Dean Shalhoup

Longtime reporter, columnist and photographer, is back doing what he does best ñ chronicling the people and history of Nashua. Reaching 40 years with The Telegraph in September, Deanís insights have a large, appreciative following.

Sometimes I get calls and emails – and yes, even a few snail-mails now and then – from folks whose memories were jogged a little by someone or something or somewhere I wrote about once upon a time in this space.

Such was the case last week, when Nashua native and longtime resident Anne Zedalis wrote to me regarding my essay that began with references to the 1929 Nashua High basketball team then morphed into what I called my “personal mystery” – the period of time when Nashua High’s school colors were Royal Blue and White, rather than the Purple and White with which so many generations of proud NHSers identified, perhaps as far back as when the top floor of the original Mount Pleasant school was what passed for Nashua High School.

To say my essay sparked some fond, not to mention incredibly detailed, memories for Zedalis is putting it mildly.

“Something made me scroll the front page and now I know why … my father had his hand in this,” she wrote to me, referring to The Telegraph’s Website.

Happy to be of service, ma’am, I thought to myself.

Seeing those references opened the floodgates, and out came a stream, no, a river, of memories Zedalis has of hanging out with two or three generations worth of relatives and friends, many of whom had their Lithuanian heritage in common.

So, I figured, if I found Zedalis’s recollections a lot of fun to read, chances are plenty of other Nashua natives who grew up and came of age here would get a kick out of them as well.

Nicknames were a big deal back in those days, I think mainly those of the athletic persuasion. For instance, Zedalis’s father, Stanley Zedalis, who died in 1988, picked up the nickname “Cukey,” for the simple reason, his daughter said, “my dad ate cucumbers every day.”

Would that mean that her Godfather, Adam “Soapy” Bondonis, washed up every day? Hopefully, he did that anyway, and the nickname originated otherwise.

There were at least three athletes named Narkunas, although I noticed it was spelled “Norkunas” at times, especially in the earlier references.

While one of them, Jackie, didn’t seem to have a nickname, John and Anthony Narkunas did: they were “Janny” and “Tanny,” respectively.

Michael Blekitas was called “Kayo,” a nickname many tough guys shared, especially those who frequented the boxing ring: “Kayo” is derived from “KO,” which of course means “knockout.”

Anne Zedalis also remembers a fellow Lithuanian named Joe Stack, but notes that “he shortened his name,” not an uncommon practice for immigrants, or first-generation Americans, who worried their multi-syllable, all-but-impossible-to-spell surnames might hamper their attempts to “fit in” with folks who considered themselves “original Americans.”

Anyway, Joe must have been fun to have around: His nickname was “Silly.”

Among the more humorous memories Anne Zedalis has of her dad started with a prodigious home run he hit that not only left the park – which park we’re not sure, probably one in Concord – it smashed the window in the governor’s mansion.

The governor, curious as to who could hit a baseball that far, took a stroll over to the park, according to Anne Zedalis.

When the governor – it may have been Gov. Francis Murphy, a Nashua resident coincidentally – went to speak to the coach, “my father was all shook up thinking he would get holy hell and have to pay for the window,” she said.

“He just wanted to shake my father’s hand and tell him what a great home run he it,” Zedalis said, adding that the two kept in touch over the years.

Anne Zedalis undoubtedly has plenty more recollections to share, for instance her own athletic prowess, which she doesn’t boast much about, but might give some details if prompted.

I’ll be checking in with her from time to time to coax a few more tales from her treasure trove of memories.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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