Bits and Pieces

Some of you read the Concord Monitor on a daily basis. Those of you distanced from Our Town may read the ConMon on line. And still others, perhaps, may never read the paper.

What's hard to gauge is how many folks read the ROUNDUP section. I, for one, scan it every day.

And based on what I found on May 13th, I'm glad I do.

For many it was just another blurb highlighting a recent hole in one at the Canterbury Woods Country Club.

"Norma Heinz, of Boswawen, shot a hole in one at Canterbury Woods Country Club during the Concord High School girls' basketball Booster Golf Tournament yesterday. She aced the 11th hole using her 7 wood. Witnessing the occasion were Shirley Brown, Geraldine Beall, and June Purington."

Seems harmless enough for most folks.

But it was far from harmless to me.

Norma Heinz is a lifetime educator, the daughter of Clarence Huggins who was a big-time car dealer in Our Town back in the middle of last century, and the widow of Big Bill Heinz.

Bill Heinz was a science teacher at Concord High and doubled as the golf coach and even was an assistant baseball coach for Mike Garrett in the early 60s.

Big Bill was also The Key Guy on Sunday nights. You see, Bill had the key to the CHS gymnasium in the early 70s and would open the gym so we could play basketball Sunday night. If he didn't show up, we'd go over to Buddy Eldredge's Store and call him on the pay phone. He'd say he couldn't make it that night, but we'd beg a little and he'd cave in.

"Hug's gonna yell at me," he'd claim, and then tell us he'd be there in a half hour.

But most of all, Bill was a golfer. He's start many an early morning at the old Beaver Meadow, playing a round of nine and turning on the sprinklers behind him, before heading to Concord High to work.

Bill Heinz was one of those tall, angular, gangly guys who was just too easy to like. That's why his death in a motorcycle accident in West Concord in his mid-30s was so hard to take.

It was with delight that I read about Norma Heinz canning an ace in Canterbury. Norma never remarried after Bill passed away. She raised her two kids alone and never moved away from her house in Boscawen. A smile crawled across the left side of my face, followed by a moment of sadness, and then a smile......a smile knowing that Big Bill was Up There someplace jumping up and down rejoicing Norma's shot.

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