Man About Canton: Joe Uliano Was My Friend
By Joe DeFeliceDID YOU KNOW…
Joe Uliano was my close friend. As a matter of fact, Joe was a friend to hundreds of people. He was a friend to all the members of the Canton Town Club. He was a friend to all the people he came in contact with as a longtime, hardworking member of the Canton Recreation Commission. He was a friend to all of his fellow workers at Emerson & Cuming. And he was a friend to whomever he happened to meet on one of his shopping trips or visits to the Post Office to pick up his mail. Joe loved to cook hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill at the summer concerts, Fourth of July or block party events, and he was good at it.
Joe and I are a couple of old “townies” of Italian descent, members of the Town Club, Army veterans, and we knew each other for many years, since we were kids. When Joe died a few days ago at the age of 77, I got a lump in my throat. You know the kind, a big and painful lump, the kind that doesn’t seem to go away no matter what you do. I am not ashamed to confess that the memory of my friend, Joe, brought tears to my eyes.
Recently, Joe was painfully sick, and even if you hoped it wouldn’t, many felt his passing would come soon; and it did. In his passing, Canton lost a true and irreplaceable friend. So the next time you drive past Joseph Uliano Square at the intersection of Bailey and Pine streets, next to the Town Club, pause for a moment and think of Joe. Remember what a nice and friendly guy he was and how much we all will miss him.
The Halfway Café at Cobb’s Corner is running a benefit for Scott Herr’s scholarship fund. They will be donating a portion of meals purchased on 10/21 and 10/24. Tickets, which must be presented on those days to have the meals credited for the fund, are available at the following locations: Canton High School Athletic Department; Brookmeadow Country Club; and Canton Nail Salon.
Congratulations to Ed Mondor of Pleasant Street in Canton, who was inducted into the Norwood High School Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Norwood Elks Club. Ed is a former Canton Men’s League softball player for the old Italian Club team in the 1950s.
The selectmen are going to spend $47,000 to retrofit and convert all 275 street lights in town to high-pressure sodium fixtures, which they claim is an energy efficient light that will save the town about $9,100 a year. The initial cost reportedly will be offset by rebates of between $29,000 and $41,000 from NStar.
The Hockomock League has finally split in two, which hopefully will even things out a bit. The Davenport Division is for the smaller schools, i.e., Canton, Stoughton, Sharon, Foxboro, and Oliver Ames, while the Kelly/Rex Division is for the larger schools of Attleboro, North Attleboro, Mansfield, Franklin, and King Philip. Let’s hope that the split will enable Canton to win a few games for a change.
It appears the family-oriented Life is good music festival a couple of weekends ago at the 44-acre Prowse Estate at the foot of Big Blue Hill was a big success. Approximately 12,000 people of all ages attended on Saturday, and 15,000 more came on Sunday. In addition to some great music, they were treated to balloon sculptures, murals, arts and craft projects, games, food, and shopping. The proceeds from the two-day affair went to the Life is good Kids Foundation, which funds projects to help at-risk children. The festival helped the foundation raise over $600,000.
The Downtown Homecoming Block Party was also a big success, and there is no question that it was enjoyed by all who took the time to attend the road race, parade, and downtown events.
If you are planning to travel to the Cape in the next few weeks, you may be interested to learn that the Army Corps of Engineers has started work on the Bourne Bridge, similar to the work they did on the Sagamore Bridge. The work is expected to continue until December and will limit traffic to one lane in each direction between 7 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. on weekdays for one or two weeks.
A new study conducted by Northeastern University shows that the Boston and Springfield areas are among the most racially segregated in the United States. The report states that of the 100 large metropolitan area schools examined, the Springfield area ranked second behind Los Angeles for the most segregated for Latino students, while the Boston area was fourth in the same category. When it came to the segregation of black students, Springfield was ninth, and Boston was 28th.
Finally, now that autumn has arrived, you probably have noticed that some leaves have already started to change into colorful fall foliage. It won’t be long before they fall into oblivion as the trees prepare for the iciness of a cold, snowy winter.
It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is. Joe Uliano was both, ordinary and extraordinary. May he rest in peace.
This is all for now folks; see you next week.
Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=2324
Posted by Joe DeFelice
on Oct 7 2010. Filed under Man About Canton, Opinion.
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