THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607240133
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 107 lines
IT WASN'T THE BEST of times and it wasn't the worst of times, but they were certainly interesting times.
The United States was engaged in a two-ocean war. As Hampton Roads' contributions to the war effort mushroomed, whole communities sprang up, including roads, homes, and, of course, schools, where there had been only woods and farmland before.
Alexander Park, in what was then Norfolk County, was such a community. Alexander Park High School opened in January 1943 and graduated three seniors that June. However, their diplomas contained the names of their former schools because their new school hadn't been open long enough to be accredited.
By 1945, the school had almost 3,000 students, a new one-story building, as well as a glee club, science club, class rings and jewelry, cheerleaders, and athletic teams. In 1945, '46 and '47, school yearbooks, called ``The National,'' were published. The school's colors, proudly displayed, were blue and white.
But with the end of World War II, in August 1945, many who had come to Hampton Roads returned home or moved elsewhere. Alexander Park's last graduating class was in 1947. By 1948, its remaining students were assigned to other schools.
But it hasn't faded completely. A hardy band of those who graduated from Alexander Park, or attended there, and their spouses, now in their mid- to late 60s, gather every year to hold a reunion. Last Saturday, 90 of them met at the home of Eddie Boomhower, class of '45, and his wife, Annie Mae, in the 1900 block of Athens Court, in Chesapeake, to reminisce, eat steamed crabs by the bushel, listen to music popular when they were young and relive those memories.
For those in the class of '46, this was their 50th reunion.
``They come from Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Indiana,'' explained reunion committee member Gene Walker Richardson, class of '46, who worked the registration table. ``When you get here, you feel like you know everybody. A lot are couples. The older ones married the younger ones, like Nancy Wiggins and Moody `Bud' Ellington, who live in Norfolk now.''
It was a congenial group that gathered on the banks of St. Julien's Creek amid the 100-plus ducks that share the property with the Boomhowers.
``One reason we all get along so well is that, when we all lived over there, nobody had anything that anybody else didn't have,'' explained Eddie Boomhower, grinning.
Rationing of items such as shoes, gasoline and sugar saw to that. The wartime measure also is mentioned in the yearbooks, as when shoes, in scarce supply, became stuck in the abundant mud around Alexander Park when it was built. They laughed about it as teenagers, and they laugh about it now.
``There was no pavement,'' Boomhower said. ``There were 4,000 homes built in 90 days, with one telephone for 40,000 people. The roads were made of clay.''
Howard Hubbard, class of '45, recalled:
``They were four-room houses, with redwood siding. About half are still left. It was renamed Academy Park and is now known as Fairwood Homes. The first Cavalier Manor homes came from there. They loaded 'em on flatbed trucks and moved them.''
Stories abound about the mud and difficulties with the coal-fired boilers that heated the structures. Even the school yearbook mentions the coal soot that ended up everywhere. In the summer, it wasn't mud or soot - it was dust.
Before the school building was constructed, students attended classes in homes along the 600 block of Cavalier Boulevard. Someone walked up and down the street, in the dust or mud, ringing a cow bell to announce class times.
The community's wartime residents came from all over the country, primarily to work in the shipyards.
``We were represented by all of the then-48 states,'' recalled Clifton Chambliss, class of '46.
``They left the gate open,'' Eddie Boomhower quipped, ``and I escaped from Minnesota.''
Now they are equally scattered. Audrey Jones Hoinacke, class of '46, and her husband, Ray, came to the reunion from Orlando, Fla., en route to Chicago.
Gene Nichols, who attended the school, and his wife, Bea, came from Detroit.
Chambliss and his wife, Miriam, class of '47, came from Mechanicsville, outside Richmond. Next year, they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
``We met at Alexander Park,'' Miriam Chambliss said. ``I graduated on Wednesday and was married on Saturday.''
Nancy Wiggins Ellington, wife of Moody ``Bud'' Ellington, class of '45, married 50 years next April, had a similar story.
``We met on the basketball court there,'' she explained. ``We were high school sweethearts.''
Nancy Ellington, whose family came to Alexander Park from Vanceboro, N.C., has two sisters who also attended the school. One, Luenett Wiggins Stallings, made the reunion. The other, Eddie Ray Wiggins Chapman, of Florida, wasn't able to attend.
The reunions became annual events in 1979 when the classes of 1944, '45, '46 and '47 merged their reunions into one.
``It's better than what we anticipated, in terms of numbers,'' said a pleased reunion committee chairman, Joyce Kaps Worley, class of '47. ``Every year we do this, and every five years we do a three-day event. The next three-day one is in 1998. We always have a great time when we get together. The numbers are increasing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by DAWSON MILLS
Luenett Wiggins Stallings, left, and Clifton and Miriam Chambliss
feast on steamed crabs at the home of Eddie and Anna Mae Boomhower
on the banks of St. Julien's Creek in Chesapeake. The Boomhowers
hosted the Alexander Park High School reunion.
AT LEFT: Gene Walker Richardson, seated, registers June Skelton
Dickerson, foreground, and Nancy Wiggins Ellington.
AT RIGHT: Reunion chair Joyce Kaps Worley puts a name tag on Melvin
Waddell. by CNB