Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

___________________________________________________________________

In a typical year of fishing for Atlantic sea scallops, around 55 million pounds are harvested at a value of approximately $570 million. Massachusetts is the state where more scallops are brought to port than anywhere else in the country and the city of New Bedford is responsible for a lion’s share of this annual scallop harvesting: we have been the nation’s most valuable port for 20 years straight with scallops comprising about 80% of the seafood we caught. We’re not only darn good at scalloping, but we’ve been doing it since 1883.

Yazan Elayan photo

While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported that scallops are not currently overharvested and New Bedford’s fishermen are more than eager to head out to sea and meet the demands of hungry seafood lovers, the New England Fishery Management Council said that there will be a significant drop in this year’s catch, to a predicted 40 million pounds. This likely means an increase from the average current price of $20 per pound, but that also depends on how much scallops are brought to market from foreign markets.

We obviously love scallops! Wrapped in bacon, seared lemon-garlic butter, fried scallops, scallop roll, broiled, stuffed scallops, in a casserole, paella, or stew, or as part of a surf ‘n turf, you name it, our love affair with the bivalve. Believe it or not, what we call a “scallop” is actually the adductor muscle of a saltwater clam that is responsible for closing the clam’s shell. The muscle only makes up about 30% of the clam and the rest is the stomach, digestive glands, eyes, intestines, a “foot,” heart, tentacles (yes, tentacles), gonads (yes, gonads!), gills, ovary or roe, etc. A strange creature that belies its tastiness!

Now that we’ve satisfied Joe Friday’s requirements about our beloved scallop, let’s have some foodie talk. We are the world’s highest-grossing seafood ports and the majority of that seafood is scallops, thereby producing revenue for the city and plenty of jobs, why the heck do we not have a Scallop festival?!

The insides of the saltwater clam showing the proportion of the adductor muscle or “scallop” compared to the entire clam.

We have a Seaport Chowder Festival (which does feature scallop shucking) Folk Festival, Jazz Festival, two Portuguese “Feasts”, and until recently a Whaling City Festival and Working Waterfront Festival. These festivals characterize everything that is quintessentially New Bedford. No scallop festival seems to be a glaring oversight and an obvious event that would generate revenue for the city as well as please tens of thousands of people.

An obvious idea is obvious, you say? Well, this is not a new idea, but instead, an old idea: New Bedford had its first Scallop Festival in 1958!

The festival was the brainchild of the New Bedford Exchange Club and the New Bedford Seafood Co-Op who wanted to promote the idea of scallops being tasty, fat-free, boneless, and nutritious and help boost profits in the novel industry. Incredibly, not many people were familiar with scallops being on the dinner plate and the two groups felt that a festival where locals could have a taste would be a great way to introduce locals to the idea. The dish they tried to promote? Nope, not scallops wrapped in bacon, but “Curried Scallop Kebabs.” Say what?

Poster advertising “Curried Scallop Kebabs” during the New Bedford Scallop Festival.

Each August, organizers would pitch tents at Pope’s Island for 3 days, and with the help of mascots “Sammy the Scallop” and “Susie Scallop” they would promote the festival which brought in people from the South Coast, Boston, Providence, and Cape Cod and beyond. They would flock to the annual event to gobble up the “Pearl of the Atlantic” in as many ways as chefs could create.

The price for a pound of scallops at that first festival? 60 cents during the winter and half that in the summer, prices which likely reflected the supply – more scallops available, the lower the cost for the consumer, and more boats harvesting in the summer meant driving down prices.

Each year, for a decade, the New Bedford Scallop Festival grew until it hit a snag in the market price: in 1968 there was a decline in landings of scallops while there was simultaneously an increase in yellowtail flounder landings. Organizers switched gears and redubbed the festival to the New Bedford Seafood Festival and alas the scallop festival was no more.

Postcard featuring two of the festivals mascots, “Sammie and “Susie.”

But here we sit more than 50 years later in a much different seafood market. There’s no need to convince people that scallops are tasty or that we should curry kebab them. Oh, we know scallops intimately now. How about we bring back the New Bedford Scallop Festival, the 11th Annual New Bedford Scallop Festival to be exact.

Can you imagine the aroma of scallops, bacon, garlic, and butter being cooked, wafting through the air? We could have live music, food trucks and stands, a shucking contest, a seafood market, and awards for the best dishes. All the area seafood companies could supply the festival with seafood, and feature their products and employees, while the restaurants can offer signature scallop dishes right from their menu.

Once again we would draw a crowd from the region and beyond, bringing in revenue and a boost to local businesses as visitors explored the rest of the city, enjoying and exploring all the New Bedford has to offer. How about it New Bedford?

Live scallop in its natural habitat.

Yazan Elayan photo

Yazan Elayan photo

_______________________________________________________________

Do you recall when the New Bedford Scallop Festival was up and running? Remember the mascots “Sammie and Susie”? Would like to see it return? Let us know in the comment section or email us at info@newbedfordguide.com.

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

_______________________________________________________

Today a mention of payphones, cassette tapes or 8-tracks, the milkman, et al can bring up confusion or disbelief among the young generation, there are some memories that we will never forget and never get bored of reminiscing about.

One of the memories that is a favorite of those of us that grew up in the 1950s and into the 1970s in greater New Bedford was Del’s Drive-In owned and run by Adelard & Clara (Choquette) Millette, known to everyone as Uncle Del and later owned and operated by brothers Norman and Raymond Choquette.

