Alexander Park
A little more on Alexander Park, to help you understand its importance. In January 1942, people started site surveys at the swamp that was, at that time, outside the City Limits of Portsmouth. They wanted the place to house about 17,000 people - by September! Naturally, there were numerous set-backs and delays and that optimistic goal was not met. They did, however, complete housing for 17,000 people in early 1943 - from "guys in hip boots in the swamp with surveying equipment", to "17,000 people living in a new place". Actually, it didn't take until early 1943 for the "opening" - there was no "opening". They just moved people in as each house was finished, so people and construction equipment and mud were close companions in the early days.
Due to a war-time shortage of concrete and asphalt (we went to war in December, 1941), the streets were made of mud with a little tar on top, with rocks dumped on top. And the sidewalks - there were no sidewalks. They were going to put concrete walks from the mud - I mean streets - to each house, but they couldn't get the concrete, so they used flagstone to create "steps" across the mud - I mean "yard". This was truly "Mud City".
Click here to see a map of the original site, and click here to see where the site is on the modern map of Portsmouth as it is now.
Attending the school there must have been quite an experience, because those kids became so close that they have been holding yearly Hight School Reunions for at least the last 15 years.
At the latest one the Ellingtons attended (July 21, 2006), they learned of the passing of one of the classmates with whom they were not all that familiar (Bud says "He was one of the 'geeks' - just interested in playing guitar."). Seems he parlayed that interest in playing guitar into quite a career - check out the web site for the late Link Wray here.