This weekend has been quite a trip down memory lane. I just returned from attending church at the Hope Community Presbyterian Church. I attended this church with my family as a child and was baptized in this church. My family lived just down the alley from this church. As you can see it's a beautiful brick building. In the foreground of this photo you can see the street light with the large while globes. These type of street lights are all over the downtown area. I recall them being there as a child.

Luckily I only had to walk across the street and down one block to church as it is quite chilly this morning. The weather channel indicated that the temperature was 49 degrees but 37 degrees with the wind chill factor. There are lots of bright blue skies with occasional clouds passing by.

Inside the church is a choir loft and a huge pipe organ. It sure sounded great listening to and singing with that organ. I even remembered the words of some of their regular blessings. Just above my head from where I am taking this photo is a balcony.

Saturday, after waiting out an early morning rain storm, I wondered around town on my bike. I spoke to a lady that lives next door to where my house used to be and she told me the house had "drug guys" living in it. The man who owns her building bought my old house from the absentee landlord and then tore it down. She said it would have been too expensive to repair. Makes me wonder if they had some kind of lab in there.

Around the corner from where I spoke to the lady, I found the walkway pictured below. If you look closely there is a white beam at an angle, just to the right of the door, holding a small roof up. As kids we used to climb up that beam swing around onto that small roof and then onto the roof of the building and hang out there. I think one of my friends lived in the apartment up there. I learned how not to smoke cigarettes up there.

This next photo is my old elementary school. It is no longer used as a school and now houses among other things an attorney's office. It still has "Lincoln School" in the cement above the front door. I was here in the 90's with my dad for a wedding and we went inside and walked around. It still has the marble floors that I remember as a child.

As luck would have it, I stumbled upon the Virginia Area Historical Society Museum located on the east end of Olcott Park. I met a wonderful lady by the name of Betty Birnstihl and spent about two hours talking with here and sharing old memories. She allowed me to look through old Roosevelt H.S. yearbooks, several of which had photos of my dad during his teaching years. I looked through the 1970 yearbook to see if I recognized any names, but I did not. She also reminded me that at one time they had live monkeys in what was called monkey island at the park.

While in the museum, a fierce thunder storm passed through. The wind was howling and at one point we got hail. The hail probably wasn't any bigger than the average kidney stone (oh sorry Jim!!) but it made quite a racket on the roof. Luckily I was in the museum and not out wondering around on my bike.

No trip to Alcott park would be complete without a stop at the bandstand. It has been redone since my time, but I'm told they still have live band performances there in the summer. Suzie you might remember playing on the bandstand. I'll have more to share later.