Truckin' on the Western Branch

Ellen Gibbs Godwin Ellen Godwin, who is married to retired Judge James C. Godwin, said that her paternal great-grandparents owned what are now the Glensheallah and Waterview communities. She lived in Glensheallah and her best friend from second grade on, Peggy Savage, lived in Churchland. We used to take a boat across the river to go to each other’s houses—it was wartime and gas rationing. We played basketball together with Gracie VanDyck, our coach—she was a real mentor to the students. I went to Churchland because Riverview Drive was in Norfolk County then. My aunt, Martha Leigh Gibbs, was the librarian of Churchland High for 15 years. The school was at the heart of the community when I graduated in 1947. I was a cheerleader and everyone went to the football games.

Dancing was big. Doug Parker and his band were very popular. We also went to the Cabana Beach Club and sat on the beach to hear the big bands. We wore long V-neck sweaters, preferably chartreuse or fuchsia, over a Peter Pan dickey with a plaid pleated skirt below the knee and saddle shoes with rolled bobby sox. You needed two pairs of sox— one to wear and roll, the other to roll lengthwise and pad the roll so it stood out a couple inches from the ankle. The bus was our means of transportation, and my mother always said as I walked out the door, “Don’t talk to sailors.” The Portsmouth population before war was about 25,000. In the early 1940s it was 75,000, mostly sailors. And I married one! My father worked at the shipyard during war and was off one Sunday a month. He left for work on the bus at 6 a.m. and came home at 8 p.m. We rode bikes a lot during the war. After college I taught school in Lexington and then in Churchland Elementary along with the Duke sisters, who were kin to Peggy Savage.

Judge James C. Godwin and Ellen Gibbs Godwin. Image by Sheally

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