The Golden Years

First of all, while I'm thinking of it, today is Karen's 50th birthday. Zip by Over the Back Yard Fence to wish her well. I have Karen to thank for finding many of your blogs. She dropped in with a comment on Planet Bill last summer and told me about clicking on an interest in my profile to find folks who listed the same thing, thus leading me to so many wonderful blogs. By the way, Karen is a work-like-a-bee-at-home mother & wife, so she will never see the sign at the left. That job has no retirement date. Happy Birthday anyway, Karen!


Several years after I moved away from home, my parents decided to relocate to the beautiful mountains of Virginia, or God's Country as my relatives there call it. They built a lovely retirement home about ten miles below Abingdon, a charming town with a lot of historic buildings. Daniel Boone named this place Wolf Hills in 1760, following an attack on his dogs during a hunting expedition. After that, Black's Fort was established here in 1774 to protect early settlers from Native Americans. In 1778, Black's Fort was incorporated as the town of Abingdon. The area offers many leisure activities, including hiking along the rugged Appalachian Trail or the gentler Virginia Creeper Trail. Cultural choices abound, too, and I have seen plays at the Barter Theater that rival shows I have seen on Broadway.


The Barter Theater was founded in 1933, when the nation was reeling from the hardships of the Great Depression. Patrons were allowed to barter their way in to see performances with food and other goods. It is now the official State Theater of Virginia, and some famous actors who launched their careers at the Barter include Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, Hume Cronyn, Ned Beatty, and Ernest Borgnine. Wikipedia also lists Kevin Spacey in their article on the Barter, but I cannot find any other site that supports this assertion.


My father owned a tobacco farm on the Holston River south of Abingdon, but my parents thought its location too remote, and had their home constructed on a large hill (or a small mountain, depending on your point of view) off a main road. The house sat at the crest of the hill, and had a stunning view of a mountain ridge which was part of Jefferson National Forest. The famed Appalachian Trail runs through this chain of mountains. The next-door neighbors' home was named Riverwind, and we jokingly dubbed Mom & Dad's place Windy Hill. My mom had Dad put up a clothes line in the backyard, because she preferred air-dried laundry, but had it pulled up after my dad died because the ever-present wind would spiral the flapping fabric around the lines like spools of thread. Sometimes the clothes would just blow away, never to be found. My grandmother would have said that the wind blew like Sam Sixty, whoever that was.


Although my dad died three years after moving to their new home, these were very happy years for my parents after they settled into the community. They became active members in the Methodist Church in nearby Damascus, and they enjoyed a busy social life. My mother continued to live there until her death in 1998, and I am very grateful that they moved to this beautiful and welcoming part of the state.


I got an e-mail from a friend recently that made me think about how glad I am that they chose Washington County as their place of retirement. It was a big decision, and there were many other places they could have considered. Below are some other choices that may interest you.

You can live in Phoenix, Arizona where...

1. You are willing to park 3 blocks away because you found shade.
2. You've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.
3. You can drive for 4 hours in one direction and never leave town.
4. You have over 100 recipes for Mexican food.
5. You know that "dry heat" is comparable to what hits you in the face when you open your oven door.
6. The 4 seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!

You can Live in California where...

1. You make over $250,000 and you still can't afford to buy a house.
2. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway.
3. You know how to eat an artichoke.
4. You drive your rented Mercedes to your neighborhood block party.
5. When someone asks you how far something is, you tell them how long it will take to get there rather than how many miles away it is.
6. The four seasons are: Fire, Flood, Mud, and Drought.

You can Live in New York City where...

1. You say "the city" and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan.
2. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
3. You think Central Park is "nature."
4. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.
5. You've worn out a car horn.
6. You think eye contact is an act of aggression.

You can Live in Maine where...

1. You only have four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup, and Tabasco.
2. Halloween costumes fit over parkas.
3. You have more than one recipe for moose.
4. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than eight buttons.
5. The four seasons are: winter, still winter, almost winter, and construction.

You can Live in the Deep South where...

1. You can rent a movie and buy bait in the same store.
2. "y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural.
3. "He needed killin'" is a valid defense.
4. Everyone has 2 first names: Billy Bob, Jimmy Bob, Mary Sue, Betty Jean, Mary Beth, ... etc.

You can live in Colorado where...

1. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car.
2. You tell your husband to pick up Granola on his way home and he stops at the day care center.
3. A pass does not involve a football or dating.
4. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a pony tail.

You can live in the Midwest where...

1. You've never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name.
2. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
3. You have had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" on the same day.
4. You end sentences with a preposition: "Where's my coat at?"
5. When asked how your trip was to any exotic place, you say, "It was different!"

AND You can live in Florida where...

1. You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon.
2. All purchases include a coupon of some kind -- even houses and cars.
3. Everyone can recommend an excellent dermatologist.
4. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state.
5. Cars in front of you are often driven by headless people.