The first question!
Do you or someone you know begin your military career in this building? If so, what do you remember about it?
My inaugural stab at being the What’s On Your Mind? guy attempts to unravel the mystery of this building located in Roanoke at the intersection of Franklin Road and Reserve Avenue, SW. Do you know how Reserve Avenue got its name?
If you could imagine the perfect use for this empty building, what would it be? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Oh, and welcome to the blog. If you you have a question that can’t be answered with a simple Google search, send it to me and I’ll do my best to help you out, and if I can’t answer, we’ll throw it to the crowd that I hope will check into this space regularly.
So here it is… this week’s column:
Welcome to the new and hopefully improved What’s On Your Mind. As a longtime subscriber, I’ve been reading this column for what seems like forever, and I only hope I can do it justice. If you’ve ever seen former WOYM columnist Kevin Kittredge in person, you know I’ve got big shoes to fill.
In the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking that years ago people might have written to the paper to ask questions that today we can answer with a click of the mouse, but what this column should aspire to be is the place you can go to get the answers to un-Googleable questions. If you want to know whatever happened to the actress who played Thelma Lou on Andy Griffith, you can Google it, or better yet, ask Ralph Berrier Jr. But if you want to know, as I do, which animals at the Mill Mountain Zoo are the ones that make up the cacophony of howls when a siren-blaring ambulance goes by in the valley below, then I’m your guy.
In addition to our weekly space in the paper, I hope to continue the conversation online on the new What’s On Your Mind Blog, where you can stop by and ask – and help me answer – the tough questions, creating our own little local search engine for life’s persistent questions.
So to begin, a reader asked about the old Navy Reserve building at Franklin Road and Reserve Avenue in southwest Roanoke… read more here.
Many years ago, when I was a teacher at William Fleming, one of my bosses was Hallie Carr, who would later be named the principal at Fleming. She sends along this note about the building at Franklin and Reserve, and what happened to the city department that was housed there:
“The building on the corner of Reserve Avenue and Franklin Road housed the RCPS Maintenance and Adult Education departments for many years. I am not sure what it was before then. I worked in this building for three years after I left Fleming. Both departments are now located at Ruffner.
The Army reserve building was on the other corner, in front of Victor Stadium. Only a guess, but maybe that building was the reason for the name of the street.
I think the idea for your column is very interesting and I look forward to reading it.”
Your column on the Navy Reserve building was very interesting. I attended reserve meetings there from January, 1959 (I joined the reserve as a Junior in high school) to June, 1960, when I graduated from James River and had to go on active duty. I remember marching on Reserve Avenue down to the National Guard building, learning the basics of coordinated function you have to know in the military. Sailors, Mr. Landon, don’t march much.
In the picture accompanying your article, at the camera’s perspective, I recall in the porthole room field stripping a .45 caliber pistol. Imagine a eighteen year old doing that when he hardly had sense enough to come in out of the rain. The .45 is a fairly heavy weapon, having to be held with both hands and arms braced when firing. You shoot it once and it’s ready to shoot again.
It has a tendency to fly up and back when you shoot it and if not held well will smack you in the face. Additionally, the .45 has four safeties and in stripping it has a very strong spring which will, if not attended to, fly across the room.
No, I didn’t shoot it at the center. That happened when I went on active duty and in the fleet.
I think, Mr. Landon, I’ve told you more that you may have wanted to know.
Mr. Boyd Walker, of Glasgow, was probably a station keeper. Good duty.
By the way, Mr. Landon, I like commas and semi-colons, both not used as much as they should.
Thanks.
Jon Brewbaker
Buchanan, Virginia
Mr. Walker left this comment on another spot on the blog, but I’m re-posting it here: TL
Fm: Boyd Walker, spent 4 great years working in this building from 1968 to 1972. Roanoke was a great great city for service personnel on active duty/ Made friends with a lot of great people, Former Gov Lynood Holton, Horace Hood, Dr Harry Johnson, Dr Kirk and many many more people. My office was where I could watch the intersection of Franklin Rd & Reserve Ave.,I think there was wreck on this cornor every day. I guess the wrcker drivers had scanners of some type because I saw one get there first and got in fight with the other wrecker driver when he arrived.
This was a great building if the inside has not been destroyed. Large open like gym area. Umderstand heating would be a problem, but I’m sure the trusty boiler has been replaced.
We had to maintain a watch in this building 24 hours, 365 days. Spent Christmas 1969 by myself in this building. You have a tendency to remember the bad days also.
GREAT MEMORIES bOYD walker
Comment by Al — February 19, 2013