When Bill Holiday first started seeing articles in the Reformer about Vietnam, it was probably after June 1965. Charles Armour, Mike Canova, Jack Gouger, and I had graduated that month, and 10 days later we were standing tall on the infamous “yellow footprints” at Parris Island.
That is where we first learned that there were two kinds of Marine: those who were in Vietnam and those who were going!
I guess we were naive back then.
Growing up in Brattleboro was a special experience that only folks who did could understand. Good schools. Good families. Good place to raise kids. Anybody could get a job. No visible drugs, poverty or major social issues. Or were we too young or lucky to see it. Did it exist in the '60s?
We knew or knew of just about every one in town.
The Red Sox and the Celtics were our teams. We delivered the Reformer and Springfield Union on foot - door to door, not in the driveway. We collected for the papers face to face, not online.
Some of us boys (remember?) could go out on a summer morning to play baseball in the cemetery lot off South Street all day. Sometimes we would ride our bikes to the Green River or Halliday Brook to fish, all day. Or mix it up with basketball at Green Street School. Get some chips and soda across the street. Then bike to the pool in Memorial Park.
As we got into our teen years, Joe's Pool Room was the place we went to learn about pool, some of life's lessons, and maybe even smoke our first cigarette. Those were wild times!
I think it would be fun to get some of those people who grew up in Brattleboro during the upcoming graduation week in June to collect the stories from 50 years ago.