Saturday, January 10, 2015

The One where A Local Legend is Corroborated

Earlier this week, I had one of the local legends that I heard several times growing up officially corroborated and verified to be true.

I grew up in a town called Natick. It is an awesome town with many of its own legends. One of the most famous - told even by my parents who had just moved into the area at the time it happened - was the story of our town's famous brush with greatness (it has had many more since).

It happened around 1960. A family from California moved to town. The family had children who were friends with Jerry Mathers...the famous character in Leave it to Beaver. According to legend, he visited and stayed with a family in town and it caused quite a stir. It was even in the papers, I was told.

While I typically believe such stories, I had always wondered if it really was actually in our town or did he just visit our town. I also wondered if it was in our town, where it might have occurred.

Flash forward about thirty years later. I was chatting with woman who actually grew up in our neighborhood at the time...on Curtis Rd. Although she did not live there long, she mentioned that she lived across the street from a family that moved in from California. And - she said - one of her greatest memories in that neighborhood was when the family hosted Jerry Mathers at their house. Although kids tried desperately to see him and say hi, they never quite caught a glimpse of him.

Wow....little did I know a famous celebrity not only stayed in our town for sure...but he stayed a couple of streets over from where I grew up.

I love it when local legends turnout to be true. Sometimes, the way you find out is just as amazing.

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