Del’s was a go-to spot for families as an inexpensive way to feed everyone, as well as a place a large number of locals had their first job at. Located on Acushnet Avenue where the touchless Rubber Duck Car Wash is now, the orange building featured carhops, the best frostiest Root Beer (served in ice mugs), root beer floats, skinned hot dogs and best-fried clams around.

Other favorite items on the menu were the “Swampwater” drink which was a mixture of root beer and orange, onion rings, and cheeseburgers. During Lent, families would head to Del’s to pick up fish and chips – surely no kid ever complained about getting their fish then!

Del’s also had locations in Fairhaven and Dartmouth across the road from Lincoln Park and many people have specific memories of the carhops (one girl had a gold front tooth and stood out), making 90 cents/hour in their first job, and of course, the miniature, shot-glass-sized A&W mug.

The popular thing to do after your family ate there was to head on over to the nearby Frates Dairy & Ice Cream later for a sugar cone of maple walnut ice cream or a banana split.

Do you have memories of visiting Del’s or working there? How about interacting with the family? Leave a comment or share your pictures!

What school or schools did you attend in New Bedford growing up? What is more fun than reminiscing? It’s a favorite universal past-time. While many of us hated school growing up – having to get up instead of sleeping in, listening to teachers give dull lectures using Ben Stein’s ‘dry eyes” voice, being chosen last for teams, et al – in truth, there was a much that we loved.

Recalling your first schools, your favorite teachers, making friends that would last for life, field trips, your first boyfriend or girlfriend, your first date, and other aspects don’t bring a smile to your face should evoke a smile, fond feelings, and send you into a daydreaming spell. How did time fly by so fast? It seemed like just yesterday is such a cliche but one that is true.

While I was born in Plymouth and spend my formative years in Plymouth, Kingston and Duxbury in about second grade my family moved to New Bedford in the mid-late 70s and I attended Hayden McFadden at a time when Mr. Beaver was a principal. I lived in various places – La France Court, Myrtle Street, and County Street right next door to what was then Kinyon-Campbell School.

I have fond memories of arriving at the playground before school started and playing with all my friends. We’d race up “the wall” made of Belgian setts that separated the baseball field from the playground. When school was about to start a bell would ring and everyone would run to “line up” for a headcount. Boy, if you talked during that lineup you got an ear beating from a teacher. No one could enter the building until we were no longer unruly.

Once inside we’d head to our homeroom class for attendance and the Pledge of Allegiance. From then on, the next hour or so was a fight to not fall asleep in class! “C’mon Joe, just have to make to lunch.” At my age, I remember very little about my teachers during elementary school, but I do have some recollection of them when I attended Keith Junior High School when it was next to Caribiner’s Climbing & Fitness.

When I went to Keith Junior High School I would walk from my County Street home a mile and a half away, sometimes alone, and always rain, shine, or snow. Looking back at that daily walk, it would be considered child abuse in this day and age when kids literally line up a block apart for their bus stops. I never understood that. I loved walking that distance to school especially if I had a bunch of friends to do it with. It was an exercise in developing social skills.

These days kids would rather avoid each other by either burying their heads in their phones or refusing to simply pool together at a bus stop. How many of us have been behind a bus and it stops every block for 4-5 blocks? In my opinion, this is enabling kids to be lazy socially and physically. They become anti-social, not lifting a finger to talk to a stranger and not lifting a foot to walk a little. How about having a bus stop every half mile so kids developed good health and fitness habits as well as social skills?

One thing I wasn’t fond of was being disciplined. Who enjoys that? However, in the 70s even though it was slowly being phased out corporal punishment was allowed. While the Dunce Cap was no longer allowed you could be sent to stand in the corner, write a penance on the board 100 times in front of the whole class in full embarrassment, and even have a rule smacked across your hands. The last one was always done by a Catholic nun, why was that?

Remember the awful, uncomfortable plastic chairs? Those were bad for cheak sneaks, because if you weren’t careful with the sneak part those chairs would echo so loudly that you went from sneak to busted. We had Trapper Keepers to hold all the important documents, cut paper grocery bags to turn them into protective book covers which your friends would draw and scribble on, pencil sharpeners were mounted on a desk or the wall.

On lucky days we would watch a movie in class – no DVD here, a massive projector using 35mm film that needed to be wound up was utilized. Personal computer, cell phone, or laptop? Haha! When computer class finally rolled around we’d have to share the few computers the school had. Everything was stored on a floppy disc – remember having to be careful not to touch the center? At best you could store a few pictures on the disk. We thought it was so state of art when the reversible floppy disk came out and you could actually flip it over and store more files.

Reports, essays, and papers would often had to be done on a typewriter. For doing good school work, you would get your name on the board for the week, perhaps one of those puffy scratch and sniff stickers which you could put in your personal sticker book, on your protective book cover, or lunch box. Remember the lunch box with its little Thermos? I had a Six Million Dollar Man and Superman one.

Needed a book? You’d have to use the Dewey Decimal System and look up the book number and see if it was available.

The school had programs like Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say ‘no!'” campaign, a few times a year we’d get Troll and Scholastic book forms where you’d try to raise money by having friends and family order books, and there were the pink disclosing tablets that would either proudly display how well you brushed your teeth or embarrass the heck out of you and show everyone how poor of a job you did.

For fun, we would make these folding paper message thingies, play Redneck on our friends (wetting your hand and slapping them on the neck), make “snappers” out of paper clips, and listen to cassettes played on our Walkmans. The girls had side ponytails, bangs formed using a round brush, and so much hairspray that it formed a helmet.

when you were mad at someone you scribbled their face out of your yearbook or wrote something nasty across their face. Boys popped up their collars, wore combat boots or Moccasins, and would roll up their pants legs into a cuff – pants could be ripped jeans, Parachute pants with a million zippers, or “Hammer” pants when MC Hammer became huge.

