Wandering Wednesday: The Court House Edition

Today's wandering takes us to the court house, also called the village by those of us who aren't from here.  Those who are from here would simply say, "I"m going up the road to the store" which implies the court house but never the village.  Just wanted to make that distinction.

Bridging the language gap can be burdensome, but someone's got to do it.

Above is Fosters Department Store, or at least it used to be back in my day. It's changed hands several times since then and so help me there is now a sign referencing one Mathews Film Society that appears to have taken up residence.

I never thought I'd live to see the day. What does a film society do? Is popcorn involved? Raisinettes? Cinema as an Art Form was one of my best classes in college, and I can analyze color and lighting and scenes as well as anyone as long as wine popcorn is involved.

Below is the strip that includes Fleets, that little brick building with green awnings on the corner. Fleets was a very straight forward, uncomplicated restaurant that had a teeny, tiny little bar tucked away in the corner between the restrooms and the kitchen.

You see, you could drink in Mathews, but nobody was supposed to know about it.  So to keep those drinkers confined and entertained in that tiny 2x4 drinking area, they decided to put up a dart board, because nothing says epicurean adventure like having to dodge darts hurled by people who have been drinking since 1972 noon.

Still, I liked Fleets just fine. And it will always be Fleets no matter what Nom du Jour beckons from the sign outside.

Above is the public library, where I spend a good hour three or four hours each week doing research. If you ever drive by on a Thursday or Friday and see a green Saturn parked out front, go up to the Chesapeake Room and look for the one and only person in there (other than the nice folks who help the unemployed find jobs which CBW wants to do when she retires which will be in approximately the year 3056). If her eyes are bloodshot and she looks stressed you can rest assured she is she's wondering how in the world she's going to locate enough old photographs for the project she's working on.

Or, she's wondering what's for dinner. Either/or.

 This building used to be the Farmers Bank of Mathews, where I had my very first bank account. Before moving here, the library was located in the building where the sheriff's office was before the new court offices opened up on the site of the old Lee Jackson Elementary School.

Please try to control your excitement at these mind-numbing fascinating facts, and thank you for pretending to be awake.

For my one local reader, do you remember when the court house (aka the village, aka our commercial district) shut down half a day on Wednesdays and all day on Sundays?  And there was no such thing as Walmutant.  Pretty much if you didn't have it  you just did without until things opened back up the next day.

For anyone else, how would you describe the downtown or village area where you grew up? And have you ever heard of a commercial area referred to as a court house?  This isn't unique to Mathews, but it may well be unique to this region.  There's Gloucester Court House, King and Queen Court House, etc., but I'm not sure how many others.  I'm just curious.

Last but not least, the MHS cross country team runs this evening at Beaverdam in Gloucester.