When you are young memories are made like a picture from a cameras lens. You remember the colors, the smells and everything around you, but it changes. Unlike a picture life does not stand still. Roads are built, houses destroyed, houses built, the landscape somehow is just not what it seemed.
As a child we lived in many places. We always had our home on Gwynn's Island, but Daddy worked in the Portsmouth/Norfolk area, and we lived there in rented homes. My first memory of such a place was Williams Court. It was an apartment complex in Portsmouth, Va. Rows and rows of two story apartments stood along Rt 17 near Craddock High School. I remember it had a round wading pool, or that was as far as I was allowed to get in. Mom had friends that seemed to visit back and forth all day. I had lots of kids to play with and it was a good place to live. In the early 50's that area was full of growth. Downtown Portsmouth as well as Norfolk was a bustle of commerce. And my Mom added to the coffers of all the merchants. She loved a sale.
Wanting to see part of my roots, my son, Jay took me through the area the other day. Driving through Churchland you could tell the different growth spurts by the era of homes, 50's, 60's, etc, as the road stretched on. This was where on Sunday's we would ride through the country. Heading on High street past Maryview Hospital that was there when I was a child we headed toward downtown and then took a right heading to the Deep Creek area. On the way there it was Williams Court, a big sign noting same. But wait, where were the apartments, the planned community.......in it's stead stood a shopping center, Williams Court II. One could only have hopped that it would have survived, but after 56+ years probably not. But at one time in my life I did live there.
Then heading to Jay's home, I realized something else. We were traveling the same road I had traveled many, many times. We were heading to the bridge that took us to the Texaco Docks where Daddy worked. I had been on that road, day and night so many times with Moma picking Daddy up or taking him to work. Looked a little different, but some of the old landmarks remained the same. I had wanted to find that route to know I was in the right place. Why you might ask, well because if you travel on past where the road was to the docks you go to Jay's home. Never going that far on Bainbridge, I only imagined that was where we were. Interesting. All of this coming from the memories of a four or five years old child.
Do we have connections with our past? Do they live on? Well my son lives in Chesapeake, AKA South Norfolk, a few miles from where Daddy worked. He is working for the City of Portsmouth, he is a firefighter at Station 1, that covers the area where I lived as a child. He trained a few miles from the last house we lived in in Portsmouth. Interesting, yep. I think we are drawn to our past. How can we make our future better if we don't remember our past. Remember our mistakes. Remember lessons learned.
Thanks to Jay I am able to see parts of my past. I know Moma is enjoying the journey, oh she would so have been on that back seat, nose pressed against the window, telling us about everything she saw. She loved the ride............
As a child we lived in many places. We always had our home on Gwynn's Island, but Daddy worked in the Portsmouth/Norfolk area, and we lived there in rented homes. My first memory of such a place was Williams Court. It was an apartment complex in Portsmouth, Va. Rows and rows of two story apartments stood along Rt 17 near Craddock High School. I remember it had a round wading pool, or that was as far as I was allowed to get in. Mom had friends that seemed to visit back and forth all day. I had lots of kids to play with and it was a good place to live. In the early 50's that area was full of growth. Downtown Portsmouth as well as Norfolk was a bustle of commerce. And my Mom added to the coffers of all the merchants. She loved a sale.
Wanting to see part of my roots, my son, Jay took me through the area the other day. Driving through Churchland you could tell the different growth spurts by the era of homes, 50's, 60's, etc, as the road stretched on. This was where on Sunday's we would ride through the country. Heading on High street past Maryview Hospital that was there when I was a child we headed toward downtown and then took a right heading to the Deep Creek area. On the way there it was Williams Court, a big sign noting same. But wait, where were the apartments, the planned community.......in it's stead stood a shopping center, Williams Court II. One could only have hopped that it would have survived, but after 56+ years probably not. But at one time in my life I did live there.
Then heading to Jay's home, I realized something else. We were traveling the same road I had traveled many, many times. We were heading to the bridge that took us to the Texaco Docks where Daddy worked. I had been on that road, day and night so many times with Moma picking Daddy up or taking him to work. Looked a little different, but some of the old landmarks remained the same. I had wanted to find that route to know I was in the right place. Why you might ask, well because if you travel on past where the road was to the docks you go to Jay's home. Never going that far on Bainbridge, I only imagined that was where we were. Interesting. All of this coming from the memories of a four or five years old child.
Do we have connections with our past? Do they live on? Well my son lives in Chesapeake, AKA South Norfolk, a few miles from where Daddy worked. He is working for the City of Portsmouth, he is a firefighter at Station 1, that covers the area where I lived as a child. He trained a few miles from the last house we lived in in Portsmouth. Interesting, yep. I think we are drawn to our past. How can we make our future better if we don't remember our past. Remember our mistakes. Remember lessons learned.
Thanks to Jay I am able to see parts of my past. I know Moma is enjoying the journey, oh she would so have been on that back seat, nose pressed against the window, telling us about everything she saw. She loved the ride............
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