Wentworth Acres
During World War II the US Government built subsidised housing for military families and defense workers in Portsmouth, NH. My dad, Clarence Edward Robinson, started working at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, assisting with the construction of submarines, probably late in 1942, or early 1943, and we moved into a large government project, Wentworth Acres.
Four (what we would now call condominium style) two-story living units comprised each of the buildings. The buidings lined the access roads with parking lots behind. I remember the address of our unit as 672 Circuit Road. Behind our building, on a knoll overlooking the parking lot, stood an immense water storage tower. During the winter we, along with neighborhood kids, would use the knoll for sledding. Our unit was a couple of buildings from the perimeter of the housing project. Along the end of our street there was a swampy area where winter ice would form providing a skating area that was also well used. Across the street from our building, an activity building was constructed. It included a gymnasium where Joyce and I were enrolled in tap-dancing classes.
The unit next to ours was occupied by a military family, the Clarks. The kids included a boy, Arthur, younger than I, along with an older sister, Cora. It was she who gave me my first non-platonic kiss in a wooded area behind the activity building. We, or they, didn't live there long enough for us to explore further non-platonic activity. As I recall, it was just another growing experience...in my mind, no resulting bells rang, or whistles blew.
In one of the center units of a building down the street lived one of our playmates whose mother was perpetually drunk. We would occasionally be invited, by our peer, to enter and scrounge for cookies or candy. Our mother didn't much like that practice and brought it to a quick end, although I don't recall any specific disciplinary action other than verbal on her part.
I often walked to school, which was located at the opposite end of the Acres from where we lived. I can't recall how we got to school during inclement weather, and I don't remember how Joyce got to school as we didn't walk together. Dogs along the walk terrified me with their aggressiveness. I thought my second grade teacher was the best thing since Aunt Blanche.
Our car, a brown 1937 Ford with a "bustle" trunk, was not used. In those days of rationing the supply of gasoline was limited. Dad and Mom had books of ration stamps for food and gas that governed our purchases. At the rear of our buiding's parking lot, in the shadow of the water tower, was another unused car. I was fascinated by the overall design of that vehicle, a '40s era Chrysler (Airflyte, maybe) with a radical down sloping hood sort of like that of the VW Bugs of later years.
My twin sisters were born, in Portsmouth Hospital, while we lived there. When they were 12 or 18 months old they used to sit side-by-side on the couch and rock back-and-forth against the cushions. The hospital where they were born is now the Civic Center for the City of Portsmouth, and also includes an assisted living facility for seniors. I volunteered for a year at City Hall, there, for AIDS Response Seacoast in 2001.
I remember that in winter the early morning of milk delivery, when glass bottles would be left at our front steps, would result in the milk and cream freezing and raising the bottle caps on slender frozen pillars several inches in height. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died while we lived there. When the news arrived in the Acres, Mom cried. I think it was announced from an automobile fitted with loud speakers that drove the streets of the complex. We had a Cocker Spaniel puppy for
a short while but it had Rickets, a skeletal diease of young dogs, and was returned to wherever it came from.
Now, 50+ years later, the buildings of Wentworth Acres have been converted into two mid-high end condominium homes. Evidently, the original building skeletons were used when the builings were upgraded. The major difference in layout is that a major thoroughfare, Market St Ext, was built across the swamp on which we ice skated and some buildings in its path were removed. It is easy to pick out the unit where we lived, the water tower still functions on the knoll in back. However, the old parking lots have been transformed into landscaped rear yards, incorporating carports for the owners' vehicles. The old school still stands and during the first several years after Les and I moved to the Seacoast Area a gymnasium/auditorium structure had been added and it was used as Portsmouth Christian Academy. The Academy has since relocated and it looks as if the old school has been retrofitted to commercial use.
Four (what we would now call condominium style) two-story living units comprised each of the buildings. The buidings lined the access roads with parking lots behind. I remember the address of our unit as 672 Circuit Road. Behind our building, on a knoll overlooking the parking lot, stood an immense water storage tower. During the winter we, along with neighborhood kids, would use the knoll for sledding. Our unit was a couple of buildings from the perimeter of the housing project. Along the end of our street there was a swampy area where winter ice would form providing a skating area that was also well used. Across the street from our building, an activity building was constructed. It included a gymnasium where Joyce and I were enrolled in tap-dancing classes.
The unit next to ours was occupied by a military family, the Clarks. The kids included a boy, Arthur, younger than I, along with an older sister, Cora. It was she who gave me my first non-platonic kiss in a wooded area behind the activity building. We, or they, didn't live there long enough for us to explore further non-platonic activity. As I recall, it was just another growing experience...in my mind, no resulting bells rang, or whistles blew.
In one of the center units of a building down the street lived one of our playmates whose mother was perpetually drunk. We would occasionally be invited, by our peer, to enter and scrounge for cookies or candy. Our mother didn't much like that practice and brought it to a quick end, although I don't recall any specific disciplinary action other than verbal on her part.
I often walked to school, which was located at the opposite end of the Acres from where we lived. I can't recall how we got to school during inclement weather, and I don't remember how Joyce got to school as we didn't walk together. Dogs along the walk terrified me with their aggressiveness. I thought my second grade teacher was the best thing since Aunt Blanche.
Our car, a brown 1937 Ford with a "bustle" trunk, was not used. In those days of rationing the supply of gasoline was limited. Dad and Mom had books of ration stamps for food and gas that governed our purchases. At the rear of our buiding's parking lot, in the shadow of the water tower, was another unused car. I was fascinated by the overall design of that vehicle, a '40s era Chrysler (Airflyte, maybe) with a radical down sloping hood sort of like that of the VW Bugs of later years.
My twin sisters were born, in Portsmouth Hospital, while we lived there. When they were 12 or 18 months old they used to sit side-by-side on the couch and rock back-and-forth against the cushions. The hospital where they were born is now the Civic Center for the City of Portsmouth, and also includes an assisted living facility for seniors. I volunteered for a year at City Hall, there, for AIDS Response Seacoast in 2001.
I remember that in winter the early morning of milk delivery, when glass bottles would be left at our front steps, would result in the milk and cream freezing and raising the bottle caps on slender frozen pillars several inches in height. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died while we lived there. When the news arrived in the Acres, Mom cried. I think it was announced from an automobile fitted with loud speakers that drove the streets of the complex. We had a Cocker Spaniel puppy for
a short while but it had Rickets, a skeletal diease of young dogs, and was returned to wherever it came from.
Now, 50+ years later, the buildings of Wentworth Acres have been converted into two mid-high end condominium homes. Evidently, the original building skeletons were used when the builings were upgraded. The major difference in layout is that a major thoroughfare, Market St Ext, was built across the swamp on which we ice skated and some buildings in its path were removed. It is easy to pick out the unit where we lived, the water tower still functions on the knoll in back. However, the old parking lots have been transformed into landscaped rear yards, incorporating carports for the owners' vehicles. The old school still stands and during the first several years after Les and I moved to the Seacoast Area a gymnasium/auditorium structure had been added and it was used as Portsmouth Christian Academy. The Academy has since relocated and it looks as if the old school has been retrofitted to commercial use.
posted by Don | 11:58 AM
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