The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks Seventy-five years ago Wenham cel- There are not many of us left who ebrated its 300th “Tercenternary” Annni- experienced this traumatic time, who versary. It also happened that this took Introduction lived their daily lives in Wenham as it place in the midst of World War II. The went through the adaptations brought onset of that war in 1941 had dragged ing existed to control growth, there was on by the war emergency. I happen to be the town into a new era facing a num- no town water system, the school was one, having moved here in 1937 at age ber of new challenges it was ill prepared imminently going to be overwhelmed 7, and by Pearl Harbor Day was about for by its quiet, almost pastoral past. It with new pupils, a new Town Hall was to turn 12, too young to go off to war also ended the heavy burden on the town urgently needed and on it went. but old enough to be aware of what was and its citizens of dealing with the Great In the final chapter of “Wenham in going on. In 1943, the town celebrated Depression, as war work brought high World War II”*, a compendium of every- its 300th Tercenternary Anniversary, and wages and jobs for those not drafted into thing that happened during that period one program offered was the school’s the military for the duration. published by the Historical Association annual field day devoted to an eight part The change in how we lived our of the Wenham Village Improvement stage performance by all the grades. My lives was profound. In the 1937 Town Society in 1947, the Editors addressed part, thanks to my 8th Grade teacher, Report, the Selectmen’s Report dealt “Post-War Developments”. Miss Bullis, was to narrate the entire two with, amongst the usual small town “In march of 1944, the town hour program from memory! issues, what to do about the cost of sup- appointed a Post-War Planning Com- When today’s 375th Anniversary porting the town poor. A steady rise mittee to survey the needs of the town came around I thought, well why not brought on by the increasing number of and select those projects which would have another go at our town’s history, those unemployed by the Great Depres- be most advantageous to the town and this time focused on this watershed era sion (now into its fourth year with no suitable to be undertaken in the expected in which I grew up, by writing a series end in sight) had raised the usual annual post-war unemployment period.” of essays that combine my memories appropriation of $100 for support of the Leading the pack were the “much of those times with the factual backing poor to over $1,100 and the Selectmen discussed water supply problem”, provided by the Town Reports. If you were frankly baffled by how they would closely followed by a “school building weren’t there you can have no idea of ever come up with the necessary funds. and a town building to replace the pres- how different our lives were leading up Ten years later in 1947, with the ent Town Hall which is thoroughly inad- to and coming out from the World War II war now two years in the past, the major equate and obsolete.” A challenge indeed era. issue had become the escalating prices of for a town of about 1500. Next up, “Coming to Wenham in land being sold off by previously strug- The Editors concluded their view 1937”. gling small farmers to persons eager to into the future with, “The shortage of move into town, financed by savings housing, the soaring price of real estate *A copy of “Wenham in World War from war work and GI Bill funding for and food have produced a post-war con- II” is in the Hamilton Wenham Public the retuned soldiers and sailors want- dition, of which we do not yet see the Library research stacks. Anyone wish- ing to marry and start families. No zon- end.” They had no idea… ing to see/read this book can do so at the library during regular hours only by requesting to do so from the Research Librarian on the second floor. It cannot be loaned out for home reading.

At left: Fire Department training Boy Scouts in fire fighting. Below: Scrap metal collection. Both photos from “Wenham in World War II”. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era Our family arrived in Wenham in March By Bob Hicks Our somewhat lonesome homestead of 1937. The five of us had been living in Mid- abutted large truck garden acreage rented by dleton in a house rented from Hayes Richard- Coming to Wenham in 1937 the Speliotis brothers down on Maple Street son, for whom my Dad also worked at that on which they grew vegetables for the Bos- time, driving a milk truck for Richardson’s Looking for a Small Farm ton produce market. George Perkins, the dairy farm. Dad was struggling to regain a landowner up the street from us, had lost decent livelihood after losing his job in 1933 We had no money it seems (at seven his dairy herd and barn (prior to our arrival) in the depths of the Great Depression. It had I didn’t know this) so Dad had to do some in a fire cause by a lightning strike and had been a long fall for him, his education at Phil- creative financing. With a loan of $1,000 resorted to renting out his acreage for a live- lips Andover and Yale and subsequent career for a down payment from his father (still lihood. There were also three other small launched in business management at a large employed as a professional electrical engi- family owned dairy farms on Maple Street, Boston contracting firm all coming to naught neer), he approached the Danvers Savings along with a couple of “estates” owned by the when he was laid off, as it did for some 25 Bank, only to learn that the surviving banks landed gentry. million working people in the nation. by then really only wanted to lend money to We were two miles from the downtown Our family initially found refuge on a small those who did not need it. When confronted Danvers business district, while South Ham- dairy farm down near New Bedford owned by with this reality, the owner, anxious to move ilton’s business district was four miles away Dad’s aunt, where he discovered, despite his to greater downtown Wenham and not wish- beyond the “village” of Wenham. Not hard to suburban upbringing in Melrose, that he liked ing to lose this live one, offered a second see where most of our needs for food, sup- this farming life even with its 80-hour weeks mortgage of $1,000. With this in hand the plies, banking, etc. came from. Our phone (4am-8pm with Sunday afternoon off between bank relaxed and provided a 12-year mort- was on a Danvers circuit (2-party line) and morning and evening chores). But it was too gage for the remaining $1,000. And so the our mail (RFD) was delivered from the Dan- far from my mother’s family in Peabody so in deed was done and our family had the mak- vers Post Office. We were in effect quite iso- 1935 we came up to Middleton where he went ings of my Dad’s dream farm. It was going to lated from Wenham’s village, and this had a work for Richardson. take a lot of doing to realize this. permanent effect on my growing up here dur- Dad didn’t much like pouring part of his So what did we get for that $3,000 of ing my school years. meager wage into rent instead of equity in a borrowed money? The ten acres consisted The house would serve our basic liv- home and so he visited a local realtor inquir- of about seven acres of fields with two small ing needs with three bedrooms, a minimal ing about where he might find a place where orchards, the “old orchard” and the “young bathroom, a kitchen, dining and living room, we could have our own small farm. To his orchard.” The remaining three or so acres water from a well, heat from a gravity cir- surprise the realtor had just the place for him was a woodlot, most of it wetland populated culation hot air furnace, and a big cast iron over in a nearby town called Wenham. It was by swamp maples. Dad saw the open land kitchen stove converted to kerosene fuel ten acres with a six-room two-story frame as free range for the planned flock (200) of (the “glug-glug-jug). A long list of indoor house and a dilapidated two-story barn that chickens, hayfield and pasture for the planned improvements Mum came up with would could be had for only $3,000. cows (2), and a large vegetable garden for the have to wait until the barn, slated to house Dad arranged to look at the place on a table. The woodlot would serve its stated pur- rotating flocks of chickens intended to earn detour from his milk route and returned home pose, a source of fall and spring firewood for the income to pay off the mortgages, was to tell Mum that, “I don’t know if you’ll like the coal fired hot air furnace in the house. saved from imminent collapse and put into it, it’s way out in the country.” The location Burley Street was a tarred road (not usable shape to greet the first flock of 100 on Burley Street, way out in the far west- the same as asphalt) and about a quarter- pullets that would arrive the coming spring. It ern reaches of town, was indeed pretty rural mile up the street it turned to dirt where it was to be a busy summer for Dad with some with only three houses on the half-mile of entered Danvers. It joined Maple Street with help enlisted from an unemployed neigh- the street within Wenham. We all then vis- its twelve dwellings and the two streets and bor, Leonard Tracey, whose family rented an ited and approved and now it was time for fifteen homes comprised the entire portion of apartment in George Perkin’s house. For my the money part. town west of Topsfield Road (Route 97). sisters and I it was still pretty much playtime, at seven I was not yet quite ready for prime time as a chore boy. It would soon come. Dad was not a demonstrative man and it was many years later before he presented his now grown family with a note on what all this had meant to him: “We will always remember our first Christmas here on Burley Street in 1937. All of our family (five of us) went down to our wood- lot to pick out our Christmas tree. It was a white pine, not the traditional balsam fir. It was our symbol of our family at last owning our own home and small farm. A joyful event.” Next up, “What Manner of Town is This Wenham?”

Summer of 1937, Dad gets started on a new roof for the barn, first step in salvaging the old building for its new life as a home for 200 chickens. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era Six years after we came to Wenham, By Bob Hicks most civilized resort (it’s a great read, in the midst of WWII Wenham celebrated What Manner of Town the library no doubt has it). its 300th (Tercenternary) Anniversary. At In my next installment, “What Man- that time (1943), a book, Notes on Wen- is This Wenham? – Part 1 ner of Town is This? – Part 2, I’ll go into ham History, was published by the Wen- more detail about how the town was ham Historical Association, compiled by join in the after school action there as at run in 1937 on a total tax take of just its president, Adeline P. Cole. Her clos- the school day’s end it was right out the $70,192, with the budget buster, then as ing remarks addressed her vision of the school door and onto the school bus for now, the school system taking $27,000 town’s future, in part stating: me, back to my remote home. of it. Also I might have something on the “The lush meadows and heavily At the time I did not know what town’s “demographics” (did they even wooded acres of the seventeenth cen- my parents’ thought of the town, they use this word then?) tury are gone. Our land hungry pioneers had moved here for the available small had a look at the future in their regula- farm property and not because of any To learn more about Adeline P. Cole: tions to preserve the timber, the herb- advertised real estate attractions. Shortly Google hwlibrary.com age of the meadows and good pasturage. after we settled here, Dad left his job at Click on Research at top of page Their descendants of succeeding centu- Richardson’s in Middleton to take a job Click on Reference Info ries have been opportunists, overlook- driving a milk truck for nearby Wethers- Scroll down to Local History ing land values in terms of productivity. field Farm in the Putnamville section of Click on link in Jack Hauck’s local his- They have created a residential town, Danvers. This was a “gentleman’s farm” tory book, Treasures of Wenham History a place to establish a home to which owned by Dudley Rogers, whose cus- Scroll down to 05 Adeline P. Cole to return after the day’s work is over, a tomers for his “Golden Guernsey” milk CAUTION: Your attention might be place to bring up their children, a town included many of his fellow landed gen- drawn to others of the 33 essays listed, of homes.” try in Wenham and Hamilton. Dad’s if so plan to be there a while, it’s all This remarkable woman labored milk route took him into many of these fascinating stuff. long and hard for some 60 years from estates in Wenham for a first hand look at the beginning of the 20th century to another aspect of the town. Occasionally Treasures of Wenham History bring the town up to meet her vision, in I went along with him and got my first In June of 2013 Jack Hauck, a part through her work with the Wenham look at how the “rich people” lived. retired journalist, gave his local writ- Village Improvement Society, implicit in It did become apparent that the town ings to the town of Wenham, the Ham- which name was the recognition that the was roughly divided into three distinct ilton-Wenham Library and the Wenham town needed some improving. areas from west to east. Where we lived Museum, in thanks for the help these Well, I doubt if my parents realized in West Wenham was thinly populated organizations provided in accessing his- all this in March of 1937 when we set- with small farmers, several large estates torical documents. Treasures of Wenham tled into what was to be our small farm and a scattering of small homes on small History exists as a set of digital docu- on Burley Street. They were far too lots that had been set off from some of the ments consisting of 33 chapters, amount- busy getting to work to begin realizing farms’ frontages. Heading east from here, ing to over 900 pages. Here’s his intro on their own dream, while at age seven, I Wenham Center was reached (after pass- his Adeline P. Cole chapter: had no overall vision of the town. What ing by the side street to Idlewood Lake, I quickly discovered about our part of another story for later), centered on the Adeline P. Cole town was that there wasn’t anyone here, First Church, the Town Hall, the Fire Sta- We often read about the forefathers well potential playmates at least. In Mid- tion and Trowt’s store. Here the majority of our society. These were the men from dleton we had been surrounded with of the population lived in small homes on an earlier time who made major contri- neighbors a block from the town center a network of small streets, that “residen- butions to the development of a town, and school. tial town” that Mrs. Cole envisioned. state or country. There are many such Now in West Wenham, with only a Continuing east off Main Street men, who are seen as the forefathers of dozen or so school age kids spread out onto Larch Row, as soon as the railroad Wenham. Well, I want to tell you about over several miles of Maple and Bur- tracks were crossed, the population den- a foremother, who contributed a whole ley Streets and Topsfield Road, it soon sity declined abruptly as the land opened lot to what Wenham is today. You will became apparent that I’d be pretty much out in a number of large estates and not find, in Wenham, any stone bearing on my own for playtime. Out here my the dense woodlands surrounding the a plaque with her name (something that “roaming” leash pretty much kept me on Salem/Beverly Water Boards’ Longham should be corrected). There is but a brief Burley Street for the next couple of years Reservoir and thence on east on Grape- section in a town history book that cov- until I got my first bicycle at age nine vine Road to Beverly Farms. It certainly ers her life. A building, Cole in Enon Vil- when I was allowed to go as far as (but no was a different landscape from ours with lage, bears her family name. Although farther) Topsfield Road in search of child- all its sweeping open land with large her name may not be prominent in Wen- hood companionship, fun and games. mansions tucked away from the road at ham’s history, her many great works It was the daily trip to the Center the ends of long tree shaded drives. How are all about us. What was her name? School aboard Sid Prince’s school bus that these large estates came into being over Adeline Philbrick Cole, (08/07/1865- introduced me to another part of town, the here in East Wenham is explained in The 01/05/1959) “village” where most of the townspeople North Shore, Gloucester author Joe Gar- (and their kids) lived. But I could not land’s affectionate history of America’s The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era I concluded my last discussion of By Bob Hicks ects, the major one being the building of “What Manner of Town is This Wen- What Manner of Town the present stone wall fronting Pingree ham?” commenting that I would expand Park. Six women who worked on the on how the town was run in 1937 next is This Wenham? – Part 2 WPA Sewing Project (employed making and perhaps say something about the clothing distributed to the needy by the demographics before I launched into of Pleasant Street were added to the town) lost their jobs when that WPA pro- my personal recollection of the next West Wenham school bus route. It had gram was cancelled for towns with under ten years in town. To be sure I was on been quite a hike, especially for the lit- 3,000 population. frm ground using the term, I looked up tle kids, all the way from the far end Public Assistance