30, 2017 and Sandy Zabek and I are still very happily married for 50 years.

A writer found my blog about Russell Roulier. Did you know him? He was the second Marine killed in Viet Nam -- from our town. Thomas Edison High School in Philly lost 56 young men. He is writing a book about Russ.

Brown Street, between your house and Howland Avenue School, was where my not so great great grandfather deserted his family of seven in 1900. Remember Gumbo? I think my relatives lived in the second block that the Shepherds lived in. Closer to Billy Cairns house. He is gone also. The street was named after the paper tycoon, L.L. Brown.

My great grandfathers name was Bachand, which is my real last name.

Received a call at the end of this past June from someone claiming to be one of my brother Mike's daughters. Jack Daniels killed Mike at age 36. We learned even more about the Bacon family. But after Ancestry.com and 23 & me, it turns out she is NOT my niece.

I have suggested to the Adams Historical Society that they do a piece on the New England Lime Company, where your grandfather had so much to do with bringing all the Italian families over to work. Was his name Louis -- the same as your dad? You really should sign up for this newsletter.

So there. Aren’t you glad we connected again? It seems we were just at your wedding in Vermont, somewhere back in the late 60’s?

Your uncle Ippol Bongiolatti treated me like a son when I worked for him in the quarry, summers between high school years. He was a first class guy.

your friend from kindergarten     
Bobby Bacon    
from Zylonite, Massachusetts

Pure Doggies

--> Okay! I will admit it right up front, I thought that Barb Cerri and mi esposa Sandy's all-in-one-day adventure trip out and back to Adams to make pierogi was not their best idea ever. Turns out it was.

Cioci Florence Romaniak mentioned to Sandy, her niece, that Saint Stan's was making fresh pierogi on Saturday morning in the huge kitchen under the same church that we were married in, 46 years ago. 

 How much fun could that be? How many senior citizens will show up for that? Even Sandy thought that it would be all babcis  (grandmothers). Six or seven people would be there, I thought.

Well actually there were around 75 people, and not all were seniors. The volunteer ages started at five. Among the mostly-Polish folks were an Asian-looking person and an Indian woman from Oklahoma who had married an Adams Massachusetts native Polish American. I enjoy putting in a whopper of a story, or a cowboy tall tale, in with the facts -- but I do not need to in this one.

 

 Why make hundreds of pierogis? Well! To support the Polish Parochial School that is still operating. Although there are only, for example, nine children currently in second grade there.

All day long Cioci Flo would bring people by to see Sandy and they would play the Guess Who I Am game. Yes! Millie Czerwinski was there. She is 96 now. She was a close friend of Cioci Genevieve who lived in the yellow house on Valley Street. They had two sons and three daughters. Two became nuns. One married a Gwosz fella. They lived right next door to the Strezpeks. You remember? After 50 years we don't even remember the names of the streets, never mind the people, but Sandy did well with it. 

Two of the original nuns were there, dressed in their habits. Sandy and her brother Brian and her 342 Polish cousins all attended the Polish School. Most of them still have their welts from being hit with wooden pointers. All of them still have the abnormal, but real, fear of being locked in the closet.

Some of the older Polish women asked Barb if she was Polish. She said no. Their faces fell. But then Barb said she had Czech blood, and the old folks cheered and said, "Close enough," and Barb was given her own babushka and accepted. Sandy told her own whopper, that Barb came from Chicago to be there. Well she did, but not directly – that was thirty years ago.

The pierogis that they made Saturday were filled with kapusta. Someone drives to Northampton and buys 100 heads of cabbage directly from a Polish farm for this delicious filling. (???!!!???)

Henry Ford gave the volunteers ideas on how to go about making hundreds of pierogis. If you heard how to say “pierogis” for as many times as I have written “pierigis” you no longer would call them Pure Doggies. I can't even write it out phonetically for you. My Mom, Nora Lemanski, taught me how to say it. They definitely had a production line going at the church. Sandy said everyone worked hard and there were no slackers.

