Growing up in Nashua, I never thought of the city as much of
an arts center.
Back in the late 1970s, when the Nashua Symphony tried to
join in the city’s Fourth of July celebration, their Holman Stadium
debut was
actually picketed by local residents.
At the time, Alan Thomaier and other area Cold War patriots
were outraged that Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” music by a Russian
composer,
was being played on what was supposed to be an American holiday.
It was a memorable scene—one that made quite an impression
on me, a junior high school student with an interest in literature and
music.
Well, how times change. Today, Main Street is alive with
interesting restaurants, stores, and shops. And the arts are a big part
of
Nashua’s appeal—new galleries are open and performing groups are
flourishing.
So Nashua has changed, but my view of it hadn’t. Until
recently, it was still colored by all the impressions I had gathered
and stored
while growing up.
And this was unfortunate. By remaining in the same mental
rut, I was missing the city’s full potential. It’s not really the same
place
where I grew up, and taking a fresh look at Nashua has helped me
appreciate
what’s going on today.
Are you in this category? Have you lived in Nashua too long
to see the city as it really is today? To find out, here’s a quiz that
longtime
residents can take to see if they’re still stuck in the Nashua of the
past,
rather than the Nashua of today.
• Do you still refer to Southern New Hampshire Medical
Center as Memorial Hospital?
• Did you buy your Boy Scout Uniform from Speare’s
Department Store on Main Street?
• Do you still refer to the property at 300 Main St. as
“Simoneau Plaza,” or recall when the property was Harbor Pond?
• Do you still worry about the Great Crown Hill Fire?
• Do you still think you can catch the Boston & Maine to
North Station at Boston Garden?
• Did you ever buy shoes from Vuscan, the longtime salesman
at the Little Shoe Store on West Hollis Street?
• Do you know what St. Louis de Gonzague Church looked like
before it burned down and was rebuilt?
• Did you ever go swimming in Field’s Grove?
• Do you remember the victorious homecoming of the Nashua
High School marching band after unexpectedly taking first place in the
Cherry
Blossom Parade in Washington, D.C.?
• Did you ever sell an item on “Bargain Box,” the old WSMN
on-air swap program?
• Did you ever cut class at the old Nashua High School (now
Elm Street Jr. High) and eat at Kemp’s hamburgers?
• Did you ever drink root beer at the A & W stand on D.
W. Highway South while watching railroad engines switch freight cars at
the
chemical plant down below by the river?
• Do you remember a time in your life when you thought the
old Nashua Mall was cool?
• Where you ever beaten up by older tough kids on the swing
sets of the Nashua Drive-In?
• Did you ever watch a movie at a theatre on Main Street?
• Did you ever check out books from the historic Hunt
Building when it was still a library?
• Did you ever have a shopping cart roll away from you in
the old Bradlee’s, with its warped and tilting floors?
• Do you think you can still see adult movies at the
drive-ins in Litchfield or Tyngsboro, Mass.?
• Do you remember when the Telegraph was actually named the
Nashua Telegraph?
• Did you ever get stuck in traffic when Main Street had
three active railroad crossings?
• Do you still refer to the building at the corner of Main
and Temple streets as “The Odd Fellows Building”?
• Do you still think Exit 8 is in Merrimack, and do you remember
when it seemed perfectly natural that there was no Exit 2 on the F. E.
Everett
Turnpike?
• Did you have excrement thrown at you by Tony the Gorilla
at Benson’s Wild Animal Farm in Hudson?
• Do you still call the building that houses the Court Street
Theatre the Nashua Arts & Sciences Center?
• Do you still expect to hear the noon whistle from the fire
alarm center downtown?
• Did you ever receive change at Montgomery Ward on Main
Street by means of the bizarrely complicated system of overhead pulleys
connecting the sales floor with the business office in back?
• Do you know what Lucky Strike birch beer tastes like?
• Were you ever followed around Economy Drug on Main Street
by the old lady there who treated all youngsters as potential
shoplifters?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, it’s time for a
Nashua attitude check-up.
Me, I’m going to listen to a recording of the “1812
Overture.” Who knows? Maybe the music will sound different, too.
— Jeff Rapsis
