Winter Comes to Norfolk is a retrospective of a vibrant city and its former neighboring counties and resorts during the time period 1880 to 1965. The book is a wonderful look at the winter months in a city that today rarely sees snow. Taking readers from October to April, the book explores the cultural and historical happenings of a city as its crisp fall months surrender to icy winters, and frigid cold melts, only to blossom into glorious springs.
Here we see a downtown in which people could hardly pass one another on streets choked with activity; a city at war and in peace; lean times of the Great Depression; a Navy Christmas; meet ‘Uncle Billy’ the 1937 Navy Mascot; experience the return of the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) and its December 1953 return from deployment; incredible winter landscapes of wintry streets, community Christmas Festivals and storefront displays; hard winters on the river and bay; parades and football games; children’s happy faces, from snowball fights to Christmas in the city, and, finally, the question inevitably asked as snow brought life to a full stop – “Will spring ever come?”
Amy Waters Yarsinske gathered photographs and artwork for this book largely from the Sargeant Memorial Room, now located in the Slover Library, and private collections. Much of the photography is attributable to Charles S. Borjes, one of Virginia’s finest press photographers; Harry C. Mann, and Jim Mays. This book is rare and may be available through secondary sellers via Amazon.com or other online booksellers.
Sadly, this wonderfully playful and cherished book is out of print (contact the publisher and request its return to the book shelves), though copies can be obtained on Ebay.
Enjoy Amy’s other treasured books on Norfolk: Summer on the Southside, Ocean View, Norfolk’s Church Street, Lost Norfolk, and the book that started it all – Norfolk, Virginia – the Sunrise City by the Sea
ISBN 0-7524–0928-X Arcadia Publishing
First published 1997, Copyright © Amy Waters Yarsinske,1997