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Sheri Dennison (left) looks at clippings and photos about the Dahlgren community.
Marie Mitchell, who attended Dahlgren School until age 9, looks through class photos to find her two deceased brothers.
Former Dahlgren residents gather to swap stories and visit with old friends. In the foreground, Frances Ellen Taylor Waugh, |
By CATHY DYSON
People came from all over the East Coast, and as far away as Minnesota, to share an afternoon and some fond memories with others who grew up on the Dahlgren Navy base.
They turned out yesterday to celebrate the 90th anniversary of what's now Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, known worldwide for testing naval firepower and its research and development work. The first gun was test fired on Oct. 16, 1918.
Back in the day, before the King George County base was home to military families only, civilians worked and lived in the community that former residents described as ideal because it was isolated from the rest of the world.
"It was a wonderful place to live," said Virginia Taylor, a 95-year-old who made the trip from Jacksonville, Fla., to see former neighbors and friends.
From her wheelchair, Taylor hugged Emily Wine Granberg, 70, who also lives in Florida and was part of Dahlgren School's Class of 1952.
As it does today, the school had eight grades only, and its graduates went on to King George High School. But when Dahlgren alumni mention their class, they mean the year they graduated from the base school--not when they got their diplomas.
Even though decades have passed since the students bowled at the base or took lessons from a teacher who endorsed a seemingly swim-or-drown philosophy, the old friends instantly went back in time.
"It's just like when you're with your college friends and you fall back into the way things were then," said Susan Payne Moundalexis of King George.
That seemed obvious as alumni in their 60s and 70s gathered at the open house, which attracted more than 2,000 people and included a craft fair, car show and children's games.
There were plenty of hugs and handshakes among the older folks at first, then people settled into smaller groups--just as they probably did during weekly meetings of the teen club.
Mickey Castner, who lives in Smithfield, helped organize the informal reunion. As he stood between two men, Castner looked past the wrinkles and white hair, canes and walkers of those around him.
"Who's that girl over there in the gray?" he asked, pointing to a woman who was at least 70.
Former residents remembered the blessings--and curses--of being so far removed from civilization.
"We had all the conveniences that a lot of folks had in large cities: tennis courts, swimming pool, the bowling alley," said Ann Hill Brogden of Williamsburg.
Taylor, the 95-year-old, could watch her six children walk to school from her home. She knew the kids "they ran with," she said, because everybody on the base knew everybody else.
Children regularly rode their bikes through the neighborhood or after DDT trucks spraying for mosquitoes, which apparently was quite the past-time.
"Some towns had ice cream trucks, we had a DDT truck," said Ed Jones, The Free Lance-Star's editor who grew up on the base and was the keynote speaker at yesterday's open house.
But there was so little development in the area around Dahlgren that those who lived outside the base, such as Castner, were allowed to shop at the Navy stores on base. Military doctors also made house calls to local families "because there was no one else around," he said.
In the early days, the base was so remote that sailors and scientists considered it an outpost, said Ann Richardson Gautier, whose grandparents lived at Dahlgren for 30 years.
Her mother jokingly called it "sagebrush" because it was so rural.
But that undeveloped setting also provided a community atmosphere that its residents still rave about, including Gautier, who married fellow Dahlgren alumnus James Gautier. He spent 30 years in the Navy, and the two lived around the world but still consider Dahlgren their hometown.
"It was a terrific place to grow up," he said. "We were kind of isolated from all the bad things that can happen in the world."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