was still ongo- “demographics: statistical data relating of Pleasant Street to Cherry, thence up ing as a result of the Great Depres- to the population and particular groups Monument to Main and onto Arbor to sion’s impact on townspeople, with in within it.” Okay, I’m all set then. Wen- the Center School. excess of $10,000 distributed through ham’s approximately 1,500 citizens at The Salem Savings Bank reported Public Welfare, Old Age Assistance, the time came from “all walks of life.” that it had received $175 in student depos- Soldiers Relief, Mothers Aid, Aid to But before I get into that fascinat- its during the school year through their Dependent Children, State Aid and ing stuff I want to take a look at how the weekly visits to its school stamp machine. local Charities. town was run. This subject was of no A school band was organized to be The Board of Health was busy mon- interest to me at age seven but it did get entirely funded by those taking part. The itoring milk deliveries in town as ten my father’s attention, as a lifetime bean existing Drama Club was taken over by milk dealers, including seven located in counter he was always looking at the 7-8 grades teacher, Miss Bullis, which Wenham, were licensed to sell milk in numbers that showed where his money would introduce repercussions into my town and ongoing inspection of ten dair- was being spent, especially for taxes! life when I arrived in her room in a few ies in town went on throughout the year. In Part 1 of this topic I mentioned years. An Aviation Club enlarged its The Library, located in the Town that the town budget for 1937 was purview from making model planes to Hall, circulated 12,375 volumes, indi- about $70,000. That year the Assessors studying the growing aviation feld as cating a well read community. A used reported that 4,597 acres of land, 382 possible future employment and a Cam- typewriter (said to have been in good dwellings, 373 personal properties, 100 era Club was introduced due to demand. condition) and a new encyclopedia cows, 110 horses and 5,234 fowl had Another extra curricular club was the All were acquired to fll growing needs of been assessed for tax purposes. Around Club, with no explanation sup- school students. According to the Selectmen’s Report plied about its activities. The Tree Warden dealt with there were “no signifcant changes in The Fire Department announced 400 town trees needing attention or town affairs,” which was good news. that it had answered 39 alarms, includ- removal, indicating that efforts of the Their big news was the replacement of ing three buildings, the worst being the Wenham Village Improvement Society the 1854 tin roof on Town Hall with a “Porter Fire” which burned out the Post 30 years earlier to plant trees in town new tin roof. The town got a pretty good Offce. Twenty-one grass fres predomi- as a much needed “improvement” had run out of that original tin. nated. Fifteen cisterns were listed scat- been quite successful. Population statistics reported included tered around town for fre fghting as A special committee was appointed 18 births, 13 marriages and 16 deaths. there was no town water system and to start planning for the town’s 300th School affairs loomed large in town, hence no hydrants. (Tercenternary) celebration six years among several major issues was the intro- The Police Department felded 83 hence in 1943. Two hundred dollars was duction of English language and typing complaints, arrested two drunks, sus- appropriated for their expenses (no town courses into the Junior High (grades 7-9) pended fve driving licenses, investigated money was appropriated for our 375th to bring students up to the level of Bev- six accidents and served six summons. Committee, which has had to do its own erly where Wenham’s high school stu- The Highway Department’s major fundraising to pay for this year’s events dents grades 10-12 would attend. Five effort was on the permanent paving and activities). new typewriters had to be purchased and (asphalt, not tar) of Topsfeld Road at the Coming up next, how about those additional part time teachers hired. Beverly end aided by a paving contrac- demographics? Well, it looks like they Discovery of student dental needs tor funded in part by state Chapter 90 will have to await my next History Page raised the prospect for establishing a money (about $2,000 from the town and as I’ve used up all my space for this school dental clinic when an examina- $10,000 from Chapter 90). They also time. It’s interesting stuff contemplating tion by a local dentist hired by the school completed permanent paved sidewalks the social/economic range in the popu- showed that some 130 of the 150 stu- on Perkins Street and Friend Court. lation of 1,500 or so townspeople (and dents in grades 1-9 needed dental work The lingering effects of the Great the particular groups within it), from the that their families were unable to afford. Depression (which suffered a relapse in affuent estates like top taxpayer Mrs Students living at Idlewood Lake 1937) continued, included the employ- Ruby Miller’s Penguin Hall, to the tiny (there were a lot of them) at the end ment of 16 townsmen on WPA proj- summer camps at Idlewood Lake. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era And now about those demograph- By Bob Hicks Many living there had large fami- ics: This final look at the nature of What Manner of Town lies and the neighborhood was a tightly Wenham in 1937, just four years prior knit community in which they helped to the oncoming WWII that would is This Wenham? – Part 3 one another out when need arose. engulf the country, is about the demo- They even had a convenience store at graphics, “statistics relating to the the beach on the lake catering to visit- population and the groups within it.” ing summer swimmers as well as year Not too difficult a research project for cohort. Mrs. Cole ranked 17th amongst round residents. a small town the size of Wenham with that top 20 taxpayers. She and her com- Idlewood Lake was pretty much out no industry or significant businesses. panions, who were striving to improve of sight and mind to the rest of the town, Essentially Wenham had three aspects of town life that they perceived but schoolmates of mine who lived major “population groups within it:” the as needing it, certainly did not need to downtown often had been cautioned by wealthy landowners, the working class do this, it was a form of noblesse oblige, their parents to never go down to the villagers (with a scattering of profes- doing good. end of Pleasant Street. Those of us on sionals) and a smaller group of farmers, The working class villagers were the West Wenham school bus went there once not too long before the majority of by far the largest cohort, pretty much twice daily during the school years and I the population, but now fading fast from concentrated in the village that grew up do not recall in seven years of so doing the scene as the town became what Mrs. over 300 years around Wenham Center. any overt action from there that justified Adeline Cole described in her Notes on Most went off to work every day out this cautionary attitude. They were just Wenham History (1943) as a “residen- of town to Beverly, Salem, Lynn and the Idlewood kids to us. tial town, a place to establish a home to even to Boston. Train and bus service The remaining small family farms which to return after the day’s work is got many there and back each day to were a steadily shrinking cohort as the over, a place to bring up their children, a the “Shoe” (the United Shoe Machinery difficulties of making a living on small town of homes.”` Co, USMC, known locally as “Useless farms during the Great Depression inex- The wealthy landowner cohort was Sons Made Comfortable”), in Beverly orably drove them off their land, usu- not a large one but owned a lot of prop- and the “Generous Electric” in Lynn. ally into the ranks of the unemployed erty so contributed in a really big way Others, of course, went off daily to jobs or out of town altogether. These farms to the town’s well being with the taxes in retail businesses and service indus- were widely scattered around town they paid. A summary of the top 20 tax- tries out of town. Few jobs were to be with many in West Wenham. My previ- payers in town in 1937 reveals that they found in town, those available were ous History Page noted that there were collectively paid about $30,000 in real chiefly to be found on wealthy estates ten dairies in town that were monitored estate and personal property taxes, about and the small farms. by the Board of Health for milk qual- 45% of the total tax collected that year A smaller cohort of the town’s work- ity, and a couple of chicken farms large of about $69,000. This, in effect, was a ing class lived at Idlewood Lake (now enough to be viewed as commercial huge subsidy to the working class vil- Pleasant Pond) at the end of Pleasant (600 and 900 fowl each). Small farming lagers and small farmers, substantially Street, many of whom had moved there as a livelihood was on its way out but reducing what would have been their into what was then, in effect, the town’s lingered on during my youth, providing taxes. But while the wealthy benefitted “affordable housing district.” Affordable some opportunities for after school and from most of the various town services because the houses were old summer summer vacation jobs. (fire, police, highways etc.) they did not cottages (now many rentals during the So this was how things appeared to take advantage of the town’s major ser- Depression) built at this former summer be in Wenham in 1937 upon our arrival. vice (and biggest budget expense), the holiday spot on Idlewood Lake, never Over the next ten years (through the schools, as they sent their children to pri- intended for year round habitation. But WWII years) my life revolved around vate schools, North Shore Country Day they were cheap and could be “winter- family home life, school days and, in Beverly in particular. ized” by lining interior walls with news- when I reached 14 and could obtain a An additional benefit to the town papers and similar dodges. work permit, going to work after school was (and still is) the open space of their The town tax listing for 1937 placed and on summer vacations to earn some large estates providing many pleasing all of these Idlewood Lake properties income for the future college education vistas of Wenham countryside viewed by (about 40 cottages/camps) in a separate my parents envisioned for me. As my any and all when traveling town roads. section at the end of the main alphabeti- family and home life existed within the Furthermore, the many activities of the cal listing. No reason was given for this farming “community” I’ll get to this Village Improvement Society since separation from the main taxpayer list in later on when farming comes up for the beginning of the 20th century to this Town Report and I did not go hunt- discussion. The immediate next “Big improve the experience of living in town ing for one in prior reports, but it reflected Thing” in my life was seven years of for those of lesser means were organized the fact that Idlewood Lake was regarded “School Days,” my next topic in this and funded by women from this wealthy somehow as “a different part of town.” ongoing series. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII The 12 years of public schooling Recollections of a Bygone Era hooks where outdoor clothing could be form a major part of anyone’s life grow- By Bob Hicks hung in season, with space below for out- ing up. In my case in Wenham it was the School Days door footwear, first come first served on eight years from 1937 through 1944 in these and yep, no lockers. the second through ninth grades in the Part 1 – The Center School The assembly hall could seat all Center School, after which we Wen- 150 or so students for special programs. ham kids were off to Beverly High for town and at Idlewood Lake. He reversed These included school plays and musical our high school years (we could choose this order when returning students to their presentations and occasional speeches by Hamilton High School but few did). homes at the end of the school day. We visiting dignitaries like the superinten- These school days formed just about all benefitted in West Wenham being the last dent of schools, who once regaled us with of my interaction with my peer group to get picked up in the morning and first his tale of his Alaskan adventure. Nope, (classmates) in the town due to my living to get home in the afternoon. no visuals, just talk backed up by a rather way out in West Wenham, too far out of So what about this “modern, roomy, off white (kinda yellow) polar bear skin. town to participate in downtown activi- well heated and finely ventilated build- Our weekly music appreciation ties after school. ing?” Although described as a two story classes also took place here where the Center School was aptly named structure, it was actually a three story school piano (a big grand no less) and when built in 1907 to bring together structure, an early example of the much big floor model radio/record player were the students scattered west to east over later popular “split level” type. Upon located. Radio? Well, music apprecia- town from local schools in West Wen- entering the “boy’s door” (today’s west tion at times included listening to J. Wal- ham, East Wenham and Wenham Neck entrance, the “girl’s door” faces the Buker ter Damrosch (how did I remember his with the village center students in the School today), a choice of up or down name?) explaining what we were sup- small school building adjacent to Town half flights of stairs had to be made. posed to listen for in selections of classi- Hall where they had been moved from Down to the left led to the basement cal music he played for school children classrooms within Town Hall. In 1907 where, from the immediate left clock- wherever his program was received. the Superintendent of Schools stated: wise, were the manual training and print- No gym? Not as such, I recall we “Within a twelvemonth the children of ing room, the lunchroom, the “girls base- used the assembly hall for physical train- Wenham have left their limited school ment” and the “boys basement.” Off the ing. The assembly hall seating comprised quarters, which have sheltered former latter, a mysterious door (through which sections of folding wooden benches that generations, some of whom are now we boys were forbidden to pass) opened were moved aside for phys ed classes. citizens and parents, who attach many into the bowels of the building where Mr In the front of the building on pleasant associations to the long stand- Wildes, the janitor, reigned supreme by the second floor a large closet space ing walls. The pupils are now housed in his huge furnace and coal bins. All these between the seventh/eighth grades and a modern, roomy, well heated and finely rooms were well lit by the large base- fifth/sixth grades rooms had been con- ventilated building. Some trouble was ment windows set into the granite foun- verted into a small library administered experienced at first by a great number of dation, split level style. by long time seventh/eighth grades requests to visit the basement, but this Back upstairs the up to the right teacher, Miss Bullis. is gradually improving as the novelty stairway led to the first floor main hall, In junior high (seventh/eighth/ninth wears off.” Indoor plumbing was a new off which the classrooms were arranged, grades) we boys got to do manual train- thing for school kids. from the immediate left clockwise, a ing and (in ninth grade) printing. These This wasn’t the school that I came to small room (the purpose for which I no were our favorite classes, hands-on because in 1919, with increased enroll- longer recall, maybe it was the school learning with tools and equipment not ment of grades 7 and 8, it was apparent nurse’s room), the cooking and sewing available to us at home. We all liked and that a larger building was needed. The fol- room, the first/second grades room and admired our instructor Mr Burr. I do not lowing year, 1920, the town voted to add the third/fourth grades room. recall my two sisters’ reaction to their a $41,000 extension. The expanded Cen- From my grade on as I moved up cooking and sewing classes (sometimes ter School had a basement lunchroom, a through junior high, the classrooms were known as “home ec”). manual training and printing room, three all double classes (excepting grade 9 in The most enduring memory of Cen- classrooms and a sewing and cooking a smaller room), usually no more than a ter School itself is the smell of the green room on the first floor. On the second couple of dozen students in the two com- powder that the janitor spread over the floor, there were two more classrooms, an bined classes. After I moved on to third well worn hardwood floors when he assembly hall and the principal’s office. grade, the second grade was split off swept up to lay the dust from his sweep- Back in 1907 initially, the town used on its own as the incoming first graders ing (I understand that smells do indeed a motor truck to bring the outlying stu- were rapidly increasing in numbers. supply our most enduring memories.) dents to the Center School, but it was not Bypassing the first floor main hall What, no vacuum cleaner? Nope. large enough. Later, a horse drawn, cov- and continuing up the stairwell to the sec- Coming up I will introduce the ered barge transported the 22 students ond floor main hall we came to, from the (mostly) wonderful group of teachers I had from the Neck and East districts, but it immediate left clockwise, the principal, during those eight years, several of whom was found unsatisfactory. Miss