We had to pick a Valentine to the chagrin of everyone. Same with PE class and its Square Dancing and Dodgeball. We would have Cowboys and Indians day where you would pick one or the other. We would often sit in “Indian Style” and have arts & crafts revolving around cowboys and Indians. You could bring your Swiss Army Knife to school, something like cookies or cupcakes that your mom baked, and even eat any lunch from home that you wanted it and eat it in front of anyone. I think all of these things are no longer politically correct.

Boy have times changed!

The candy bar is as American as apple pie and baseball. If you ask any red-blooded American what there favorite things to eat were growing up, you’re likely to hear candy bars in their reminiscing.

The candy bar has been around forever and each decade scores of new ones are added to the vast variety. So, it comes as no surprise that the candy business is a $5 billion dollar a year business. Amazing considering that when companies first began to mass market their nougat, caramel, chocolate, peanut creations in the 1950s the average candy bar was a…nickel!

I’m not sure you can even buy anything in America for a nickel anymore. If a penny candy store exists anywhere, maybe a single piece would cost a nickel. I don’t like the sound of a “nickel candy store.”

The candy bar has been around since the 1840s England believe it or not. A man named Joseph Fry put sugar and cocoa and formed it into the common shape we see so often today. A few years later a Quaker businessman who had been selling tea, coffee, and hot cocoa since the 1820s came along and jumped into the candy bar market. You might have heard of this guy…John Cadbury.

Both Cadbury and Fry would soon join forces and mass produce a few types of sweet concoctions, Cadbury launched his business into the stratosphere with the introduction of the Cadbury egg in 1875. By 1905 Cadbury had a production facility, the first of its kind in the burgeoning industry with names like Hershey, Nestle, Necco, Mars and Luden throwing their hats in the ring.

Every since then America’s has had a deep-seated love affair with the candy bar. Who doesn’t like to grab one for a quick snack, at a movie theater, or just to treat yourself?

Here are 5 Candy Bars from the 1970s and 1980s that have come and gone:

1. Marathon Bar

This large candy bar was promoted as “Nobody eats a Marathon fast!” because of its size, which is where it got its name. The candy bar was so large for the time that the wrapper had a ruler on the inside. If the size didn’t grab your attention, the bright red wrapper did.

If only the Mars company knew what was coming for America – super sizes, Double Gulps, and upsizing would become such an American way of life that car manufacturers would have to double their cup holders.

What stood out to me growing up was not just the size of the candy bar, but its “Swiss cheese” look. It was a wavy bar of milk chocolate drizzled in caramel and had lots of holes in it. A sneaky way to save money?

Sadly the bar would lose its popularity and be discontinued in 1981.

2. Reggie! Bar

The Reggie! bar made by Clark was clearly a way to draw in the kids – what boy didn’t play or watch baseball? Slap a popular sports figure like New York Yankees right fielder Reggie Jackson on the wrapper and it wouldn’t take long to have a best seller.

The “bar” would deviate from the traditional candy bat shape in that it was a patty. a patty covered in chocolate and peanuts with a caramel center.

And every kid would unwrap that patty and make poop jokes and we’d all laugh, chomp it down and perhaps actually play some baseball.

While it died out in 1982, Clark would try to revive it in the 90s with a peanut butter center instead of caramel, but it wasn’t enough and it died within a year.

3. PB Max

Another candy bar that strayed from the traditional shape but still called a candy “bar” was the PB Max. This wasn’t a “poop” patty but it was a large square bar. It did deviate from the standard ingredients of chocolate, peanuts, and caramel in that it was made of peanut butter and oats on a cookie base, then covered in milk chocolate.

When the bar first came out Mars company who manufactured them did not state what PB stood for in their commercials, a part of their marketing campaign. Mars company would have fun with that and produced commercials saying it meant various things like portly ballerina, penguin black-belt, plow boy, pure bliss, parachuting buffalo, or pink baboon.

Every kid would have a blast coming up with variations of what PB meant, some were rather crude. But what kid would want more than a delicious candy bar that came with a little fun? At one point the bar would leave its paper wrapper and be sold in a small box.

There are rumors that the company will begin making the discontinued bar again this year (2019).

4.Sky Bar

This was my favorite on the list. First manufactured by Necco in 1938, it was marketed with a brilliant gimmick: you got four sections of caramel, vanilla, peanut and fudge all covered in chocolate. It was brilliant not just because you got such a variety in one bar, but because if you didn’t like one of the sections you could have fun and swap one out with a friend’s Sky Bar.

Unfortunately, Necco would close their doors in 2018 putting an end to one of the longest-running candy bars on the planet. There are also rumors that this candy bar will be revived this year (2019).

5. Seven Up

Trying to outdo Necco’s Sky Bar, in 1951 Pearson’s Candy produced two variants of their Seven Up bar in which had seven pillows or segments. One bar had mint, nougat, butterscotch, fudge, coconut, buttercream, caramel and the other had cherry, coconut, caramel, fudge, jelly, maple, and Brazil nut centers in each of its seven segments. It was like having the candy bar version of a Whitman’s Box of Assorted Chocolates. The bar would die out in 1979.

Which candy bar on this list was your favorite? Which one should have been on the list? Comment below or inbox us at info@newbedfordguide.com.

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

___________________________________________________________

I recall once talking to my daughter when she was about 7 or 8 years old and I told her a story about when I was about 18 years old and had to walk to a payphone after my car broke down once. She laughed and thought I was joking with her.

