Well, not exactly.
But this photo — sent by alert reader Mark Potts, showing a 1972-ish Memorial Day parade — illustrates several key takeaways from today:
Westport Pizzeria is moving to a great new location.
Westport loves a celebration.
Yes, there really was a restaurant called “S&M Pizza.”
Is this a great town or what?
We used to go to s&m every friday nite with our friends They had good pizza and salad It’s not far from Main Street near Patagonia
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@ Mark Potts – Can you or anyone verify the exact year this was taken? I believe that’s me in the front row playing Trombone! I only played in the Staples Band one year, 72/73.
Anthony Dohanos, an artist in his own right, painted a very cool mural in S&M on the left wall. Knowing it might still there and possibly safe is a cool thing for posterity. Also Sam and Mike made a good pie, though nothing like westport pizza. I thought S&M made some pretty good grinders back in the day till I tasted westport pizzeria’s eggplant parm. Holy cow, is that good! You still rock, 2032264094!! Xoxox
S&M–the pizza was round, but they cut it into little squares. It wasn’t bad pizza–but it wasn’t Westport Pizzeria pizza.
Wow, I love it when folks provide old pics like this! Wonder if anyone has a snapshot of the inside of S&M, showing that mural perhaps? I can hardly remember what it looked like inside.
Side note: I was in Staples Marching Band in mid-80’s (when Jack Adams procured some really nifty new uniforms for us – including those crazy plumed hats!). Good memories.
Love Westport Pizza’s pizza and looking forward to enjoying their age old sucessful “recipe” from their new digs! (Hint – they better not change how they make those pies, lol).
I think Roger Bartels, the architect, did the redesign and renovation for S&M. Perhaps he would have pictures of that wonderful mural that depicted many Westport faces, familiar at the time. Or perhaps Shirley Mellor at Max’s?
Am I confused or are they marching “the wrong way”? What was the parade route then? (I haven’t been to the Westport Memorial Day Parade in many years.)
No. For as long as I can remember, the parade has gone from Riverside Avenue, over the bridge, east on the Post Road. Long ago it used to loop around Main Street and Parker Harding Plaza, and end up at Jesup Green. Now it turns left on Myrtle Avenue, and ends up at Veterans Green across from Town Hall (the old Bedford Elementary School).
Although I am a lifelong Westport Pizzeria disciple, I have to admit there was a period of my life when I (and my friends) shifted our pizza consumption to S&M Pizza and their square-cut pies (which were quite good – lots of cheese) – this cooincided (some might say directly linked) with our interest in beer, which we (like many before us) found to be a natural compliment to our love of pizza. S&M served beer in bottles, but more important to guys of my age they also served beer in pitchers, although they cut your table off at two, if I recall. And the two men that ran S&M Pizza were the polar opposites of the Mioli brothers in terms of warmth and friendliness; no one was surprised when they once famously chased off a robber by threatening HIM with a huge pizza cutting knife.
Thank you Mel for keeping Westport Pizzeria in the Downtown area, and for locating it in a spot where many of my generation already have some great pizza joint memories.
Look at the people watching from the rooftop in the back – so precarious! This certainly was circa 1972. I don’t think it was 1970 because that year the drum section refused to play in a protest of the Vietnam War. I think there was one drummer but I don’t recognize the guy playing bass drum. I was one of the non-drumming protesters, and instead collected images and taped sounds from the parade and made a multi-media presentation that I submitted at Stapleas as an independent study project.
Adam: I believe the photo was taken in ’72, because I played in the Staples band from 1972 to 1974, and I’m pretty sure I’m in the photo, which was taken by a family member. It’s been a few years since I digitized it, and I don’t have the original, but I believe it had a 1972 datestamp on the back (remember those?) and I logged it in iPhoto at the time as a 1972 photo.
Look at the kids sitting on the roof of the camera store! How Rockwellian, wouldn’t be allowed today.
I was thinking the same thing as Isabelle and William – those kids dangled their legs off the edge of the rooftop! Lots of “freedom” back in the 70’s (and 80’s). Now a parent could get arrested for child endangerment for a stunt like that!