Buker’s office (not a place anyone had a long lasting influence on my life. By my time Sidney Prince, a farmer wished to be sent to for infringing school (If you wish to read a lot more about and milk dealer on Grapevine Road, oper- rules), the ninth grade room (smaller), the Wenham schools, go online to Jack ated a school bus. His daily route brought assembly hall (larger), the seventh/eighth Hauck’s Treasures of Wenham History. Just in students from the Neck and East Wen- grades room and the fifth/sixth grades google that title and it will come up under ham to school, then proceeded to West room. Each homeroom had a narrow hall- the Hamilton/Wenham Library heading Wenham for students living in that part of way along its interior wall lined with coat where you’ll find Wenham Schools listed.) The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks Following on the enlargement of the School Days – Part 2 my mother’s comments on this, shared Center School in 1922, the then Super- Let’s Hear It for Our Teachers! amongst her friends, I gathered that Miss intendent of Schools, John D. Whittier, Long was regarded as having “made made the single most important move in a nice catch.” Finding husbands was the town’s school history when he hired not meet Miss Long’s standards of class- apparently a goal for many of the young Miss Bessie Buker from her home in room behavior or academic achievement single teachers recruited from the wil- Lisbon Falls, Maine, to accept the posi- often found themselves called up to her derness of Maine, New Hampshire and tion of Principal of Wenham’s Center desk for humiliating tongue lashings. Vermont by Superintendent Whittier. School. Miss Buker henceforth devoted Never to be forgotten was a time that it In the fall of 1939 I moved upstairs her entire working life to creating and backfired on her. to the fifth and sixth grades room of Miss managing Wenham’s high quality level One of my classmates was a big for Keyes. Miss Keyes was everything of education. his age Irish kid with a temper, and after Miss Long was not, wonderfully soft After 35 years on the job, Miss some exchange of remarks over some spoken and considerate. These next two Buker retired in 1957, several years indiscretion he had indulged in he was years were such a relief that we all dug after the new Buker School (so named in ordered up front. His Irish temper was in and did everything we could to please her honor, obviously) had been erected up and he never stopped when he got to her in return. adjacent to the old Center School. Her her standing beside her desk but waded One memorable experience we all name lives on in the annals of Wenham’s into her punching with both fists. The shared with her came the day she brought school history and also in the memories classroom was transfixed, never had we to class a box full of ceramic miniatures of all of us who came under her care seen such a defiance of authority. Miss (“Sebastian Miniatures” for any of you in our school days. I’ll have more to Long was a small woman in her 30s and who might be collectors) made by her then say about Miss Buker in “School Days he loomed up over her, but somehow she boyfriend (later to become her husband), - Part 3”, but right now I want to intro- signaled a student up front to get school which she distributed to all of us as gifts. duce those teachers who she had trained principal Miss Buker, who instantly I still have the one I got to bring home to and guided in properly educating us dur- appeared in the schoolroom door like an my mother, “Sampling the Stew,” which ing my first five years here in- “gram avenging angel. ended up back with me after my mother mar school,” a bit of Grade 2 and all of A hush fell over the room like that passed away. Miss Keyes, who had been Grades 3-6. amongst backyard songbirds when a teaching in Wenham since 1933, resigned In my eight year sojourn through hawk arrives overhead. I do not recall in 1941 to marry her artist, Prescott W. Center School I was guided towards my ever hearing what then transpired in Baston, the year we moved on to Junior future by nine teachers, eight women Miss Buker’s office, but it must have High and into Miss Bullis’ seventh and (only two married) and a single (mar- been something, judging from my own eighth grades. ried) man. Only the Junior High girls’ couple of such visits for much less seri- All of us had been dreading the Domestic Arts (sewing and cooking) ous transgressions in later years. move next door to Miss Bullis’ room. We teacher missed me. In retrospect much My own run-ins with Miss Long had been well advised by those who pre- later in my life I came to realize that peaked early in third grade over my ceded us as to the terrors that awaited us. they had collectively done a good job of generally disheveled appearance. My Miss Bullis loomed ahead as the T-Rex it, sending us (12 in my class) off well mother sent me off to school attired of the school, overwhelmingly feared for prepared to move on to Beverly’s High neatly enough in shirt and tie, knickers her acid tongue and after school punish- School and from there out into the world. and knee socks with tied shoes, but I ment sessions for those who failed her In late March of 1937 I arrived from seemed to have difficulty in keeping my in her driving determination to make Middleton to join Mrs Preston’s second shirttail in, my socks up and my shoe- something of this rabble we apparently grade in a room shared also by her first laces tied, particularly after morning appeared to be. If one was up to her grade. I do not have any memories of recess. Miss Long did not approve of demands for academic achievement it Mrs Preston, except that on one occasion this and an ongoing exchange of notes was hard, if one didn’t measure up it was she arranged to bus her two dozen or so went back and forth between her and my awful, daily dread over what might hap- students to her home in Beverly for a mother about it, with me being the mes- pen if one failed in any way. sort of backyard party. It was a nice thing senger. My mother was a feisty gal of Junior High brought us into a whole for her to do, we thought. She had been about Miss Long’s age and didn’t take a new world of teachers besides the teaching in Wenham since 1929 and later kindly to such criticism. I was not privy feared Miss Bullis, with our only male retired in 1941 after 12 years to devote to the contents of the notes and eventu- teacher, Mr Burr (Manual Arts), our first more time to her family. ally some sort of truce was worked out. young (and very attractive to we adoles- In the fall of 1937 I moved up to I was apparently never entirely cured of cent boys) teacher, Miss Tobey (ninth Miss Long’s third and fourth grade some disarray in attire for it has lingered grade) and our two part time teachers room. Miss Long was something of a on in my life over the following now 80 Miss Cleaveland (Music) and Mrs Eaton martinet and introduced me to a more or so years. (Drawing). We also would get to know serious level of schoolroom discipline Miss Long left at the end of my Miss Buker a lot better as she added than I had experienced in Mrs Preston’s fourth grade year to marry Superinten- teaching tasks in the Junior High to her friendly feeling room. Those who did dent of Schools John D. Whittier. From Principal’s role. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era My entry into Junior High in Sep- By Bob Hicks reports from this era mention how suc- tember 1941 was followed that Decem- School Days – Part 3 cessful Miss Cleaveland was in her ber with the Japanese attack on Pearl field and with encouraging and involv- Harbor, which forced the US into what Let’s Hear It for Our Teachers! ing those musically inclined amongst the became World War II. The ensuing (continued) student body. nationwide “War Effort” readjustment She retired after 20 years in 1942. I impacted upon how we all would come couple of leading parts in the annual school can still see her small elderly figure by to live our lives here in Wenham for the plays that she directed, as well as a major that grand piano in the Assembly Hall next three-and-a-half years, a major sub- part in 1943 narrating a two hour school in her long, almost ankle length black ject I’ll get to later in this series. pageant which was part of the town’s dress with high button shoes (I kid you At this time I’ll only note its impact 300th Anniversary Celebration. While I not) peeking out beneath, repeatedly flip- on our Center School’s teaching staff. could memorize all I had to say, I was an ping over images of all the classical musi- It was not noticeable to me as I moved indifferent actor. Ultimately her choosing cal instruments on an easel, awaiting our up through the seventh, eighth and ninth me for one of the leading parts in the ninth instant identification until she achieved it. grades. Miss Bullis still lay in wait for us grade annual school play (“Strike Up the Mr Burr’s manual arts and printing in her seventh and eighth grades, while Band”) brought on my downfall when I classes were an entirely different experi- a new hire, Miss Tobey, came on as we came down seriously sick just before the ence for us in his shop in one of the base- arrived at the ninth grade. play was to go on stage. ment rooms, a haven of refuge for seven The real impact came upon the School Miss Bullis suspected me of faking adolescent boys in which to indulge in Board and Superintendent to replace sev- it and did not believe my mother’s con- hands-on making of stuff and learning eral teachers who chose to resign during firmation of the reality. It took a visit to how to print the school magazine, The the war years. Teachers were suddenly in our home from the school nurse, at Miss Breeze. He was a great guy, who we all short supply, over 200,000 had left their Bullis’ insistence, to convince her that idolized. He also was the school sports jobs nationwide as war work offered sud- I was just not gonna be there. I do not coach, chiefly, as I recall, of the six-man den riches. There were 70,000 vacancies, recall how it all worked out for her as football team. Sports during WWII were and enrollment in teachers colleges was off there was no understudy for my part, but restricted to only “at home” events (gas- 60%. The inflation that ensued from all the the play went on without me oline rationing), hence limited in scope. war related government spending forced After many years had passed, I One major woodworking project for the School Board to offer ever higher sala- came to realize that she saw something me occupied much of a year in manual ries in order to retain the staff already in in me and did her best to develop it. Of arts. I undertook to saw out a sizeable hand as well as entice newcomers. course, at the time I was unaware of this image of an elephant from a slab of 1” With that bit of background, it’s and they were not a happy two years of thick rock maple to become a gift cut- back to “Let’s Hear It for the Teachers:” my life at Center School. ting board for my mother. It measured Miss Bullis’ seventh and eighth Moving on to my ninth grade about 10”x12” and was very hard wood grades proved to be as fearsome as we teacher, Miss Tobey, we both arrived the indeed. My hand-held and driven jigsaw had been forewarned. Initially I seemed same year, fall of 1943. Our class of 13 made little progress against the rock hard to have made it onto her approved list for the first time enjoyed our very own wood and pressing on too firmly to over- (not a teacher’s pet, no such person classroom. Miss Tobey was young and come this resulted in an increasing num- existed in her eyes). She had found out attractive and to our adolescent male ber of broken blades. Mr Burr began to early that I was an avid reader so she eyes the first teacher we had who we get concerned for I was fast diminishing required me to do 15 book reports a year viewed as a “young woman” rather than the limited stock of these blades his bud- rather than the standard 10. She also an “older teacher.” She was aware of this get had permitted him to acquire. noted that I seemed to easily memorize impact she had on us and used it to get I wasn’t the only student to be saw- the lengthy epic poems we studied in her our cooperation in whatever she wanted ing wood with a jigsaw but was well in English class, such as Henry Wadsworth us to do but nothing untoward happened the lead in broken blades. I believe my Longfellow’s Evangeline: and she was gone at the end of the year, father eventually bought some blades “This is the forest primeval, off to greener pastures when we also to see me through and the cutting board The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, departed off to Beverly High. enjoyed a long career in my mother’s Bearded with moss, and in garments Junior High continued our expo- kitchen, ending up back with me upon green, indistinct in the twilight, sure to culture with Miss Cleaveland’s her death. Stand like Druids of eld, with voices music and Mrs Eaton’s drawing (not art) So what about Miss Buker? Well, I sad and prophetic, still with us from grammar school. Their realize that I stated earlier that I would Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that efforts were pretty much wasted on me be writing about her in this Part 3 of rest on their bosoms.” as I lacked any talent for singing or any School Days, but there’s quite a lot to My ability to memorize lengthy sub- interest in playing a musical instrument, say about her which will occupy all of jects led to being assigned (no choice) a and drawing left me cold also. School my next essay. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era The legacy of Miss Bessie Buker By Bob Hicks 1958 and again living in town, I found lives on in Wenham in the form of the School Days – Part 4 the exact same memories and felt that school building adjacent to the old Center her poem, The Ghost of Bessie Buker, School dedicated to her in 1952, a con- Miss Bessie Buker written in 2008 for her 50th Class crete recognition of what she achieved in Reunion, perfectly captures the essence her 35 years as Principal of the Center school not in our everyday classroom if this devoted woman who did so much School from 1922 through 1957, setting lives. We most often saw her periodi- for our town. a standard of academic excellence which cally at special school functions, her endures today in our much enlarged and tall and rather severe appearance com- more complex school system. She also pletely dominating the assembled stu- The Ghost of Bessie Buker vividly lives on in the memories of some dent body, brooking no disruption By Althea Prescott Cranston of us who came under her influence. whatever of any kind simply by being I mentioned previously how per- there. She never raised her voice, but She roams the halls at night suading the 29-year-old teacher from that voice carried implicit authority. Checking rooms for messy desks, Lisbon Falls, Maine, to come to Wenham During my junior high years, errant She peers into dark corners to assume the Principal’s role in the just behavior that merited more than our And looks into the cloak closet. enlarged Center School was Superinten- classroom teachers’ disciplinary admon- Notes made, contraband confiscated, dent John D. Whittier’s master stroke of ishments occurred more often, resulting She awaits the morning arrivals. his career serving the town. Over the fol- in a trip to “Miss Buker’s office.” This lowing 35 years an average of about 15 was a much feared fate, contemplation She watches as children hop off the bus. new pupils arrived each year to benefit of which did much to discourage misbe- Tall, spindly woman with flat from her guidance, that’s maybe about havior. Youthful disregard for such con- brown shoes. 500 of us who went on in life from this templation did arise from time to time, Her grey hair tied back in a tight bun, small town with attitudes and knowledge however. I recall at least once when I had Print dress, sweater on shoulders, that would be of great benefit should we to make that fateful visit. I do not recall Glasses on nose. choose to put them to use. my actions that caused this. Her eye looks at each child. A guiding principle of her role was I had to sit down opposite Miss to educate her students to be good citi- Buker at her desk, eyeball to eyeball. Children scurry by her zens, not just to acquire a good education. It was here that one of her most effec- Afraid to look up. Proper social behavior intended to make tive disciplinary “tools” came into play. Her one piercing eye sweeping over us responsible adults was inculcated into She had what was then called a “cast” in the students. us along with all the knowledge acquired her left eye. A “cast” was a disconnect Checking for infractions. from the required courses of study. Dur- between her eyeballs which resulted in They know she sees all. ing my stay at Center School in the midst her left eye not always following her of World War II, patriotism loomed large right eye around, but heading off in Miss Buker has been gone for and one of Miss Buker’s annual reports another direction while she was staring many years in the Town Report illustrates one exam- into your eyes. Perhaps an adult could But she lives on, ple of her effectiveness in training us to adjust to this but we juveniles were not They say the eye in her portrait follows be good citizens: yet worldly wise enough to do so and the you as you pass. Apparently some resistance to the effect was frightening. There is no lingering there. daily salute to the flag had arisen in In a quiet voice she would inquire some Massachusetts communities and as to the reason for my transgression and the state’s education authorities had when whatever elaborate alibi I had con- announced that such a salute could not structed to justify my behavior was pre- legally be required and that no students sented (admitting guilt was usually not a refusing to salute the flag could be first gambit) she fixed her right eye upon disciplined for refusal to do so. Miss me (the errant left usually hidden under a Buker concluded her brief discussion closed eyelid) and quietly said, “Look at of this issue in her report by stating me. I know you are lying.” There it was, that, “No students in the Center School I was reminded that indeed, Miss Buker refuse to salute our nation’s flag.” We sees all. all knew better. Miss Buker stayed on 23 years after Well, that is the big picture, but I left the ninth grade, retiring in 1957. how did she strike us as students? Dur- When discussing some of my thoughts ing our grammar school years Miss for this page with Althea Prescott Cran- Buker was mostly a “presence” in the ston, a graduate of the Buker School in A Tribute to Miss Bessie Buker J. Gregory Hill 10/18/2016