On a separate occasion, I came across a photo on social media which featured an image of a cassette tape and a pencil and stated: “People in this generation have no idea how these two go together.” Sure enough, I asked my daughter and she had no idea.

Besides the fact that this demonstrates how much of a dinosaur I am, it illustrates the speed with which times flies by and how quickly things change. Often we assimilate new technologies so seamlessly that within a few years we forget the old ways of doing things, or how things used to be.

One of those things was the standalone or freestanding Fotomat kiosks that made their home in shopping plazas – there was one in the King’s Highway Plaza. As an alternative to the Instamatic Camera which came out around the same time, the “regular” way of taking pictures was to take your film roll to developed and wait a week or two. Put your roll in the tiny metal and eventually plastic container with a little pop-on lid and bring it by the kiosk.

I don’t remember if it was a myth or not, but I remember everyone would tell you to quickly put the roll into the camera before the light would ruin the entire batch. You were supposed to go into a panic as if you had some type of radioactive material or a hot potato. You didn’t want to be that guy who ruined an entire batch of photos that took everyone a week or two to take and then another fortnight to develop and find out were ruined.

Fotomat was started by a man named Preston Fleet who opened its first kiosk California in 1965, it revolutionized the camera and photo industry by cutting that waiting time to 24 hours. Their kiosks looked like a garden shed or perhaps what the home of a Gnome would look like and these locations were a little bigger than a phone booth. Another comparison, perhaps pertinent if you were an employee, is that of a prison cell.

Throughout the day a courier would come to the kiosk, pick up the rolls of waiting film, bring them to a processing center and return them within 24 hours. Who remembers getting the envelope of pictures and negatives and quickly looking at a few to make sure everything came out alright before driving off? Remember the commercial?

Americans love anything that makes life more convenient and saves time so the concept took off. Exploded. By 1971 the company was such a massive giant with thousands of locations that they went public on the NYSE in 1971. By 1980 there were 4,000 throughout the country and this is when the popularity of the chain began to wane.

When this happened corporate suits tried to revitalize the company by expanding into the newly booming videotape market. You could drop your videotape off and have your home movies put on a separate tape so you could then record of your original. Remember this was a time when the technology was new and as with all new technologies the VHS tape was expensive.

In addition to this service, Fotomat sold blank VHS tapes and long before Blockbuster video existed, they rented prerecorded tapes for a fee, the equivalent of about $45. Hard to believe, right?

While this breathed new life into the company, it didn’t last long. Once “minilabs” arrived in retail stores you could drop your film off and then go shopping…then return to pick them up the next day and go shopping again. Fotomat took another hit. Then when these mini-labs got advanced enough to cut the time down to a few hours the proverbial nail was set in the coffin.

In 1983, 1,000 kiosks – a quarter of their locations – were closed. Within a few more years entire cities had all their kiosks closed and by the end of the decade, there were under 1,000 left. Finally, digital technology arrived to execute the coup de grâce.

While the company would die, their kiosks didn’t. The kiosks became attractive to small business owners who didn’t have a lot of start-up money and/or wanted a turn-key business for little start-up money. The kiosks would become everything imaginable and unimaginable from cigarette stores, watch repair, key cutters, coffee and locksmiths, to um, a house of prayer and chakra balancing.

Boy, have the times changed.

Chakra balancing anyone? Cultoftarot photo.

What do you remember most about the Fotomat kiosk? Have something else you want us to feature in the next “Who Remembers….?” Leave a comment or message us at info@newbedfordguide.com.

____________________________________________________________

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

___________________________________________________________

Dump a dime or quarter in the slot, get something. When I was growing up – in the 70s and 80s – vending machines were ubiquitous: you would find them in your pace of work, outside of many shops and stores offering an astounding variety of products. These days you might find them at work, but rarely, if ever, outside of stores and just candy bars, soda, and chips.

Talking with my mom and other family members about the vending machines of their generation it appears that they were even more common and offered even more variety. While the invention itself goes as far back as 200 C.E. in Ancient Egypt with the “Hero of Alexandria,” the 40s through the 60s were the contemporaneous Golden Era.

In the 1950s companies were mass producing vending machines and churning them out in record numbers. Some of the machines were one-off – so experimental or strange that they didn’t catch on. Which kinds are we talking about? Vending machines that dispensed beer, whiskey, cocktails, hot sandwiches or soup, cigarettes, eggs, coal as fuel, nylons, raw potatoes, pens, fresh milk from a tap, bikinis – yes, bikinis, loaves of bread, even car, home or life insurance.

There was even a Playboy vending machine where you could get a coffee, cocktail or beer for when you want to bounce back from your…ahem…exhausting extra-curricular activities. Sorry, no magazine in that machine, you had to supply your own.

Before the microwave entered American homes it was too expensive to own so there were machines whereby you could select one of the TV Dinners and use the machine’s built-in microwave. Some could shine your shoes or light your cigar or cigarette! It seems there was nothing that couldn’t be offered by these machines and they were as commonly found as the other fossil of the past: pay phones.

Imagine if they had some of those still today? Before every incoming snowstorm, we could race to the bread, milk and egg machines and worry about nothing!

One of my favorite machines I visited regularly growing up was the soda machine outside of
Magazine World’s right off of the Weld Sq. exit. I lived on County Street near the old Kinyon-Campbell School and walk there to peruse all the comic books. Since the machine was outside you would be tempted both before walking in and when leaving.

