A Coldsky Day in April: Looking at a Quonset Hut House While
Walking to Camp Wonju, South Korea
Oh, tonight oughta be spent in patchwork
While chicken and dumplings boil slow.
It oughta be colored by firelight,
Warmed by homemade wine and crocheted slippers.
This is a snowfall kind of wet winter night
Anticipation hung in the sky so heavy
It might almost fall, almost snow but
Not cold enough to form the flakes.
You can linger in the glow of half-burned
Logs, watch the light in someone else’s eyes.
This is a snowfall kind of wet winter night
Almost snow but sky not cold enough to form flakes.
Quonset -- Tim Nyberg
In 1941 the US Navy hired the George A. Fuller construction company to make all-purpose, lightweight buildings that could be shipped anywhere and assembled without skilled labor. The company had been founded by the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and of the modern contracting system and, after his death, had constructed such New York landmarks as Pennsylvania Station, the Flatiron Building, R. H. Macy's flagship store (the largest store in the world), the New York Times Building, and the Savoy-Plaza Hotel (the world's biggest hotel). The 1sr ones were produced at Quonset Point, at the Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center in Rhode Island. The flexible interior space was open, allowing for use as barracks, latrines, offices, medical and dental offices, isolation wards, housing, and bakeries. Between 150,000 and 170,000 Quonset huts were manufactured by various firms during World War II, and many continued to be actively use at American military bases, especially in Korea. In Wonju, a city about 140 km (87 mi) east of Seoul where 3 major battles were fought during the Korean War, the US Army founded Camp Long in 1955 (named after Sgt. Charles R. Long, who had been killed nearby during the war). It was closed in 2010.
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