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sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 03:06am

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Another view of where the old Watt Powell Park stood for so long... we heard that Charleston had built a new baseball stadium across the river in the main part of town.

On the left side of this picture you can barely see the University of Charlestons baseball field with bleachers for 100 people or so.

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2003 Lance 1161,/slideout/AGM batteries/255W Solar/propane generator/Sat dish/2 Fantastic Fans/AC/winter pkg
AirFoil, Trimetric, LED lights, Platcat vent heat

2003GMC K3500 LT/Crewcab/duramax diesel/allison/dually/4x4/OnStar/front reciever mounted spare

sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 03:43am

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We headed west on the South Side Expressway. Downtown Charleston is on the far right.

We crossed this ... the South Side Bridge earlier.

Chuck Yeager flew under this bridge as he arrived in Charleston from Huntington, WV in October 1947 a week or so after he became the first man to fly an airplane faster than the speed of sound on October 16, 1947.

A year later in October of 1948 Yeager flew under this bridge again at 500 mph ... shaking up some boaters that he didn't realize were there. He had just left what would later become Charkeston's Yeager Airport... he'd flown the 15 minutes to Charleston from Wright Patterson AFB in Columbus, Ohio to visit his family in Hamlin WV.

The USAF raised all kinds of he**, the stories had been on the radio in real time and in the newpapers so we know what happened... history has been "corrected" several times with pressure from the AF... even The Army AF became the USAF in 1947... image was everything. Chuck has shown a sly grin as he tells different versions.

The people that were there and listening to the actual flight in 1947 report that Yeager rolled his figher as he went under the bridge blowing out the windows in banks and offices.

No one minded.. he was our hero! He is still our hero!

Miss Blair was teaching my second grade class when we listened to his flight over our school and the live radio reports in Oct 1947... she was also Yeagers second grade teacher at Hamlin. She was so excited that she had a tear in her eye.

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* This post was edited 03/08/14 04:02am by sleepy *

sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 03:45am

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sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 03:48am

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sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 03:49am

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sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 03:51am

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This is the I-64 bridge... it connects with I-77 and I-79 a mile or so north of the bridge. It cuts through Charleston. It wiped out the slums in the early years of developing the interstate highway system

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sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 06:35pm

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We are going to drive through what was the heart of Charleston when I was a kid. all of the best store, The County Library, The Court House, The City Government, large upscale hotels, banks, and resturants...

... but best of all if you stood on the corner of Capital Street and Quarrier Street around lunch time during the 1940's and 1950's you would see the most beautiful girls in the world... even through the 1960's.

The mega malls have attracted the shoppers away from the area... maybe the secretaries from the law Offices, thetellers from the banks, the nurses from the hospitals will still put on a beauty pagent at noon time.

just a couple of streets away... most of the streets are one way... we'll pass under that conector bridge between the buildings in the next block.

I like the warehouse at the foot of the bridge.... the solid brick warehouse wall is painted to look like an apartment complex.

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sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 06:42pm

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There's Quarrier St... we'll take a left to Capital St.

There is plenty of room for a truck camper.

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sleepy

Oak Ridge,Tennessee

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Posted: 03/08/14 06:49pm

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Kanawha Valley Hospital was a couple of blocks from here... all three of our kids were born there. It isn't there any longer... like most things... time changes stuff... it is in a new building near the interatate highways and the water treatment plant.

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