Adventures of an AFWingMom: A visit “back home” to Fredericksburg, Virginia

Well here I am – ready for another day of fun!!

Pink tee a.n.a. by JCPenney/blue jean shorts/gray TOMS

Even though I lived in Fredericksburg from around age 5-11 the memories of my home there and the neighborhood are still a bit sketchy.

Here’s a pic of the house then and now:

It’s kind of hard to see the house and the trees etc. have definitely grown!

I do remember my brother and I riding our bikes that my dad built for us over to Woodland Terrace which was just a couple of streets from our house. My bike was black with a white plastic basket that had flowers on it. And oh yeah, it had a long orange flag on it too. My brother and I would take clothespins and attach playing cards to the spokes of our bikes so it would sound cool when we rode. And during the summertime we would fill up these orange tupperware containers with ice water and take them with us. You know in case we got thirsty on our adventures.

I called my mom to ask her if she still had the containers and she did! WoooHooo!! She was about to give them away so I really lucked out.

I do remember my friends were a brother and sister named Donna and Tony, a girl that lived in a two story house on the corner named Barbie, and around the corner on Rogers St. was Kristie, Karen and Shawn Fairbanks.

There was a store back then called Earl’s. Back then it was a grocery store and now it’s Earl's True-Value Hardware store but they did keep the original Earl sign. It’s also where we got our dog Fonzie from.

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Speaking of dogs. When we first moved into our house there was a couple that lived next door and they had a German Shepherd named King. King bit me in the ear. I think I was 5.

My dad made the patio on the side of the house. We used to jump rope there and it also had a basketball hoop and we would play horse. When I say we I mean me, my brother AND my Mom and Dad. I used to also have skates that you used to attach to your shoes and tighten with a key. My whole family knows how to roller skate actually. It’s one of the cool things about our family. We always have had a lot of fun together.

I also remember this radio show that my folks would listen to. I think it was called The Swap Shop or something like that. I guess it was kind of like Craig’s List but old school! haha!! Anyway the theme song went something like this, “Swap shop. Swap shop. Where the best bargains are always made! Swap shop. Swap shop! Do you have to sell or trade?” Or something like that. Again – it’s funny the things I think I remember.

I went to school at Grafton Village Elementary School.

For 1st grade I had Ms. Potter. I remember she used to wear her sweater over her shoulders and had black hair. The thing I remember about 1st grade is that we used to have these workbooks and they had plastic that you would put over the page and you would use a grease pencil to mark your answers. My rag that I used to erase the marks was actually one of my sisters old cloth diapers. She (my sister) was allergic to pampers so she had to use cloth diapers. Back to the workbook there were “characters” in it and one was a yellow poodle looking dog named Nip and an ant named Ant. If anyone has a copy of that workbook or a pic of Nip and Ant I would love to see it. Interesting that that is what I remember from 1st grade.

In 2nd Grade I had Ms. Kerwin. I always kind of wondered what happened to her. She had really pretty hair. That’s one thing I remember about her. Sometime during that year I had my ears pierced. It was at a store called Leggett’s. I think it’s called something else now but back then they put a piece of ice on my earlobe to numb it and then used the earring to pierce my ear. I actually still have one of the studs. I don’t want to brag or anything but after all these years it still fits. ;)

I don’t remember all my teachers but one I do remember is Ms. Suddeth from either 3rd or 4th grade. One time she wore blue polyester bell bottom pants. She also had naturally wavy hair. When I was at Grafton some of the grades were “open” and there weren’t really any walls separating the “rooms” from each other. Anyways in my class was another girl named Lisa and her last name was brown. Tommy Sullivan was in the class and I remember he liked to draw sharks. He was good at it too as best as I can remember. There was also a girl named Joy in the class. She had this leg brace on one of her legs but I remember she smiled a lot. Kind of weird the things you remember.

I went to Edward E. Drew Jr. Middle School and the teacher that I remember is Ms. Collie. She wore heels a lot. I was the class representative or something and I had to sign all of our ID cards for some reason. I was in the track club there too. I actually can’t remember much else about it besides that.

I guess one of the strongest memories that I have revolves around a water tower at the elementary school. Back then for PE we used to run from the back of the school up to the water tower and then back again. At least that’s how I remember it. And in my dream I’ve run up to the water tower and am running back and for some reason the water tower is falling towards me and I don’t seem to be able to outrun it. I actually have had that same dream many, many times. Not sure exactly the meaning behind it all but on our trip to Fredericksburg I of course had to stop and see it.

It does not look the same. I remember it having 4 legs and of course there wasn’t a fence around it either when I was in school. I am assuming a new one was built or something.

So that was our quick trip to visit the home I remember in Virginia. We headed back to the downtown area to explore some more. When we lived there I remember going on field trips and we visited the old jail as well as the apothecary shop. We went to try and find those two places but first we needed some lunch! We stopped at Sammy T's. It was pretty good.

We got the directions to the old jail and headed that way. As we walked to our car I happened to look down a small alley/walkway and noticed this:

After we got in the car and were heading to the old jail I saw this sign and though we didn’t stop to write anything I did think about it.

We finally got to the old jail. Except it isn’t really a jail and apparently never was.

I asked at the Visitor Center where we got the map about the old jail and the lady there mentioned that years ago some folks had called it that and they even used to have a stockade out front but the real history behind the building was that it was an Old Stone Warehouse. I learned something new.

The owner/docent was a very friendly guy who taught us how to tell if a bottle was old or not and a lot of the history about the building. It was a pretty cool little stop.