Sometimes You Can Go Back Home

At 11:02 AM, Rita B said:

Get some coffee and get comfy 'cause, boys and girls, this is going to be a series of long posts........

I recently visited an old neighborhood and school, Ocean View Elementary School in Norfolk, Virginia, along with some dear friends. We all had started first grade together back in 1951. During last year, we luckily made contact through an Internet site called Classmates.com. After many e-mails and a few mini-reunions, and dubbing ourselves the Ocean View Gang, we decided to meet at our still-alive and active 65 year-old elementary school. Since I was planning to be in Virginia the end of April, the date of April 30, 2004, was selected for us to invade the unsuspecting school. My job was set --- I was to prepare the school for our arrival.

Ocean View Elementary has a website but no way to e-mail from it. Finding the address and the principal's name, I sent a letter trying my best to explain whom we were and what we wanted to do. I'm sure our request to eat lunch in the cafeteria was met with chuckles echoing in the halls! All we wanted was to tour the school, especially a couple of classrooms. My initial contact started a series of e-mails with the school's office manager, Rosemary O'Malley.

Right off, let me tell you that amid the spitballs, hair pulling, paste eating, even a famous poison ivy fight, boys chasing the girls at recess, and first crushes; this group has remained solid friends throughout the years of non-contact. Amazingly those early friendships were strongly forged for a lifetime, even silently surviving through high school. In one particular beloved teacher's class, Mrs. Langhorn, we were all together --- a roster of names and faces burned into my memory forever. We learned a lot that year. Our fourth grade class photograph of blurry images was our starting point for locating past members of a "good gang of kids." Managing to track down twelve classmates, two now deceased, and some not able to come to the reunion --- six of us old safety patrols would meet on the steps to the school auditorium that last day in April: Dan Coleman, Ajia Sakakini Coolbaugh, Linda Harrison Copeland, Linda Boyd Gaskins, Rita Brown Rhodes, and Gary Rudolph.

When I signed up on the Classmates.com site I had no idea if it would lead to anything as exciting as it's been this last year. The first person to e-mail me was Gary but it took a couple of his humorous letters before I got brave enough to answer. Gary had been in contact with some other students from those early days --- Dan, Linda Boyd, and Linda Harrison. I was able to locate Ajia, a best friend of mine. We were in Brownies together, meeting at her home. All of lives were intertwined in that small beach community of Ocean View --- days at the amusement park, summers at the beach, fishing from Harrison's Pier, dances at the community center, and Saturday westerns at the Rosele. The six of us meeting again would make our biggest reunion since graduating from Granby High School in 1963. We spent months catching up on each other's lives as grown-ups, sharing pictures and stories about our families via e-mail and "snail" mail. All in all, everyone has had a full, rich life. That was such a wonderful thing to find out! It has been a goose bump year for me, combining the past and the present.

Everyone felt that our education at Ocean View School was the foundation for our success. In all our correspondence, we talked about wanting to do something special for the children now attending the elementary school. Just weeks before our scheduled visit, I heard from another Willoughby Spit "kid" living in Germany, Donald "Bunky" Thompson. He had found an author, Jonathan Scott Fuqua, now living in Maryland, who had a book coming out in April titled "Willoughby Spit Wonder": It would be the perfect gift!

The heart-tugging novel about a ten-year-old boy growing up in Willoughby Spit during 1953, weaves his family with the history of world events and what is happening around the naval oriented community. Willoughby Spit is adjacent to Ocean View. Gary grew up there, with a view of Harrison's Pier and Chesapeake Bay from his bedroom window. Most of us have added our names to the building at Harrison's Pier requesting the landmark be rebuilt after recently being destroyed in a hurricane. The book mentions many unique experiences familiar to all coastal children. At Gary's suggestion, we all agreed that we would donate six copies to the school library on the day of our visit.

Like everyone else in the OV Gang, I walked to school every day. I lived in the oldest house on the corner of Rippard Avenue, facing the chain-link fence of the U. S. Navy Base with a great view of the bay and the ancient Willoughby Oak. Unlike the tree, my house is now gone with I-64 cutting the street in half many years ago. All the children I played with are scattered across the world, many being military brats.

A couple of days before the reunion, my husband and I drove from our home in Statesville, North Carolina, to Pungo (south Virginia Beach), home of my sister. The morning of our big reunion, I had an hour to travel across Virginia Beach and Norfolk, all the way to the very edge of the Chesapeake Bay. Gary drove from Petersburg, fighting the incredible traffic of a heavily
populated area. Dan and Ajia had driven down together the day before from Baltimore, and were staying with their mothers. The two Lindas live close-by, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, respectively. So from all directions, we would merge at the worn-down school steps, site of many class photographs from our past. Some of us hadn't seen each other in forty years! My stomach told me that was about to change.

(End of Part One)


At 11:46 AM, Rita B said:

(Part 2)

I arrived slightly early to meet with Principal Lauren Campsen (Okay, okay, with a quick stop to the bathroom!) and to register us as visitors with the school security. There I met our young guide and photographer, Chris Hocutt, a fifth grader at the school. Chris is a top man on campus with the school's pre-K through 5th grades. He proved to be delightful, a charming representative of our Alma Mater. His pictures were pretty good considering he was working with aging film stars!

After much chatter and lots of hugging, we took sun-squinting photos in front of the auditorium. The Principal gave us a warm reception upon entering the building. Introductions all around and then we each were given a huge tote bag with goodies boasting "Ocean View Maritime School" and their dolphin mascot. Above the main entrance is a beautiful underwater mural featuring a whale, painted by famed artist Wyland in October, 1998. One of the many bright changes to the aging school we would notice.