Bessie Buker was Principal at the Wenham Center School for many years and my family didn’t realize she lived in the house next to us at 6 Linden St, Wen- ham, Massachusetts. My family moved from Beverly to Wenham during the fourth grade for me. Miss Buker stayed with the family of Norm Crawley for years while she was part of the educa- tion department in Wenham and returned to Maine during the summer. The graduating class of 1956 was preparing for graduation and chose me to be their Class Marshal. Bessie asked me if I would do the ceremony as mar- shal for the class. I didn’t know what This memorial display is located in the Buker School just around the corner from the was involved but my parents suggested main entrance corridor opposite the Principal’s office. it would be a good event. As part of the ceremony, I had to lead the class into the the school custodian in his car with wide I did well in Wenham Center big new function hall in the new Bessie sideboard steps to the four door sedan. He School, but next year Bessie was retiring Buker School. Straight down the center rolled down the window and asked me if with the graduation of the Class of 1957. aisle and then seat them in place on stage I would like a ride home, but I saw Bes- This year I was Class President and at to start the evening. Following I would sie on the passenger side, as the custodian the end of the ceremony I asked Miss again lead them out of the hall to the was evidently driving her home. I hesi- Bessie Buker to come to the front wheru- vestibule next to the entrance. For my tated to answer thinking that it might not pon I presented her with a bouquet of red badge of Class Marshall, Bessie weaved be proper to ride home with the school’s roses as our appreciation from our class a baton with silver and blue ribbon the principal. ‘Well,” I said, which prompted and for her dedication to all the classes. length of the 18” dowel with the ends him to say, “Hurry up, get in the back or I have had my marshal’s baton for sewn in a floweret on each end, with the we’ll have to leave you here.” Bessie said all these years and would like to present blue and silver ribbon extending from hello and asked me how my day was, it to the school committee and principal one end flying with a flourish. adding that we’ll be home soon and it’s and the graduates of all the classes for Before the event I remember one too cool to walk. All I could think of was the education and experience we have cool fall evening, I had stayed after school what if the kids found out I rode home all enjoyed, cherished and remember and then had started to walk home. I had with the Principal, but they never found from the Wenham Center School in our just left the school building and started out. I respected her very much. home town. down School Street for home. A big car drove up and stopped beside me. It was The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era The preceding four parts of this By Bob Hicks bers and Mrs. Eaton, art teacher, helped School Days topic have hopefully given with that phase of the preparations. you some insight into how it was to go School Days – Part 5 Following the pageant, those pres- to school in Wenham as the 1930s came ent enjoyed a fine exhibit of artwork to an end and World War II descended Wrap Up done by the various classes, which fea- upon us on December 7, 1941. As I was tured Wenham and its early and contem- unlikely to be drafted for military service Miss Evelyn Woodason of the school porary history. The pageant and artwork before the War was over my remaining faculty, the entire pageant was prepared together with classroom activities which three years at Center School (before mov- by Miss Bessie Buker, principal of the have in recent months been tied in with ing on to high school in Beverly) were not school. To her goes much credit for the the history of the town have done much substantially different than they would interesting manner in which the histori- to kindle in the minds of the pupils an have been without the War intruding. cal background of the town was woven understanding and interest in the back- I was in the 7th Grade and now old together in sketches adapted to the age ground of their hometown.” enough to know what this all meant. The of the various groups presenting them. The other recollection was recently War Effort in which all of us, includ- From a group singing number at the reawakened after 75 years when a note ing schoolchildren, were constantly outset in which pupils attired in the cos- arrived in my mail in the winter of 2017 exhorted to serve our country in some tumes of 1643 followed the gestures of from a classmate of those years. She and way, extended into our school life, and John Donovan who displayed an unusu- I both were on the “staff” of the annual depending upon our age (class) level, ally fine voice as he “lined out” the tune, school magazine, The Breeze. She was our part consisted of some added patri- down to the final number, the singing Editor in Chief and I was Literary Edi- otic duties appropriate to our ages. of the Star Spangled Banner, the spirit tor of the 1943 Tercentenary Edition. Some of these were: Junior Red of olden days was caught by the young- Junior High students wrote all the con- Cross projects; US Savings Bonds and sters. Even the little tots of the first and tent in Miss Bullis’ English classes, stamps purchases weekly, with an ongo- second grades in their colonial costumes Mrs. Eaton’s art classes did the linoleum ing contest to see who could top the list who repeated their Biblical verses and block carvings for the illustrations and (90% of a class to achieve Flag recog- said their catechisems after the fashion the Junior High boys printed the maga- nition); Boy Scout fire fighting training of their ancestors proved accomplished zine in Mr. Burr’s printing class. in anticipation of air raids; scrap metal little actors and actresses, really los- My once-upon-a-time Editor in collecting; writing letters and sending ing themselves in the simple little parts Chief, now terminally ill with ALS, had small gifts to Wenham servicemen. Miss which they portrayed. moved into her daughter’s home in Maine Bullis organized the biggest of the latter, Worthy of much praise was the for her last days and came across a copy 169 gifts went out from Center School work of Robert Hicks, junior high school of my small boat magazine (to which her worldwide to “our Wenham boys” fight- pupil, who served as reader for the pag- daughter’s husband subscribed). Lo and ing in the War in 1943. eant, but unlike so many who perform behold, there was her former Literary So, wrapping up “School Days” such a function, he gave the entire two- Editor on the Editorial Page rambling on before going on to daily life in the bigger hour pageant entirely from memory, a about the small boat world. world of Wenham in World War II, here are real accomplishment that brought much After briefly explaining in her note two personal recollections that have stayed favorable comment. how she had rediscovered me after all with me over all the intervening years. Harleton Burr, assisted by members these years, she closed with, “Miss In 1943 the town celebrated its Ter- of the industrial arts classes, constructed Buker and Miss Bullis would be very centenary (300th) Anniversary and I much of the scenery, while many of the proud of you.” had a major part in the Center School’s costumes were prepared by Miss Betty It was a poignant moment for me really big effort to mark the occasion, a Story and members of her domestic as her words brought back those long two hour outdoor pageant on a hot June arts group. Members of the faculty also ago years. Sadly, before we could make day. My mother saved the Salem News helped materially as each instructor car- arrangements for a spring trip to Maine report on the event for a reason that will ried on rehearsals of particular scenes in to reconnect, a note from her daugh- become obvious as you read it: recent days, while Miss Barstow, musi- ter arrived informing me that she had June 4, 1943: Tercentenary Pageant is cal instructor aided in the musical num- passed away. Given by School Children (From the Salem News) “A broiling sun on the hottest day of the year failed to mar a fine pageant presented by the children of the Center School on the school athletic field yes- terday afternoon in commemoration of the Wenham Tercentenary. Every pupil participated in one scene or another, as various incidents in the history of the town were unfolded before an appreciative audience. With the exception of two scenes written by Mrs. Joseph Harrington, Jr. for a commemorative program several years ago and incorporated into yester- day’s pageant and a scene prepared by The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks When the Japanese sneak attack on ton. Mrs. Cutler assembled a high-pow- the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on War Comes to Wenham ered community committee to put the December 7, 1941 drew the USA at last plan into action including ministers of into the ongoing war that had begun four that took place elsewhere, not here. Of both churches, Scoutmasters, superin- years earlier when Japan invaded China 160 Wenham citizens (out of a popula- tendents of schools and Mrs. Frederick in 1937, followed two years later when tion of about 1,400) who served in the Ayer, chairman (sic) of the sports activ- Adolf Hitler’s Germany fell upon Poland military, eight died, five in action, two in ities of the Wenham Village Improve- in September of 1939 drawing Great accidents and one from a fatal illness. ment Society (note no youth represen- Britain and France into the struggle, the For those of us who did not suffer tation was involved). USA was not at all prepared for it. This the loss or serious injury of loved ones, From June 25, 1943 to June 25, was due mostly to a nationwide isola- nor had family and friends in the mili- 1947, 218 movies were shown to a total tionist mindset that preferred to view the tary whose well being was a great con- attendance of 30,000. Side benefits foreign fighting as not our affair with all cern, the war years were pretty much included distribution of admission fees those ocean miles between them and us. just a major inconvenience, having to (after taxes of 66.6%) to “civic better- The surprise (sneaky) nature of the make do with much less, what with the ment”, including the Community House, Japanese attack swept away the isola- rationing of food, clothing and gasoline the Patton Sports Field, the Hamilton Ice tionism in a wave of patriotic anger and and the unavailability of new homes, Rink and the Sunshine Fund, which pro- the country girded itself for what would cars, appliances, etc. vided transportation for the needy sick to 1 be just over 3 /2 years of an all out “war For some the war presented an hospitals and clinics. effort” not ending until final victory in opportunity to escape at last from the In her book Mrs. Cole noted that, August of 1945. Viewed in retrospect Great Depression’s financial despera- “Hamilton and Wenham were pioneers as our “last good war”, it was indeed tion and earn substantial wages in war in this war emergency project, and it was to become a struggle between clearly industry. The labor shortage was acute the only one among the many others to defined good guys (the USA, Great Brit- with over 10 million mostly young men survive to 1947, in spite of not showing ain and its allies) and the bad guys (Ger- serving in the military. This opened up gangster, mystery or triangle (?) films.” many, Japan and their allies). It was an to women many jobs always filled by Mrs. Cole goes on to state, “Another amazing demonstration of national unity. men. One in four married women even- byproduct of this experiment was a more Tiny Wenham did its part, and I’ll tually worked in industry. This great decent behavior in public audience, go into some details in following essays cultural shift in our lives was symbol- proper respect during the singing of the on just how and when it did so and how ized in the “Rosie the Riveter” propa- National Anthem and more careful use it all impacted upon our family’s and ganda campaign, in which the strong, of the Community House Property.” friend’s lives. Right now I first want to bandanna-clad Rosie became one of My sisters and I were unable to take set the scene in which this all took place. the most successful recruitment tools in advantage of this opportunity for enter- In the definitive history, Wenham in American history, and the most iconic tainment, as that aforementioned “lack of World War II, published in 1947 by the image of working women during World easy transportation” made the eight mile tireless Adeline P. Cole and her Publica- War II. (Of course, when it was over, it round trip to the Community House from tion Committee (Minnie E. Ashworth, was back to the kitchen for most as the out here on Burley Street insurmount- Katherine H. Campbell and Alene S. returning veterans came home to reclaim able. My father wasn’t about to squander Harrington) for the then Historical Asso- their jobs). any of the weekly three gallons of gas- ciation of the Wenham, Village Improve- Wenham did take note of the war’s oline he could buy with his “A-Card” ment Society, Inc., following 290 pages impact on we youngsters from 6 to 16, in on such a frivolity. I do not recall being of detailed discussion of who and what addition to involving us in the war effort too distressed by missing out and prob- went on in town during the war, in a tasks I discussed in my “School Days” ably was well behaved enough to behave short chapter entitled “Social Life”, it is essays. According to Mrs. Cole, these properly in public anyway. remarked that, “On the surface the social young people were viewed as being “left Coming up, I’ll being getting into life of the town seemed little changed with confused ideals and restless activ- all the many details, but first for my next during these war years.” ity. The absorption of adult members of essay I want to set aside my own recol- Small wonder. The continental USA the family in war work, the lack of easy lections to bring to you information about suffered none of the catastrophic civilian transportation to nearby movies or the this 375th Anniversary Celebration’s pio- deaths (an estimated 40 million world- beach and to each other’s homes left the neering effort by a dozen senior history wide) and destruction that devastated young stranded for amusement and too students in the Regional High School AP those nations where the fighting and the ready to create their own excitement.” US History Program to interview and bombing took place. Almost all of the (I’ll present an example of the latter in have videotaped oral histories from sev- 12,000 US civilians who did die in the an upcoming essay on “Law & Order in eral Wenham citizens who, like me, were war lost their lives as crewmen on the Wenham”). here in World War II and are still here. Merchant Marine convoys on the North To address this apparent need, Mrs. A preview of the outstanding results of Atlantic from German submarine attacks. B. Preston Cutler “started to do some- this program will be presented to those Our nation did suffer the military thing about it.” The “something” turned interested at the Hamilton Wenham Pub- deaths of over 400,000 of our fathers, out to be showing movies at the Com- lic Library on Monday evening, June 18 sons and husbands in the fighting, but munity House in nearby South Hamil- from 6pm to 8pm. Full details to follow. