WINTHROP - As someone who has lived on the peninsula of Point Shirley all of her 72 years, Genia Cerulli has endured floods, hurricanes, and brutal snowstorms such as the Blizzard of ’78, when the wind uprooted two trees from her front yard and sent them flying into her driveway.
But it’s the planes - sometimes as many as 15 an hour - that worry her. Located less than a mile from Logan Airport, her house sits under one of the principal take-off and landing flight paths. From her kitchen she can clearly see the wheels of jumbo jets that thunder above hour after hour.
“The noise is still deafening,’’ said Cerulli, who has lived in a three-bedroom white cottage on the edge of Boston Harbor for 45 years.
As a child, she used to get excited when she’d see a prop plane flying above her first family home. That was in the 1940s, before commercial jet planes and when Logan Airport was a small flight center with just a couple of wooden buildings. At the time, only Northeast and American Airlines operated out of the airport, and they only flew as far as New York and Canada.
When the air travel industry took off in the 1960s and 1970s, domestic and international flights increased from Logan, and Cerulli realized that her neighborhood had changed forever. Soon she could tell without looking up in the sky if a plane was taking off or getting reading to land. She would be awakened from a sound sleep by a freight carrier revving its engines on the runway at 3 in the morning. She worried about planes crashing.
In 1973, she heard the Delta Flight 723 crash that killed 83 at the airport. “It sounded like two tractor-trailers colliding,’’ she said. In 1982, she also heard the noise of a
She now worries when it’s foggy, or snowing, and even during thunder and lightning storms. She worries about midair collisions and jets that are simply flying lower than normal.
“I sit here sometimes and see planes come and say they’re not going to make it. I think all of us worry that at some point something big could happen because we’ve lived through a few crashes,’’ she said.
After 9/11, she also started to worry about terrorism, and like her neighbors, she looks out for strangers who sometimes visit the area. “People are fascinated by the airport and they come here and take pictures, and I worry.’’
Over the years, she has tried to adapt to the sound. Now, she uses a hearing aid and wonders if that’s directly related to the jets. When the airport switches flight patterns she is sometimes able to sit on her deck and listen to the ballgame on the radio or entertain friends.
Her windows, flecked with exhaust from the planes, were installed by Massport about 20 years ago. “I can scrub them and scrub them and scrub them, and it just doesn’t come off. . . . I’d like Massport to come back and redo the windows,’’ she said, pointing to a couple that have noticeably warped and don’t open.
In a statement, Massport spokesman Matthew Brelis said airport soundproofing is a national program based on Federal Aviation Administration requirements and regulations and implemented through the local airport. “Currently, the program does not allow the local airport to re-soundproof or replace windows or doors once the resident has participated in the program,’’ said Brelis.
Years ago, Cerulli attended citizens rallies and tried to lobby politicians to notice her neighborhood’s plight. Now, she said she is leaving that fight for a new generation. “You feel like you’re batting your head against the wall.’’
But, even with the noise and the worries, she has no plans to move. She still knows most of her neighbors, and three of her children live down the street. She says there is an ineffable joy that comes from living on this modest set of blocks next to the Atlantic.
“This is where we choose to live,’’ she said. “Why should we be driven out?’’
Steven Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
