MAMARONECK MEMORIES
An Oral History Interview by Dr. Darla Shaw
Dr. Darla Shaw continues to research Mamaroneck History. She is now exploring our history through personal interviews. She meets with people raised in Mamaroneck and listens to their life story, guiding them to shed light on what life was like growing up in the community. This featured interview is Barrie Proctor Bonacci. Barrie’s memories about growing up in Mamaroneck are insightful and shed light on how much has changed – yet how much remains the same in our community.
After the Barrie Proctor Bonacci interview, enjoy Darla’s video interview with Jack Brewer.
Barrie Proctor Bonacci recalls growing up in Mamaroneck
“Sometimes you don’t realize how much you miss a place until you move away,” is a quote from Barrie Proctor Bonacci, who grew up in Mamaroneck in the 1940s and 1950s.
Barrie is now eighty and spent half of her life in Mamaroneck and half of her life in North Salem, N.Y. She was a graduate of the Mamaroneck High School class of 1959 and her husband, Tom Bonacci, is a graduate of MHS class of 1956.
Although Barrie is no longer a resident, she continually returns to Mamaroneck to meet with old friends and visit her favorite locations. She has helped classmate Vivien Bonnist Cord organize the 10th through 59th reunions and the 59th, 70th, and 80th birthday celebrations.
Barrie’s father, Beresford, moved to their house in 1914 on the corner of Palmer and Heathcote when he was 16 years old. The house was built in 1902. He then went on to raise his family of three beautiful daughters there; Marilyn, Janet and Barrie. When Beresford died in 1994, Barrie’s older sister, Marilyn Proctor Monsanto, took over the family home. Beresford Proctor was in oriental rug sales, was with Peter Doran Real Estate and later became the vice president of the Larchmont Federal Savings and Loan.
Gallery: Family photos
Use the arrows to move through the gallery.
In addition to being a very smart and talented man, Barrie’s father was very concerned about the environment and what DDT was doing to the blue bird population. To help the cause, her father would go to the basement and make over 300 blue bird houses to give to various organizations, private home owners and nature centers to help preserve these birds. He asked if they would just contact him if any of the houses had blue birds in them.
Barrie loved the story of her parent’s dating. Her father would row from Harbor Island to Milton Point, Rye, NY to see the love of his life, Margaret Varian, whose parents owned Sea Horse Yacht Club in Rye. Being on or near the water has always been important to Barrie. She loves the boating and yachting clubs in the area, the harbor, Manor Park, Orienta Point, Shore Acres, and Harbor Island. She cannot think of any other place where she would have preferred to grow up. For Barrie there is no place that is more beautiful or has more activities than Mamaroneck.
At age 4 Barrie learned to swim with swim coach, Steve Johnson. He was the head lifeguard at the Harbor. The swim park area in Mamaroneck is now named after Steve. He was a wonderful coach and Barries favorite competition stroke was the breaststroke. She won three medals, all third place. As a young girl Barrie also learned to play tennis on the Harbor Island tennis courts. In town she also took horseback riding lessons at Kentucky Stables on Mamaroneck Avenue.
When Barrie was 8 years old, her oldest sister, Marilyn age 16, contracted polio. That was very scary to say the least. She was taken to Grasslands Hospital, and Barrie wasn't able to visit her at all. Marilyn later told her that because the hospital was so crowded, she had to stay on a bed in the hallway with many other people doing the same thing. She saw people dying and was very afraid. Luckily Marilyn came home without any problems, thank you God.
Back in the 1940s, children could walk or ride their bicycles anywhere in town on their own. Barrie remembers walking to Harbor Island at 8 in the morning so she could practice swimming with the team and staying a good part of the day. Her Mom would come down later on, bringing Barrie’s sisters to enjoy themselves and then they all would leave so that they were home for dinner with their father.
Also at an early age, Barrie took piano lessons from Mrs. Thompson, who came to the house to teach. Barrie’s grandfather was a church organist, her mother and her sisters played the piano. Barrie also loved to sing and sang in the St. Thomas Church choir, in Junior and Senior High school glee clubs. Mamaroneck was a great place for the arts.
Family outings were always fun for Barrie and her family. The family always looked forward to a day at Playland, time in Saxon Woods Park, going up to Sherwood Island.
Barrie’s elementary school experience at the old Central School was a good one. She remembers the teachers being kind and helpful. Barrie also must thank her special reading teacher, Mrs. Kaufmann, for all her help. Barrie had a problem where words or letters would be missing and she had to continually reread passages. In Junior High, Mrs. Tuttle was her 7th grade homeroom teacher; whose husband was a principal at one point. Barrie kept in touch with her until Mrs. Tuttle’s death many years later.
As a young child, Barrie loved going to the Mamaroneck movie house on Saturdays, seeing cartoons, special features, and advertisements all for twenty-five cents. It was also a great place to meet her friends. If you were lucky, you could see Buster Crabbe, the famous swimmer, in the audience.
