You didn’t go to White Oak because you knew you would end up fighting.
White Oak is located in Stafford County, outside the city limits of Fredericksburg, Virginia. It is noted as a rough area and back in the day, if you went there, you knew you would find trouble.
Richard “Buddy” Payne grew up in White Oak during the Depression, World War II, the modernization of the fifties to present day. His life is representative of the older families that inhabited the area.
A White Oaker, he will always be.
Taking pride in their Patawomeck beginnings that included Pocahontas, and the staunch foundation of the White Oak Primitive Baptist Church that spawned three strong Christian churches, the people of White Oak might have had their disagreements, but they always remained friends. Always stood together. Always had each other’s backs in times of trouble.
“I would like people to learn what White Oak really is.
It wasn’t always the rough, rowdy, uneducated dumb-hillbilly folks projected it to be.
It’s a tight community, just like any other small town.” ~ Buddy Payne