 

All the food -- I just couldn't write pierogis again -- will go on sale at the Saint Stanislaus Kostka Bazaar on Saturday November 23rd. They always sell out quickly.

Next Saturday they will be making cheese pierogis, my favorite. See you there.

Your friend,  

Bobby Lemanski Bacon   

--

Christmas card from Adams

Sandy,

Thank you so much for the wonderful photo album and especially for sharing in our pierogi workbee at  Saint Stanislaus Kostka Hall.

It was a pleasure to have both  you and Barb there to share in the fun and success.

In total we made:
cabbage  4,356
cheese & potato 5,036
782 dozen

And nearly sold out. At days end we had about 70 dozen left to sell after Mass.

Thanks for helping to keep the tradition alive.

We hope you can join us next year.

With wishes for health & happiness in 2014.

                                                                                    Suzanne

How Old Were You When You Last Saw Your Father?

Aniela and Josef Zabek

 Aniela Blanche Pater was either eleven or fifteen. It was not recently. Actually it was around 1900.  One hundred and thirteen years ago, give or take five years. No living family member remembers exactly when she left Poland for the United States of America.

Her friends here called her Angela. Her Civics teacher wanted to call her Nelly, but Aniela did not agree. Her son Casey told me that over the telephone today. I know how great the internet is, but I still can't get over the telephone.

In the family records that I have been keeping since 1975, in my handwriting, it is written that either Aniela or her husband Josef came on the SS Finland from Antwerp Belgium in 19I0. I wrote it between the two names. Casey's sister Florence says it was her mother, and they came through New York, New York. So then why does Ellis Island not have their names?  Furthermore I do not know how I came up with that information in the first place.

Would you like a poster or photograph of the SS Finland? Simply click here. Finding the Finland was simple. Thanks to Mr. Google. (Here, I've done the work for you . . . )

The Red Star Line was founded in 1871. It was an ocean passenger line and it ran from Belgium to New York, NY and Canada. The Finland was built in Philadelphia by Crank & Sons in 1902. Between 1873 and 1935, the Red Star line carried over three million passengers to North America. Isn't that fascinating? It is to me, anyway.

So tell me please. What years did Sandy's paternal grandparents Aniela and Josef emigrate? Kezia says emigrate means what country did you leave, and immigrate means what country did you end up in. Josef came to this country first. Aniela came next. They met in Adams. She had two sisters living in Adams Massachusetts. Mary married a Mr. Swistak and Sophie married a Mr. Zradi. He had a brother Stanley, also living in Adams. Work must have brought them there.

The Red Star Line traveled from Belgium to New York thirteen times a year. On board it carried 194 in first class and 342 in second class. You can Google the passenger lists. I did, but neither relative's name came up. I must have been using the wrong year. I simply added fifteen years to Aniela's birthdate to come up with 1906. But relatives are saying, "Maybe she wasn't fifteen when she came here from the old country." Casey today said she was only eleven.

Casimer and Florence, the last two children, remember addressing packages back to the old country. Did your grandparents refer to Ireland or France as the old country? Does that mean that Josef and Aniela could not read nor write English? At that time, in the Polish section of Adams, you probably could get by very well without either. I know it is the same with the Portuguese people of New Bedford and Fall River, even today.

Aniela's sister went back to Poland in 1938 for a visit. Aniela never wanted to go back. Josef planned to go back when he retired, but he died one month before his retirement at age sixty five. He was a butcher in a shop directly across from Saint Stanislas Kostka Church, at the corner of Hoosac Street and Summer Street. I think that you have been there once or twice.

Thinking back to why the children had to write the addresses. The 1920 or 1930 census would have all of that information. Did you ever see one? Marnie and I went to Waltham, Massachusetts years ago, and found with the 1900 census while I was researching the Bacon side of the family. It asks when you came here, how old you were, and from where. Occupation, address, number of children, and ages of everyone, and finally "Do you read or write English?" Fascinating stuff!

At the top is a photo that until very recently we did not know existed. Angela Blanche Pater married Josef Zabek twenty five years earlier. It is the only photo that we have of them when they were relatively young. It was a great find.

