Hopewell, Virginia

Like in Massachusetts, we lived on the "economy" when we first moved to Virginia.  My dad was stationed at Fort Lee even though he was in the Air Force.  We lived in the town of Hopewell.  In June we moved onto Fort Lee, but I have a lot of memories of the 6 months we lived in Hopewell.  Here are some of the things that I remember.

- D and I finished up the sixth grade at Dupont School.  We walked to school.  We sometimes came home for lunch.  Other times we took our lunch.  It was there that I liked Robert, but Robert liked D. 

- We had good neighbors across the street that we spent time with.  We played with their two kids, Roberta and Stanley.  We also had other friends who we played with--Gloria, Carolyn, Donna, and Kathern.

- Like all kids back then, we played outside a lot.  I remember more about the outside of the house than the inside.  The room I remember the most is the dining room.  That's because I have a photo of D and me posing for our 12th birthday.  We are at the dining table, the cake is in front of us, and there is a pretty chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

- Our family was friends with another family whose dad was in the Air Force too.  My parents would play pinochle with them.  Sometimes D and I babysat their kids.  (After Fort Lee, they were stationed in England and California when we were.) 

- The house we lived in had a detached garage with a loft in the back.  D, C, and I would climb a ladder and sit in the loft.  While up there, we would eat little packets of Lik-M-Aid.

- There was a partial basement that my sisters and I cleaned up and played in.

- D told me she remembers a metal pipe that ran the length of the driveway.  It was about 4 inches in diameter and was about 6 inches off the ground.  D said we would walk along the pipe trying not to fall off.

- It was green and pretty. 

- We went to a big Presbyterian church not far away.  It was there that I joined the church.

- We went to see the movie "Old Yeller."  I cried and cried.

- We visited the building where my dad worked.  It was huge and did not have any windows.  The inside was dark because of the big electronic maps and others things that were used. 

Here is a photo of my family in front of our house in Hopewell.  I think I'm the one on the left because of way my hair is parted.  I'm not sure when it was taken.  But if I had to guess, I would say Mother's Day 1958 because of the corsages we are wearing.  At church on Mother's Day, a person would wear a red flower if his/her mother was still alive or a white one if his/her mother had passed away.  Click to enlarge.