Hingham Massachusetts: Town Government & Services - Committees: Hingham 375th Anniversary Committee

Susan Haley
July 21, 2008

Ed Lynch was my uncle and the recent re-dedication of the field named in his honor located on Beal Street brought with it many family memories of the days in Hingham from the late '60s through the early early '80s. Those were the days when townspeople actually filled the stands at Hingham High School on Saturday afternoons in the fall to watch the Harbormen play their opponents from the Old Colony League. The High School band would play lively tunes and many people actually knew the words to the "Hingham Fight Song" (the tune was same as the the Notre Dame fight song) which was played after each touchdown, and the voice of Mr. Magner could be heard coming through in my neighborhood behind the high school as he called play-by-play: "First down Harbormen, balled carried by.... [choose the year: P.J.Gill, or Lynch, or Krall]" the last two names both being first cousins of mine. But I can remember other names like Bastinelli, Anderson, Leary, Clayton, Haley, and more.

How did Ed Lynch fit into all of this? He, along with Bud McNulty, another very familiar Hingham name, started Pop Warner football in Hingham. My family along with my extended family would support this effort by attending those early games even when we had no family member 'on the field': we rooted for the Coach. To this day I think I know the location of all the high schools throughout the South Shore simply because of the years my family spent travelling to support the Big Red Hingham Pop Warner team. My Uncle Ed loved football and Hingham Pop Warner and served the community of Hingham as a Hingham firefighter for many years. His untimely death at age 42 caused our family deep grief and it touched us beyond words when the Town of Hingham saw fit to name the field on Beal Street in his honor. Uncle Ed and all those who participated in the early years of the Hingham Pop Warner program have provided me with wonderful memories and the re-dedication of the field brought them all back.

Henry Day
May 20, 2008

Ever hear of the Bayside Airport? That was Hingham's entry into the space age prior to WWII. This small airport, located where the shipyard is today, had a small fleet of single-engine, fabric-covered biplanes that buzzed over north Hingham like mosquitoes. I don't remember any problems, but I do remember hearing engines go silent over our house. However, the lightweight planes always seemed to be able to glide back to the airport. I guess that's why they stayed in north Hingham skies.

The planes were kept in a corrugated hangar that was visible from Route 3A. Painted on the side were letters that went from the ground to the eaves saying, "Learn to Fly $2.00." Because of safety concerns, parents forbid their children from flying in those planes. Needless to say, very few obeyed.

Justine L. Walden Thurston
May 20, 2008

When I was a little girl, I had a father who worked at the Bethlehem Ship Yard in Hingham during the Second World War.

I didn't really understand what that meant, but I remember what happened one Sunday night as I saw my mother and father standing around the tall half round floor radio in the dining room between the window with the porch outside and the french doors leading to the living room. We had been eating Sunday night dinner with an uncle and aunt and two grown cousins at the table with two dogs under it waiting for scraps. The news cam on and everyone stopped. I noticed the faces change from smiles and conversations to sadness and silence. I stood and stated at each person and noticed tears coming to some faces. I've never forgotten it. I felt really sad, not knowing about what.

It was PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT on the radio announcing the bombing of Pearl Harbor early Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941, by the Japanese. Our President then declared war on Japan.

I remember our family collecting foil and making them into balls that grew and grew and when they got to be big we would drive someplace and turn them all in for the war effort.

I remember walking to the town hall (then in the brick building in Hingham Square) to get small coin-like (but not metal) disks red and blue in different sizes and rationing books which we took to the grocery store to help us buy certain groceries.

I remember the victory garden my parents created to grow food to feed the three of us each summer. My mother canned everything and stored the containers on the shelves in the pantry for the winter -- Kentucky Wonders from a special trellis my father created to grow them on: tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, squash, cucumbers and lettuce fresh all summer. We also had blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb, apples, pears and quince trees.

I remember the card my parents would put out on the top sash of the front window for the ICE or COAL men to see. The ice man drove in the driveway to the back porch, cut a piece of ice to fit the top of the refrigerator compartment and was paid cash for it a lot of times in the summer and not so many in the winter. The coal man drove in the driveway and opened the basement window, then put the chute down in the window and lifted the handle on the truck. Down the coal pieces went, making a thundering noise until the special area in the basement walled up to my father's shoulders was full. Then the man put the handle up and the noise stopped. He removed the chute and closed the window and left until the next time. My father would open the furnace door and then shovel coal in the door and fire would blaze up with colors of red and orange. He would close the door and upstairs we went 'til it was chilly again. Every morning and noon, and at night he would "bank the fire for the night" (whatever that meant!).

I remember the black shades in every window of the house, attic to basement. They were pulled down every day at dusk before any lights could be put on. It was so no one in the air in planes could see where we were because of the war.

I remember my mother made all my clothes including an Eisenhower jacket of red corduroy. I loved them. She made everything from scratch and the best one-egg cake because there were not enough eggs during the war.

I remember being taken by my father many times to the shipyard. I didn't know why but lots of people were there smiling and standing in the shadow of a very large ship with a platform up high under the bow. A woman with a hat on and men in military uniforms stood on the platform. She was handed a bottle of what I thought was soda with flowing ribbons on it. She raised her arm and smashed the bottle over the brand new ship's bow. Everyone cheered and clapped, the line was released and the ship slipped down out into the ocean, and away it went. I would look at my father, afraid and confused. Why was everyone so pleased with what that lady did? If I had done such a thing, I would have been sent to my room for a long, long time. Breaking a soda bottle, what a mess, and pushing a ship out into the water!