A lot of people had a “Victory Garden” to grow their own food, but in Oak Ridge I don’t remember anyone with one.  Everyone had small lots and probably not the best soil after developing this land for the Manhattan Project. 

            If you were 12 or above, you had a resident badge with your picture on it to wear when you left or entered the city gates of Oak Ridge.  I still have my badge with number 4528 on it. 

            The city streets were laid out alphabetically.  Outer Drive was the street that ran along the top of the ridge around the city.  The main city streets running at right angles to it were named for states and were in alphabetical order.   

            The downtown shopping center was Jackson Square.  It was U-shaped and included the Ridge Theatre.  Their slogan was, “Perfect Pictures for Particular People”, and their phone number was 4-2981.  I remember going to see the movie, “Desert Song” starring Dennis Morgan there.  There was a bowling alley under the shops at the center.  The shopping center was right below the old Oak Ridge High School and the Oak Ridge Football Field (the home of the “Wildcats”).  My brother graduated from the high school there. 

            Some of the stores at Jackson Square were:  Williams Drug Store, T. & C. Café, Jewel Lee Shop (Ladies Ready-to-Wear), Samuels Men’s Store (Men’s Wear), Community Stores #1, Henebry’s Jewelry Store, and Hogin Shoe Store.  The only department store in Oak Ridge was Miller’s at Jackson Circle. 

We attended The Chapel on the Hill which was a non-denominational church located on a small beautiful hillside up above the Historic Town Square.  The church is now “The United Church”.  It is advertised:  “This is a Church for Persons of All Faiths and Those of Uncertain Faiths”.   

A pamphlet was published every Thursday by Oak Ridge Recreation and Welfare Association called “What’s To Do! In Oak Ridge”.  I told of many activities for the week including the library.  I have my library card for the Oak Ridge Public Library, Oak Ridge, Tennessee number 563, with the expiration date May 5/6, year not clear. 

Oak Ridge had “Rec” Recreation Halls where the teenagers would go to spend time.  Charles Russell “Dick” Dickson, Jr., my brother, had his picture in the national newspapers when he was home on leave from the United States Army Air Force, “jitterbugging” at a rec hall. 

            During the war, people came to Oak Ridge from every corner of America and from every walk of life. I went to school with children from all over the United States. There were many different kinds of houses put up literally over night and there were many prefab houses put up.  In my 1946 yearbook, The Oak Twig, Joan Gilliam described some of the houses.