Thank you, 1900 census takers. Especially the ones that hand wrote so well that you can actually read them.

I will check out the 1920 and 1930 Adams Massachusetts censuses and get back to you. Maybe this coming winter. Or even next week, if this rain doesn't stop.


UPDATE: AUGUST 22, 2013

According to the 1930 Berkshire County Adams Massachusetts censuses, off the internet, as of today August 22, 2013, are the following truths.

• Aniela Blanche Pater married Joseph Zabek in 1912. She had two nicknames. Nellie, given to her by the official trying to get her settled in Adams. (Her youngest son, Casey, said in 2013 that she hated it, but it appears in both the 1930 and 1940 censuses as her American name.) The second nickname was Angela, which -- legend has -- she approved of.

• Again 1930 says Nellie came here in 1907.  Her birthday was September 1, 1891. So she was 16.  Not 11 like Casey said and not 15 like Cioci Florence said. Still very young to come across the Atlantic Ocean by yourself.

• So all the ship information in this blog goes to Joseph. 1930 said he was 20 when he got here. 1890, his birthday + 20 = 1910.  That connects with the ship information which I do not recall today where it came from.  The ships manifest confirms it. I have been working on our family trees since 1976 I believe. Now with the correct year, 1907,  I should be able to find her ship manifest, although the ship came over 13 times that year from Antwerp Belgium, I think. Well, it seems all the others did as well. So Aniela came here 3 years before Josef. That is how he spelled it for the ships manifest.

• The 1930 census also says that they were married in 1912. Cioci Flo says the photograph in this blog was taken for their 25th anniversary. 1912 + 25 =  1937.

- Robert Francis Lemanski Zabek Bachan  Roberto Francisco Tocino Bacon

Happy Father's Day / Still Cruisin' Around

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Still Just Cruising Around

Seems as though I have been driving the roads and highways my whole life.

My Studebaker.

Skipping school to work for fifteen hours, but bringing in $15 in 1959. Gasoline was 35 cents a gallon. Falling asleep in Chemistry. Three times a week the Comeau Trucking rig would stop for me right at Mom's on Route 8, always in the summer at midnight. Exactly midnight.

Mom got me the job because she was a truck stop waitress at Eileen's and she had a nice figure. Why do you always question what I say? I would NEVER lie to you, mi amore. Gulping hot coffee at diners along the way down to stay awake. Sassy waitresses. "Do you want to come to my place and have a cup of coffee on the couch?" Even to this day, four gulps and the coffee is gone.

Riding with the window down, with the diesel smokestack getting redder the closer we got to the great state of New York. Today when I smell that run-over skunk smell, my mind goes right back to those good ol’ days. Why is that?

I rode as a helper. The tractor trailer drivers went to NYC to deliver 100-lb bags of New England lime to the piers that faced the Statue of Liberty. My job was to unload.

Well my diesel is wound up tight,

I don't see a cop in sight.

Six days on the road

and I'm a gonna make it home tonight.

Thought you would enjoy a break with truckin’ music. Roy Sludge played at Johnny D’s recently and sang his big hit, "Too Drunk to Truck." YCMTSup. But I guess you can if your name is Roy Sludge.  

One day on a pier in NYC, a black guy driving a tow motor, the first one I ever saw, I mean the black guy, said, "What you boys got in them bags? Cee-ment?”

My whole family worked at New England Lime Company, soon to be eaten up by a company with the name of Pfizer. The Bongiolottis ran it when I was a teenager. Ippol (Hipe) ran the quarry section and his brother ran the rest of the show. Hipe treated me like his son. I can't think of what the other brother’s name was. Oh Yah! Mr. Bongiolatti. Louis was his name. Do you know those marble open pit mines north of Lucca? John Cerri, who was born in Lucca, says, "The Alpe Apuane are the marble mountains north of Lucca. Seeing them from the coast they look snow covered in July."

