Virginia Trip - Going Home to Old Town Alexandria & My Neighborhood

Seafood Lunch at The Wharf Restaurant in Old Town Alexandria

Another late Saturday night staying up watching movies with my son and daughter-in-law resulted a sleep-in Sunday morning again.   We were only a few miles from today's destination which was to check out where I was born and raised in the area my father made a living for 18 years selling Fuller Brushes door-to-door…Old Town Alexandria.  Monday was to be a day in Mt. Vernon which was the other part of my father's sales territory.

We parked and walked along King Street about six blocks to the waterfront on the east side checking out all the changes in store fronts since the early 1950's.  We stopped first at the Visitor's Center near Market Square and City Hall.  So many memories came to my mind and my son and his wife graciously tolerated my bursts of conversations about what I remembered.  My father would drop us off on his way to work at Murphy's 5&10 Store on King Street and S. Washington Street usually 2-3 times a month or more.  There was a lunch counter there that I remember well.  It was also the sight of the transition I observed from where the "colored" and "white" people were separated by restrooms and water fountains as well as lunch counters.  That was the way it was and then it changed and I was too young to understand the big deal; everyone should be able to use the same facilities!  This was also the area where all our doctors, dentists, and other services had their offices; usually above the store fronts.  My favorite clothing stores were here too - J.C. Penney's and Learners although it would be many years before I had the luxury of a variety of clothing styles since I went to parochial school and wore uniforms for seven years.  

These few square blocks were my world where I hung onto my mother's skirt until I was old enough to navigate the streets on my own looking both ways.  I was turned loose at a very early age by today's standards!  My most vivid memory was in November of 1963.  That was the day I got my first pair of eye glasses.  I was almost 10 years old and happy to have the day off school.  I could see the world so much better!  As I crossed King Street with my mother after leaving the eye doctor office, I saw a horrible sight as people were crying and coming outside buildings all over with such a wave of sadness…our young president, John Kennedy had been shot in Texas!  From that day forward, my happy days were few and far between.  The rest of the 1960's is history and I survived it. There were times I had my doubts. All the riots and demonstrations were only a few miles away from my home and school; our local news was national news.  When I left Virginia in the fall of 1971, I began a new kind of life in Iowa that allowed me to thrive.  When I progressed all I could in Iowa, I moved onto Missouri with my Iowa husband where every year has been better than the one before and I am happier than I ever thought possible!

Back to the present time!  I just had to share a wonderful seafood meal with my son and his wife as my treat.  The Wharf was the place to go and we were not disappointed! Afterwards we continued on King Street to the waterfront park noticing all the different shops we may want to spend some time in on our way back to the car.  The Torpedo Factory Art Center was the next destination.  It was founded in 1974.  It is definitely a must-see for any level of art-minded individual.   My father introduced me to it many years ago as he always encouraged my creativity.  

The City of Alexandria bought the government storage building in 1969.  This original photo above shows the U.S. Navel Torpedo Station as it opened in 1919 and then operated for five years before becoming munitions storage.  With the onset of WWII, it produced Mark III and Mark IV torpedoes.  By the war's end, it converted to government storage.  In 1974, a group of visionary artists proposed to renovate part of the neglected factory into usable studio spaces. One of the country's earliest examples of creative reuse of industrial space, the Torpedo Factory Art Center became a catalyst for the revitalization of the Potomac riverfront and the historic preservation of Old Town Alexandria as a thriving visitor destination.  The Torpedo Factory Art Center continues to be a prototype for other visual arts organizations around the world.

Today's view of the waterfront from the upper floor of the Torpedo Factory Art Center.  There's a magic show happening as the people gather!

The walk back to the parking garage had many stops at all the shops we checked out on the way.  My favorite was The Spice & Tea Exchange.  I bought six different kinds of paprika, Vietnamese cinnamon, a couple unique tea blends, and will be back to the website for sure for more; so many unique shops!  We finally got tired shopping and decided it was time to drive by my old house and neighborhood on Birch Lane a few miles away.  On the way was The George Washington Masonic National Memorial I grew up knowing it as the Masonic Temple.  My family visited it many times as it was on the west end of downtown Alexandria on King Street on our way to do business.   I also pointed out a couple of the churches the teenage youth of my day would frequent for public dances and I mentioned very briefly to my son and his wife how much "growing-up" was done there.  I could tell the less details I revealed the better!  Good ol' St. Alban's and John Calvin's…how our parents would drop us off and pick us up thinking we were so very well watched by the church people!  It was yet another part of my youth I survived!

Very little time was spent parked across the street of the house I grew up in on Birch Lane.  We sold it over 20 years ago after my parents died and I had been back a number of times just to see it deteriorate more and more.  It is now the worst house in the neighborhood and likely a "sick house" from the non-updated building materials.  People are living there and the photo in the album below shows all the junk, trash, and weed growth.  You can also see the house next door…or should I say mansion?  Yes, property values have increased greatly and it is likely that the land our old house sets on is worth much more than the improvements!  I believe we were very smart to sell the house within four months after my parents passed away.  The problems of mold and asbestos in houses was barely recognized at that time.  Back in the 1950's, we were the last house on the gravel, dead-end street with woods on two sides.  It was a wonderful neighborhood and a beautiful middle class house built in an innocent time.  The last photo in the album below is what our house looked like when we sold it in the fall of 1993.

So far, nothing seems to stay the same and usually you can never go back to the home of your youth and only have the memories of a time gone by.  We left the old neighborhood to see the place that was the center of my spiritual and educational childhood…St. Michael's.  It didn't seem to have changed much from the outside and brought back many memories!  My high school (1967-1971) was walking distance from my home on Birch Lane.  It has changed from Thomas Jefferson High School to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.  At some point in the name transition shortly after I left, I believe there was some Mensa association.  I'm not sure if it is that way now.  For sure is the fact that it costs much more to live in the school district now than when I went there and the opportunities for students to progress is greater!

I have included some old black and white photos of my youth along with the recent photos taken in the album below.  The old photos include me first in line on the first day of first grade.  The first grade classroom was inside the convent basement.  Another photo is of the nuns and teachers I had from Kindergarten up to and including 7th grade.  The nuns were a teaching order from Pennsylvania called the Order of the Immaculate Conception.  There is a photo of me 2nd in line for May Procession in my First Communion outfit with the newly built church and the school at that time in 1960-61.  Finally my 7th grade photo in 1967; I went to public school after that.

It was so wonderful for me to share these memories with my son and his wife.  They will be blessed, I'm sure, for tolerating this old lady and driving me around probably for the last time to the old places.  If there is to be a next time, it will be to make new memories.  We have made a good start on this trip with both of them taking me to their favorite places in a familiar area to me!