Hopewell

Today was the viewing. And that meant the pre-viewing viewing. We had given the kids the option of not going, but they wanted to go. So we all ended up heading over to Hopewell to the funeral home to see what everyone would be seeing later. Quinn handled it pretty well, but you could tell the experience let him a bit uneasy. At one point he sat down in a pew and looked away, not wanting to look at the casket.


Once we left the funeral home Ginger's Mom had us as a captive audience, so she drove us around Hopewell telling us of the history of the town and where she had lived growing up. The town itself reminded me a lot of the town I grew up in (Waynesboro). A small town that exists at the whim of a large chemical company plant (in my case it was Dupont) that's one of the main employers. I'm not sure if I recall the name of this company. The other thing that seemed similar is that downtown consisted of just a couple streets, and no building really seemed to be larger than three stories.


All I had to capture the events of the day was my small hand held camera, so the pictures are probably pretty bland. Let's see how well I do recalling the information about the buildings we saw. I believe this was the school. I don't know if it's suppose to make you think of the schools from things like Little House on the Prairie, but it did for me.


I think this was the house where Ginger's Mom lived when she was very young.


This was Cook's house. Somehow it related to their family, but I don't recall how. I remember them mentioning it acted as a hospital / triage center for civil war soldiers. (This is the house the Kennedy's lived in and my grandfather grew up in.)


This I believe was the house that Ginger's grandmother lived in with her husband. I'm having a hard time recalling all the details. Apparently I should have been recording the conversation as we went, or I could request the tour again, I'm sure she would love to do it all again.


And this I believe is the high school Ginger's Mom attended high school. The school is not being used any longer, but those who graduated from it (from both my parents generation and my grandparents generation) want it used for another purpose.) I'm guessing I've gotten some information here wrong, and once I get chastised for not remembering all the details correctly I'll update them accordingly.