Infamous Kawameeh Path lives on only in memories

Father Time and Mother Nature have not been kind to the longforgotten, three-quarters of a mile dirt trail that still straddles the woodsy border of Suburban Golf Course and the murky edge of Kawameeh Swamp. For several generations of Kawameeh Junior High School students — now known as Kawameeh Middle School — ‘The Path’ was the location of either your first kiss or your first fistfight, depending upon how well your week was going. The neglected and overgrown route along the west branch of the Elizabeth River also provided relatively safe passage and a nifty shortcut from serene Kawameeh Park to the long-defunct Fox Theater and Two Guys Department Store, currently home to Lowe’s Home Improvement Center on bustling Morris Avenue. Will ‘The Path’ and its soggy surroundings ever be designated as a well-deserved state wildlife refuge? Only the ever-present ‘World’s Tallest Watersphere’ knows for sure and the silent sentinel of the swamp isn’t talking.