Three VIA Legends

When Mrs. Frank Hooker was president of the VIA, the Town Council ordered many of the oak trees along the streets cut down. A man came to her and told her what he was ordered to do. She replied with some emphasis that no trees should be cut. She would shoot anyone who tried it. Many of the oaks still stand, a fitting memorial to her firmness.

Mrs. Isabella Dunlap (later married a Mr. Gerhardt) was a tall, stately, fine-looking woman. One day, she saw a man nailing handbills to trees along the principal streets. She told him it was against an ordinance of the town to nail anything to the trees. He replied, “I been hired to put them up and I’m going to put them up.” Mrs. Dunlap countered: “I don’t think you had better nail them to those trees. I happen to be president of a club with over 60 members who usually do whatever I ask them to do. They represent over 60 families. If I ask them not to trade in the store those hand- bills are advertising, they would not trade there. Do you think your boss would like that?” The bills were not nailed to the trees!

One night, Miss Celia Babcock was out after 9 o’clock, the time the lamps along the streets went out. On Holly Avenue, she thought she met a pretty pussycat and stopped to speak to it. She did not wear that dress again for a long time!