It was one where you would put the dime – yes a dime – in the slot, open the tall, slender service door and there would be a column of various brands of soda in glass bottles to choose from. You would see the bottle caps with their logo, grasp the neck of the bottle and pull it out, enjoy. They don’t make glass long-neck bottles like that anymore.

While America seems to have lost the variety and turned to limited vending machines specializing in sugary drinks, chips, cookies, and candy bars the rest of the world has a love affair with them. In fact, places like Japan are living in their version of a Golden Era and there is nothing they won’t put in vending machines, including “used underwear.” Disgusting.

Some of these can get odd or downright strange:

• Live crabs and lobsters.
• New and used books.
• Live bait for fishing, e.g mealworms, maggots, minnows et al.
• Lettuce, whole pizzas, caviar, French Fries, mashed potatoes, gourmet cupcakes, canned bread.
• Small versions of famous art paintings.a
• A variety of gifts already wrapped.
• Just bananas, sealed and wrapped.
• Toilet paper.
• Restaurant: there are a bunch of tables and a vending machine wall where you have a full menu to choose from. No staff. Heat, sit down, enjoy.
• Rhinoceros beetle. As a pet or to make them fight? Who knows?
• Underwear and bras.
• Pregnancy tests and contraceptives.
• Marijuana and edibles.
• Pornography with a “modesty curtain” for privacy on the genre you are picking.
• Legos.
• Stray dog and cat feeder.
• Swap-O-Matic: place a random item in, get a random item.
• Cryptocurrency: exchange real money for some bitcoins or similar currency.

Now, if they could come up with a vending machine that does your job for you while you go fishing, shopping, or just nap, that would be something.

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

___________________________________________________________

There are few topics about New Bedford that won’t bring out cynics. Whether in everyday conversation or on social media the tamest and lightest of topics will often garner some negative comments. The list of subjects that don’t do this is a very short list indeed. One of those is the iconic, historic, institution beloved-by-all Ma’s Donuts.

Photo by Paige Raposa.

In fact, if you want to get beat up for some strange reason, talk junk about the mom & pop that stood out among the land of big-box chains. I’m willing to bet when the police show up to find out what is going on and they find out some communist was bad-mouthing Ma’s Donuts they will pretend they have a more important call that they have to leave immediately for. Maybe those cops were one of the thousands who grew up with Ma’s Donuts over the decades and will throw you in cuffs and accidentally knee you in the liver while putting them on. Allegedly, accidentally, oops.

Let’s talk some “normals” when it comes to the shop that Ed and Sheila Lemieux started in 1984. Normal is saying that their donuts were the world’s best and no one blinking twice. Normal was Ed and Sheila getting up at 2-3:00am to make the donuts and being greeted by a friendly staff of all locals who grew up eating there – the first job for so many. Normal was not being able to keep up with the demand and running out and having to close shop early.

Skipping school or purposely being late to grab some donuts? Being the first place people wanted to visit when they returned from being away in the military? Leaving school or mass at St. Joseph’s Church and beelining there, maybe eating it at the park across the street? Stopping by to grab some for your co-workers, wedding guests, holiday celebrations, or for no reason at all?

All normal.

Photo by Kim Berche Brittain.

Ask someone why Ma’s Donuts was the best donut shop on earth and you will get a myriad of responses. The warmed-up fresh coffee rolls and malasadas, the legendary glazed or perennial favorite chocolate, the Strawberry filled pastry with real whipped cream inside, the Honey-dipped, the cheese danish, chocolate lemon, et al were part of the love for the Lemieuxs’ shop. Another part is that Ma’s Donuts and New Bedford are like the Eiffel Tower and Paris, Seattle and the Space Needle, the Empire State Building and New York – you mention one and you don’t even need to name the other as they have merged into one. Ma’s Donuts is just part of growing up in New Bedford, who New Bedford was and still is.

So you can imagine how disappointed people were when word spread that Ma’s Donuts was closing for good and going the way of Sunbeam, Frates and Homelyke Bakery in July 2016. When we announced it on New Bedford Guide’s page people from all over the world chimed in. Locals shared their stories about how long the lines were and how long they gladly waited to get one last fix.

While the owners were willing to sell the shop and supposedly the recipe, no one stepped up to the plate. Was it the asking price? Did it not come with the recipe? I’m not sure that it matters since even with the recipe in hand there’s no way that anyone could replicate what Ed and Sheila did and created.

Photo by Kaitlyn Rock.

Here are some of the comments by the community on New Bedford Guide:

“My entire life I’ve enjoyed Ma’s, I have no idea how to live without them!” – Sarah Jean.
“Always got my boyfriend’s grandma a dozen glazed Ma’s donuts on the weekends. He is now my husband – I wonder why?! ?”
“Just hometown local goodness!” – Jeanie Lemieux Hathaway.
“We have treasured your donuts, now enjoy your well-deserved retirement. I’m shedding a little tear, but it’s made of sugar glaze.” – Jeanne Plourde.
“I spent many a Sunday morning there instead of mass at St. Joes. (Don’t tell my mother!)” – Donald Machado.

Want to take a trip down memory lane? Read the hundreds of comments on this thread.

_________________________________________________________________________

What are your fondest moments of Ma’s Donuts? What was your favorite thing to get there? Leave a comment below!

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

___________________________________________________________

When I was a little kid – during the Pleistocene Era also known as the 1970s – I used to have a handful of mandatory spots to visit every week and in some cases, every day. Of course, what are these memorable spots if you have no one to share them with and the reason we all love to stroll down memory lane is that every place we wax nostalgic about comes with specific batches of memories.

