Elma Seward, 1921-2010

From EJSeward

Early and often, things posted here were from a trip taken with my mom. Or things she had kept.

This Wednesday the 20th, she passed away.

Much as it's been for my brother who died February last year, this blog is an extended remembrance of the world in which she lived.

From EJSeward

Ida & the station

Tropical Storm Ida
Originally uploaded by VaDOT

Yet another VDOT pic of TS Ida flooding.

My mom always said of this bridge that it should've extended past this low area toward higher ground.

As she's not a VDOT engineer and the businesses here likely wanted to keep the road frontage (and would still face occasional flooding), that was not to be . . .

Ida on Flickr

Tropical Storm Ida
Originally uploaded by VaDOT

VDOT also has a set of pics from the flooding in November from Tropical Storm Ida.

key rings long ago

Hee Haw



Gwaltney Ham, now a brand of Smithfield Foods.



This one actually saw some use.


A souvenir from a visit to the NASA Langley Research Center back in the 1970s.




First Union

ads from '52

An old print ad for Peebles.



Geo. Delk is no stranger either.



If memory serves, Bett's later became a Southern department store (which later became a Peebles).



One can find a Smithfield Farmers sticker here.



The face of the independent phone company back then.



I recall a very cool old neon sign at the Virginia Kernel. So far this ad's all I've found of the now long gone establishment.

All the above are more hasty photos, these being of ads in a program for Surry County's tricentennial celebrated in October 1952.

persistence of vision: street view

Type in a town, a street, maybe a full address and you might get more than a map or an aerial view from Google Maps. You might get a street view of the recent past.

Above is Little's Supermarket. Below is Angelo's. (Again, both images courtesy Google . . .)


Both are closed. And both are still standing (or were as of late June). But they may not stand like this forever. Here they are, probably as they were one day last fall.

And near or far on any road that's been documented, you can see a little ways back in time.

With tiled images creating a 360 degree view at any given point, it's like nostalgia's become a video game.

c'mon Revco light my fire

Another Revco item, this from circa 1980-1981 (back when I had a Zippo lighter and before I quit smoking).

supermarket arcana

The above image is nowhere near actual size (something like 3/4" high by 1/2" wide). I'm not sure what one could get with enough Sav-A-Stamps saved (before the expiration date--here it's January 1, 1960). But I do recall the Colonial Stores supermarket in Smithfield.


Below are the front & back views of a old Food Fair courtesy card from the early 1970s:

1990 ticket from Smithfield Little Theatre

As the stub is still attached, I'm not sure if this ticket was used.

The Smithfield Little Theatre is still going. Back when this ticket was sold, its home was the Cotton Gin Theatre. Since then, a new theatre has been built.

this Bicentennial Minute is brought to you by

Another ad from the July 4, 1976 Richmond Times-Dispatch:



Though the above image can be clicked for a closer look, I rather liked the logo (and vaguely remember it from phone books gone by):




And here's a clickable & somewhat less blurry look at the Virginia Independent Telephone Association members as of 1976:



Actually, from what I can tell these nearly 32 years later, close to half of these independent phone companies still exist on the membership roll.

But the "IT" in VITA has since switched to "TI" as in the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association (VTIA). And joining the locals are big dogs like Cox, Comcast, Sprint and Verizon.

Such changes notwithstanding, the existence of these small independents is of interest . . .

Little's Supermarket ad 1994

Having posted about the closing of Little's Supermarket last year and such, I thought I'd put up this item I found clipped from the March 2, 1994 Smithfield Times:



Click on the image for a closer look.

a Little receipt

Last fall I posted about the closing of Little's Supermarket in Smithfield VA.

Sifting through some stray papers, I recently found an old receipt from Little's from mid-October 2006 (a few weeks before this blog was started). Above is a detail. Below is all there is of a Little receipt--which can be clicked for a bigger view.

Isle of Wight County

About 18 years ago, a friend of my mom's made her this needlepoint map of Isle of Wight County. One specially added detail was a mark designating my mom's birthplace.

For a closer look, click the image. The little ship figures northwest of Smithfield are meant to represent the Idle Fleet, I think. The bridge just to the right of the blue fish figures is the James River Bridge.

hangers and bags

More hasty photos, this time of coat hangers and suit bags.


Click the photo below for a closer look at a hanger from The Hub ("Tidewater's Most Popular Stores").

Peebles

Peebles is still around, but it's been some time since it had a store in Wakefield. I can only vaguely picture where that store would've been.

Most of these other items are likely from the Peebles in Smithfield.