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Who ever heard of a "puppet baby"?
If you find yourself in the
Bay House in the wee hours of the morning, you may hear a
lone voice say something like "Don't you know I am an
original puppet baby?" Before you accuse him/her of
being in their cups, listen to a tale that might lend some
truth to this statement.
Back in the late 60's,
early 70's, a
group of Point bound mothers would drop their older
toddlers off at Doris Cullen and Mary Tommasi's nursery
school and then take
the younger ones to the rec hall. We would line the
strollers up along the wall and, while the youngsters
snacked on 'Fruit Loops', we mothers whacked a volley ball
around for an hour.
In a moment of guilt, we decided
to do something cultural for the Point children.
Thus, the Saturday Morning Puppet Shows were launched.
Ben Wilder made a magnificent
theatre and Jack McLoone, as usual, created our scenery
while the mothers made the puppets. We retooled the
standard stories to accommodate a rather boisterous, low
brow audience. We had what you would call
interactive shows with kids responding to questions from
the various characters, eyeballs popping out of puppets
heads, puppets squirting water at the young
audience, & etc. Such Class!
Well, of all the moms involved in
the productions, all but one became pregnant. Thus,
the tale of the puppet babies. These now young adults are
still sometimes referred to as the "Puppet
Babies". They are: Ann Donahue, Lauren Fleming, Danny Marcote, Suzanne McAuley, Matthew Nester, Michael
Paulonis and Edward Wilder (maybe Thomas).
Barbara McGrath was the one mom
not responsible for a puppet baby. That's probable because
James wasn't even at the 'fruit loop' stage yet.
Marty Nester and Jim McGrath were
our male villain voices. My aging mind is forgetting some
of the people involved. Please write in if you
were part of this cultural event! |