Family:Buchanan Hill and Marion Strauch (1)

In 1929 they moved to 5818 Kentucky Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in 1948 to 711 St. James Street, Pittsburgh. In 1953 they retired to Cobbs Creek, Mathews County, Virginia, on the Piankatank River. They were members of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, and of Kingston Episcopal Parish in Mathews.

The house in Cobbs Creek was the last house on the left, at the end of a short road (Rt 630) off VA Highway 198. At the corner was a cabin, labeled for a time "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which precipitated several conversations. The house had a bright red roof and was situated high above the Piankatank on constantly eroding cliffs. Next to it was a working farm with a cornfield leading down to a farmhouse and barnyard on a spectacular bend in the river. We often visited the animals there. My grandparents enlarged the house and built an extra garage, but were frustrated in their efforts to improve the waterfront by a series of hurricanes in the late 1950's.

I enjoyed many vacations there, including a Christmas, and nearly every spring vacation. Once my parents chartered a yawl at Annapolis and sailed it down the Bay while Ellen and I waited. My great grandmother, Nana, lived there as well, and we became her roommates on the second floor when we visited. It seemed like I was always being occupied with my grandfather's chores of burning the trash or mowing the grass, depending on the season. Then there were the regular trips to the "Courthouse" for groceries or the Post Office. Never did one of these trips take place without endless visiting with just about anyone they ran into. Happily, when I was a little older I would regularly be dropped off at Yorktown or Williamsburg for my own explorations, sparing me the agony of shopping with the rest of the family.