South Norfolk Memories

The teen years were the best of all.  My closest friends during this time were Charles Twine, David Harrell, Mickey O'Donnell , Neal Bryant and  Norman Riddle .  I was in the first freshman class to enter the new Oscar Smith High School on Rodgers Street.  I didn't know it then, but these were the best years of your life.    I played drums in the marching band and had a lot of fun there.  I took my drivers license test with a 1948 Hudson.   I got a job at Prestons Pharmacy as a delivery boy.  I loved driving that jeep. I brought home about $35 a week and always had money in my pocket.  Doc White was the boss and a good man.  Doc Voke and Jimmy Marshall were druggist.  Mr. Voke  was the greatest. He gave me my first fly rod.  Jimmy Marshall, Dickie Divers, Monk and Lewis Todd were fun to work with.    I bought my first car, a 1950 Ford , when I was 17. It was solid black with pinstripes and really looked  good. I think i paid $600 for it.  Us boys would pool money for gas to ride around town or to go to the South Drive In Theater. Sometimes we even snuck  in some Boones Farm Wine with us.  We were not really bad boys and never got in trouble. .  Norman Riddle did most of the driving us around.  We would go to some  of the school football games and a restaurant on Friday nights.  We hung out at the Dairy Lane mostly.  Sometimes we would go to Shorty's Pool Hall for a round of pool or go bowling. Mercury Roller Rink and the beach were always fun.   I remember Cascade Park and Donkey Baseball.  In Donkey Baseball, you hit the ball, jumped on a donkey to run the bases.  Sometimes they moved, sometimes they did not move. They even had Joey Chitwoods car crashing show there.   We went to sock hops at the Portlock Community Center.  The boys all wore pegged pants with buckles in the back.  Some wore saddle shoes and some even wore blue suede shoes.   Boys hair was either real short or combed duck style in the back.  Elvis was king.  We had some guys that looked like Fonzi on Happy Days.  My favorite singers then were  Elvis, Little Richard, Fats Domino and the Platters.  My mom threw away my Little Richard record.  I wonder why?  You do remember the old 45's dont you? I made lots of model cars and planes i bought at the hobby shop back then.

I quit school in my Sophmore year and joined the Army Reserves.  I went to Fort Knox , Ky. and Fort Bragg, N.C. on active duty.  I got my GED while in the Army. I attained the rank of seargent .  When coming home from the army, I talked the train conductor into stopping to let me off at  the old train station on Seaboard Avenue.  There wasn't many people on that traiin.   I walked the one block to my house from there.  The station had closed down but they stopped for me anyway.  I thought that was really nice of them.  

Can you remember stores like the Sugar Bowl, Rosedale's drug store, the Piggly Wiggly grocery store, Overtons market, Powers and Winstons, Carl Parkers

restaurant, the Hobby Shop, Greenoughs Hardware, Chesapeake Pharmacy, Colonial Stores.  No fast food stores then.

ME IN TROUBLE

My Spit Ball

i