Coolidge Square

I was recently at getting my favorite cold weather beverage, vanilla chai tea. As I looked around, I thought about how much the area has changed since I first frequented it as a child. Dunkin’ Donuts was not there back then, nor was the stop light at the corner of Bigelow Ave. I suppose I understand why that light is currently there, but I also find it highly annoying because when I drive through Coolidge Square, I often get stopped by a red light both there and at Arlington Street, just a short block away.

Watertown Square, the larger square at the center of town, gets most of the attention, but Coolidge Square has always had a lot to offer as well. Watertown Square had Woolworth’s, a good-sized five-and-ten-cent store, complete with a lunch counter. Coolidge Square had a smaller five and ten; I think its name was L&M. When my mother and I shopped in that store, the owner would follow us around. We were a bit miffed about that, wondering if he thought we were going to steal something, and why he would think that. (Ironically, my mother was the most honest person I’ve ever known.) Though this store didn’t have a lunch counter, Rand’s Drug Store down the street did.

Since I lived closer to Coolidge, I spent a lot more time in that square when I was little. My mother didn’t drive so we would often walk there when she had errands to do. We would go to Kreem’s Camera & Card Shop to get photos developed. I always remember Mr. Kreem wearing his AmVets cap; he marched in the Memorial Day parade with that group. I also used to get stickers in that store, which makes me realize that kids always loved stickers, though I’m not really sure why that is. Stickers came in thin booklets, similar in size and shape to a checkbook. But these stickers had to be licked to be used; back then, nothing was self-stick.

Deep in the recesses of my mind, I think I remember a First National supermarket/grocery store in the square. I also think there was a Chinese laundry. Closer to the front of my mind are two major businesses that were in the Square: the Coolidge Theater and Randy’s Bowlaway.

Yes, there was a movie theater in Coolidge Square. In a recent discussion on Facebook, I was reminiscing with some folks I grew up with about the theater. Several fondly remembered the Saturday kids’ matinees where popcorn would be flying through the air, though I must admit I have no memories of the popcorn food fights.

I do remember when an old “Batman” movie was playing there. This was when the “Batman” TV show was huge, and my friends and I just had to see the movie. “Batman” was supposed to be making an appearance at the show and we asked the man at the theater who would be playing “Batman.” He repeatedly insisted that the real Batman would be there. We were annoyed and insulted by this: we might have been young and naïve enough to think that Adam West could actually be coming to our local theater, but we weren’t so young that we thought Batman really existed.

We also used to enjoy going bowling at Randy’s, owned by the same Randy who also opened , which continues to be in business on School Street (and three other locations). Sadly, the bowling alley is long gone, as are most of the other bowling alleys that were in towns surrounding Watertown.

Though Coolidge Square is still a bustling area with many vibrant stores and restaurants, most of the places I remember from my childhood are long gone. Kay’s Fruit, where everyone from the East End used to get their produce, was one of the more long-lived stores in the square, as it wasn’t that many years ago that it closed. But there is one place I remember that is still there: Though it wasn’t yet “Deluxe,” the was in Coolidge Square when I was growing up. It has expanded and is under different ownership, but I still think of it as a tie to the past in Coolidge Square.