It’s not so much about the building – though that is certainly one small aspect, but how the building itself is a mnemonic anchor. Simply thinking of a favorite spot evokes and conjures up memories of special moments, people, and experiences.

One of those anchors for me was a spot called “Magazine World” that was at Weld Square, specifically on Purchase St. across from the iconic Giammalvo’s Market. Since this was in the 1970s, I don’t recall the specific address and memory doesn’t serve me so well. I took a drive by the spot and what is there today is either an empty plot or an empty storefront. I remember very little of the exterior of the building.

What memories I do have, revolve around the sheer excitement of waking up knowing that I had either saved allowance all week or was gifted a few bucks from my mom and I was going to race down to Magazine World to get some comic books, likely with my brother Mike.

Back then, that meant a quick bowl of cereal, brushing teeth, grabbing any clothing within reach and hopping on to the BMX bicycle or just walking there. I lived in many places in New Bedford, but the vast majority were within walking distance if Magazine World. 868 County Street when it was 2 houses down from Kinyon-Campbell School, 13 La France Court, and an apartment building that no longer exists across from Ketcham Traps.

I especially remember the last one because I lived there during the Blizzard of ’78 where I woke up, looked outside the window and yelled “Mom! Mom! Everyone got so scared about the Blizzard coming that they left the city!! Come look!!” My mom said as she was coming to join me at the window “Why do you say that?” and I replied, “Because all the cars are gone!”

Superman was the best superhero ever, and if you don’t agree you are clearly a communist, you communist.

Well, turns out that the cars weren’t gone, but just hidden under the snow. As a 7-year old, that is mind-blowing stuff and as an adult, that historic weather event is still one the most powerful mnemic anchors of my life.

Anyhow, racing to Magazine World to see which new editions of comic books were released was something that was always on the “To-Do” list. I mean, it was nothing short of a minor catastrophe to be one of the last to find out which superhero was almost killed and came back against insurmountable odds, or who teamed up with who, or the next installment of an ongoing saga. Comic books were real news for us when we were kids and we craved updates.

Going to Magazine World also meant one thing: you got to grab a Coca-Cola from the vending machine on the way in or out. This machine was one of those that had a slim, vertical glass door where you would reach in and grab the glass bottle of soda of your choice and yank it out. If I recall correctly, it was a quarter for a bottle. Does anyone remember one of those machines?

Once you opened the door to go inside the store, I remember that you could hear the glory of an angels’ chorus sing and play their trumpets. If they didn’t actually do that, then I have no explanation – but hear the angels sing, I did.

Before you were stacks and stacks and stacks of magazines and comic books. They were on shelves and in comic book rack that revolved so you could look at what was available. I even owned a few of those racks at one point. Those were the glory days.

I don’t remember the proprietor particularly, but while I have no bad memories I don’t remember having any memorable conversations with him, so likely he wasn’t a fellow comic book junkie, just in it for the business aspect.

Excepting a sole quarter for the soda, the sole objective was to spend every single darn bit of money I had in my pocket and leave with these holy scriptures. My personal favorite comic to follow was Superman, and Mike’s was Spiderman. Of course, Mike made the wrong decision by choosing Spiderman, as anyone with common sense knows that Superman could easily crush Spiderman.

Being an odd bird, outside of the common, main characters like Superman, Batman, the Avengers, the Hulk and others (sorry, Spiderman was a minor character and shouldn’t be included) I loved some of the uncommon ones like Groo, the Archies, and even She-Hulk. I got a lot of flak from the macho guys on Weld Street. Massive for the last one, but the She-Hulk was probably my first crush ever, so whatever!

Many a day and night were spent on explaining why one superhero could defeat another, or what dream teams we wanted to see, or what would happen if “so-and-so” turned evil, and so on. This is what being a kid was all about! Letting your imagination run wild and just have fun. How many millions of kids across the world, across generations, felt this? There were a lot of great people – illustrators, writes, etc. involved behind the creation of comics, but so much of this happiness belongs to the late, great Stan Lee. May he R.I.P. Thanks, Mr. Lee.

Somewhere along the way, we all grew up and forgot and become angry, dull, petty “non-fun having” adults. We’d do ourselves, our kids, the community and the world, a lot of good to remember how to find happiness and have fun again.

Once I got a little older, I swapped out comic books for adult comic/magazines like Creepy and Eerie attracted by the amazing covers by great artists like Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta and more adult content and characters like Vampirella.

As I grew up, I stop reading comic books altogether, but loved reading and there is no doubt in my mind that my love for reading was rooted in the joy that came from comics I bought from Magazine World. I wish I could thank the owner for that today.

Some of the best memories of my life where centered around Magazine World. Looking back, the comic books were only one aspect of those experiences. For those comic books were meaningless without someone like my brother or Mike Motta or Scott Shepherd or Billy Rioux or Mark Cosby to share them with, to argue about superheroes with, to drink a Coca-Cola with. Sadly, most of those guys have passed away or moved, but they’ll always be a part of me.

Whenever I think about Magazine World and all those friends and family associated with it I always see the last scene from the movies “Stand By Me” and can hear Gordie Lachance’s voice saying “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody?”

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

___________________________________________________________

Once upon a time, there used to be high-end Chinese restaurants. In this golden age, the fancy decor resembled a palace in Beijing’s Forbidden Zone, the dishes offered were of an uncommon variety, and the customer service was exemplary. You could even dress up for the occasion.

People wanted “cheap, cheap” even if it meant sacrificing ambiance, menu variety, or quality. First, the combination plates came. Then the buffet came. These restaurants slowly died or replaced and now the words Chinese Food conjure up the question “Buffet or order to-go?”

