The winter of 1958 I was in 5th grade at Fairview School at Fairfax Station and living on Popes Head Road which was the first road on the right after you passed The Country Club of Fairfax heading towards Occoquan. They were calling for a snow storm and Mom dressed my sister and I in the warmest school clothes we had which for me was a brown wool skirt and a sweater with bobby sox, we weren't a knee socks family and tights hadn't come in fashion yet. I don't remember if it was snowing when the school bus picked us up but I watched the snow building up on the hedge outside the windows of my school room. They finally closed Fairfax County schools and we boarded the school bus to go home. Our route home was through Fairfax Station, those kids walked to school, to drop off Jackie Lambert and the Posey twins down Fairfax Station Road which ends at Cholchester Road just up from the Bunny Man Bridge. There was no great horror tale of the Bunny Man back then I'd never heard of him nor had my Mother who lived in Clifton while she was going to Fairfax High School. I think the story originated in the 1970's. That part of Colchester at that time wasn't paved it was still gravel and just as we turned right onto Colchester and pulled up the hill the bus slid off the road into a bank. Some older boys on the bus got off and some started walking and some helped the driver and I don't know how they got us unstuck but they did. When we finally started again we dropped off the kids in Vannoy Park at the corner of Colchester and Popes Head and headed down Popes Head. My Mom had walked over to the bus stop in front of Nancy Dolingers and waited with Mrs. Dolinger and Debbie Lyons' mom, and Rilla Washington's Mom. When we finally got there Mom and my little brother got on the school bus and rode the quarter mile to our house.
Here's more from later that day....My Dad worked for Capital Airlines at National Aiport and had a part time job at Mundy's Esso Station at the corner of Main and Payne Streets in the "Town of Fairfax". Payne Street is what Rt. 123/Chain Bridge Road/Ox Road was called inside the town in those days and was named after the Payne Family who owned Hope Park Plantation on Popes Head Road in Colonial times. Dad was working that evening when a soldier that was stationed at the Nike Site on Popes Head and was hitch hiking back to base stopped in. They must have closed the station early that night because I remember when my dad got home as I ordinarily would have been in bed. Anyway they took my Dad's green 1954 Chevy and drove down 123 to Popes Head and made it down as far as the bridge at Popes Head Creek but just could't make it over the one lane bridge and up the the hill. As a grownup I was always afraid of sliding into the pond that was on the other side of the bridge. The soldier didn't have very far to walk from the bridge the first enrance to the Nike site was just over the top of the hill but Dad had a lot farther to go. I'll never forget the kitchen door bursting open and my dad falling on the floor exhausted from trudging in knee deep snow from the bridge. We still had power at this point but lost it over night and Dad cooked breakfast on the two cylinder camp stove we had for emergencies. Heat for the house was from the fireplace in the living room. The next day Dad, Mom, me, Linda, my little brother, and our boxer dog Mack (Mackie Boy I can't wait to see you again in heaven) walked over the road to Kemp Mattingly's country store for bread and stuff and neighbors joined us on the way. The store was there even into te 1980's and my daughter and her friends all called it "Popes Head Mall". My parents were young as were the neighbors on the road and we a pretty merry group. We walked in the tracks of cars that had been able to get over the road that morning. My best memory from that snowstorm is laying on a rug in front of the fire and reading "The Boxcar Children".
