Dana Newcombe                    Memories of Aerosmith, the Hopedale Airport crash, and more Whenever Aerosmith played the town hall, I used to help them with the equipment. But far beyond that, Joey Kramer used to let me play his drums so that he could do a sound check. I'm a drummer and, at that time I had a little Sears drumkit. Playing his Tama drumset was one of the high points in my life.   Another quickie is that I worked on weekends with a guy named Dino Bracci. Dino was a very polished auto mechanic and we worked in my uncle Fred Philpot's garage which was located next door up from Joe Perry's house. During the warm season when everyone had their windows open, Joe would be lying on his bed playing his Stratocaster guitar through a small battery operated amp that actually got feedback sound. When Dino would hear Joe playing, he always used to say, "That pot smokin, long haired, hippy freak ain't goin nowhere!" He was very wrong. Cheers to you Joe! You guys just keep getting better!!!!!!!!!!                                                                  ********** Here's Dana's response after I sent him a link to this picture. I loved the pic of Dino and friends. I actually worked for Dante at his Chrysler dealership in Franklin, cleaning cars to get them ready for sale. I clearly remember sitting down to lunch with My grandfather(Arnold NealleySr.) and Dante, Dino, Americo (Matty) and many others. My grandfather was Hopedale fire chief for a short term until he had his last heart attack.I think that was around 1970 or 71. And a little later...I just got off the phone with Dino Bracci and the car they were sitting on was a 1931 Ford model A which belonged to Dante, who was in the service at the time.                                                                ********** And here's another memory of Dana's. Dan; I was flipping through the Hopedale related questions. I was shaken a bit to view the question about the Hopedale plane crash. If the reference is to the crash that took place around 1972, I was the first person to the scene of the crash. I was a freelance photographer for the Milford paper. It was just a couple hours after noon and I heard the call come in on the scanner in my car. I didn't have to go far, as I was right in front of the Texiera residence heading towards Mill St. You have to bear with me for I've forgotten many of the street names in Hopedale. I looked off to my left and saw a cloud of smoke climbing from the wooded area  just below. I grabbed my camera and ran to the scene. The flames had almost subsided in the short time it took me to get there. I was shocked at what I saw. There were three very badly scorched bodies still in the seated position. I later learned that two of the bodies were students at Hopedale Jr.Sr. High. Kenny and Phillip Melin (of 65 Hartford Avenue) were their names. The pilots name was Paul Pasquantonio. He was from Cape Cod. The two boys weren't supposed to be on that flight. They had convinced the pilot to give them a ride. The pilot tried to climb in altitude too rapidly causing the engine to stall. I believe the plane went down approximately 300 ft. from the runway.                                                 Memories Menu                          HOME