I spent my early years in South Hadley, Massachusetts. My father lamented that South Hadley was such a parochial place, though he would never have used the word parochial. He was from Holyoke, across the river from South Hadley and he never felt accepted in the more rural community.
Actually, by the time I was going to school most of the farmland was converted to homes for the World War Two vets who were all dreaming of a home with a parcel of land. The town came to be known as a “bedroom” community for the men who worked in the industry of Holyoke and Springfield. My dad could make all kinds of off color remarks about living in a “bedroom” community and he would make my mother blush.
Dad was French and could make just about anyone blush, my mother was Irish and the standards she established for herself were quite a bit more reserved than those my father held himself to.
South Hadley boasted two major accomplishments, it was the site of the first canal ever in the United States though you really had to look for the canal by the time I came along, and it is where Mount Holyoke College has its campus. I couldn't understand the attraction of Mount Holyoke until I was in my teens and I found out it was an all girls college, then it just kind of hit me.
I was raised on the River. The Connecticut River flowed between South Hadley and Holyoke. Our extended Irish family had a cabin on the River, we all just called it the “camp.” The camp boasted a living room with fireplace, a kitchen, a second story bedroom with about eight beds in it, and a screened in porch. There was a dock down the stone steps at the Rivers edge and that is where we kept the boats.
We had two small motor boats and a longer boat that my grandfather had converted into a sailboat. One of the small boats and the sailboat were actually built by my grandfather and were in the fine tradition of the boats on the Shannon River in Ireland. I probably spent 30% of all the time during my summer months in the River or in one of those boats until I was 15 years old. My uncle Andy built a home on that land and he lives there today.
Our cabin had no electricity until uncle John bought a generator when I was about 13. The cabin had an outhouse and never had any running water of any kind. We carried water up in an old milk urn. The cabin was a perfect place for us boys, I never could understand why the girls didn't like it too much. To us boys the Kennedy's had nothing on us.
I went to school at the Woodlawn School, it was built I suppose, during the eighteen hundreds. The building is still being used today. Students in Massachusetts dream about going to Harvard or Yale or Mt. Holyoke College. Many buildings on those campuses are much older. I am still amazed when people in other areas where I have lived want to tear down schools that were built during the seventies because they are so old.
I learned to hunt, fish, swim, live, and love in South Hadley. The town will always have a special place in my heart. The Bridge Cafe in neighboring Chicopee has the best pizza on the planet, the River has the best fish, the people of South Hadley know what is important; their God, their families, and the values that they learned in the beautiful and historic Pioneer Valley, where older buildings and older people are always treasured.
