By Maurice K. 'Doc"
Collier
Not many of us have lived long enough to hand first hand knowledge of a small town in its infancy and of the conditions which prevailed around the turn of the century.
Being one of a group of rapidly declining octogenarians who fit in that category, I would like to take this opportunity to reminisce and share with you a few recollections and perhaps let a little nostalgia creep in.
The Phoebus Graded School on Howard Street was completed in 1902, and I started in 2903. I lived next door to the school and my brother, two years older and always late, jumped over the back fence when the bell rang at 8.30 am.
In those early days, oil lamps were used for lighting facilities in the homes and arc lights at each street corner. The old lamp-lighter turned them on at night and off in the morning. Wood and coal was the method of cooking and heating your home. There was no electricity or gas. The kids congregated on the corners under the arc lights at night and played various games.
It wasn't dangerous, because there were no automobiles in those days, the early 1900s. In the early turn of the century on Mellen Street and a small part of Mallory were paved. The rest was plain dirt. Naturally, we accumulated a coating of either dust or mud as the weather dictated, and so a nightly bath was a necessity, much to our regret.
Fire equipment, previously drawn by man-power, was motivated by Percheron horses. Street cars, trains and horse and buggy were the only means of transportation.
Ice for ice boxes was delivered door to door by horse and wagon, and the ice man cut the size you desired to order. There were no electric refrigerators in those days. Meat markets used walk-in refrigerators, with overhead ice storage for their meats and other perishables.
In those days there were saloons on Mallory Street that catered to the veterans at what was then called the Soldiers Home, now the Veterans Administrations, and sold mostly beer. On Mellen Street, they catered mostly to the Army and Navy. Virginia went dry in 1916, two years before nationwide prohibition.