With not a lot to do, I decided to scroll through the travel category on my blog. While scrolling the Virginias, I realized that I didn’t have much posted there at all.
Considering the fact that I was born there, spent a majority of my life there, and even got my first teaching job there; I felt that there should be more. Wouldn’t you agree?
Bluefield, West Virginia
With that in mind, I’m reaching back to this past summer, when I took a quick and responsible weekend road trip to my home town of Bluefield, West Virginia.
#TravelStories
While I didn’t take an overwhelming amount of photos while I was there, I did take a few of the center of town from the eyes of a tourist.
Bluefield Downtown Commercial Historic District
As I walked through the downtown district, I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of emotions from all the memories of my past. Sometimes, I get sad because those were some of the best days of my childhood and young adult life.
I remember spending the summers there and walking to the center to get free lemonade on hot days and hearing music playing.
For 77 years, the Bluefield Chamber of Commerce has served free lemonade on the streets when the temperature reaches 90 F.
Bluefield’s Downtown is a national historic district. The district includes 73 contributing buildings in Bluefield’s central business district. The buildings are primarily three and four story masonry commercial buildings.
I have a photo from when I was about 13 standing in front of one of these buildings while hanging out with friends and walking around downtown.
In front of the Art Center (above), I have a photo of my youngest son playing around from when we lived there while I was teaching. He was so tiny in these photos compared to now.
Memories from Genoa Ave and Wilson Street
Sometimes, it’s hard to return to places like that that have your heart, knowing that things will never be the same. So, I find it to be best for me that I don’t visit anymore unless I am putting flowers on the graves of my grandparents and aunts.
In addition to riding through this part of town, I went to the two houses that my grandmother and great-grandmother lived in and the playground which still stands across the street on Genoa Ave.
It has changed. The metal sliding board is no longer there from when I was child and when my children were smaller. It has now been replaced with a plastic green sliding board.
Anywho, the houses are still standing and are the same color, only occupied by their new owners. Again, a really tough thing to process.
For example, trying to process the memories of playing on the playground with friends and picking apples from the playground trees so that my great-grandmother could make us stewed apples is hard.
I remember my brothers, cousins and I would get so tired of those stewed apples. LOL. We would try and put them in our napkins and put them in the garbage. More often than not, we got caught. May my great-grandmother rest peacefully.
If she was alive today, she would be turning 104 this month. She was such an inspiring woman to me and I appreciate all that she instilled in me while growing up.
She would tell me to make sure that I had my “face” on before leaving the house. Meaning that a woman never left the house without her makeup on. And, really, very rarely do I ever.
Other Fond Memories
I remember the many summer vacation bible schools, bible school crafts and summer trips with the kids from the church. One year all the kids in VBS went to Carowinds.
Carowinds is a 407-acre amusement park, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Although it has an official North Carolina address, the park is along the North Carolina-South Carolina state line.
If my memory serves me correctly, I remember there being a spot in the center of the park where you could straddle the state line. Somewhere in all my photos, I have photos of all of these memories. One day, I’ll update this post with those photos and run it again.
Ellis Street
Another place I made sure to visit was Ellis Street. My great-grandmother’s sister, Bernice lived on Ellis Street. On Sunday’s we would go and pick her up for church. On other days, I would just walk to her house from my great-grandmother’s house on Wilson Street and hang out.
She lived in a tiny modular-like home with her black dog. She had beautiful, long white hair and always drank Coca-Cola. I loved just hanging out there, listening to her, and watching her brush and braid her hair.
She passed away many years ago, and her house no longer stands. But something in me always goes back to check and see how things look.
Final Thoughts
Well, that’s enough of walking down memory lane for this evening. The town is small and it’s not growing much these days. Even so, there are still things to do when I do visit from time to time, such as visiting friends and family, going out to eat and visiting Pipestem State Park nearby.
Wild Wonderful West Virginia will always have a place in my heart, no matter how old I get.