When worked slowed, those crews came to Adams, Massachusetts and with the rest of their families founded the Zylonite section, the Ee-talian section. Smachetti,  Balardini, Maleoni, Tomasini, Monchecci, Volpe, Carnazzola, Chiccetti, Sondrini, Dellagelfa, Delmolino, and Bianchi. First names were Aldino, Reno, Alvin, Elio, Ugo, Emilio, Carmen, Giovanni and Santino.

How do I know this you QUESTION? I grew up with Louis's son Dave, and he told me. Actually it was thirty years later when he told me. When you are living the dream you don't think about how you got there.

I worked the open pit quarry for three summers during high school. Drilling with jackhammers all morning and then blasting the limestone in the afternoon into Volkswagen size pieces that Dad's crusher could easily handle. It was freezing at the bottom of the quarries in the early morning but when the sun came up and bounced off those almost pure white walls, you felt as thought you had snow blindness. The impact would knock cans and boxes off Santino & Rosa Carnazolla's Grocery Store shelves. We rocked that valley ever day around three.

You never gave the blasting a second thought. It was life in the Zylonite Ee-talian section of Adams. Did a siren go off to tell that we were about to explode a section of mountain. No! You just stayed away from the Lime Company at that hour. Stupid question, by the way.

Did we have fun? As the quaint Adams people would say, "You bet your ass we had fun." At the end of the day of work, we would all go to an air compressor to blow all the white lime dust off of us. But everyone knew where you worked because you never got all the dust off.

Everyone carried a metal lunch box to work in the morning. Keeping your car clean was next to impossible. Dad once said to me, "When you are married with a family you won't be able to keep your car up as you do now, Also.” Mom's windows were so full of lime dust that Dad would have to jar the windows open with crow bars in the spring. That is when I started to question God. What the heck were all those fish doing inland that settled and made limestone and up 3,491 feet above sea level? At times we would find fossils in the rock.

The French Canadien "aye" Bacons were working people. Actually our original name was Bachand. My grandson certainly has that work ethic. When everyone around you is a worker bee, you don't realize that you can -- or should -- be any different. As well as Sandy and both our daughters, everyone here is a worker bee. Along with Dad's work ethic, Abel has Dad's blue eyes.

I learned a lot more on those trips to NY than I learned in high school. All of Adams were strictly Yankee fans. Screw Boston. They still think the state ends at Springfield. If I'm lying, I'm dying. Everyone from the Hoosac Valley believes that. Even to this day.

Highway miles, first as a teenager, then 44 years as a traveling salesman so far. I ran 54 ,000 miles during my crazy running days, but I have no idea how many highway miles I have driven. In Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula, we once logged 1,500 miles with Eileen and Tom or Elena and Tomas. An ancient hombre along the way asked us if it was true that in los Estados Unidos we have roads where 4 or 5 cars can drive in the same direction.

Tom and Kezia got me iPods so I ONLY listen to music that I really like while I am driving. I hate talk radio and NEVER listen to any music on the radio. Stuck in my ways? You bet. Lovin it? As they say out west, “You bet.”

“Where you from?  Massachusetts? You’re a long way from home.”

“You bet.”

My BMW 635csi.

Cajun / Zydeco band Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. Never heard of them? They recently played in Russia at the embassy and at the Jazz Festival. We visited in Connecticut just last weekend. Steve said, "As long as the Democrats are in office, the State Department keeps sending us on these goodwill missions. What a great connector music is. We get these ‘make the world friendlier’ gigs.”

More singers /musicians on my iPod. Jesse Lege, Magnolia from Rhode Island, and Beau Jocque. The manager of Johnny D's said that the best show he EVER saw there was Beau Jocque. 

Boozoo, Queen Ida, Clifton Chenier, Gino Delafose for sure. Boz, Bob Seger, Simon and Garfunkel, Elvis, Neil Young, Bob Marley, Andrea Bochelli, Marvin Gaye, the Delfonics. Jerry Lee and Roy. Spanish classical guitar, or even a CD I bought on Highway 40 near Gallup at a truck stop, called Fiddlin Johnny.

