Did This Dover NH Park Ever Save Your School Field Trip From Certain Doom?

Imagine if you will, being 7 years old and the school field trip you've been looking forward to for months is over, and it's only 1PM? Did you go to this Dover NH park to save the day?

Even with my seven year old concept of time and distance, I knew that the drive home from Pease Air Force Base was a half an hour tops. The thought of spending the final 90 minutes at the same old place we were supposed to escape from this one magical day out of 180 days? Absolutely brutal.

Enter Hilton Point Park. And well, that's just what we did, like a small herd of very small buffaloes.

You have to understand that back thirty years ago, even though we lived on the Seacoast, a few of my classmates had never even seen saltwater live and in person like that.

I can't imagine how nervous the chaperones were as they dutifully steered the kids clear of some of the strongest eddy currents that Mother Nature has to offer.

All I remembered caring about was the Hilton Point Park swing sets. The playground back then seemed state of the art and I think their swings were longer than on any playground I'd ever been to.

If you found a strong enough chaperone to push you the full extent of that length and WOW! It felt like you were flying into Newington.

Between the sights of Great Bay and the playground, an hour or more zipped right by and before long we were all on the school bus and back home just before the 3PM bell.

It's been 35 years since I've stepped foot on Hilton Point Park. But almost every time I drive past it, I think about how it was once a splendid field trip savior.