Who ever heard of a "puppet baby"?

If you find yourself in the Bay House in the wee hours of the morning, you may hear a lone voice say something like "Don't you know I am an original puppet baby?" Before you accuse him/her of being in their cups, listen to a tale that might lend some truth to this statement.

Back in the late 60's, early 70's, a group of Point bound mothers would drop their older toddlers off at Doris Cullen and Mary Tommasi's nursery school and then take the younger ones to the rec hall. We would line the strollers up along the wall and, while the youngsters snacked on 'Fruit Loops', we mothers whacked a volley ball around for an hour.

In a moment of guilt, we decided to do something cultural for the Point children. Thus, the Saturday Morning Puppet Shows were launched.

Ben Wilder made a magnificent theatre and Jack McLoone, as usual, created our scenery while the mothers made the puppets. We retooled the standard stories to accommodate a rather boisterous, low brow audience. We had what you would call interactive shows with kids responding to questions from the various characters, eyeballs popping out of puppets heads, puppets squirting water at the young audience, & etc. Such Class!

Well, of all the moms involved in the productions, all but one became pregnant. Thus, the tale of the puppet babies. These now young adults are still sometimes referred to as the "Puppet Babies". They are: Ann Donahue, Lauren Fleming, Danny Marcote, Suzanne McAuley, Matthew Nester, Michael Paulonis and Edward Wilder (maybe Thomas).

Barbara McGrath was the one mom not responsible for a puppet baby. That's probable because James wasn't even at the 'fruit loop' stage yet.

Marty Nester and Jim McGrath were our male villain voices. My aging mind is forgetting some of the people involved.

Please write in if you were part of this cultural event!