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Dahlgren. The very word evokes a smile and a flood of memories, too many to count or share. Living there from 1958 - 1964 was a most wonderful and cherished time, perhaps the best years of my life. A time when we walked home from school to have lunch. The lighting of the beautiful Christmas tree on Sampson Cir., when we used to have snow. 4th of July brought such excitement when children would enter running and swimming races, followed by picnics and fireworks along the Potomac. Or Halloween, oh the bags of candy, homemade costumes and celebration in the Community Center. Ice skating on the Cooling Pond or sledding down Utgough's (sp.?) Hill. The sound of geese in the fall and the sight of gold finch in the spring. My first bicycle, the clattering of training wheels as I rode my make-believe pony down Sampson RD. Dahlgren School - Miss Marie, perhaps the most beloved kindergarten teacher, followed by Mrs. Edge, Mrs. Conrad, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Slusher (sp.?). And 510 Sampson RD, our home - It is here that I return when I recall my childhood and it is Dahlgren that still delights my dreams. If only time travel was possible.
- Diane Fadeley

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I have some of my best memories at Dahlgren during the 60s. Back in the day when all soda bottles were refundable, we would ride our bikes all over the base picking up discarded bottles on the sides of the road and in gutters. The ginger ale bottles were really special because they were worth a whopping nickel. With our bicycle baskets filled to overflowing, we would go to the two stores just outside the main gate, cash in our bottles and spend all our money on the really cool candy they had.
- Phyllis Weinstein