University Motel

     In October of 1964, after dropping out of VA Tech and returning home a miserable failure, I went to work in the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, thanks to the charitable efforts of Mr. James H. King.  I was able to work almost a year in the Shipyard, and save up enough money to return to Blacksburg in the fall of 1965.  Mr. King was a great friend of the family, and destined to become my stepfather some 15 years later.  After walking away from a 4-year football scholarship at Tech (while I could still walk), I had no money to pay for college.  My father's death in June of 1964 had left Mom with considerably more minuses than pluses.  We had no money even before 1964, and an athletic scholarship was my only path to college, or so I had been told.  That's why I'd worked so hard for 3 years playing high school football.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Admittedly, I loved the game, especially the physical violence, a free license to knock the shit out of people.  Never wanted to injure, maim or cripple, just make somebody else feel a little pain.  It was great therapy for me, as I'm sure it was (and still is) for many a young man with a chip.  However, when I got to Tech, I found the shit knocking a bit tougher than I expected, and probably quit too soon following an arm injury.  Oh well, what the hell, life gets screwed up one way or another, no matter what we do.  Anyway, I first met Leslie Dale Martin in the summer of 1965 while a "yardbird".  I had never heard of him (he preferred Dale instead of Leslie) at Newport News HS, but we ran into each other one day in the bottom of some stinking submarine, and became friends.  I guess we had a few things in common, like no father, a working mother, and not much money.  In fact, Dale had grown up without a father, and since I had just lost mine a year earlier, we were, well, kind of even.  We both had pretty big chips.  On a more positive note, however, I still have fond memories of the two of us chowing down for lunch at one of several 1930's style boarding houses located on West Ave. close to the Shipyard Apprentice School.  They served "all you could eat" for 50 cents, but no meat, only cooked veggies, fantastic biscuits, or cornbread, and ice tea.  You see, eating massive quantities of food was something Dale worked very hard at, and he displayed his prowess whenever possible.  Dale lived in Warwick Gardens Apartments with his mother Doris and sister Datha Ann, where coincidentally, I had lived 10 years earlier.  Datha Ann was about a year or two older than Dale, and probably graduated from Warwick HS.  As I recall, Dale had transferred from Warwick to NNHS in 1963.  In the fall of 1965, as I returned to Blacksburg for a second attempt at college (this time as an academic), Dale joined the Army.  He served 3 years, most of which was spent at the Pentagon, where he worked as a computer technician.  Nonetheless, we kept in touch, and Dale came to Blacksburg on numerous occasions.  He dated a girl from Radford named Ellen Link, who I believe had attended Hampton HS.  I don’t remember how they met, but Dale visited Radford often, and we would get together whenever he came down from DC.  Unfortunately, in 1967 their relationship ended, and Dale met Nancy Mathews who was from Georgia and also worked at the Pentagon.  They married in late 1968.  That same year, Dale completed his Army tour of duty, just as I was beginning mine in November.  Going into 1969, we lost track of each other all together.  During my 3 year adventure with Uncle Sam (1968 to 1971), Dale regularly visited my mother in Newport News, often bringing Nancy and their son Ryan with him.  Then in late 1971, after he discovered I had returned to VA Tech for a third attempt, he broke off all contact.  He very likely assumed I was mentally disturbed at that point, which I probably was, or a gluten for punishment, or maybe just a little OCD kicking in--always was a stubborn son-of-a-bitch.   Anyway, we never saw or heard from him after that.  Mom maintained contact with Mrs. Martin up until the time I finally graduated from Tech in 1973.  She said that Dale had moved to Georgia, and was working in a bank.  Picture below left was taken from a 1963 Warwick HS yearbook. Middle photo shows Dale with Nancy and Ryan that was obtained from Ancestry.com.  Photo on right came from Find-A-Grave.com.