Interview with Darlene Hogue Alexander
October 23, 2006
I met with Darlene Hogue Alexander to obtain from her perspective what it was like growing up in Eclipse Virginia. Darlene and her husband Gary currently live on the site where Darlene was raised overlooking Chuckatuck Creek. Interviewer-Les Ward
GROWING UP IN ECLIPSE:
Darlene was born Darlene LaRue Hogue on March 4, 1957 at Maryview Hospital in Portsmouth Virginia. Her mother is Elenor Branch Goodrich from Eclipse Virginia and her father was James Elmer Hogue Jr. (Bootsie) who was born in Isle of Wight County, but at age three months, moved and was raised in Eclipse Virginia. Darlene’s maternal grandmother was Elenor Branch and her maternal grandfather was Robert Jasper Goodrich. Her paternal grandmother was Eunice Gray Hogue and paternal grandfather was James Elmer Hogue Sr. Darlene has an older brother Clayton, and older sister Tonia (Toni) Hogue Sealey; Clayton lives in Windsor, and Tony lives in Smithfield. Darlene is married to Gary Lee Alexander and they have two children; Gary Lee Alexander Jr. and daughter Jenny Alexander. Darlene attended school in Chuckatuck through the 7th grade and then attended and graduated from John Yeates High School in 1975. Darlene works for the Suffolk City School system.
Homeplace
Although Darlene and Gary rebuilt the original house in 1986, they live on the site where her father and Aunt Prue grew up. Darlene and her siblings also grew up and were raised in this home. Overlooking Chuckatuck Creek, the original Hogue family home was a two story house that looked a lot like the house across the street from them that is owned by Donnie Lovell. Darlene’s grandparents moved to this home in 1923. While she doesn’t know when it was originally built, she believes it was in the early 1920s.
School Bus
Darlene attended school in Chuckatuck, graduating high school in 1975. She told me that when she was in the first grade, senior boys use to drive the school bus. She remembers a boy named Chuck being her driver. After that, Mrs. Myane, who worked in the cafeteria, also started driving the school bus that took Darlene, Toni and Clayton to school.
Darlene’s dad played baseball on a community team in Eclipse, but doesn’t know the dates. Games were played on the site where Carter Hicks and Christine Wright now have their homes. Darlene’s dad also had a pet crow named Smokey Joe. He taught Smokey Joe to say “play ball boys,” which the crow would yell out at baseball games. Darlene remembers her dad also having a pet muskrat, but couldn’t remember his name.
While Darlene’s dad was in the Navy, he brought a shipmate named John Hagwood Parker home one day because his young friend had no family in the area. At first, Elmer Hogue tried to fix John Parker up with his sister Prue Hogge, but she already had her eyes set on future husband Ben Turner. Therefore, Elmer introduced John to Alice Dixon and the rest is history. Alice married John Parker and began a family in Eclipse (Mac and Norman Parker’s parents).
The Gray Family
Darlene is told me that she is related to Gray family of Eclipse and Crittenden. She added that she was also related to Jackie and Louise Moore. She provided the following information.
Louise Trench Moore told me that her husband (Jackie Moore)’s father Milton (Mit) Moore Sr. and J.C. Gray’s grandmother Miss Nannie Moore Gray were cousins. Nannie Moore Gray’s husband was Madison Gray (their son and J.C. Gray’s father was Johnny Gray).
Darlene told me that her relationship to the Gray’s from the following family. While she didn’t know the parents, the following children were:
· Johnny Gray (J.C. Gray’s father and Virginia’s brother).
· Maggie (married Lee Baker)
· Floyd Gray (Mildred Gray’s father).
· Virginia Eunice Gray (James Elmer Hogue’s mother; Darlene’s grandmother).
· MaeMae Gray
· Bessie Gray
· Virginia Eunice Gray (James Elmer Hogue’s mother; Darlene’s grandmother).
BB Guns
Darlene also mentioned BB Gun fights involving brother Clayton, sister Toni and her. Apparently one Christmas, all the neighborhood boys received BB guns from Santa Claus. Clayton started shooting at a target he had placed on the big tree in front of their house. However, he soon tired of this and wanted to shoot at moving targets. Toni and Darlene use to hide behind the tree to avoid being shot. However, Clayton would yell telling his sisters to come out and he wouldn’t shoot. But, Clayton would then start using the girls for target practice, once hitting Darlene between the eyes. While Clayton used to pal around with Bruce Wright, Mike Gray, the Keeling brothers, and the Turner boys, who all had received BB guns, he wouldn’t let them shoot at his sisters. He wanted to protect his targets. Toni and Darlene, while a lot younger than Clayton and his friends, use to “hang out” with the boys, but were not allowed to play with them.