Linda Ronstadt, Cesaria Evora, yup. L. Cohen, all the time. Texas Tornados with Flaco and the late Freddy Fender. I am really entranced by Texas Border musica. Sandy and I love to dance to it. Unlike Cajun, you dance belly to belly, but it's all the same steps. It probably comes quite naturally, having grown up in a poor mill town in western Massachusetts. What? The Polka, you fool. 

Country music, not at all. Nada. Never. Although cowboy musica with Michael Martin Murphy makes me smile. 

His hat was throwed back 

and his spurs were a jingling 

and as he was ridin’ 

he was singing this song. 

Whoopi ti yi yo, 

get along little doggies, 

it's your misfortune 

and none of my own. 

Lo siento, sorry. I just had a cowboy moment. Do you have them too?  Well, we grew up with Hoppy, Gene and Roy. Every Saturday afternoon spent at the Adams Movie Theatre on Park Street. 

Oh and also in the iPod, Van Morrison. Carly and J.T. forever. “So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston.” No, I did not forget Arlo. I figured you assumed that. Arlo lives in Washington, Mass.

Today while cruising between jobs in my pickup, John Stewart of the Kingston Trio came on with, "July You’re A Woman." What a great sense of humor he had. And could he pick -- banjo or guitar. So as the locals do in Italy and Mexico as they pass churches or missions, I did the sign of the cross and sent it skyward. Where that came from I do not know. Although a doctor recently put me on steroids -- really -- and not only am I flush with energy, my mind is so very clear. One more day and I am back to my 67 year old life, but it certainly was nice being seventeen again. 

As for the Catholic thing, it has been a while. Could be my old age. Who do I think I am to bless someone?  It simply felt like the right thing to do at the time. So I did the sign of the cross or I blessed myself. What ever you call it. I meant well. But I did not mean it for me.  

Hi Mom. Still love you. Thanks for all the love and freedom you gave Mike and me.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad.

Your good son,           

Bobby

The Bees Knees

You of course remember that Walter Casimer Zepka, the Polish florist, had a place on Orchard Street, where he grew many of his flowers for his florist business, which was on Victory Street in Adams. Just down the street from St. Stan's. It recently closed after 101 years. If you got my Christmas e-mail on it and didn't hit DELETE you already knew that. It was just past Cherwinski's and across from Alibozek's. The Alibozek in that house was a Petrowski girl. She lived on East Hoosac Street. Do you remember her? Her father worked at G.E. in Pittsfield (this is how older people in Adams talk). Anyway, he died. You hear that a lot also. But did you know that Walter also kept bees?

The Polish Cemetery is also on Orchard Street. It is about two miles from Walter's gardens and bee hives. Two people told me this story at separate times while I was in Adams this weekend so it must be true: this summer as they were lowering Walter into the ground, swarms of his bees showed up for his send off.



Do you remember what Club Bacon's motto is? You can't make up STUFF like this.

Bobby Lemanski Bacon
I married a Zabek girl.
The family lived on Grant Street.

My (Former) Little Town

Without fail, around Christmas for the whole 43 years of our marriage, Walter Zepka of Zepka Florists would call at 7 or 8 at night and ask for Alexandra Zabek. Sandy would come to the phone.

"Alexandra do you want poinsettias at St. Stan's midnight mass in memory of your Dad, Jimmy Zabek?"

She always answered, "tak, dobry dobry," and then dziekuje (yes and thank you) gin koo yah. You always say good twice. I don't know why. I am only one half Polish.

"How are you?"
"Dobry, dobry."

Zepka's closed this year. I know because we never got that phone call. Sandy's cousin Joan Brodalski confirmed it when she sent us the little newspaper clipping stating that after 101 years, Zepka's was no more.

Here is a photo that our son in law, Chris Bernstein, took of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church. You called it the Polish church if you were from the little town of Adams, Massachusetts.

Russell Rene Roulier

Here is a photo of him.



This photograph made my mind reach back fifty six years to 1954, when I was nine. Growing up in extreme western Massachusetts was wonderful. Right or wrong, all of our parents let us run pretty wild. Loose reins as my grandfather Frank would say. I was sort of the leader of a small band of boys, mostly because I was the oldest. There was Michael Burke, John Louis Lawson, my brother (three years younger) Mike Bacon, Bobby Gamache (called Little Bobby, as I was Big Bobby) and Russ Roulier.