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks In concluding my last essay I An unanticipated delay in stated that, for this next essay, I wanted Knowing Our Roots arranging the videotaping by the to set aside my own recollections of high school audio/visual students bygone times in town to bring to you Reflections On Our Town resulted in May in their being unable information about a 375th Anniver- to do the taping. Nicole Roebuck, sary Celebration’s pioneering effort by our town manager’s executive secre- a dozen senior history students in the tary offered her expertise in this field Regional High School AP US History from among what is now, after 75years in this last minute crisis and con- Program, in which they interviewed or so, a limited field from which to ducted the videotaping (and subse- for videotaping oral histories from choose. A major focus of making such quent editing) of the interviews. several Wenham citizens who, like me, choices was to get as broad an over- Sadly by now our two vets had were here in the World War II era and view of life in town back then as pos- succumbed to their advanced years are still here. sible, and I settled on six from among and would no longer be able to par- A preview of the outstanding those I knew, as the students would be ticipate so some adaptation had to results of this program featuring a operating in two-person teams. Here be made to include their messages selection of these videotaped oral his- first are four with their student- inter in the program. tories about life in Wenham in the viewers: Dean Harwood’s family lived 1930s and 1940s will be presented to Joe Angelini’s parents were Italian on Cherry Street, and he was one of those interested at the Hamilton/Wen- immigrants who came to this country four Harwood brothers who served in ham Public Library on Monday eve- in 1922 and moved to Wenham in 1939 the military in the war. Dean served ning, June 18 from 6pm to 8pm, where they built a home and chicken in the Army Air Force but was dis- To inform you better about how farming business on Topsfield Road. abled by a serous illness just prior to this all came to pass I thought I’d fill Joe has returned to the family farm being sent overseas. Dean suffered you in here in advance on the back- Wenham in retirement. He was inter- major decline in the interval between ground of how this pioneering effort viewed by Nick Oo and Parker Tocci. the get acquainted interviews and the on the part of our high school’s senior Buffy Colt’s father, Jim Reynolds, late scheduling of the videotaping and history students and their teacher, acquired the Larch Farm on Larch could not participate. Nathan Giarnese Anne Page, came about. Row in the early 1930s, where Buffy and Katherine Dixon have worked First, about these dozen history grew up on what she refers to as a with an audiotaping done at the get students: The AP US History Program “gentleman’s farm” and after a sojourn acquainted interview to record some is a senior history effort by a dozen elsewhere returned with her husband of Dean’s recollections. students interested in, and qualified to to build her present home in a corner S. Hardy Prince’s family lived undertake, a year-long history proj- of that farm. Buffy was interviewed by on Grapevine Road, his father was ect at a college level. Our 375 Anni- Emily Benack and Mayo Amorello. milk dealer Sidney Prince, who also versary year suggested that Wenham Peggy Gauthier’s parents moved held the school bus contract for many might be an appropriate subject and to a small cottage at Pleasant Pond in years. Hardy flew US Navy surveil- our Town Anniversary Committee the 1940s, reared a family of thirteen lance aircraft in the Phillipine Sea dur- was enthusiastic about encouraging there. Peggy still lives there next ing the war and settled in Wenham this to take place. door to where she grew up. She was post-war with his wife in a home they Of great additional importance interviewed by James Goudie and built themselves near his family home was the pioneering idea of these his- Maggie Perotta. on Grapevine Road. Dylan Shelby and tory students doing this as a series of Don Killam’s family goes back Charlotte Benchoff worked with fam- oral history interviews of Wenham in town to the 1600s, with most of the ily members to assemble what might residents who were here in the chosen generations involved in fire fighting in have been some of Hardy’s recollec- time period based on World War II. the town, as was Don, now a retired tions in a format suitable for recording The 1930s and 1940s were as far back chief of our present day fire depart- for posterity. in years now that long time residents ment. Don has lived on Perkins Street The efforts on behalf of this proj- could be found still with us to tell us since the 1940s. Don was interviewed ect by these students, their teacher their stories. These students would not by Alexandra Padellaro and Ty Santos. and those citizens who contributed only be doing research on town history Choice of the two remaining can- their recollections that made it all but also learning how to conduct live didates came about when I learned that possible are deserving of our town’s interviews to be videotaped for ulti- two World War II veterans who grew up collective appreciation. Those of you mate placing in the library’s research in town lived in nearby Beverly. Visits who find it of interest to attend this archives available on line to all who to both revealed them both willing and preview presentation in recognition might be interested thereafter, a first able to take part, despite being in their of what it has achieved will not be for this program at the high school late 90s. Both participated in prelimi- disappointed. Monday evening, June I undertook to line up some appro- nary get acquainted interviews early 18, 6-8pm at the Hamilton/Wenham priate candidates for these interviews this year and all looked promising. Public Library. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks The advent of World War II in To their credit, our town officials December of 1941 soon impacted My Father the Air Raid Warden felt that “the enemy would not waste directly on the town in the form of its efforts on bombing a non-industrial several new boards and committees ian Defense area except that it took town,” and that we would more likely that the town was required to set up to place in a US Army managed installa- become a refuge for those bombed out deal with all the war related activities tion under the direction of the Ameri- of the cities. that it would have to perform. Most can Legion. The tower at the Hamil- The volunteer Air Raid Wardens would require the involvement of reg- ton High School was chosen as a joint came under the police jurisdiction, 86 ular town departments (police, fire, Hamilton/Wenham effort. The aircraft of them (including my father) covered highway, etc.) plus the appointment to be spotted were, of course, those the town. When surprise practice air of many citizen volunteers to carry German bombers (Japan didn’t figure raid alerts took place, blackout rules out many of these responsibilities. My on the east coast, they were the west were enforced, with no lights allowed father served in one of these citizen coast’s problem.) Ten volunteer spot- or only those behind light-tight black- volunteer roles as the Air Raid Warden ters served over 200 hours each and out curtains in windows of rooms for Burley Street, responsible for see- twenty-six put in over 100 hours each using lights at night. On these occa- ing that the various requirements for scanning those empty skies. In all 154 sions my father was out patrolling dealing with potential air raids were Wenham citizens participated in this Burley Street to assure our compli- carried out during practice alerts (and tedious and often uncomfortable duty. ance during those alerts. in any real raids, should they occur) by Did I say “uncomfortable”? Again In Wenham in World War II, Mrs. all three families on the street, hence from Mrs. Cole: “The spotter on the Cole stated, “There was a great deal my choice of title for this essay. tower in an exposed position was the of zeal in carrying out the letter of the Before I elaborate on our Civil- object of much solicitude, fur coats, law. In July, 1942 a surprise blackout ian Defense Activities as one aspect heavy sweaters were made available; drill involved 80 or more of the war- of our wartime roles (to serve as one hot coffee was supplied by the Wen- dens at the time when a working shift example in detail of what sort of duties ham Village Improvement Society; was returning home. Many work- and regulations were involved), here stoves were set up for a bit of warmth.” ers were halted. At Wenham Neck, a is a short listing of the major boards State Guard, a town raised unpaid load of navy workers, complying with and committees and their responsibili- militia charged with protecting our orders to halt, slept on nearby lawns ties, taken from Mrs. Adeline P. Cole’s town in any way needed in the absence until the blackout was over.” These Wenham in World War II: of the National Guard off fighting in drills were carried out in great detail War Finance Board, running War the war. Twenty-one citizens volun- with mock incidents, fires and acci- Bond Drives to pay for the war. teered for this task. dents from bombing. Selective Service Board (oth- Civilian Defense Activities, One citizen reported that, as a erwise known as the Draft Board), directing the involvement of citizen girl, when an air raid alarm sounded, selecting those young men who would volunteers in protecting the town in she and her siblings were sent off to go off to fight the war. Sending the the event of enemy attack. The police bed. While peering out the bedroom sons and husbands of one’s neighbors and fire departments headed up this window she saw to her horror, her and friends off to war at major risk of program. This is where most civil- mother being carried out of the house life and limb was an uncomfortable ian volunteers ended up helping out. on a stretcher to an ambulance that responsibility to carry out. The heart of the matter was fear of had arrived on the scene to pick up a Control of Food & Commodities air raids, brought on no doubt by the reported bombing victim. Practice, of (the Rationing Board), issuing the var- Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that course, but nobody told her. ious ration coupons that the citizenry killed over 2,000 servicemen, and the Civilian Defense was taken very would need to buy the scarce neces- then ongoing German bombings of seriously, as stated often with great sities of everyday life. The Rationing London and other British cities kill- zeal indeed. Not to be outdone, to Board was the least popular place to ing thousands of civilians. again quote from Mrs. Cole’s book, serve, as the inevitable denial (or lim- In retrospect it’s hard to see how “It was the responsibility of the fire iting) of the necessary coupons needed anyone in the know could conceive department to reduce to a minimum to buy perceived necessities to friends of our being bombed, as neither Ger- all fire hazards from possible bomb- and neighbors was not well received. many nor Japan had bombers that ing; such a cleaning of attics Wenham Accredited Agent of Relief (in this could fly anywhere near the continen- had never known! The accumulation case the American Red Cross), admin- tal USA. Even in the war’s final years of generations in old houses were ruth- istering any emergency relief needed we couldn’t reach Japan with our huge lessly sacrificed, to be mourned later.” in the event of any war related com- B29 bombers until we captured the Coming up next, a look at some of munity disasters (air raids!) island of Tinian (near Guam) 1,200 the other wartime circumstances that Spotting for Aircraft, keeping an miles from Japan, in order to begin made our lives quite different from the eye on the sky for enemy bombers. major bombings. But, the fear was peacetime lifestyle to which we were This would have fit into the Civil- there and so we prepared. accustomed. Like rationing… The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks Unlike all the other World War II- while many articles of everyday need related rules and regulations that affected Rationing became scare. Queues sometimes a quar- some of our lives, rationing’s impact was ter of a mile long stood patiently in line universal, everyone was subjected to its street. The nights were punctuated by the for the possible half pound of butter that burdensome constraints. Rather than two shifts returning from and going to the might be available. It seemed a full time attempt to chronicle the details of its industrial plants. “Share your car” was job for a housewife to shop and collect impact on our lives myself, I here step the slogan of the workers as they jour- sufficient food for the family. aside to quote in its entirety, Mrs. Ade- neyed to the defense plants. Speed limit People with land and the ability line P. Cole’s chapter on the topic from was reduced to 30 miles an hour and by to do so purchased steers, which they her book, Wenham in World War II: December the Governor requested that fattened for home consumption. Baby “The expanding Army and Navy Sunday driving be abandoned. Farm pigs were in great demand as it seemed created increased demands for food and trucks with a more generous allowance possible for many country people to every sort of equipment. The United of gasoline seemed to replace many pas- raise a pig. States had no backlog of supplies and it senger cars, busses became crowded, the In carrying out the provisions of soon became evident that it would be nec- sidewalks populated by housewives car- rationing, the work of this unpaid Ration essary to ration the civilian population. rying big brown paper bags of groceries. Board was a very real patriotic service. The immediate occasion of the set- The closing of one grocery store made It was task difficult to administer and ting up of a Ration Board was by order shopping for food doubly difficult. lacked the stimulus of war work carried of Hon. Joseph Ely, Massachusetts tire During the summer of ’42 in antic- on by large groups. There were hours administrator, requesting the selectmen ipation of fuel oil rationing, a survey of hearings and discussions to make the of Wenham to appoint a Tire Ration was made of all homes using fuel oil for allotments most fairly. However fair the Board. heating. Whenever possible, coal burn- decisions, the unpopularity of rationing Cutting off the natural supply of rub- ing was substituted, every effort was sometimes precluded the gratitude this ber from the East Indies created a rubber made to conserve heat; storm windows Board merited. famine. It would take a long time to find were added, fireboards closed up open The real accomplishments of the substitutes or build plants for the produc- fireplaces, wood and coal burning stoves Board and their assistants can never be tion of synthetic rubber, so the remaining were set up. Fuel rationing was a fact by summed up in columns of statistics but supply of rubber must be carefully hus- October ’42 and Wenham people unable the gratitude of their fellow townsmen banded. Each city or town was allocated to reconvert from oil started the winter will increase in the years to come when a certain number of tires determined by with a minimum allowance of oil. we can see the war in retrospect. the number of cars in each community. The Tire Ration Board had now The Board’s activities ceased in Wenham’s allotment was oftentimes become the War Price and Rationing September, 1945 when the work was only one tire for the month. Board and this volunteer Board handled transferred to Beverly as rationing The Selectmen, conforming to the entirely the complicated mechanism of became less necessary. Mr. Vickers and request from the tire administrator, this act of the government, the only paid the members of his Board received from appointed as Tire Ration Board, Fred T. employee being the clerk, Guy Cole, the President and from the Governor of Vickers, Louis Dodge and Horace Paul- assisted during the most active period by Massachusetts, personal acknowledge- ing. This Board commenced to func- Mrs. Robert Jones. On January 8, 1945 ment of the value of their services.” tion January 5, 1942 by requesting all Horace Pauling resigned. Ray Fowle The details of so all-encompassing citizens to register with the Board the was appointed to fill the vacancy. government control of public consump- number of tires they owned with their This whole system of rationing tion of necessary goods and services serial numbers. Only one spare tire was involved three separate divisions. First for almost four years are far too numer- allowed each car, the government buy- there was the survey and the accounting ous to list here, but a short representa- ing any in excess of this allowance. It of what each household had. Then there tive listing of goods either unavailable at then became the duty of the Board to was the registration of each citizen and all or only in limited rationed amounts decide where the available allotment lastly the making out of the orders, or includes automobiles, radios, metal fur- was to go, whose need was greatest and ration books by the Board. niture, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, whose use of the tires would be most Throughout the nation an army of sewing and washing machines, typewrit- helpful in the war effort. public school teachers was recruited for ers, footwear, bicycles, fuel oil, cheese, In May of ‘42 it became necessary the registration. In Wenham, for the first silk, stoves, nylon, butter, margarine, to ration gasoline on account of lack of book it took the afternoons of a week to milk, lard, processed foods (bottled, transportation. This act fell heaviest on register the population. Registration was canned and frozen), canned milk, dried the seacoast towns, the submarine men- simplified by calling families in - alpha fruits, coal and firewood, fruit butter, jel- ace stopping distribution by boat. The betical order, those whose names com- lies and jams. Certain medicines became rationing of gasoline made a real change menced with A-F coming on Monday, scarce, penicillin, for instance, was in the lives of our people as well as in the etc. The work of the teachers was sup- rationed to conserve available supplies appearance of the town highways. Gone plemented by other volunteers. for the military. was the procession of sleek limousines In rapid succession followed the How small an item could become on the way to Boston. Bicycles ridden by rationing of sugar, fats, meat, canned rationed? Try this, an empty toothpaste young and old wobbled down the village goods, shoes and other commodities, tube had to be turned in to buy a new one.

