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Date: 9/14/2023
SOUTHWICK — Living on Congamond Lake during the 1950s and 1960s, when life was much simpler, Patricia Baiardi has fond memories of always being on, in or under the water.
Her father Charlie Baiardi bought Smith’s Beach in 1941 and owned it with his wife Alice until 1966. The property extended along the shoreline of South Pond — one of three connected ponds that make up the lake — to near the Connecticut border and up to Miller Road, close to Congamond Road. Their house sat on hill facing east, with good views of the water as well as the rising sun and moon.
Baiardi shared her childhood memories on Sept. 6 with a presentation, “Growing Up on the Southwick Lakes,” at the Southwick Public Library.
The 1968 graduate of Southwick’s first high school — now part of Powder Mill School — went through decades of photos and memorabilia saved by herself, her parents and older sisters Charlene and Barbara. Baiardi displayed some of them on large posterboards.
South Pond was a great place to explore the beauty of Mother Nature, said Baiardi. She recalled taking rowboats down to remnants of the old Farmington Canal at the south end where it entered the lakes and exploring abundant birds, bugs, fish, plants, animals and frogs that lived there.
“It was a spectacular wonderland,” she said.
Baiardi spent so much time playing in a swamp area on the land, that her nickname became “Stink.” One of the best things about the swamp: hundreds of blueberry bushes.
“They were so big you had to crawl under each bush to get to the next one. We would go into the swamp with two big galvanized buckets tied together with a rope hanging around our necks,” she said.
Their mother would can dozens of quarts of blueberries to enjoy year-round.
“The only danger — besides overeating and getting very stinky — was that we had to worry about bees while picking,” said Baiardi. “Other than that, it was a lot of fun.”
A summer beach pavilion that sold burgers, hotdogs, ice cream, popcorn, candy and drinks also had several old-fashioned pinball machines and jukeboxes.
“Every spring, the jukebox man would come by with a box that had the latest songs,” said Baiardi. “Charlie would request only records he said a baby could fall asleep to.”
That meant no Elvis Presley songs — no matter how much his daughters begged him — but plenty of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.
Baiardi’s father, who was from West Springfield, also ran a year-round restaurant and bar with bands and dancing. For his daughters, he built a small store — about 5 by 10 feet — for them to run during the summer. It served the dual purpose of selling beach-related items and teaching his daughters about business.
“In the ‘little stand,’ as we called it, my sisters and I took turns selling beach balls, penny candy, Smith’s Beach T-shirts, postcards, pails and shovels, games and some sunglasses,” said Baiardi, who now lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, and runs her own architectural firm.
The lakeside property also included a bath house, a picnic grove with tables, rowboats for fishing, a bowling club and summer cottages that could be rented by the week. The large sandy beach was perfect for swimming and relaxing.
A treasured summer memory for Baiardi is neighbors picking up children in their motorboats and teaching them to water ski, then going for ice cream. Another favorite recollection she shared was the adventure of sleeping aboard a boat anchored offshore on hot summer evenings.
“We would take midnight swims before we fell asleep, and swim before sunrise when we woke up,” she said. “If you’ve ever jumped into the lake before sunrise when there isn’t a breeze, you will notice there’s about three or four inches of clear air above the water surface and then about 18 inches of fog above that. The second the sun rises, the fog instantly disappears.”
Baiardi was never bored.
“There were always other children to play with at the beach and lots of fun things to do,” she said. Fall was a special time a year on the lakes. Besides colorful leaves reflecting on the water, the wind picked up, making it a great time to sail.
“We had a small catboat with a red sail, which we hoped would not tip over since the water was getting quite cold,” said Baiardi.
Few people lived on the lakes year-round in the 1940s through 1960s, since most houses were small cottages that weren’t winterized. In the winter, she said the lakes seemed almost deserted, except for a few families and ice fishermen. It was very quiet: “The only sound was a very deep, low sound of ice cracking when it expanded,” she said.
Baiardi said some years the water froze early and the ice was “as smooth as a sheet of glass” — ideal for ice skating between Thanksgiving and Christmas. She remembers the water was so clean she could see fish swimming under the ice.
In August 1955, when Baiardi was about five, Hurricane Diane struck Southwick. It brought torrential rains — 19 inches over two days — and destructive flooding. The lakes overflowed, causing major flooding and washing out North Pond when its earthen dam burst.
There was water three feet deep in the Baiardi home’s basement.
“The flood was bad, but it really showed how people came together,” said Baiardi. Her sister Charlene, who joined the presentation near the end, said the good part of being kids then was that they had “a ball” with all the water.
“We took a few of our father’s rowboats and rowed out to Congamond Road and all over people’s lawns. We thought it was a blast. We even caught fish in our basement,” said Charlene Baiardi, who graduated from Southwick High School in 1965. She now lives in Chesterfield.
Smith’s Beach changed owners several times after the Baiardis sold it. In 1992, the property was purchased by the town as a recreational area.