NORFOLK, Va. — For Bill Twine, returning to Norview Elementary felt like stepping back into another era.
Standing outside the Norfolk school he attended in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Twine pointed across the campus and recalled memories that still feel vivid decades later — from safety patrol duty near the bike racks to friendships that lasted long after elementary school ended.
“I remember, a lot of my old friends vividly, even though I haven't been able to keep up with them, but you know their memory is still present,” Twine said. “Every once in a while I’ll reflect upon somebody I was close to that has passed away recently. You know that I still have those connections, even though it’s been years since I’ve seen them.”
As he spoke, emotions began to surface.
“You get a little emotional, don’t you?” News 3's Jay Greene asked.
“Oh yeah,” Twine responded. “A lot of good memories here.”
Norview Elementary is one of several schools Norfolk Public Schools plans to close as part of its redistricting and consolidation effort.
For many former students, though, the school represented far more than classrooms and report cards.
Twine showed Greene black-and-white school portraits from his fourth and fifth grade years, smiling snapshots from the early 1960s.
He also pointed out the areas where he once worked safety patrol.
“My post was the bicycle rack, and I would yell at the kids, walk your bike, no riding, that was my one assignment,” he said with a laugh.
Twine said he eventually became captain of the patrols by sixth grade.
He also remembered skateboarding behind the school after class, playing on monkey bars and swings that likely would not exist on modern playgrounds, and spending time with classmates who would remain part of his life through high school graduation.
“Yeah, this was a neighborhood school,” Twine said. “I went to school with kids all the way through 12th grade… it was a lot of shared experiences back then.”
Twine’s family history in Norview stretches back generations.
“My family goes all the way back to about 1922 and there’s always been a Norview school going all the way back to 1922,” he said. “It bothers me that next year it will no longer be a Norview elementary school.”
While walking through old memories, Twine also recalled a moment tied to national history.
He said he still remembers hearing about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination while standing outside his sixth grade classroom.
“I overheard my sixth grade teacher talking to another teacher,” Twine said. “Apparently the other teacher had heard about the breaking story of JFK’s assassination. My teacher loved JFK. She was devastated.”
Former student Jean Gore attended Norview Elementary from 1961 to 1966 and said many of her strongest memories are tied to the small details of everyday school life.
“Mimeograph paper,” Gore said immediately when asked what she remembered most. “They passed that out and all the kids would immediately smell it, because they just had that distinct odor.”
She also remembered chalkboards and the excitement of being chosen to clean chalk erasers.
“It was always neat if you got selected to bang the erasers together and get the chalk out of it,” Gore said.
Gore laughed as she described the lunches she brought from home.
“I always brought my lunch, usually a bologna and cheese sandwich or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and about three cookies,” she said. “But I would go through the line to get the little carton of milk.”
She also reflected on how different classrooms were decades ago, remembering alphabet cards on the walls, chalk holders with multiple pieces of chalk, and learning cursive writing.
“When I’m at work, if I write something down to somebody in cursive, they can’t read it,” Gore said. “I think that’s sad.”
Like Twine, Gore said hearing the school would close was emotional.
“First thought was, oh no, they can’t close that school down,” she said. “There’s too many memories there.”
As Norfolk Public Schools moves forward with its consolidation plan, former students say the memories connected to Norview Elementary will continue long after the building closes.
For Twine, the school’s legacy was never just about academics.
“Well, for me… it’s the people, the teachers,” he said. “That continuity was so important.”
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