Girl Scouts was important to Barrie. She had the same scout leader, Ms. Jean Peterson, from 1st grade through 12th. With Ms. Peterson, Barrie was involved in creative projects as well as cooking, sewing, and typical homemaking skills. Another fun thing they did was go to Washington on a bus and meet up with a few troops, and they also went camping.
In Junior High School (which is now where a portion of Mamaroneck High School on the Post Road is located) Barrie remembers having to change for gym into this horrible blue shorts/dress with a tie in front. In elementary school they just wore their regular clothing. She also remembers Friday night there was a fun night at the school. You could play basketball, ping pong, board games and there was music to dance to. Of course, at that age, all the girls stood on one side of the gym and the boys stood on the other side. The program was called the canteen.
The James Fenimore Cooper murals in the Junior High School Cafeteria were important to Barrie. They brought back good memories. She went back to MHS to photograph all the murals. She is glad they are being preserved.
Also, when Barrie was in school, manners and etiquette were very important. You respected people, helped people and minded you P’s and Q’s. Everyone was very neat and would never be seen with ripped clothes or patches on clothes like they do now. Actually, the girls wore skirts, not jeans.
Barrie remembers that she was sent with her friends to ball room dancing classes at the Shore Acres Club House. Here they wore party dresses and gloves and learned to waltz and do the foxtrot. These lessons helped many later on in life.
When it came to shopping, Barrie’s mom would take her to Bloomingdale’s in New Rochelle for special items or to Alexander’s in White Plains. Shopping in the ninety-nine cent bins at Alexander’s was fun for the family. When shopping locally Barrie and her family frequented Charlottes, Jane Allen’s, Main Hosiery and Anita’s.
Food wise, everyone in Mamaroneck High School went to Walter’s for hot dogs. Everyone also had at least one experience leaving school and going across the street. Barrie only did this once, however, because she got caught, she was taken to the principal’s office and reprimanded. She never attempted this feat again.
Beside Walters, Barrie and her friends loved Cook’s, Joe Galimi’s Pizza and Sal’s Pizza. Of course, for special occasions you looked forward to going to Washington Arms. Nothing could compete with the pie a la mode at Washington Arms.
In Mamaroneck High School Barrie remembers a Mr. Earl. Everyone loved him because he was so personable, caring and knew just about everyone, and treated everyone with respect. However, what Barrie most remembers about high school, tenth grade, was going to Robert’s Army Navy Store to buy a sweatshirt for gym class. This event was most memorable as it is here that she met Tom Bonacci, a salesclerk, to whom she would be married for the next 60 years. Since they were not in high school at the same time, they did not know each other from school. It is also interesting to note that they lived near one another in town. Barrie lived at the bottom of the hill and Tom lived at the top.
While in high school, Barrie was one of the Senior girls chosen to do some modeling at Jonathan Winter’s house, the famous comedian. Also, Barrie worked for a short while as a salesperson at Alexander’s in White Plains, and at various local firms in Mamaroneck such as T.L.C and Selectro.
The senior prom was always a highlight at Mamaroneck High School with the day after spent at Jones Beach. Graduation was also important to everyone as it meant that friends would begin to see less of each other and all take different career paths. Hopefully, most would make it back for reunions.
After high school Barrie went off to Dean Junior College in Massachusetts and majored in secretarial studies, which was common at the time. After graduation, Barrie married Tom on Valentine’s Day.
Barrie and Tom’s first apartment was on Hall Street behind Washington Arms. They lived on the top floor of a house but soon moved to Richbell Road Apartments on Palmer Avenue. Their next move was to Palmer Court and then on to their present home in North Salem in 1975. While dating, Barrie and Tom would go canoeing in North Salem, on Lake Waccabuc, never thinking that they would someday live there.
Barrie loves people and they love her. Barrie fills Facebook with her great photos of Mamaroneck.
Barrie made a difference when she was a young girl growing up in Mamaroneck. Barrie is still making a difference today as she continues to celebrate Mamaroneck and make connections with people that she knew in the past. Once you were a friend of Barrie’s, you are always her friend.
Jack Brewer reminisces about Brewer’s Hardware, marinas (video)
Darla Shaw interviews Jack Brewer, whose family owned an iconic Mamaroneck business for 140 years, Brewer’s. The interview took place Dec. 2, 2021, on Zoom. Viewers also shared Brewer's stories. The event was co-sponsored by the Mamaroneck Historical Society and Mamaroneck Public Library.
Brewer talked about topics including these (with timestamp in the video):
The family’s history in Mamaroneck – 2:55 into the video
Depression’s impact – 5:05
Lumber yard burns in 1950s – 8:00
‘Dedicated to the store’: What made John Brewer, Brewer’s special – 9:10
‘A changing world’: Why Brewer’s Hardware closed – 29:30
Mamaroneck school memories – 32:30
Most important guideline for being an entrepreneur – 35:34
Viewer stories and questions – 36:30