I Remember Suffolk

Continuing about Cedar Street:

Continuing south, next to the Melitos lived the Smiths. I do not remember their names, but I do remember their son “Robernard” whose real name was probably Robert Nard Smith. I remember he was mentally or physically handicapped, and I seem to remember at times a home nurse who cared for him.

Continuing south when we first moved to Cedar Street was a vacant lot. Later, a two story apartment house was built. I do not remember who lived upstairs, but downstairs lived Regina Martin and her brother Bobby and (I would imagine, but do not remember,) parents. George Marshall who lived in the next house south and I used the steps of Regina’s house as theater seating for slides shows we showed on the Marshall porch through white tissue paper. We used a “Give-a-Show” projector that used view-master slides. We always had a cartoon as well. I remember once we charged a “bunch” (as I used to say) of kids to see the “movie,” took their quarters (that was a lot of money then) and then did not show the slides. I thought that was a great way to make money! My mother did not.

The next house was the Marshalls! George and I were “best friends,” his brother John, only a year older than I was the big guy. John rarely hung out with George and I but with Sammy Powell who lived on South Main Street directly behind our house, and later in his teenage years with Tom Woodward and Mills Saeker and another fellow who was tall with strawberry blond hair.

Mrs. Marshall, “Gertrude.” She passionately loved wrestling on TV! Mrs. Marshall was long-time elementary school teachers at I believe John Randolph school. And then there was Jackie, John and George’s older sister. Also in the Marshall household was Jackie. Jackie was Mr. Marshall’s (John Henry Marshall for whom John was named, had died before I was “conscious”) daughter by his first wife whose name I do not know. I do remember Mr. Marshall’s picture.

The Marshall’s house was the last house before Cedar Street branched into a “Y” with a small island in the middle. Continuing around the east side of the “Y” and next door to the Marshalls lived Miss Virginia Brinkley, our Latin Teacher at Suffolk High and Miss Brinkley’s mother. Miss Brinkley’s sister, who lived farther north up Cedar but on the same side used to date my father! I often thought how strange it would be to be Virginia Brinkley’s nephew!

And next to the Brinkley home was a family I do not remember except that there was a connection between that family and a young boy who was hit by a car in front of 329. I remembered his being killed, but long after I left home I saw him as an adult and we joked about his being “dead” all those years! Just remembered, his first name was Gary.

Cedar Street ended there at that time. There was the end of the street and then was the first house on the other side of the street. Milhalko? Was that the name?

At the end of Cedar and between the two end houses there was a path and I believe a ravine, but I really only remember going down there once or twice. Too scary!

Beginning at 329 and going south on the same side of the street was the home of the Ficares. Mr. And Mrs. William (“Bill”) Ficare, their daughter, their son Pedro and another son Hector. The youngest son Hector had some sort of handicap.

Next to the Ficare home was Mr. And Mrs. C. Raymond Starkey (Mrs. Starkey's name was Clyde, yes, Clyce)and Mrs. Starkey’s sister was Pearl May Howard who lived with them as long as I knew them. “Miss Howard” ran a millinery store (hat store for women) on the southwest corner of The Square (Main and Washington Streets). A lady went in, a plain hat was put on her head and Miss Howard added this and that and the other and a ribbon and a feather and created a hat just for the customer.

Mr. Starkey ran Starkey-Matthews, which was, I believe, a wholesale store for such things as candy and cigarettes etc that other stores would resell. Mr. Starkey and my grandfather “Grumps” and my father would go fishing just about every Saturday during fishing season on the Nansemond River. I remember there was a clubhouse on pilings in the middle of the River in the area that I remember best. At the Bridge on the River, they would rent a rowboat and Daddy had an outboard motor that he cleaned by running it through clean water in a 50-gallon steel drum in the backyard after returning from a fishing trip. The Rivers in Virginia are salt rivers and have tides, hence the name of the area, Tidewater, Virginia.

After the Starkeys there was an apartment house, upstairs and downstairs. The next house began the end of the circle of Cedar Street, bending to become South Main. George Hunter Marshall remembered that “just at the bend, the Speights lived at 337 Cedar St. just next door to you. They had a big brick house. Mrs. Speight's husband - Shepherd Speight - died when I was still a small child, and how she managed, I do not know. What Mr. Speight did, I do not know. He had an eye patch, because he was blind in one eye, and was a severe diabetic. All of her children eventually developed that. She was left with Nancy, Martha, Buster, and Bobby Speight. Nancy and Buster were much older than I. Bobby eventually thought he was too old to hang out with me. Martha was a nice little girl, chubby, but not a person to make and keep friends. Bobby Speight had a clubhouse in his back yard; it was painted white with a roof slanting down toward the back. It was one room and had a black tar single roof. I was so jealous that we used to play in the coal bin when we lived later next door at 339. Eventually they all faded out of my life. And Fanny Speight sold the house and moved, and died somewhere out of state.”

George H. Marshall

12.22.2008

Served in the 

Air Force

George Hunter Marshall was born on January 11 1945 and died December 22 2008 " in Suffolk.

He was the son of the late John Henry Marshall and the late Gertrude Crumpler Marshall. He graduated from Suffolk High School in 1963" and was a 1967 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Randolph-Macon College. There he was a member of and president of the Omicron Delta Kappa Society for leadership. He served as Senior Judge on the Judicial Council and was also a member of Pi Gamma Mu the national social science honor society while at Randolph-Macon College. He received a Master of Science degree from Old Dominion University. He was formerly principal of Thomas Jefferson School in Suffolk and principal of Elephant's Fork Elementary School also in Suffolk He was later principal of S. P. Morton Middle School in Franklin VA " and retired as Division Director of Testing in Franklin.

He was a lifelong member of Oxford United Methodist Church in Suffolk" VA " and had served as chairman of the Finance Committee there for a number of years.

He was predeceased by a sister" Alise Marshall Lewis and a brother John H. Marshall Jr. and is survived by a sister " Jacquelin D. Marshall of Suffolk.