Dreams of Wenonah That Survive Waking Up

photo copyright ©2009 by Deb Mix used by permission

It doesn't snow very often in Wenonah, NJ and when it snows it doesn't last long.  Each snow leaves an impression.  Lately you can go a whole winter without a good snowstorm.

When we were kids in Wenonah snow on a school day would most likely mean a day off.  A good friend of mine who grew up in Wenonah and still lives there, Deborah Lake Mix, is a wonderful artist. She alertly captured the morning scene of the Wenonah train station after a light snow.  You can see from the snow still on the tracks that the number of trains has dropped way down from the height of 168 trains per day.

Enjoy more photos by Deb Mix by visiting her photostream on flickr.com using the link below

http://www.flickr.com/photos/willowview/

Debbie's 3rd Grade at Wenonah Elementary School

We moved to Wenonah, NJ in August, 1959. We had lived in a number of other places prior to Wenonah. As I recall they included the following towns in the order listed:

Biloxi, Mississippi
Pitman, New Jersey
Kewaunee, Wisconsin
Poughkeepsie, New York
New Brunswick, New Jersey
downtown Ambler, Pennsylvania
rural Ambler, Pennsylvania
Wenonah, New Jersey

Why so many moves? My father was in the Air Force (AF) and taking training in Biloxi. The AF sent him to Nome, Alaska to work at a Distant Early Warning (DEW Line) radar site after the training and we couldn't go, so we lived with my paternal grandparents in Pitman, NJ while he was gone. Next the AF sent him to Keewaunee, WI and we followed. After the Korean War cooled off he resigned from the AF and went to work for IBM in Poughkeepsie, NY but they wanted him to move about the country as much as the AF so he quit that and went back work on a graduate degree on the GI Bill.

While working on the degree he was offered a teaching job at Ambler Junior College so we moved into a brick row house there while the college renovated some old farm houses. Once one house was done we moved into the rural spring house on the far edge of the campus. We later moved into a larger nicer farm house within sight of the first one.

Ambler Junior College is now Temple Junior College.

While teaching at the college my father was told about a sales position with Gloeckners, Inc., a company that sold bulbs, plants, seeds and supplies to greenhouses. My mother had always liked Wenonah, based on the impression of it that she got when she rode the bus from Bridgeton to Philadelphia, so when my father left the college job they hunted for a house in Wenonah.
Our parents bought a house at 102 N. Monroe Avenue in Wenonah. It was their first house purchase and the last house that they lived in.

Click on the photo to view a larger version of the photo.



Debbie started school in Kindergarten in New York. She must have attended school for a while in New Brunswick and then again in Ambler.

In September of 1959 she entered 3rd grade in Miss Quigley's combined 2nd and 3rd grade class.

Here's a photo of the class. If you would like to read a bit about growing up in Wenonah in the 1960s check out her classmate Jack Wiler's blog -


http://jackwiler.blogspot.com




click on the class photo to see a larger version of the photo

Born in Mississippi in 1951

Deb was born Deborah Lynn Thomas at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi on October 9, 1951. She was the first child of Robert Roy and Pearl Helen (nee Estilow) Thomas.

Bob and Pearl didn't choose Biloxi as a place to live. Bob chose the Air Force rather than be drafted during the Korean War. The Air Force chose Biloxi for them.

Both Bob and Pearl had grown up in South Jersey. Bob was born in Pitman and grew up in Pitman and Millville. He graduated from Millville High School and later Rutgers University.

Pearl was born in Seely and grew up in Seely and Bridgeton. They had both enjoyed going to the coast to cool off during hot South Jersey summers. She graduated from Bridgeton High School.

The gulf coast of Mississippi near Biloxi was not useful for cooling off. Pearl said that the water was as warm as bath water and very shallow. You walk out for a long ways and sit down in the water and the sweat would still be rolling off you.

A School Photo

This is a scan of a school photo. On the back 65-66. Debbie was about 14 or 15 and attending school in Wenonah, NJ.