A Personal and Family, Memoir Book 1-  Bridgers & Whichard - 1999

Society, as we know it, cannot be imagined without family life.  In one way or another families have been the building blocks of every human culture, those learned about from the past and those we know today.  But the story of a specific family can be told only if the connection and continuity of kinship can be identified.  However, though we know not the individuals, the background of pre-history offers insight into who we are.  So, if I'm to tell who are “the Bridgers” of the line of which I'm a part, it’s well to start with who are the English and from whence we come –- both before and after there were English surnames.

The life and times of Walter Linden Whichard March, 1996

Crick was the youngest of my mother's three siblings. Though gone these sixty years he still is frequently recalled and fondly remembered.  He was born near the turn of the twentieth century, at a time now almost a century past.  He died before his time in his early thirties, under distressing circumstances which left a painful scar on family memory.

"Crick" was completed in 1996 while "The Shaggy Dog Chronicles" were completed in 1999. In the years since, Jigs has been distributing copies to interested family members and friends.  The original hand-written volumes, though specifically written for the generations of his family yet to come, were a labor of love to be shared with all.  We, believing that the information in these volumes might be of interest not only to family and immediate acquaintances but to anyone interested in the settlement of Robeson and Pitt County, have transcribed the text of both volumes for this website.  We have tried to remain true to the originals in both style and format.  We dedicate this site to any who find they are traveling with the current in Jigs' family streams.

John David (as he was called as a boy) Bridgers once said that he had lead a "charmed" life.  These annals explain the family connections that allowed that to happen.  They aren't really the particulars of John David's life but rather the events that created his unique family enclave on Evans Street in Greenville, North Carolina. 

A Personal and Family, Memoir Book 1-  Bridgers & Whichard - 1999

Society, as we know it, cannot be imagined without family life.  In one way or another families have been the building blocks of every human culture, those learned about from the past and those we know today.  But the story of a specific family can be told only if the connection and continuity of kinship can be identified.  However, though we know not the individuals, the background of pre-history offers insight into who we are.  So, if I'm to tell who are “the Bridgers” of the line of which I'm a part, it’s well to start with who are the English and from whence we come –- both before and after there were English surnames.

The life and times of Walter Linden Whichard March, 1996

Crick was the youngest of my mother's three siblings. Though gone these sixty years he still is frequently recalled and fondly remembered.  He was born near the turn of the twentieth century, at a time now almost a century past.  He died before his time in his early thirties, under distressing circumstances which left a painful scar on family memory.

Over the last fifteen years Jigs has been jotting down anecdotes and profiles of the people he knew during his Navy years.  These and other events are covered in these stories.  The result is not a strictly historical account but rather a more intimate view of the war much as Crick and The Shaggy Dog Chronicles are the history of his family as told through their stories. 

John Bridgers’ medical career spanned from 1946 when he entered the Duke University School of Medicine until 1994 when he retired as Medical Director of the Burdette-Tomlin Memorial Hospital in Cape May, New Jersey.  During those 48 years of medical practice were stints of military service, academic work, private practice and hospital administration. Much as he feels his childhood and Naval service were “charmed,” Jigs believes the same holds true for his medical career.

Many people talk today about how much they have to do and actually wind up doing very little. She talked little and did much. Her years, like her gardens, were well kept, neat and pretty. Many people can't make time to raise a child. She raised six children. Many people plow deeply into a single spot in life. They hoard one small spot in time and place like a squirrel gathered around a few precious nuts it has buried in a favorite place. Edie plowed as far and wide as she did deep. She moved to places far away at both an early age and an old age. She book ended her life with risk and commitment. She was an indefatigable and steady laborer.

(a work in progress)
As has been told before, my wife Edie -- Edith Holland Hamrick -- and I ran into each other while we were both serving in the Navy toward the end of World War II. One day in the B.O.Q. mess, Edie and I learned of our mutual North Carolina roots and were so drawn together.

In short order we were regularly sharing meals with each other, then spending the evenings together and, soon after, courting heavily.

These are selections from a book of poems, "THEN .... IT"S VERSE," to be published, hopefully soon. Poetry became an avocation when I retired from the practice of medicine in 1994. These pieces are based on experiences in the Central Pacific phase of the naval air war with Japan in 1946 when our group was based in the U.S.S. ESSEX (CV-9).  During that period I served as a dive-bomber pilot in Bombing Squadron 15, and later as flight surgeon in the Korean War.

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