"Fun Time at Ocean View"

“Fun Time at Ocean View” by Hilda Goodwin as published in Special Memories: A collection of stories by Chowan County Extension Homemakers

As a child, I grew up taught to work each day on the farm in the summer. We chopped and helped pick May peas, snapbeans, butterbeans, cornfield peas, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes as well as put in tobacco.

About the middle of August all of our work was finished since we would soon be back in school. A day was set for all 12 families of the Evans family to take our annual vacation.

A caravan of cars traveled to City Park in Norfolk for a picnic dinner and tour of the zoo. Then we all went to Ocean View Amusement Park for the rest of the day. We had lots of fun with all our cousins going through fun houses, riding rids, bumper cars, as well as the old mill stream. We used some of the money we made working on the farm to have fun and get a souvenir to bring home. That trip was the highlight of our summer vacation, getting together and having fun.

We were tired as we headed home and remembered each vacation day until we could go once again.