Sondra (Sandi) Ofstrock Marshall

My family (Mother, Father, Sister, and I) moved to Woods hole from New Bedford in 1942 when I was 11 years old. My father, Charlie Ofstrock, took a job with the Steamship/Railroad Authority and eventually became the Freight Agent. When the Steamship and Railroad split he opted to stay with the Steamship, which was a good thing because the Railroad dissolved soon after.

Things I remember:
Sam Cahoon's Fish Market: fishing boats would unload their fish and throw away the lobster--people were not eating them but our family loved them and we were lucky enough to receive a lot of the "throw aways".

Water Street had 2 drug stores, the Twin Door Restaurant (open only in the summer), a barber shop by the bridge, a small grocery store, Capt. Kidd restaurant and bar (open all year), a Post Office (no delivery -- everyone had a box), one Oceanographic building and one MBL building. There were fishing shacks--where the fishermen lived -- where the Swope building is now.

The Community Hall and the Fire Station were over the bridge so if there was a fire and the bridge happened to be up to let boats into or out of the Eel Pond, the fire trucks would have to go to Millfield Street to get to the fire if it happened to be "on the other side".

In the winter the Eel Pond would freeze over and we could skate from School Street to the fishing shacks where the residents would give us cocoa and cookies.

If you missed the early school bus for Falmouth for grades 7-12 (the Woods Hole School only went through grades K-6) you had to walk over the golf course to catch the later bus. You didn't miss the first bus often.

There was no public transportation so we often hitchhiked to Falmouth without telling our families.