We took turns sitting on the bench outside the principal's office, a few re-lived scary moments from their youth. While stifling giggles, we took a very civilized posed photo of the group. Off to the right side of the bench, a portrait of Lucy Mason Holt, our first pricipal, kept a close eye on us. I remembered the painting but not Mrs. Holt who left that position in 1952.

After many cheerful exchanges with the staff, we decided our first stop would be the library, down at the end of what used to be a long hall for short legs. The newly tiled floor was gleaming as we made an ambling approach to the special room where we discovered how much we loved reading books even in the summer. The school library was also a public library in those days, with an outside entrance, now covered over. It still smelled like books. As then, I love reading, but back then it was usually biographies and poetry books.

We met the librarian, Steve Pesapane, who accepted the books from Gary, spokesman for the presentation. We gave our guide Chris a copy of the book too, which I personalized to him. While there, a file of old school photographs was brought out giving us a chance to peruse them. We found family and friends among the photographs of classes and school activities in the collection. So many young and hopeful faces, it made us wonder where they are now. Some photos dated back to 1939, the year the school building opened.

Principal Campsen suggested the OV Gang change its name to the Ocean View Elementary School Alumni Association (OVESAA) after the books were accepted into the library collection. We agreed immediately. And so, we would become something new on this first reunion of our class --- changed forever by being together again this last day in April.

(End of Part 2)


At 12:40 PM, Rita B said:

(Part 3)

Leaving the library, we walked towards the cafeteria on the other end of the hallway. The shadows and coolness of the passageway felt so familiar to me. Along the way we peeked into classrooms, most of which were full of busy students. We had been warned that today was state testing study day, but we were welcome to enter any classroom we wished. Since our lunch was scheduled at 11 AM, and it was close to that time, we quietly and hesitantly entered the high-ceilinged square room with the wall of windows behind the lunch servers.

In our past communications, we all told of favorite events and lunchtime food from days at the OV. Fudgecicles (so cold they would stick to a tongue), juicy tuna sandwiches with potato chips on Friday, and the homemade chocolate pudding with the tough skin on top --- made the list. But all of us remembered the hot yeast rolls. To our surprise, the rolls were still being served in the lunchroom! The yummy smell tempted our appetites. Like fish out of water, we bumbled our way through the line selecting what looked good or what matched our memories of an elementary school lunch from long ago. Some were adventurous enough to try the "shrimp poppers!" Dan observed how he could see the playground outside the windows now --- something impossible when we were young --- and much shorter!

The school had reserved and decorated a table just for us, with a blue tablecloth, flowers, and ice-filled pitchers of water. We felt special. After sitting down, we checked the ceiling when someone remembered a fork being stuck up there for a whole year! All the students were eyeing us, especially two tales of fresh-faced pre-kindergarners. (Were we ever that young?) Right next to us was a couple of tables of fifth graders and we struck up conversations with a few, asking them about what school was like these days. All the students we encountered were on their best behavior --- and so were we! Somehow they seemed much quieter than our memories of thirty minutes in the lunchroom.

Lunch over, our next stop was the auditorium. It had a golden glow with the same awe-inspiring feeling from the graceful dome, fold-down wide seats slanted toward the high stage with closed maroon curtains! We always knew something special was going to happen when we entered the auditorium, only laughing recently at how corny some of the past programs were. Chris took pictures of us sitting in the audience --- girls on one row with the boys behind us. Big mistake! We girls ended up with "horns" coming out of our heads just like in the old days! (Will we never learn?) At least they didn't pull our hair.

Upstairs, we visited some favorite classrooms overlooking the huge playground, site of ball games, field days, and some pretty wild recesses. New desks were the only major change we noticed. Ajia remembered we had to sand our wooden desks at the end of each year. That annual task insured we didn't do much damage to school property. We talked about the 1950's being the years we had to hide under our desks for the "duck and cover" drills, a very limited response to disaster or war. We were surprised to find the room where we had art was now a storage closet. Chris was grateful to be released from his normal duties for the day but wanted us to visit his classroom. His teacher told is that Chris already was reading at a ninth grade level.

Out last stop was one of my favorites, the art department, now housed in a separate building. Each student has 45 minutes a week to pursue creative endeavors. It was obvious the teacher used every minute! In the art building were works in progress and throughout the entire school we noticed the fantastic results of this restricted amount of time. Art was everywhere! We saw posters, paintings, and mixed media works hanging in the halls and even one class had a giant paper mache tree which we would have loved to help make. When we were students, good-behaving members of our class would walk to stores in Ocean View and paint the windows with fanciful scenes. That was quite a treat! Art was a special activity for members of our group, a couple still draw or paint. From the creativity that surrounded us that day, we could tell that art continues to be a favorite subject of the students.

All too soon, it was time to leave our school but not without a promise to return next year. We all agreed and planned to add more friends to our newly formed OVESAA. After telling the principal and others goodbye, out we went into the hot afternoon sun heading to our next destination, a place to talk about how much fun we had had at school today.

Once again I have learned at Ocean View Elementary school. I've learned that when going back into the past, the visit combines with personal memories and the day's experiences, changing it into something totally new and amazing! So one can go back to the way it was --- just remember to embrace the emotions that come with the changes.

(End of this Post --- But only the beginning of the story..........Hugs!)