Boat on Hoecake Bay
While Darlene was young, she and her friends would play on Mr. Meadows old boat that was tied up next to Bunkley’s dock. Darlene said Mr. Meadows was a nice old man who used to be a boat captain and that lived in a house next to the Hicks home. The Hicks’ family looked after Mr. Meadows. Between the ages of 6 to 10, Darlene remembers playing from early morning until late afternoon. Using Mr. Meadows boat, Darlene and friends often played pirates and being shipwrecked on Gilligan’s Island. When he eventually died, his boat remained at Bunkley’s dock and eventually rotted away.
Bunkley's Dock
Darlene also remembers playing and swimming at the end of Bunkley’s dock, and “walking the rails” on the dock; two rails were attached to the dock where a small cart would take supplies to boats at the end of the dock. She and friends use to catch crabs from the dock’s pylons and also row the family row boat between the pylons from the shore all the way to the dock’s end. She told me that she and other neighborhood children were only allowed to row their boats and swim in Hoecake Bay between Bunkley’s and Sheffield’s docks. That way, their parents always knew where they were and could see them from most of the homes along the shore of Chuckatuck Creek. She added that all she and neighborhood children did while growing up was play along the shoreline of area waters, while sometimes riding their bicycles for fun.
Rivershore Beach
Darlene said that she and neighborhood children would also swim and play at the Rivershore Beach. She told me that there use to be metal stairs from the top of Rivershore Drive down to the beach that were in two sections with a small platform in the middle. She and her brother and sister were only allowed to walk from their home on Eclipse Drive to the Rivershore, but no further. Darlene remembers her mother and father taking the family to the Rivershore Beach for picnics and cookouts. Also, at the end of the Mt. Zion Christian Church Vacation Bible School, Darlene remembers her family going to the Rivershore Beach and swimming all day, and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows before returning home. She told me that you could walk out into the water far from shore because the water was so shallow. Also, the water was so clear at this beach that you could see the sand and your toes way out in the water. Darlene said that her daddy would teach the children from Mt. Zion to float in the water during these outings.
Mt. Zion Cemetery
Also, while Darlene was growing up in Eclipse, she remembers visiting the Mt. Zion Cemetery with her family and reading the tomb stones and helping clean the family plot.
Darlene said that she and friends would do chores for the older ladies of the community. In return, these ladies might give the children a nickel or dime which would then soon be spent on penny candy at the Phelps store or at Moger’s Service Station. She remembers that Moger’s had an old black man named Casey who would always check the air in the children’s bicycle tires when they dropped by. She said that Casey was always nice to her and friends and they would then try to share their candy with him. However, Casey told the children that his wife said that he was “sweet enough,” and refuse their candy.
Darlene also remembers the Fair (Fall) Bazaar that was held at the C.E. & H. Community Building each year. She said that the children always looked forward to the cake walk, grab bags, white elephant sale, candy apples, and popcorn balls. At Christmas time, Darlene said there was always a church get together at Mt. Zion Christian Church. Unbeknown to the children, Chester Myane would dress up as Santa Claus and the children would go up on stage and sit on his lap and tell Santa what they wanted while their parent’s sat and listened. She also told me that both Ebenezer Methodist and Mt. Zion Christian churches would take turns feeding the C.E.&H Ruritan's at their monthly meetings.
The first preacher that Darlene remembers at Mt. Zion Christian Church was Reverend Madre. He lived in downtown Suffolk and would come out to Eclipse each Sunday to preach at their church. Since Suffolk was so far away, members of the congregation would take turns feeding Reverend Madren Sunday dinner so he didn’t have to return home between services.
Darlene said she and friends use to go fishing at Mertig’s Oyster House dock (Where the Turner dock is now), using bent straight pins with string tied around the pin head. Using periwinkles as bait, they would catch bull gudgeon’s (minnows), calling them either shiner’s or yellow bellies. They would take oyster shells to crack open the periwinkle, removing the meat and placing it on their bent pin fish hooks. Since the bent pin had no barb, Darlene said you had to jerk the pin to snag the fish when it hit their line. The children would then put their catch in a pail of water on the dock to keep them alive. She told me that they could do this for hours. Apparently, there were some “fat cats” in the neighborhood since Darlene and friends would feed their catch to the cats. Whatever the cats didn’t eat, Darlene said would be thrown back to be caught another day.