Those of us longer in the tooth will remember a time when buffets weren’t so common and they weren’t even a preferred dining choice. There are still a few placed in the region where you can find these remnants, but generally speaking the idea of dressing up to have Chinese Food has lost its luster.

One of my favorite restaurants of this type – actually, one of my favorite restaurants of all-time – was Tofu Restaurant that was “on the bridge.” While technically it was on the “Fairhaven” side of the bridge it was a popular destination of people on both sides of the bridge.

Tofu replaced a Ground Round that was in the spot previously and today that spot is a news and magazine shop with a Dunkin’s Donuts next door.

The building had that classic Chinese exterior with large, dark, carved wooden beams, ornate and elaborate columns at the entrance, and large extravagant gate-like doors to greet you. It was like a fancy restaurant from Tang Dynasty traveled through time and crash landed like a TARDIS.

Inside was just as fancy, elegant and highfaluting. There was a bar to your left once you walked in and a quintessential fish tank that was populated with all manner of different fish to your left. Gazing into the interior one could see that just like the exterior, it was like traveling through time and space to a building in ancient China with all its royal trappings, decorations, and pomp. A full setting at each of the dark, wood tables, bamboo, plants, tapestries and Chinese woodcuts were spread throughout and the aroma coming out of the kitchen gave you a glimpse of the deliciousness that was waiting.

One of the things that stood out immediately when you visited was that you were always warmly greeted and escorted to your table and then your coat or jacket was drawn from your shoulders and when you sat in your chair you were assisted into place. I do not remember a place since Tofu that did something similar. The concept has died out in this region anyway.

The customer service was impeccable. I remember one time that my brother elbowed his fork off the table by accident and by the time he had bent over and picked it up the waiter was already at the table with a fresh, clean fork. While not a big deal in its own right, it highlights how attentive the service was. These days it seems like you need an airhorn and those small, orange flags the runway workers use at airports to get anyone’s attention.

But who cares about all that? Remember the food? While there were some Chinese classics and standards there were plenty of dishes that you just don’t anymore. Some were original to Tofu and others would now be considered obscure. One of my favorite dishes of my entire life was a dish called a Mongolian Hot Pot. While it’s been something like 20 years since Tofu closed its doors and I’ve had it, just these words have me literally salivating.

The classic Mongolian Hot Pot usually refers to a pot of rich ginger-based broth joined by a dozen or more ingredients spread out on a wooden block, but this version was a large clay pot with everything placed in it already. It would be tossed in an oven to simmer and marinate until all the mouth-watering flavors married. Inside the pot was an assortment of vegetables like Bok Choy, straw and Enoki mushrooms, wood ears, bamboo shoots, sliced chestnuts, green onion, and other ingredients I can vaguely recall.

The coup de grace that transports this dish into the foodie heaven stratosphere are two ingredients: the plump, juicy and succulent Shiitake mushrooms which add texture and lots of flavor and the tender, juicy perfectly cooked morsels of pork whose fat would dissolve into the stock leaving an unctuous velvety and Umami element. To eat it was life-changing!

There were a lot of uncommon dishes similar to this on the menu like some of the best Ma Po Tofu (“Pock-Faced Lady” dish) I’ve ever had, Peking Duck, Mantou (steamed Chinese buns), Baozi (stuffed Chinese buns – like dumpling buns), there may have even been Shark Fin Soup.

The owner was a man called Lonnie – I don’t recall his last name – but he was very kind and affable fellow. Once I bumped into him in Chinatown in Boston and he treated me like a long lost friend, showed me around and even bought lunch. He was from the “old country” and wanted his restaurant to be just like the ones you would see back in China – from items on the menu, to decor and ambiance, to customer service.

He was very proud of the restaurant and it was quite popular with the locals… until the cursed bridge “got” to it. When the bridge was down for an entire year for repairs (shipped of to the south) many businesses on the bridge suffered greatly and Tofu became one of the casualties, along with a friends business that also operated on the bridge. What was a simple, quick trip to a fantastic lunch or nice night out became a “We have to go 15 minutes around and through backed up traffic to get to Tofu.”

Almost instantly the restaurant’s clientele came around less frequently and to make up for it, Lonnie altered the menu to have cheaper items and prices. When that didn’t work, they added a buffet to it and that was the sort of last-ditch effort in a death spiral. Lonnie simply couldn’t afford to keep the doors open and struggled while the bridge underwent repairs. That hideous bridge cost more than the dollars wasted on it. It ruined people’s livelihood, careers and businesses.

While Tofu survived during that year, the blow to the business was one he couldn’t recover from and in spite of the fact that the bridge was allowing through traffic, people had either dropped Tofu from their mind or when they tried out the “new” and not improved restaurant and menu they were disappointed and didn’t come back.

Eventually one of the better restaurants in the area closed their doors and I heard Lonnie and much of his staff went back to Asia, likely bitter from the experience. They did something with passion, care, and excellence – they did everything right, but good ol Massachusetts does what it always does – kills businesses with red tape, excessive paperwork, permits, licenses, and permits or perpetual road/infrastructure construction.

The only other places I can recall that were upscale Chinese eateries – whether they are now or not – were Chong Hing towards Fairhaven/Mattapoisett way that I believe is a car lot or condos, Chuck’s China Inn on Acushnet Avenue and Cathay Temple in Mattapoisett. There may be or have been others but my memory is poor. These places may be excellent in their own rights, but no restaurant in the area today offers the style of customer service that Lonnie and Tofu offered.

