The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:
Interstate 66 Headlines. So we moved into this house in June ’58, and guess what we read in the paper that same month!? Headline in Arlington newspaper: “A Proposed Super Highway Through Arlington” which would have a huge impact on our neighborhood. It didn’t say when, but it wasn’t good news!
The Railroad Track. Directly behind the houses across from us was a railroad track with no more than two short trains going by each day, and the track was a natural route for a road. Carolyn liked the track, and she “went missing” one day. The first place we frantically looked was on the track, but before we found her, a policeman came through the neighborhood looking for who owned the little girl walking alone along the sidewalk next to Lee Highway, which she got to from the track. He had taken her into one of the shops and got them both an ice cream cone, before setting out to find her owners Whew! Thank you, Guardian Angels! And policeman! We have her little voice on an old tape recording: “Don’t go on the twack, don’t go on the twack …”
The track turned out to be the I-66 right-of-way, which we learned about in that Arlington newspaper article.
To be continued…
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is a nonagenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
That house has been “McMansioned”, done over to increase it’s size and the railroad tracks have been superseded by six lane Interstate Highway 66.
Arlington today would ne as unlivable for me as Detroit, where grew up.
Blessings to that policeman. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. Back when shopping was done in the downtown of a little city nearby, my mother would take me for my organ lesson … and then she’d take me shopping. We’d walk all over. At the main intersection, was Officer White – slim, trim, and always wearing gleaming white gloves. He’d stop traffic so we could cross the street, always putting on a little show with those gloves.
As for you and Arlington? I can more easily picture you in that cabin in Alaska. 🙂
Arlington was 60 years ago, Gee. Alaska 18.
Neither would work for me now.
Here in Appalachia, the manners of long ago elsewhere still survive somewhat.
Mr. Dave, the stories you share make me think of what used to be home. I think about Dottie West singing the song she wrote for Coca Cola. I always remember her singing, “I was raised on country sunshine.”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tubn2WYbAD8
Mr. Dave, the old school behaving kids sat on the ground floor of the movie theater. It was the bad ones who sat in the balcony. If an unmarried girl was with child, it was his parents that made him marry her. Pretty serious business when your own mother brings the shotgun, and your daddy says, “If you don’t marry her, they’ll never find your body.”. lol