Edward Everett Bagnell Born 1937 Deceased 2019
Interviewed by Ginny Bagnell
Everett was born August 13,1937 Mother Anne Everett Bagnell
Father Edward Carl Bagnell
Grandparents Captain Ed and Shirley Bagnell
Growing up in Crittenden I was the only child my age until I was 10 when the Prestons moved to Eclipse with a boy my age named Tom.( the Prestons had several children).
When I was three I walked on the back road from my house to Capt. Lip Johnson’s store. I sat on a nail keg and listen the men talk all day.
My granddad, Capt. Ed, stayed out all week Came in on Friday. I would meet the boat and he would give me 25 cents. (Capt. Ed had a buyboat, The Edvina)
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents (Capt. Ed and Miss Shirley. They lived in the house on Steeple Drive that Mary Hamilton lives in today. Lip Johnson built the house and lived here until his wife died and he moved in with his daughter.
The house felt like it was air conditioned in the summer and like the out of doors in the winter. The only room that was warm in the winter was the kitchen. There were two porches one upstairs and one downstairs.
When my grandfather was out and it stormed I would stay with Miss Shursey (My grandmother). She was afraid of storms. We lived on the hill (Jonathon Ward lives in the house which has been bricked over). When I was three we moved into a new house where Ginny lives today. My dad bought the Lewis house tore it down and built the present day house.
I delivered both the morning and afternoon papers. The Grit in the morning and the Ledger-Star evening (not sure he has the correct names). I knew everyone in both communities. My favorite customer was Miss Sue Mertig. Each Christmas she made me a lemon pie.
When I was eight my grandfather, Capt. Ed, died. I was very sad I lost not only my grandfather but my best friend.
WWII
The war scared me to death. I did not understand practice drill. I always thought it was the real thing. When the siren went off we cut off the lights and mother and I got under the table. There were 40 or 50 soldiers stationed in Eclipse. The USO put on shows at the school house and the community was invited.
Uncle Henley (Miss Anne’s brother. Lived in Driver) was in the army and was captured by the Germans and stayed in a concentration camp for a year. He escaped and was captured again and told if he did it again they would shoot him.
My dad worked as an electrician for the James River Bridge. My mother taught the first grade at the Crittenden School and drove the NNSY bus before and after school.
All of the men in Crittenden and Eclipse tried to enlist but some were needed in the shipyards both Norfolk Naval Shipyard and the Newport New Shipyard. Many of the men who worked in the Shipyards have died of Cancer. Most did not live to be 70. The biggest celebration I have ever seen was the end of the war. People got in their cars and drove around the community for hours blowing horns, clapping and yelling.
AFTER WWII
As the men came home there was new life in the community.
Men’s baseball teams were formed and they played in a field where Ebenezer Church is today.
Bruce Keeling had the first TV at the store. Had hard benches set up in rows like the theater.
Norma Dixon (Taylor) sang on a local station.
Temperance Service once a year. Miss Jessie Norfleet would slam the Bible and go home.
Oscar Phelps had the Biggest Black Cat I have ever seen,
I was an alter boy at Ebenezer but really wanted to be playing baseball.
There were many stores in Crittenden and Eclipse but the ones I remember are:
Capt. Lip’s (near the railway - Volvo)
Bruce Keeling’s (has had many owners...Christine’s today)
Phelps’ Gulf ( Sunoco today)
Bunkley’s (no longer a store)
Gales (now a home)
Bunkley’s and Capt. Lip’s sold any thing a waterman would need to do his job. Also round of cheese and cured meat and penny candy for the children. Both were on the Chuckatuck Creek and had railways for loading and unloading supplies. They also had marine fuel.
Phelps’ and Keeling’s had supplies, auto gas, bread, milk, dill pickles and candy for the children...both were Greyhound and/or Trailways Bus stops.
OYSTERING IN THE 1950's
My dad opened an Oyster business where Volo is today (Carl Bagnell and Charles Grey Adams - Adam Oyster Co.)
The shuckers worked by the piece...$1.00 per gal. Good shuckers could shuck 8 to 11 gals. a day. 60 - 70 shuckers were picked up each morning in an old school bus. They were all black women and it was not only a job but a social time for the women they talked, sang, and joked while they worked. Each shucker sat on a stool in front of a small block of wood that had a sharp metal wedge...the mouth end of oyster was placed on the wedge and the hinge end tapped with a hammer...a small opening was made in the oyster and the shucker could then get her knife in the release the oyster from the shell.
I worked all the jobs in the business except shucking.
I worked in the packing room loading the canning machine.
I unloaded oysters as the boats came to the dock. Most oystermen were black. In the winter they would take shoes off... wrap newspaper around their feet and then put their boots on.. They could Change out motors in one hour.
I helped plant oysters. Shoveling the shells on the oyster beds so the spat could strike. After shoveling the oysters overboard I had to wash the boat. One day as I was throwing the bucket tied to a line overboard to get water to wash the decks of the boat. The knot that I had tied came lose and I lost the bucket. My dad was not happy and said a boat was no place for a boy. I never got back on the boat to plant oysters again. I was glad 'cause I did not like that job.
I drove the truck loaded with the cans of oysters to market in Norfolk. We went on the ferry to East Main Street. On one trip, the cans of oysters fell off the truck on High Street in Portsmouth. They were rolling all on the street and I thought I was going to jail. I quickly got out of the truck and picked up all of the cans and was on my way.
When I was fifteen my dad sent me to collect a check from Fass Brothers for $25,000 and I was not to come home until I got the check. I sat outside Mr. Fass's Office every time he went by he said, "Go home boy" and I said, "I can't, My dad told me not to come home until you gave me the check". He would just walk on. After about three hours of this, I got the check and went home.
We also sold directly to Colonial Stores, Campbells Soup and Kroger’s. When we sold direct we made more money.
During summer break and vacations, when I was in College I worked for the James River Bridge System taking tolls. I took tolls on all three bridges. Where ever I was assigned. The tollhouse was in the middle of the bridge just before the draw. The tollhouses on all the bridges were on rollers. When the big tractor trailer trucks crossed the bridge and came to the tollhouse the wheel made the truck too wide to pass the house. We would roll the house to the other side. Then we would roll it back. Sometimes we had to roll the house so far cars coming the other way we had to stop the traffic. On the Chuckatuck and Nansemond Bridges it was the toll takers job to lift the draw. It scared me to do this, if any thing went wrong I would stop the traffic on the bridge and the water. There were people who did not have the money to pay the toll and they would leave collateral most of the time a watch. On the next trip they always had the money and got their watch back. I do not know how much I got paid but it was more that I made working for my Dad. He did not pay me.
THE NIGHT BUNKLEY'S BURNED
The community gathered on the hill to watch the fireworks. The barrels of oil and gas exploded and the flames leaped as high as a two or three story building. Because of the kinds of things that were sold at the store and their flammability there was little that could be done. We just watched. They say that Nurney Gale ran in and got the cash register. The next day he could not pick it up.