The only place that came close in my experience was the one in either Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun. It was even more upscale, and that restaurant was an authentic Chinese Restaurant with the menu in Chinese and English and offering dishes like Bird’s Nest and Shark Fin Soups, 5-course Peking Duck, Wan Dou Huang (Split Yellow Pea Cake), offal dishes and more.

Mind you I enjoy the many Chinese Restaurants in greater New Bedford, but we are now left with luncheon specials, buffets, and casual dining expereinces. You have to head to Providence or Boston for something different than that.

Here is another installment in our Who Remembers? series. You can browse previous articles by using the search bar on the right or by clicking here. These articles are strolls down memory lane. In some cases, the buildings, but new businesses have replaced them. In other instances, the buildings or even the properties have been razed. Instead of a building, it may be a TV show, personality, or commercial that no one longer exists. Either way, it can’t stop us from taking the Memory Lane stroll!

As always we would rather this be a discussion. No one knows this area better than those who grew up here! Please, leave constructive criticism, feedback, and corrections. We’d love to hear your anecdotes. Please share!

___________________________________________________________

While I grew up in New Bedford, I spent the last years of high school in the nearby town of Fairhaven. Over the following years of traveling with my gypsy caravan, I would travel, tramp, backpack, all over America, Western Europe and back to Massachusetts. It’s like a tractor beam from which you can’t avoid or escape. I alternated between New Bedford and Fairhaven many times up through today.

I’ve mentioned Fairhaven’s Top Ten Forgotten Landmark’s and iconic business like Barbero’s Pizza and here I’d like to wax nostalgic about another icon, The Huttleston House – a place I ate at frequently growing up.

Don’t flee – I won’t turn this into a “Eyes, Dry Eyes” narrated historical article about the 19th century Fairhaven tycoon, the friend of Booker T. Washington. and Mark Twain. The information on him is voluminous and ubiquitous and would be redundant here.

One of the most popular topics that people like to recall is anything that revolves around food, whether penny candy, certain dishes or a specific restaurant. The list of restaurants that have come and gone in Fairhaven, e.g. Tofu, Ground Round, A&W Restaurant, Naughty Dawgs (Dot’s Donut’s and Roger’s Dairy before that), Homelyke Bakery, and the afore-mentioned Barbero’s Pizza are too long to list.

The Huttleston House Restaurant was a Fairhaven staple for decades before it became “Emma Jeans.” It was a place where people got married, celebrated birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and business Christmas parties. Over the years people would mention that it was the sport where married couples went on their first date, had their first 21st birthday, visited every Mother’s Day or special occasion. Entire generations regularly visited that family-style restaurant.

Attending Fairhaven High School in the mid-to-late 80s, I remember the Huttleston House Restaurant being one of the destinations for bringing dates if you really wanted to impress them. At the time, the only real competition was the nearby Pasta House.

This was a time before smartphones were the third wheel, or actually, I should say before the smartphone went on a date and the people were the third wheels. The Huttleston House Restaurant was considered classy, respectable, and in spite of that, the prices were mostly reasonable and affordable.

It had a special ambiance and was especially charming around Christmas time when it would be all decorated inside and out.

The interior always had that antique feel with its low ceilings, dark wood, and actual antique decorations – I believe they wanted to capture a bit of the 19th century, a time when Henry Huttleston himself roamed the town. The waiters would wear white Tuxedo styled shirts, black pants, and an apron. A large selection of wines was available. Slow, easy Jazz was always piping through the P.A. system.

Who cares about that though? FOOD. There was always some complimentary bread, rolls or baked pita crisps that arrived after you sat down and could be served with a homemade creamed dipping sauce or hummus.

I remember falling in love with the clam chowder as a kid. When I think of the Huttleston House Restaurant it immediately conjures up that clam chowder. Oh, and their amazing Baked Clams Casino. The Fried Clam Roll was the real deal clams and not strips, they actually used clams with bellies. Also “famous” was the All Meat Lobster Roll w/a Cup of Chowder, French Fries and a Pickle, which, if I recall correctly, was a healthy portion.

They offered a bunch of Veal dishes including Veal Piccata, Veal Michael – Lightly breaded & finished w/ subtly seasoned Tomato Slices & melted Swiss. Sauce de Veau, and Veal Oscar a La Huttleston was lightly breaded Veal finished w/ Lobster Meat, Fresh Asparagus And Topped w/ Sauce Béarnaise.

Chicken dishes were a mixture of traditional and original like Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Veronique – lightly breaded, sautéed & finished w/ Seedless Grapes & melted Swiss Cheese, Chicken Peach Tree with was sauteed chicken with peach sauce. Of course, every kind of steak you could think of, a variety unique, original salads, Swordfish, Tuna and Salmon dishes, Lobster in a number of ways including Lobster Savannah – removed from its shell, sautéed in a delicate Lobster Sauce w/ Mushrooms & Sherry, returned to its shell and baked to a savory goodness, and the popular Lobster Dewey -removed from its shell, sautéed in a Mornay Cheese sauce w/ additional Shrimp, Scallops, & Crabmeat, A dash of Sherry & Cognac, then placed baked into its shell and dusted w/ seasoned breadcrumbs.

OK, I’m seriously salivating.

Unfortunately, the restaurant began to go downhill in terms of quality. To this day, I am unsure what the reasons were, but bit by bit aspects began to be neglected. It was empty for approximately 5 years before it was demolished. I have read comments from people on social media that said the owner bought Mikey B’s restaurant and that you can actually order things from the old Huttleston House menu!

What were your fondest memories of the Huttleston House Restaurant? Did you have a milestone, anniversary, birthday or first date there?