In the fall of 1944, at age 14, I, Margaret “Peggy” Nancy Dickson, moved to Oak Ridge, Anderson County, Tennessee with my family from Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee.  Our Dad, Charles Russell Dickson, Sr. had been employed to work in the office by Tennessee Eastman Corporation in Oak Ridge.  The family moved into the left side of a two-story pale yellow, three bedroom duplex at 109 Hoyt Lane, a dead end street off of Highland Avenue.  Housing assignments were made according to the job you held at the Corporation.  Our Mom, Eva R Pirtle Dickson, was a typical housewife for that era that stayed at home and took care of the families needs. 

We had no home telephone while we lived in Oak Ridge.  Dad had a phone in his office at Tennessee Eastman Corporation.  There were only about 5,000 telephones at the corporation.  Everyone else had to use a pay phone. 

I entered the 8^th grade at Highland View Elementary School.  I was a cheerleader for the basketball games.  During the war, new clothes were hard to buy so my mother sewed all of my clothes.  There were many people who had very little in monetary items, so I was voted the best dressed in the 8^th grade.  I remember my mother darning my socks to make them last, and the seams the darning created were very uncomfortable.  I remember going to lunch with a friend from school and everyone was sitting in the living area around a potbellied stove.  She lived in a prefab home, square, flat roofed on stilts.  My best girlfriends were Nancy Evans, Mary Gratiot, and Bettie Preston.  We would go to each other’s house for lunch from school one day a week.  I wonder where they are now.  In the 8^th grade the teacher instructed us and we knitted sweaters for the British children.   

Sometimes after school, we would roam down the other side of Outer Drive and we found very small houses in bad need of repair left there when the government bought up the land.  This was the first time I had seen a house wallpapered with newspaper. 

We did not own a car part of the time we lived there and had to ride the bus to shop or go to the movies.  We lived near Grove Center.  We shopped there and went to the Grove Theatre, now called Grove Cinema.  The Grove Theatre had Saturday afternoon matinees with newsreels and serial movies that were continued each week and the regular movies were mostly cowboy movies.  Before the matinee they would have spelling bees, etc. on stage.  The cost to go to the movies was:  Adults, 48 cents, Enlisted Personnel, 20 cents, Children, 12 cents. We also spent many a summer day swimming at the Municipal Swimming Pool near Grove Center. 

Some of the shops at Grove Center were:  Tulip Town Super Market (West Town Business Center), Burton’s Shoe Renewery, Wender’s Men’s Shop, Firestone Dealer (MARS and Co.), a drug store (name not known), Oak Ridge Bus Terminal which included:  Waffle Shop and West Town Café.