Fearless Foursome
When Darlene was young, she remembers having the following friends; Jane and Joe Hicks, Debbie and Dianne Turner, Barry and Pat Gray, and her best friend Stuart (Pep) Keeling. She told me that most of her friends were boys, since she thought that most girls played “stupid little games.” Darlene told me that she and Toni, along with Jane and Joe Hicks were called the “fearless foursome,” and were always together. They would be fighting one minute and be friends the next minute. She added that Jane was born in 1954, Toni in 1955, and she and Joe in 1957. The four of them had fun until Jane got married when she and Joe were in high school. For fun, Darlene said she and her friends would play tag, hop scotch, swing at the Rivershore, play records, and play croquet in the Hicks yard. She added that they were never bored since they made their own fun. There was always something to do. They didn’t have many toys, so they used their imagination.
Adams Cemetery
One pastime for the children was reading tomb stones in the Adams cemetery near their homes. This cemetery had plenty of trees and a path that wound through so that you could not see very well, especially at night. Darlene told me that she, Toni, and Jane and Billy Hicks would tell Joe Hicks that the stones were moving, which scared Joe to death. When he started yelling, they all became scared and ran out of the cemetery. Also, the cemetery had a large trash pile that local residents use to dump their trash and garbage. Darlene told me that the children would go through the trash pile looking for treasures.
On another occasion when Joe Hicks was five or six years old and had not started school, Darlene told me he “discovered girls.” One day, Joe picked flowers and got “all slicked up” like he was going to church. He took his flowers to a certain neighborhood girl’s house, but she wasn’t home. Darlene told me that this particular girl had a crush on Joe at the time. Joe then asked Darlene if she would deliver the flowers for him.
While Darlene said that most children she grew up with were nice to her, there was one boy between her house and Bunkley’s that was mean. Thomas Hazelwood, who was older than Darlene would often stop her from passing his house on the way to Bunkley’s to get mail for her mother. Thomas told Darlene that she could pass if she gave him a nickel. Darlene told her father about this and one day and he then watched Darlene go up the street to get the mail. Thomas stopped his “toll collecting” from that point on. However, whenever Thomas showed up at the Hicks house, he would pick on the younger children. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks use to make fishing nets on Saturdays at their home, with neighborhood children often congregating to play. Since Thomas would sometimes show up, Josephine Hicks told him to leave the children alone. Darlene added that Thomas also use to tell Joe Hicks that the world was coming to an end, and made him carry a bible for a week.
When Darlene was about 8 or 9 years old, her father use to get her ducks for Easter. One year, Darlene received a white duck that she named Charlie. Soon thereafter, white and brown ducks started showing up on Darlene’s lawn. Since Charlie and wild ducks apparently had mated, Darlene’s father use to say, there goes Little Charlie.
When Darlene was in high school and dating Gary, she use to go duck hunting with Gary, Gibb Chapman, Joe Hicks, Pat and Barry Gray and Billy Moore. She remembers going duck hunting every day before going to school during duck season. While she generally sat and watched the boys hunt, one day she asked Gary if she could kill a duck. Gary handed her his 12 gauge shotgun and she proceeded to shoot a duck, but only wounded it. After Gary shot the wounded duck on the water, Darlene, while glad she finally got to hunt, started crying because she had shot the duck. Darlene and the boys use to duck hunt on a small island off Sheffield’s Point, called Buff Island. It was named for all the Bufflehead ducks that landed there. Darlene added that a black man in Hobson would buy every duck the boys could shoot.
Creek Frozen Over
In the late 1960’s, Darlene said that the Chuckatuck Creek froze over. Not listening to Darlene and Toni, Dianne Turner attempted walking across the ice near pilings supporting a pier and fell in. Her brother Robert who saw her fall in, refused to help get her out. Darlene said Dianne’s lips were turning blue before she and Toni got her out of the water. Darlene added that her mother Prue had to warm up Dianne by placing her in a bath tub of hot water. After the Creek became more solid with ice, Darlene told me that she and other local children could walk from Bunkley’s dock all the way across Hoecake Cove to Sheffield’s Point. She also remembers her daddy ice skating on the ice during this freeze.
