Hometown Hull
This is how close the beach town peninsula I grew up on is to Boston. Twenty-something miles south of the city but only a stone’s throw by boat. Although Hull is best known for Nantasket Beach, we grew up on Stony Beach (pictured) at the entrance to Hull Village, which is at furthest end of the peninsula from the mainland.
The Village was a close-knit community that was at one time the seat of the town. In the winter the town fills in the playground green with water that freezes for ice skating.
The church in the Village where I made my First Holy Communion is a private residence now with lobster pots out front.
What’s cool about the high school I went to is the fact that there is a windmill generating electricity in the back (left).
This is the school seawall that looks out onto the ocean and that the seniors paint every year.
Speaking of paint, Fort Revere was always full of grafitti. The forts were a big part of our childhood and teenage years. The large building top to the left is where our family home used to be before the town took it through eminent domain and built the sewage plant that is there now.
The large metal door to the Fort Revere Tower was always locked, but there was a window higher up and, taking it as a challenge, we figured out how to shimmy up and get inside.
We could see the town cemetery from our house and we sledded on the cemetery hill in the winter before it was filled with gravestones. See pictures of a Hull Village reunion and book signing of The Jim and Dan Stories, the book I wrote about losing my brothers Jim and Dan a month apart in 2001 HERE.
June 4th, 2012 7:57 am
What a warm and interesting area in which to grow. I am glad that your cemetery stone is not there from a nasty fall from Paul Revere’s tower! You were a little wild in high school it seems.
June 4th, 2012 2:11 pm
Hull is really beautiful and has such character. How sad that your original home was torn down and is no more….
That is a lovely Headstone for your two brothers….How very hard, Colleen—to lose them at all, and to lose them within one month of each other…..
I loved seeing all the pictures of Hull, and to see how close it is to Boston.
June 4th, 2012 8:21 pm
Memories……good and sad! xo
June 7th, 2012 8:18 am
what a beautiful private residence that must be!
nice graffiti 😉
Thanks for sharing the picture of your brothers’ headstone…I can’t imagine how painful it must’ve been losing them one after the other. Hugs, Colleen!
June 14th, 2012 9:01 am
[…] 11. Some of my hometown trip highlights in Hull included listening to a Frank Sinatra CD with my mother while she sang along, and getting a firedog bobble head named after me by my great nephew Joshua. More Hull Highlights HERE. Some favorite Hull Haunts HERE. […]
August 15th, 2012 3:36 pm
Hi Colleen…
Found your site while trying to do some research on an old piece of property at Allerton Hill, Nantasket/Hull: The Nautilus Inn. My family still owns a house there from part of that property and I’m doing some research on its history. We’ve had the house for over 50 years, but only lived there summers. I’ve spent a lot of time there this summer, and smiled to see your photos. Enjoyed reading your poems, too!
Diane
August 15th, 2012 3:45 pm
P.S.
Laughed when I saw your Plymouth photos, as that’s where I’m from now.
August 16th, 2012 3:54 pm
Hi Diane, Thanks for leaving a comment.
I’d love to hear more about the Nautilus Inn. It rings a bell but is probably way before my time (the 50’s!). What number is it on Allerton Hill? I’d like to check it out next time I’m home.
There is a sidebar category on this blog titled “Where I’m From (not the poem) that is mainly posts on Hull.