The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era There’s a photo in my mother’s photo By Bob Hicks from the huge exhaust pipe. To a 14 year album of our small farm on Burley Street The US Navy Lands in Wenham old boy the thrill was unimaginable. What taken in December, 1942 entitled, “Sur- never dawned upon us then was that some veyors all over the place because of airport of those “boys” hardly older than us would expansion. Took this photo because we pit provided free time entertainment and never come back from their ultimate mis- didn’t know what was going to happen!” when the gravel bank was gone my atten- sions far away in the South Pacific attempt- What was going to happen was that tion moved to the airport construction ing to torpedo Japanese warships. World War II was about to descend upon us itself up the street. My buddies (four of us) Then came the day I’ll always remem- in this far corner of town as the U.S. Navy could roam freely anywhere over the vast ber when a Grumman Hellcat fighter, took title by eminent domain of proper- area on our bicycles, watching not only which had been hotdogging around the ties surrounding the tiny grass airfield of steam shovels but graders, bulldozers, and field, took off. As we (several of my bud- the Beverly Aero Club over next to Hoods eventually asphalt plants at work as the dies were in our backyard) looked up, it Cherry Hill Farm in Beverly. The tiny air- new airfield slowly took shape. There were suddenly became silent, its engine had cut field was to grow into a large training field no barriers to our access nor did anyone we out. It was a moment frozen in time as I on which aspiring naval aviators would encountered seem to mind our being there. saw the pilot open his canopy but he was learn how to fly their warplanes before But all this was but a prelude to the too low to parachute and in an instant the attempting to do so from aircraft carriers. main attraction (to me but not to my par- plane was gone down behind the trees and The field would have three paved ents), the arrival of the “war birds”. These the noise of its impact down around Maple runways, two of them each almost a mile were the Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo Street reached our ears in length. One pointed right at our farm bombers, WWII’s heaviest single engine We jumped on our bikes and pedaled (and still does today) but fortunately for warplane powered by a 1,900hp air-cooled furiously to the scene. The pilot had made our family it fell short of taking away my Wright Cyclone 18 cylinder radial engine. a perfect belly landing in two truck gar- parents’ dream farm on which they had Big, heavy and relatively slow, it carried den fields then on the north side of Maple already lavished much effort. a full size torpedo or a 2,000 bomb inside Street, skimming the tree tops lining the Not so fortunate were George and and had a three-man crew. street, sliding across one field and blow- Lottie Perkins up the street nearer to the Their first arrival in early 1944 was ing through the intervening stone wall, proposed airfield, who lost their ances- unannounced (it was wartime) when a shearing off its wings and tossing boulders tral farmhouse and much of their land to flight of eight arrived from the Squantum everywhere, finally coming to rest in the the needs of war. They were our street’s Naval Air Station in Quincy to begin prac- further field. “seniors”, living out their retirement years ticing aircraft carrier landings. The proce- By the time we got there the pilot had after their farm buildings (and herd of dure was to land within a marked out area already climbed out and had been helped cows) burned several years before. They on the runway the length of an aircraft car- to the nearby home of the Speliotis fam- were evicted and were relocated closer to rier deck. For this training the entire crew ily, owners of the fields. A small crowd was us on Burley Street in a small cottage built of each was made up of student pilots who gathering when U.S. Navy jeeps escorting for them from lumber salvaged from the alternated flying the plane with an instruc- a large 10 wheeler crane arrived from the old farmhouse by their son Porter. tor initially. The eight planes formed a airport. Arrangements were soon made This sudden development ushered in parade around a rectangular “flight pat- to pick up the plane (remaining fuselage) three years of noise, dust, noise, traffic, tern” several miles around the airfield so with the crane and take it to the airport, But and more noise to our once quiet street, a non-stop procession of “touch and go” a small problem arose and with it came a much of it offering this now teen age boy could be achieved. moment in which we adolescent boys a lot of exciting action right in the neigh- On any day with a northwest wind (fair shared briefly in the war effort. borhood. When construction began and a weather hereabouts) the din was unending There was a slight upgrade across the need for gravel fill arose, the gravel bank as each plane flew over our home 1,100’ fields back to Maple Street and as the crane that then existed on Maple Street (opposite from the end of the runway at about 150’ truck began this ascent its front wheels where Burnett’s Garage is now) was taken altitude with full 1,900hp and maximum lifted slightly from the ground due to the over from its proprietors, McCarthy Broth- (noisiest) propellor pitch. Only when the weight of the plane behind. We, along with ers Construction of Peabody who had been weather was unsuitable for flying were we several nearby Putnamville boys, lined the digging away at it for several years. spared this intrusion into our daily lives (it path the crane was to follow. The truck Burley Street was just around the cor- was wartime remember, and was to go on driver saw us and yelled out, “Hey, you ner, a direct route to the airport construction well into 1945 before the training program boys, get up on the front of my truck to get site and so it became a haul road for much was reduced as the war’s end neared). the wheels back on the ground.” of a year. The unending parade of giant After a specified number of “landings” Hardly believing our ears, we made a noisy, smoky, Sterling gravel trucks of John had been made the planes would pull up to mad scramble to clamber up on the broad Iafolla & Co. destroyed the peacefulness of the gathered students awaiting their turns. hood and fenders of the truck and along our remote street as well as the street itself. It was then that my buddies and I were in the wide front bumper. The wheels came Iafolla had to do constant maintenance on our glory, for we could stand right up there down and we triumphantly rode it to the the roadbed. There was nothing to be done with these flyboys, most of them barely four road, where the driver, grinning from ear to about it for it was war time. years older than us, with that huge plane ear, waved us off with a hearty, “well done For me the sights and sounds of the front and center, engine idling while the lads”. For just a few brief moments we had steam shovels (no longer steam driven but student swap was made and then growling shared in our nation’s war effort, moments the name stuck) at work in the McCarthy into full cry with flames jetting several feet never to be forgotten. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era With the 375th Anniversary Parade ing the town‘s 325th Anniversary in and Field Day a week or so away I’m tak- By Bob Hicks that year’s Town Report until I got to ing time out from this ongoing series on Time Out the School Reports in which the stu- “Growing Up in Wenham in World War dents of the Bessie Buker School were II” to encourage you to join us on Sep- town reports at Town Hall provide annual praised for their “rewrite” of the 1943 tember 8th at this Grand Finale of our historic overviews of what happened in pageant for 1968 entitled, “The Light”. celebration of Wenham’s 375th Anniver- town in any given year so there I went. That Miss Buker’s now 25 years gone by sary. We have been celebrating our 375th As 1943 was in the midst of World creation was chosen for students in the Anniversary all year with programs and War II and celebrations of all sorts were school bearing her name to recreate says events for all ages leading up to the big thus subdued in scale and scope, the something about the enduring quality of extravaganza on Saturday, September 8. town chose to focus on the dedication that effort. The day will kick off at 10am with of the Honor Role of Wenham citizens Well, maybe the passage of only 25 a parade leaving Buker School, head- serving in the War (then located on the years did not generate enough enthusi- ing for Porter to Arbor, around the Town Town Hall lawn). Appropriate speeches asm for a celebration in 1968, but after Hall, along Main Street (Route 1A) to were made by several leading citizens, 50 years in 1993 a year-long celebration finish at Pingree Park. Once at the Park, special church services took place, lun- was staged starting in January with year- our Community Day will be off and run- cheon and tea were served by the Vil- long monthly historic walks to signifi- ning with children’s games, music for lage Improvement Society, and vari- cant historic points throughout the town. all ages, community group displays and ous local exhibits were displayed at the But the main effort was on two food trucks. Claflin Richards House and Barn, the parades, an “enhanced” Memorial Day The Committee has been hard at Library, Fire House and Legion Hall. Parade and a special “Tersemicenter- work planning and we hope you will In my earlier essay, “School Days Part nary” parade on September 18, a bit late join us. Whether you watch the parade, 5 - Wrap Up” I reproduced the Beverly for the actual date of Wenham’s incor- stop by the park, or purchase merchan- Times report on the part the entire Cen- poration on September 7, 1643 (our dise your support is greatly appreciated. ter School student body of close to 150 2018 celebration is only a day late to As this series of essays has been my played in celebrating the occasion with get onto a weekend). The “enhancement part in this 375th Anniversary Celebra- an outdoor pageant created by school of the traditional Memorial Day Parade tion, I thought I would devote this one to principal Bessie Buker. involved the inclusion of re-enactors of taking a look back to the 1943 Tercent- The Commemorative Address by the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and a ernary (300th) Celebration (in which I James Duncan Phillips was printed in its unit of the Massachusetts State Guard participated as an 8th grade student at entirety in a special opening section of representing veterans of the 20th cen- the Center School) to report on how the the 1943 Town Report on special glossy tury, while the special parade involved town chose to celebrate that 300th year coated paper. more of the community. It set off from and to the intervening 325th in 1968 and Moving on 25 years to 1968 I could the common (where a special display of the 350th in 1993. The archives of bygone not find a single reference to celebrat- Colonial crafts had been setup) follow- ing the dedication of a British oak tree Color Squad of the Lt. Norman Prince Post No. 183 of the American Legion and donated to the town by a British couple Legion Auxiliary arriving for dedication of the Honor Role. who were the parade’s official marshals. The Selectmen’s Report spoke proudly of how the parade, as it passed down Main Street under the blue banner of that year’s Celebration “represented all of the best to be found in Wenham.” The parade was followed by a clam- bake featuring an 8’x12’ cake and danc- ing. A Souvenier Program was promised to be published later in the fall when whatever available funds for its produc- tion had been determined. I don’t know if it happened and if so, does a copy (or copies) exist but some research in the library archives or those of the Wenham Museum (where all the archives of the former Wenham Historical Association are stored) may turn one up, a project for the oncoming winter perhaps? In the light of the above revelations, we feel that our 375th Anniversary Cel- ebration of the incorporation of our town will measure up for future review by interested persons. We just have to be sure that someone does write it up! The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks When the war came down on us Almost every night after work he in 1942 it was five years after my par- The Farm Kid Emerges would go down cellar where he weighed ents bought the farm on Burley Street. the day’s egg production and sorted it During those years I was growing up ers tapering off in egg production off into the proper crates for pickup. With from 7 to 12 and as my father steadily to the butcher in Peabody, the younger the full 100 egg laying hens at work built up his small farming operations I growing into full time egg production. producing maybe 80 eggs a day this was increasingly drawn into them per- Over the years my chores gradu- added up to about 50 dozen a week, 500 forming daily chores. Despite its small ally encompassed daily collecting the to 600 eggs to be individually weighed. size, the farm offered all the tasks a kid eggs and feeding and watering the egg How many eggs did he weigh one at a growing up on a larger farm would be layers in the barn and the pullets in the time over those years? Maybe 20,000 saddled with. I came to perform them fenced in one acre summer range up plus a year! That it was all worth it to all during the coming wartime years back in the “young orchard”. This lat- him is testified to with the note he left and became a real “farm kid”. Unreal- ter required wheelbarrowing 10 gallon me with the scale. It reads: ized during these years I acquired some milk jugs of water and 60 pound bags “This egg scale was used to grade marketable skills that served me well of grain 400’ from the barn to the sum- eggs for market during our poultry when at 14 I got my work permit and mer range a couple of times a week. farm enterprise at Burley Street circa went looking for a paying summer job. Seasonally I had to work at com- 1938-1945. After paying expenses Our small farm was my father’s pletely cleaning out the two barn coops the poultry income was used to pay dream, as I stated in an earlier essay, a (one each year, alternately upstairs off our mortgages in advance. This nearly two year stint working 80 hour and downstairs) of all the now solidly was accomplished in 6 or 7 years of weeks on his aunt’s dairy farm near cemented (with droppings) floor litter, a 12 year mortgage.” It is a valued New Bedford to support our small fam- whitewash the walls and ceilings, and memento of how much effort my par- ily in the depths of the Great Depres- creosote the nests and sleeping roosts ents put into this home of ours we have sion (1933-34) had somehow weaned to fight off disease, readying them now enjoyed for 62 years. him from his college trained career for the next year, and in spring help While the chickens came first, in business management and our 10 establish the newly arrived pullets in cows were a close second. Again small acre “farm” on Burley Street became a the summer range. This was not your scale, only two or three, depending major part of his future. everyday backyard hen yard, chick- on the annual births needed to keep a It was too small to be a full time ens in these numbers presented seri- freshened (milking) cow producing living but supplemented his depres- ous issues in disease control and flock milk. The cows broadened my world sion era work driving a milk truck behavior dynamics. beyond our farm as membership in the (from which job was home mid-after- My father still carried the major 4-H Club introduced me to other young noon giving him time to work on his load, of course, but as I grew up more people living similar lives in surround- farm), and in 1942 a new job manag- and more of it became my responsibil- ing Essex County. It became a whole ing the local Eastern States Farmers ity. He left me a memento of those years other world at home and now away. Exchange warehouse (now Agway) in when he passed on, his “egg scale”. Oh yeah, what was the third base? nearby Putnamville. By war’s end he This little mechanical balance beam Vegetable gardening, in the war the had moved up to District Field Repre- was used to grade the eggs by size into victory garden grew large indeed with sentative for Essex County and nearby pullet, small, medium, large and extra all its demands. More on both of these Rockingham County, NH keeping him large for crating up for market. in my next essay. away from home longer days. These changes in his life affected the scale and scope of his farming, but through them all I was growing up as a farm kid. The chores that gradually increased yearly were those any farm kid would be saddled with regardless of the farm size. Our farm had three distinct overlapping bases. Chickens came first as the income from their eggs was to be used to pay off the mortgage loans that had enabled him to buy the place. The average yearly flock eventually came to num- ber 100 egg laying hens and 100 young pullets which would grow into the next year’s laying flock as he rotated them through annually, the older egg lay- The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks Cows & Vegetables