Swimming
Darlene remembers Captain Ed Mertig having a big oyster boat, which is used to backwash a channel from his dock out to the main channel. Darlene said this created a “swimming hole,” which she and other local children would swim in during the warm months. She added that the water in the creek was real clear in those days; unlike the muddy water of today.
When Darlene and friends use to swim at the Rivershore, she remembers using an outdoor shower at the old Darden Clubhouse that was in the woods overlooking Rivershore Beach. She added that while she was growing up, she never saw anyone ever using this clubhouse.
Darlene also said that when she and her friends visited the Rivershore Beach, the sand was real soft; almost like quicksand. She added that kids would wiggle a foot and leg up to their hip and then pull it out and do it with the other foot. Darlene added that you use to be able to walk from the Rivershore all the way around the peninsula to Bleakhorn Creek (Keeling’s property commonly referred to as the Red Oyster House – old Nansemond Fish and Oyster Company).
Darlene told me that her grandmother Eunice use to live in the old Martin Grocery Store (corner of Bleakhorn and Dixon drives) between 1961-1972. Darlene remembers playing in the old store and seeing the old store shelves which still had some groceries on them. She added that her grandmother lived in the back of the building, while the store was in front.
RACCOON STORY
When Darlene was 16 years old, she had a pet raccoon named Jay Jay. Pat and Barry Gray went hunting and shot a mother raccoon; unbeknown to them, she had four babies. A baby raccoon was given to Cindy Bateman and one to Darlene. Pat and Barry kept the other two. When Darlene was given the baby raccoon its eyes were closed, and it had little or no fur. As it turned out, all babies died except Darlene’s. She had the foresight to go to the vet and obtain dog's replacement milk and a baby bottle, which she fed Jay Jay. As he grew, Darlene would take Jay Jay to the Rivershore and let him play in the water and explore the new surroundings. Jay Jay would not venture off out of sight of her. He looked to her as a mother figure and would run to her if he became frightened and climbed up on her for safety. Jay Jay loved to ride in the car with Darlene. They would go to the bank and the ladies at the bank really liked Jay Jay. They gave him special treats. It would really catch people by surprise at stop lights when a raccoon would be looking at them out of a car window! Jay Jay liked shinny things and would hide his shinny treasures in the family's clothes hamper. Her pet raccoon lived with Darlene and family for 3 years. However, when it became time for Jay Jay to find a mate, he was unhappy. Darlene and Gary (her boyfriend/ later husband) took Jay Jay down to the Keeling's Oyster House where other raccoons had been seen and let him go. (See picture #1).
1968 KLONDIKE ACCIDENT
In 1968, Darlene remembers the accident where two local citizens lost their lives in the sinking of the oyster boat Klondike off Hampton Virginia. Bert Hazelwood Jr. and Gray Adams lost their lives in the sinking and their bodies were not found for several days. Darlene told me that her parents would not let her or Toni play along the shoreline after this accident for fear that a body might wash up. She added that this was quite a tragedy for the community.
1970 ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
Darlene remembers the eclipse of the sun in 1970 since it drew people from all over. She especially remembers going down to Bunkley’s Store, which had the Eclipse post office at the time and having her picture taken by a newspaper photographer. Also, the news people interviewed local children for their reaction to the eclipse.
BUNKLEY’S STORE:
Darlene remembers two things about Bunkley’s Store; George Causey, the owner, and Peter, his son.
She told me that local residents had to go to Bunkley’s to get their daily mail. When her mother would send Darlene to pick up their mail, she told me she would often have to wait until George finished reading a magazine, or taking a nip in the back of the store. She added that George would often get irritated with neighborhood children, but that Mr. Nurney Gayle, an employee, would be nice to the children. Darlene said that Mr. Gayle would give the children candy when George wasn’t looking. She added that she never understood how such a sweet man could work for someone as ornery as George. Darlene also mentioned that George had two large basset hounds named Cleo and _________. These dogs would bark and neighborhood children and one time chased Jane Hicks up the hill next to the store. She added that George would drive home for lunch. Whenever he saw Darlene of her friends riding their bikes in the road, he would stop and yell for them to “get off my damn road.” Darlene told me that she and friends would often call George, who answered “Bunkley’s Store.” They would then ask him if he had Prince Albert (pipe tobacco) in a can, which George always answered “yes.” The children would then yell “well let him out,” and hang up. Apparently George never caught on.