As a teenager, Russell really looked a lot like Elvis.


(Left to right: John Louie, Russ, Michael Burke, Mike Bacon)

John Louis lived two houses north of us. They rented. Most people in Adams did. No one thought anything of it. His mother, who was from Belgium and spoke with an accent, would call out to him, “John Louie, come here, dinner!”

I remember my mother saying, “Go holler for your brother.” No one hollers for you any more.

They were the first family that I knew that had a television. I would go there occasionally -- climb to the second floor, knock on the door, and ask Mrs. Lawson if I could watch their TV. I thought nothing of it. She would always say yes.

We received our TV signal from Albany, New York, and we needed large outside antennas. I remember being hooked on the “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” television shows especially. The Lawsons’ TV was black and white -- and being in a valley, the reception was lousy. Remember SNOW and the picture going sideways?

“When Knighthood Was in Flower” was my favorite. By the time Superman came to television all the families had their own TVs. Or so it seemed. I have no idea how or why I remember that, but when I saw the photo of Elvis Presley everything came back to me clearly. Google will back me up that I have the years correct.



Now you have to wonder what my parents were thinking when I would disappear for hours at a time. I don't know. They would not think twice about letting us load up our gear and camp for the night in the foothills beyond Gamache's cow pastures, near the old Georgia Marble Company. You know where I mean -- off of old Columbia Street. People from Zylonite referred to it only as “the back road.” I wonder if the spring is still ther? Zylonite was a plastic that was produced there with the help of the Hoosac River, which ran through Adams. This part of town, full of mostly first- and second-generation Italian families, came to call this section Zylonite. It’s funny, but none of the small group of boys I ran with were Italian. But the boys my age had last names such as Bongiolatti, Smachetti, Ballardini, Dellagelffa, Volpe, Tomasini, Malioni, Monchecci, Carnazola, Chicceti, Sondrini, and Bianchi. These original families all came from north of Pisa to work the limestone quarries and they still do to this day.

We boys, all around the age of ten, would set up camp beyond Split Rock, to the north of the old quarry. We would return home in the morning and I do not remember anyone asking us anything about our night in the woods. I know for sure that they never checked on us. That’s just how it was.

After grade school, in the cold snowy winters of Berkshire county, we would cut through Gamache’s farm, past the haystacks, and walk up to Georgia Marble on the old white limestone road, then slide down it on our Flexible Flyer sleds. No one ever said after school, "I'll meet you there." We just did. It was a long walk up, and at the most you could only get in two slides. Then it was a long, snowy walk back in the dark, along the path that you cut earlier on the snow-covered pasture to Mom's warm kitchen for a nice hot supper.



There were no streetlights on the back road. It was a long, snow-lit walk past Gamache's farmhouse lights to finally reach home. It could be especially long if the wind was blowing down Mount Greylock via the Thunderbolt Trail. We would leave our wet clothes and boots on the front, unheated porch. If we forgot to bring them in later, they would be frozen as hard as boards in the morning. I recall that sometimes we couldn't get our boots off because of the ice-covered laces. Before supper Mom would always have a shot of grappa ready for her boys. OK, so I made that part up. I didn't know if you were still following the story or not.

We played pick up baseball. You would just show up in the summer at the ballfield behind the Howland Avenue school and play. It was always hardball. Boy did we have fun! We also played War.


(That's John Louie's house to the right.)

Adams is very much a fishing and hunting town. John Louis’s father and grandfather were French Canadien AYE! You could always tell when it was deer season. Dad put a picture window into the north side of our house and from it you could see the deer hanging off the clotheslines of the Lawsons’ yard, two houses away. Playing War, we would dress ourselves in the World War II helmets and canteens of our fathers and uncles, carry toy rifles and backpacks, and go at night to the swamp near the back road. We would crawl up the dry ditch that ran under Howland Avenue and pretend we were on patrol.

Forward to June 21 1967, Quang Nam, South Vietnam.