In 1938 when the chickens were established At the time I was unaware that my father was and hard at work paying off the mortgage, my father socking away the income from the dairy farm opera- brought home a Guernsey heifer to set up a mod- tion for my future college education and it came to est milk business serving our extended family needs. pass in 1947 that my first year at Northeastern Uni- Soon milk, cream and butter were added to the eggs versity was, in part, funded by this. marketed to extended family members and friends (in The war years brought on food shortages and addition to the wholesaling of the eggs). Lady Luck, the Victory Garden came into being wherein every- this first producer, eventually became the grand- one who had an available plot of land was encour- mother of my very own 4-H Club project, Mayflower, aged to grow their own vegetables. We certainly had in 1943. By that time I had had a lot of practice caring the room on our 10 acres and my father did not stint for his modest (three at the maximum) herd. on growing “enough.” For my mother this became an I found the cows much more rewarding than the annual summer and fall of canning over a hot stove, chickens, they were friendly animals with person- racks holding five quart Mason jars with cut up veg- alities totally lacking in chickens. But they entailed etables in water were submerged in boiling water in much more daily labor to care for their needs. Milking the canning kettle and when sufficiently boiled to kill twice daily was a major task as was cleaning out the all “germs” the lids were sealed with wire clamps that gutter daily of the other product that cows deliver, a squeezed them down onto a fresh new jar rubber. wheelbarrow or so daily wheeled away to the growing Hundreds of these preserves were stored in the cel- manure pile. And annually there was the haying. lar on shelving my father had built for the purpose (it’s I came to dread the end of school in June for hay- still there today but no home canned goods remain). ing soon began, long days out in the hot sun tossing My part in all this was mostly spent on my hands with a pitchfork the freshly mowed (by a neighboring and knees weeding what seemed to be endless row farmer) hay crop to help it dry (cure) before it could crops. Potatoes required special attention picking off be stored in the small hayloft upstairs in the barn over the potato beetles that would destroy the leaves if the cow stable. My part of this latter operation was left to themselves. When harvest time arrived we’d up in the small windowless loft catching each fork- dig up the spuds and pack them in sand in bushel ful my father tossed up from the trailer behind the old boxes in the cellar (it was cool there, not a root cellar Hup. I would then stack each forkful in the prescribed but close enough), along with carrots and beets. manner so it would not slide off the pile as it reached As I viewed the city kids from Peabody brought towards the sloping barn roof overhead. in daily to the market gardens surrounding us at the My membership in the 4-H Club had brought me time, watching them get off the truck and onto their into contact with other youth in Essex County who hands and knees to weed hundreds of rows that were learning about farming with cows. I got to go were truly endless, all day long, day after day, it had to the 4-H Summer Camp for a week at Mass State occurred to me that they were being paid (not much) College in Amherst (then still pretty much a “cow col- for all that work. With 1944 coming up, my opportu- lege”) and attended several fall fairs to take part in nity to enter into the wage earner world was at hand, judging cows exhibited by club members. My May- in mid-January I would turn 14 and could obtain my flower was not a purebred Guernsey so she was work permit and look for an after school job paying ineligible for exhibiting, so judging became my forte cash income. It would be, not surprisingly, on a farm. and I got rather good at it. My sisters and I with my father in the vastness of our Victory Garden. Summer of 1943, Mayflower and I. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks Entering the Wage Earner World On January 20, 1944 I entered my 14th year horse drawn implements. My boss cut the hay with and became eligible for that all important work that deadly looking sickle bar cutter (4’ swath, cut off permit I’d need to find a paying summer job. The a finger or toe, even a chunk of your foot if you got in choice I faced was limited, if not daunting. Nearby its path). He also “tossed” the hay to dry it out (cure) farms and estates were the only options, the fabled in the hot sun with a tedder, a set of miniature hay- earnings said to be garnered caddying at the golf forks on a row of cranks activated again by a gear course were beyond my geographic reach and skill connecting it to the implement’s revolving wheels. (how does one caddy?) and all sewn up by the vil- I did get to do the hay raking, controlling the horse lage kids anyway. with the reins while dumping the cured hay scooped So it would be farming, if anything. Within reach up in the rake at regular intervals into rows by kick- for me in West Wenham were several small (12-18 ing a foot treadle that hooked up between wheel and milking cows) dairy farms, one large chicken farm rake. I also got to drive the horse drawn wagon down (over 1,000 I was told) and one really large mar- between the rows while the bigger guys (including ket gardener (farming and renting many local till- my boss) tossed the hay onto it to be hauled to the able acres). I already knew about the latter (lotsa barn hayloft. city kids imported to do the weeding) as they rented Then my fun began. The wagon was parked large garden acreage right next door to us and the in the barn under an overhead opening into the chicken farm was served adequately by the owners’ hayloft. A seemingly (to me) complex mechanism extended family members. including a track along the barn ridgepole with a My choice was resolved when my mother big hayfork (a set of pointed prongs operating much obtained a job for me from the mother of a local like a clamshell bucket does) traveling along it and young farmer who was exempt from the military dropping down onto the wagon load to pick up a draft due to growing food for public consumption. I clump of hay to lift into the loft, was operated by was to work 40 hours a week (extra at haying time if the horse pulling a long rope away from the barn. I needed) and be paid $1 a day (for 8 hours, you fig- had to stop and start the horse (walking alongside ure it out). Don’t laugh, when a dime was valued and it holding its bridle when signaled by the boss who a quarter almost impossible to acquire as an unem- controlled dumping it where he wanted it. Timing ployed youth, this looked to be windfall. was REAL IMPORTANT! First job right off was cleaning out the chicken The toughest part was that my path away from houses (the new crop of pullets, young chickens, the barn with the horse each pass of the fork led were out on summer ranges), something I was way up to the porch of the farm’s owner, an elderly too familiar with at home, but here on a much larger widow lady, who had two elderly sisters living with scale, two floors in maybe a 50’ long house four or her. It was Sunday, the Lord’s Day (you made hay more times my father’s layout. One plus was get- when the sun shined) and these ladies heaped ting to drive the John Deere Model L tractor hauling scorn upon me (as nearest representative of this the tipcart full of cleanings to the fields to spread bunch of heretics. I suffered in silence, what could as manure. So I became quite expert at operating I say, an awkward 14 year old youth, to appease a motor vehicle (albeit a small 2-cylinder tractor) these grandmothers? two years before I could get out on the highway. The job ended with summer and it appeared I’d Other chicken chores were the familiar feeding and be out of work (and pocket change) for a long long watering chores. school session. But out of the blue an opportunity fell I didn’t have much to do with the cows (I can- into my lap to take on an after school and Saturday not recall how big the herd was, but it was smallish) (as well as school holidays) job on a nearby estate until haying time, not long after school let out for helping out the caretaker. A major task through the summer. My boss rented some 25 acres of inactive oncoming fall and winter months would be logging! farmland with barn for his haying and I got to do Right, logging. Cutting down and to length swamp some horse farming. This was a lot more mecha- maples and hauling them out of the woods to the nized than my dad’s small scale herd could afford woodshed for sawing up for fireplace logs for the (as described in the previous “Chickens & Cows” mansion’s huge fireplace. All handwork in the woods installment of this series). with a two-man saw and a buzz saw driven off a The mechanization did not extend to the little truck rear wheel hub at the woodshed cutting to fire- John Deere tractor, it was all horse powered, using place length. There’d be a lot to learn. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks Moving up in the Working World When my summer of ’44 job on the farm ended I haul away) was wrapped up, so we headed for the expected to be “out of work” for the coming school year, woods. This was logging old style, no chainsaws yet until in early fall, unexpectedly, opportunity knocked existed nor skidders to haul them out. The chosen tree wºhen I was offered Saturday and holiday work through was deeply notched with an axe on the side it was to the winter at a nearby estate, with full time summer work be felled towards, then the two of us on the ends of to follow in 1945. One of the bigger kids in the neighbor- a long two-man saw crouched down and made the hood was leaving the job for greener pastures and sug- horizontal cut into the tree trunk on the side opposite gested me to the owners as his replacement. My inter- the notch and a bit above it. When our cut reached a view met their approval and I was taken on at double point above the inner part of the notch a “hinge” was my previous wages, $2 each Saturday and holiday, $10 formed and the tree would topple (sometimes with a each summer week, $100 for the full ten week summer. nudge) over, hopefully where we planned it and not I was going to be earning big time income at last! get hung up on a nearby tree partway down. Estate work would differ from the small farm work We then lopped of the limbs, which were usually all I had been doing since I was about 10. It was chiefly at the tops of the closely spaced trees, with our axes property maintenance for appearances, keeping the and proceeded then with that two-man saw to cut the grounds surrounding the “big house” groomed; mow- trunk into lengths for loading onto the truck. This lat- ing lawns, raking gravel drives, rolling clay tennis ter task was a toughie, for the truck bed was almost at courts, caring for the kitchen garden, washing and chest height and my boss at barely 5’ and I, a skinny waxing two cars (a ’39 Dodge coupe and ’41 Plym- six footer, had to heft each log off the ground and swing outh sedan) and washing windows indoors on rainy it up onto the flatbed. It took some teamwork but we did days (there were a LOT of windows in the mansion). it. Then I got to drive the loaded truck back out of the Most of these tasks were over when winter came, swamp to the woodshed where we would roll the logs but my new part-time school year job was to have a off the sides alongside the waiting rusty old buzz saw. winter aspect, logging swamp maples from the prop- We spent much of the winter on this job, until erty for the fireplaces. My boss, the estate caretaker, spring thaw made the swamp impassable once was a middle-aged Vermonter, a veteran of WWI, who again. Now before spring cleanup of the grounds had come to Massachusetts with his French war bride got underway, we would cut up the logs into fire- in search of more financially rewarding work. He didn’t place lengths and stack them in the woodshed to have much to say (ala Calvin Coolidge) but it was dry out for a year. This task would be mechanized. always to the point and we hit it off when he found my The truck was lined up with the buzz saw so a rear work ethic, honed by my earlier years of family chores wheel brake drum was aligned with the buzz saw and the summer farm job, met his standards. belt pulley. The truck rear axle was jacked up, the The big house living room (more like a hall to rear wheel removed and a flat leather belt fitted over me) sported a huge fireplace. I could almost stand both the brake drum and the saw pulley. We were up in it. Fuel for this was harvested from the prop- now ready to roll, the truck engine was started and erty woodlot, much of which was wetland where shifted into gear and the speed was set with the swamp maples (ideal fireplace wood) grew pro- hand throttle on the steering column, and the buzz fusely. Access to these had to await the swamp saw got buzzin’. freezing over enough to support the weight of the Initially this was an intimidating job as we hosted one-ton 1932 Ford Model AA flatbed estate work each log onto the carriage and swung it into the truck with which we would haul the cut logs out to buzzing blade until a section dropped to the ground the woodshed behind the big house for cutting up but I soon became accustomed to its deadly pres- into fireplace sized logs. I was expected to drive this ence. The large pile of logs we had built up through- (to me) monster across the trackless swamp over out the winter took a while (several Saturdays) to cut frozen hummocks and amongst the trees to those up into shorter lengths but it sure beat doing it with chosen for harvesting. The truck had a two-speed the two-man saw. Good thing there was no OSHA rear axle with a low range option, a full set of chains around in those days to interfere with our task. and lotsa ground clearance. My summer driving of When summer came I’d begin earning big the little John Deere tractor had introduced me to the money working 40-hour weeks, but the really big demands of driving and I soon mastered this major event in my 15th year was the end of WWII, when upgrade in driving. I loved it! Japan surrendered in August and the neighborhood By December the swamp had frozen over and the celebrated with what we came to call our very own fall grounds cleanup (millions of leaves to rake and “Towering Inferno”. Next issue… The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks VJ Day & Our Towering Inferno

