Robert Kendrigan b. 1943 played hooky from school when he was seven years old. Seven years old. But the fish were biting, so I guess we can all sympathize. Listen to his story here:

Here’s something else I bet you didn’t know. Each graduating class at Sylvester High School wrote a class song for graduation. The class of 1951 drafted quite a nifty tune. Rose is such a good sport. I all but forced her to sing it. And now its here. Permanently. On the Internet. Forever. Sorry, dear sweet Dot.

Rose got kicked out of the Catholic church.

Seriously.

Want to know why?

She sang the Lord’s Hymn at her friend’s wedding in the First Congregational Church of Hanover. A PROTESTANT church.

Find out more, listen to this:

Rosemarie Mesheau b. 1934

Rosemarie Mesheau b. 1934 and Doris Mathews b. 1933 were both raised in Hanover and were members of the graduating class of 1951 from Hanover’s Sylvester High School. Doris was raised in West Hanover while Rosemarie was raised on Main Street. Are you curious about historic Hanover?  Listen in to get a glimpse of what Hanover looked like in the late 1940’s.

Rosemarie (Cobb) Mesheau played goalie for the girls’ field hockey team at Sylvester High School in Hanover more than 65 years ago. I had the pleasure of sitting with her and hearing her story. Listen to it here:

Rosemarie Mesheau b. 1934

I have enjoyed hearing stories about stick ball and Fenway Park, about school dances and store clerks. Ive learned alot in the short time I’ve been doing this project.

Some games were known far and wide, some were only played in certain neighborhoods. Here’s something that everyone played. I had never heard of an Indian Card before, so this was all new to me. I thought it was very interesting. Give a listen and learn how to play Indian Cards from Jack McKenna: 

When Frank Barone was young, he had the chance to see a world series game at Yankee Stadium. It was October 8, 1956, in game 5 of the World Series and Don Larsen of the NY Yankees threw the perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Its the only perfect game in the history of the world series.

Hear all about it from Frank: 

While talking to Frank, Cornelius and Jack, they all had a story about how they got their first baseball glove. So different from today when we buy our kids all new equipment in time to start tee ball in kindergarten. Give a listen and hear what they have to say: 

What’s a pimple ball?

Members of the greatest generation played a game called half ball. Jack McKenna was raised in Dorchester and is 79 years old. He explained the principles of half ball to me during last week’s interview. I hope the statute of limitations on stolen mops has expired.

Listen to the story of half ball here: