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7-4-09
Several of my good friends were going to UGA also. Jane
Scott, Jane Sparks, Amelia Brumby, Murray Claire Calhoun,
Anne Dixon, and Eugenia Miller. Anne, Eugenia and I
were roommates our freshman year. We lived on main
campus at ___ Hall. This dorm was across a
campus street from the chapel were the bell would sound each
time we won a football game. On game day, students
would greet each other by asking “Will the bell ring
today?” The answer would be “..., Yes!”… an adjective
was often placed in front of the yes.
As I think back to those football games, I remember how we
would dress up in pretty dresses or suits, high heels,
cute hats and often, fur coats. The boys wore sport
coats and ties. They would send their dates large
pom-pom chrysanthemums with red and black satin ribbons
cascading at least a foot down the stems. If the game
was played in the early afternoon, there would be a
"tea-dance" afterwards. Night games were followed by a
dance also. I have always loved to dance, and those
were happy, happy times. The night dances always ended
by 1-AM and we were expected to sign-in to our houses by
1:30. The house-mother was waiting by the door to make
sure the rules were obeyed. Yes, in the good old
days, most colleges still served in loco parentis
(in place of parents) and were very diligent in following
this charge. While I was in college in Athens, my
parents lived in Dublin, Georgia where my dad helped to
build the Veteran’s Hospital there. Coco, Fla was the
site of the Banana River Naval Base and Cape Canaveral
- later to become the Kennedy Space Center. My dad worked
also in Jacksonville, Florida, as there was and still is a
large Naval Base nearby. Many sightings of German
U-Boats (submarines) were made off the coast of Florida
during WW2. Several German sailors, who were put
ashore to spy or to sabotage military sites were actually
caught and imprisoned.
I would spend my school breaks with mother and dad. I
especially loved Coco and spent a Spring Break and one
summer there. During my Spring Break, the Orange Trees
were in bloom. Mother and I would walk into the little
town each afternoon to have a glass of fresh orange juice
mixed with coconut milk. Our path lead through an
Orange grove and the fragrance was heavenly.
We were staying a large hotel across from the Indian
River. In fact, the hotel was the Indian River
Hotel. The hotel had a concrete pier, semicircular
shaped, out into the river and people would sit our on
benches out on the pier, and enjoy the music played by
several Cubans. These young Cuban men were in the US
to play baseball. Some of them were very talented
musicians. This was so exciting to me because
foreigners were few and far between in those days.
By the time I made my appearance in the world my parents had
been married for eleven years. Doctors had told them
they would probably never have children, so imagine their
surprise (and I hope joy) when on August the 28th, 1926, I
arrived - all 5 pounds of me.
My father, Lucius Lindsay Dozier had 3 brothers - Gordon,
Fred and William - none of whom had children. So I was
the “last hope” to carry on the Dozier name. They say
my grandfather Dozier cried when he heard the eagerly
awaited baby was a girl; however, the next day he came to
the hospital, Davis Fisher in Atlanta, demanding in a very
loud voice to see his new granddaughter. I do not
remember him because he died when I was 5 and we had moved
around so much that I was seldom with him.
Since my father worked for Walker Electric Company in
Atlanta, we thought of Atlanta as home; however, Walker
Electric would bid on large jobs that would last for
months. During the late 1920s and all of the 30s,
industrial mills up and down the Eastern Seaboard were being
converted from water to electric power. And my father
worked on many of them. Virginia, North and South
Carolina, and Tennessee were the places I remember most
clearly. He did some work in Georgia too and I went to
Kindergarten in Columbus.
I started to school in Greer, SC and also lived in Walhalla,
SC. Many years later, I found out that my Grandmother
Specht, who came to the US in 1889, stayed first with her
uncle who was managing an Inn in Walhalla. I always
called her "Mama" and my mother “mother”. My
Grandfather Specht was "Papa" to me and my father was
"Daddy" (”Mama’s” cousin, Amelia came to the US with
her and I recall visiting her in Birmingham, Ala… we called
her “Tante’melia”)
I also went to the 1st grade in Atlanta at Lena H Cox
School. I was in and out of that school all my
elementary years finishing the 7th grade and
graduating from there. When I began the 5th grade, my
parents decided for my mother and me to stay in Atlanta
during the school year and to join my daddy for vacations
and for the summers. We lived with my mother’s sister,
my Aunt Marie, and her husband Elwood Tew.
During 1936 and '37, my daddy was in Buena Vista and Alta
Vista, Virginia. I have very happy memories of staying
in both places. When my granddaughter, Faith
Collins graduated from Washington and Lee College in
Lexington, Va., I had the opportunity to visit Buena Vista
only 5 miles from Lexington, and locate the house where we
boarded. This house was really quite large.
There was a tennis court with hollyhocks planted all around
it. There was also a sweet little pool located on a
lower terrace. These people whose last name was Shewey
had 2 daughters about my age and we played together every
day. We would make dolls from the hollyhock blooms and
sail them on the pool in boats made from hydrangeas.
It was truly a magic summer for me , I was 11 years
old. The Spring before this, I had a very bad case of
whooping cough, and had become quite thin. Some of the
mothers in the neighborhood were afraid for their children
to play with me, but thank goodness, the Sheweys did not
feel that way.
About a block away from this house was a private girls
school - Virginia Seminary for Young Ladies. We went
to see their graduation exercises and I was
enthralled. The young ladies wore long pastel dresses,
large hats and carried beautiful bouquets. I said that
was where I as going to school, but years erased that
resolve and I went UGA.
The school was till there when I went to visit it in
2001. The house we had lived in had deteriorated quite
a bit. The lot with the tennis court now held a nice
brick bungalow. The little pool could still be seen,
but only as an indention surrounded by stones.
Buena Vista is very hilly, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway,
and home to Natural Bridge. The street we lived on was
on one of those hills and there were steps going down from
our street to the street below. Quite steep steps with
an iron railing. They are still there. Sometimes
my mother and I would walk down those steep steps and on
into the town and ride home with him. It was while we
were in Buena Vista that Gone With The Wind was
popular. My mother would read it during the day and
pass it to my daddy after supper every night. I was
reading the Bobsie Twins and beginning my long friendship
with Nancy Drew and the many inhabitants of Oz.
My mother kept Saltines, hard cheese and dill pickles in our
rooms so we could have a snack. They did not need
refrigeration. I love them to this day!
The glorious Atlanta Train Station is no more. Many
times mother and I caught the trains there, sometimes as
early as 4-AM - as we journeyed to join my dad. Uncle
Elwood would often drive us to the station. The train
windows would open - no AC - and the cinders would blow in
every now and then - no diesel engines. Just a true
Choo-choo.
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