A message was left on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It was from Wayne Gregory who called himself "A Marine Brother In Arms."

“Russell was an M-60 machine gunner. We were together on this hill in Quang Nam when he was killed in action. Russell was an outstanding Marine, handsome sort, quiet and intelligent. We were attacked in the early morning hours under the cover of darkness and Russell's gun hole was out on the flank. He is remembered and respectfully loved by his fellow Marines.”

When looking up Russell's name on the wall I found these additional facts.

The largest per capita loss of any town in the United States was Beallsville, Ohio --population 475. Six young men killed.

Highest state casualties: West Virginia with 711.

The Marines of Morena -- They led some of the scrappiest high school and basketball teams that the little copper town of Morena (population 5,058) had ever known and cheered, in the state of Arizona. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest and in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morena's mining family; the nine graduates of Morena High School enlisted as a group in the Marine Corp. Their service began on Independence Day 1966. Only three returned home.

Robert Dale Draper, 19, was killed in an ambush.

Stan King, 21, was killed less than a week after he reached Vietnam.

Alfred Van Whitmer, 21, was killed while on patrol.

Larry J. West, 19, was shot and killed near Quang Nam.

Jose Moncayo, 22, was part of an entire platoon that was wiped out.

Clive Garcia, 22, was killed by a booby trap while leading a patrol.


The youngest American soldier killed was Dan Bullock at age 15.

The high school with the highest number of casualties: Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia -- 54

The oldest, Dwaine McGriff at 63.

Killed on their very first day: 997

Killed on their last day: 1448

Most casualties in a single day: January 31, 1968 -- 245

Number of brother (pairs or more) killed: 38

Number of fathers and son pairs killed: 3


Chiseled on the Vietnam War Memorial is this:

RUSSELL RENE ROULIER MC CPL E4
BORN December 16, 1946.
DIED JUNE 21, 1967 QUANG NAM, SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY, EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
BODY WAS RECOVERED
PANEL 22E - LINE 33


And this is on the Virtual Wall at http://www.virtualwall.org

Russell Rene Roulier
Corporal

PERSONAL DATA
Home of Record: Adams, Massachusetts
Date of birth: Monday, 12/16/1946

MILITARY DATA
Service: Marine Corps (Regular)
Grade at loss: E4
Rank: Corporal
ID No: 2221013
MOS: 0351 Antitank Assaultman
LenSvc: Between 1 and 2 years
Unit: K CO, 3RD BN, 7TH MARINES, 1ST MARDIV

CASUALTY DATA
Start Tour: Not recorded
Cas Date: Wednesday, 06/21/1967
Age at Loss: 20
Remains: Body Recovered
Location: Quang Nam, South Vietnam
Type: Hostile, Died
Reason: Other Explosive Device - Ground Casualty

ON THE WALL Panel 22E Line 033

Sadly, there is no photo.

My boyhood friend, Russell, was the only young man from Adams, Massachusetts to die in Vietnam.

POST SCRIPT:

From Facebook: Lorraine sent you a message.

January 11, 2011 at 3:45pm

Subject: Bob from Adams, MA?

If you are the Bob bacon from Adams who has a blog then this will be relevant-if not please disregard. A friend who is in Africa right now came upon your blog and sent it to me-it was the one about Zepka's and then Russ Roulier. Russ was not the only young man to die in Vietnam from Adams. Here is a link to the town's veterans was dead.

http://www.facebook.com/l/6c3cfAz8kdTB9GrqiCYB5du6k8A;www.town.adams.ma.us/Public_Documents/AdamsMA_Veterans/warlist

The website lists two other Vietnam War casualties from Adams, Massachusetts:
Robert T Goyette
John R. Hartlage, III

I obtained the casualty information off THE WALL in Washington D.C. website and obviously according to Lorraine K. of Adams and the public records of Adams Massachusetts it is incorrect. So the story is even sadder.

From a friend in AFRICA ? You can't make this st ...... There has to be a connection with Joy Sylvester who just got there recently.

That Adams public records web site says 19 men from Adams died during the Civil War.