1945 brought big changes in our lives. On the world With the euphoria over the end of the War in Europe scene WWII came to a sudden end, and nationwide dissipating as summer arrived, there still remained the what had become the “new normal” after three years ongoing fighting with Japan, which had long demon- of all-out war effort quickly fell into disarray, locally in strated that it would fight to the last person (man, woman Wenham this took place also, and in my small corner and child). Suddenly as August arrived it all came to an of the world came a major change just for me and my end when atomic bombs were dropped on Japan bring- fellow classmates. More on the big scene later, now ing on its reluctant surrender. Time to celebrate. here’s what happened to those of us living our some- Now back to our local scene. The town decided to what self-absorbed teen age lives, still growing up. not host any formal celebration but there were those Our Class of ’44 graduated from Wenham Junior (some adults as well as we thrill-seeking boys) out here High at the Center School in June and it was off to in West Wenham who felt we ought to do something. Beverly High School come fall. Suddenly the dozen of A bonfire was suggested and a site chosen, the vast us who had spent nine years growing up together were gravel plain at the corner of Maple and Burley Streets merged into a sea of 245 Beverly students entering the (opposite where Burnett’s Garage now stands) where tenth grade. It was a wrenching re-adjustment for some all the original gravel had been trucked away in 1943 to of us, I being one. The Beverly kids seemed far more build the Beverly Airport for the Navy. socially sophisticated than we were and as a farm kid I At 15 I had no idea about who owned the lot, it soon became known as “Hicks from the Sticks”. didn’t seem to be an issue. Prior to the war it had I also no longer rode to school in the school bus, I been a small gravel pit operated by a Peabody con- now had to get myself the 3 miles from home on my bicy- struction company, McCarthy Brothers, whose motto, cle (now in its 6th year) to the town center where all the “We Move the Earth” was displayed on its trucks with Wenham kids were picked up in front of Trowt’s Store a picture of a dump truck carrying a world globe. They (now the fire station) by an Eastern Mass Street Railway disappeared during the war as did the John Iafolla bus for transport to Beverly High School. My father now Company after it hauled away all the gravel, leaving was managing the Eastern States Farmers’ Exchange only a barren dustblown plain leaving prominently dis- Cooperative (now Agway) warehouse in nearby (to us) played thereon next to Maple Sreet a now abandoned Putnamville so he had only an “A” card for gasoline (3 wooden structure as big as a three decker tenement gallons a week) so while he could spare some of it to that housed the machinery that sifted gravel into dif- drop me off in the morning on really bad weather days, ferent grades and loaded it into trucks that drove he was still at work at 2:30 in the afternoon when we got beneath its trapdoors. back to town from Beverly and could not pick me up. Uh oh! It wasn’t initially in the bonfire picture, which Over the next three years this relative isolation focused on a modest tower of combustibles we had kept me from after school sports and socializing. If I assembled nearby, topped by some old wood and fab- chose to take a regularly scheduled Eastern Mass bus ric airplane wings collected from the airport. Someone home later, following after-school activities, instead of had gotten a fire permit for this (it must have been an the school bus (paid for by the town) it cost me hard adult, we boys knew nothing about such things). earned cash, which I didn’t really have to spend. My The neighborhood assembled for the show and then “growing up in Wenham” had now been modified to “… things started happening fast. Our little bonfire flared and Beverly”. up nicely and then a five gallon pail of home heating I had my Saturday and summer vacation job ahead oil was carried across the gravel from a nearby house of me on the local estate where I had labored over the and several persons (adults included) sloshed it up the winter logging and as spring arrived things began to side of the derelict structure. A flaming broom was car- look up nationwide. The war in Europe came to an end ried triumphantly across from the bonfire and the ugly in May with the suicide of Hitler and collapse of his structure, old dry wood soaked in years of grease and government and the war effort intensity started to dis- oil, went up like a huge torch to a hearty cheer from the sipate even though Japan remained to be defeated. In assembled multitude. A Towering Inferno indeed! her book Wenham in World War II, Mrs. Mary Q. Cole Soon a siren was heard and Wenham’s 1938 described this best in 1947: Dodge pumper arrived. One look and the volunteer “After the menace of German attack on the United firemen parked it and sat back to enjoy the show. Then States either by plane or submarine had ceased, those Chief Eddie Hall turned up and began circulating the large protective groups which had worked and prac- crowd, questioning we teenage boys. None of us pro- ticed so zealously, the Spotters, the Air Raid War- fessed to know anything about how the fire had gotten dens, the Ambulance Corps and Report Center were away from our bonfire and the Chief, apparently having disbanded, and with the black-out a thing of the past, done his duty, also sat back to watch. Wenham returned to a more normal living, though it And so the “World War II’ part of this series con- was still a wartime community. The constant struggle cludes, but I still had some more of the “Growing Up in for food which was still rationed continued.” Wenham…” part to go, so there’s a bit more to come. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era In the summer of ’45 peace By Bob Hicks Housing was the big thing, not returned to the world. Its arrival nearly enough existed for the fast was chaotic, for the end had After the War Was Over marrying young couples wishing arrived suddenly when the atomic Here in Wenham, about 170 to start families. The GI Bill made bombs were dropped on Japan, of our then 1,400 population were financing very available to veter- impelling even the fanatical Japa- in the military, (most drafted, ans and here Wenham began to nese government, determined to like it or not). Eight never came feel the pressure, it seemed to go down fighting, 100 million strong home, five died in action and have lotsa open land upon which with spears defending the invasion three in non-combatant circum- new homes could be built. Our beaches (yes, that was their plan), stances. Amongst the 170 were small farmers saw their land val- gave up. The fallout of this sud- eight women. ues skyrocket and soon began to den change in the nation’s life style When peace came, the USA sell off frontage lots. Wenham had impacted our quiet little town. stood astride the world, pos- no zoning so had to do something A quick look around at the big sessor of overwhelming military to keep this growth manageable, picture first. Those nations on both power (Russia had more feet on come up with a school to handle sides where the fighting went on the ground but we had the tech- projected school age population lay in ruins, with millions of their nology). Our Generals and Admi- growth, and install a water sys- populations dead, not only the rals sat atop this mighty military tem to replace the individual wells young men who had to fight the machine and were already plan- that were increasingly failing the war that the old men started, but ning what they could do with town’s need. the civilians who lived in the way it. But it was not to be, for hav- In her final summation in the of the ongoing land battles and ing endured the wartime priva- Historical Society’s 1947 book, even more so, those who lived in tions and absence of their young “Wenham in World War Two”, Edi- the cities that became the prime men, the nation demanded that tor Adeline P. Cole stated, “The targets of mass bombings on a the government bring the boys shortage of housing, the soaring scale never before imaginable. home. And so we did and from price of real estate and food have Worldwide Europe lay in that and the attendant cutback produced a post-war condition, ruins from both land warfare and in all the wartime production the of which we do not yet see the General “Bomber” Harris’ 1,000 chaos arose. Whatta we going to end.” Indeed. Over the next few bomber air raids which methodically do with everybody? years the town enacted a zoning destroyed Germany’s major cities, In addition to those amongst law, began installing town water while Japan, never invaded, was the 12 million or so connected starting downtown, and built the destroyed by air in the final year of with the military already “losing Buker School. Now 75 years later the war with over 50 major cities their jobs”, several million civil- and just past our 375th year and burned to the ground by General ians who worked in war industry counting, the beat goes on. Curtis LeMay’s massive B29 fire found themselves being laid off as Again, from Mrs. Cole, this bombing raids, including the March, the war industry shut down. Here time in her 1943 book, “Notes 1945 raid that created a giant fire- in Wenham, as elsewhere, some, on Wenham History 1643-1943”, storm that burned 14 square miles including town officials, were con- “We have created a residential of Tokyo killing over 100,000 civil- templating the return of the spec- town, a place to establish a home, ians caught in the inferno. ter of mass unemployment, ala to which to return after the day’s In the USA, amongst all the the 1930s Great Depression, work is over, a place to bring up major combatants, we suffered from which the war industry had our children, a town of homes”. none of this. Untouched by the lifted our economy. It still seems to fulfill this vision war’s horrors here at home we Well, it didn’t happen. It took today, which is why I am still here did share in the lives lost, almost a while but there was a pent up after 83 years. all of ours in military action. While demand for all the stuff we missed But, what’s this all got to do Russia lost over 20 million, and having during the war. War indus- with the focus of this series of Germany over 3 million, both with tries soon switched over to ful- essays, “Growing Up in Wenham large numbers of civilians killed, we filling the clamor for consumer in World War II?” Well, I’m just suffered 400,000 military killed in goods so unemployment never setting the scene here for an epi- action (eight times the Korean and arose as a serious issue. Money log next month. With World War II Viet Nam totals) and 12,000 civil- saved for nearly four years for lack over but my “growing up” not yet ians. The latter were all involved in of anything to spend it on began completed, a last look at “what- some way someplace where mili- to be spent as fast as something ever happened to…” should com- tary action was going on. to spend it on became available. plete the series. The History Page Growing Up in Wenham in WWII Recollections of a Bygone Era By Bob Hicks Epilog

When I commenced this series of essays back in by their son with lumber salvaged from their ances- June, 2018, it was intended to be part of the 375th tral farmhouse that had been destroyed by the air- Anniversary celebration project and so it was. The port expansion. ongoing essays appeared in the town website’s A couple of years after the war ended the build- 375th Anniversary folder and in the “Hamilton Wen- ing boom began. Much of the frontage (not including ham Chronicle”. But that all wrapped up at the end my family’s 600 plus feet at this time) on the street of 2018 and I had a ways to go yet to reach the logi- was divided into lots and homes sprang up. By the cal conclusion of “Growing Up in Wenham in World mid-1950s there were 12 homes and with a search War II”. So I soldiered on in 2019 on the pages of of my not always reliable memory I come up with the “The Wenhamite”. Last month I got to the end a head count of about 25 school agers yearly over of WWII but my growing up was yet to be reached. I the decade. It was a young and busy street. Dan- figured age 18 was the cutoff but in 1945 I was still vers had reconnected its severed end with a detour only 15. My geting to 18 was just sweating out high around the runway that had severed it and paved it school, summer jobs and college entrance. My per- and traffic was building as it no longer served only sonal epic stops here as all my years thereafter were local residents. after “growing up”. In 1956 my parents joined in and set off 600’+ But as I arrived at that point the town was enter- of frontage into three lots, one of which held the old ing its own growing up phase, one that has carried place, with one of the two new ones housing my par- on since! Those of you who have been with me since ents (my mother wanted a new home now that we the beginning (or better yet lived here through those kids were grown). My newly acquired wife Jane and years) know how small and simple the town was in I bought the old place and my married younger sister the late 1930s prior to WWII. If not and you wish to built on the other lot. The buildable street frontage do so, you can catch up on that past on the Town was now pretty well filled up, only some wetland at of Wenham website in the 375th Anniversary folder. the foot of the street remained unbuilt upon. It will give you the necessary perspective to under- The boom was over but some back land stand how the town has indeed grown up since 1945. remained to be developed. My parents had two In sum it was a population explosion fueled more buildable lots out back and so Orchard Lane by demand for housing in so attractive a small, (a private way) was built in late 1970s to access unspoiled community, and with the onrushing horde them and eventually our now adult daughter and of new inhabitants that has tripled the population in son built homes on them. Later on across from us the intervening 75 years came all the demands for on Burley Street Nathaniel Way was built for two town services that their growing presence were cre- more homes on back land. In recent years a major ating. No room here on one page to get into details subdivision, Middlewood (“15 fabulous new town- on how did this all happen. To do it justice would houses” to quote realtors) was built up the street require serious historical research and lotsa pages at the Danvers town line, down in the woods out of to present it all. But I thought maybe just describing sight from old Burley Street itself. Any more room? what happened on my street, Burley Street, in the 80 I can’t think of any but… years I have lived he`re would give you some idea of So, consider just this one rather remote street’s the impact of that population explosion. impact on the town as it population proliferated. And In March of 1937 the half mile of Burley Street we now hear that more is coming, some 40+ units that lay in Wenham before entering Danvers (as a of elder housing just around the corner on Maple dirt road) had three homes, surrounded by a num- Street. Where will it all end… ber of open fields tilled as market gardens and some So what about this farm kid who grew up in Wen- adjacent scattered woodlands. At that time of our ham in WWII? Well, I’m still here. After college and arrival one of my sisters and I joined the neighboring marriage, Jane and I settled here in my old child- Perkins brothers to total four school age kids. It was hood home. Our daughter and son grew up here a pretty quiet street with little through traffic. and in turn they moved onto the back land, building The building of the Beverly Airport in WWII by homes in which to raise their families (two and three the US Navy literally cut the street off on the Dan- children). Our family complex has been a lifelong vers end (by a runway) and took away one of the powerful incentive to stay here and we have never homes, that of the elder Perkins too close to the air- thought of anywhere that would be a better place to port site. It was replaced by a cottage built for them live out our lives.