Rural Virginia
"Fragments from Floyd", is a site that I have visited from time to time,. This man Fred is a real naturalist, quite a writer, and his photographs are just wonderful. I won't use his pictures here since they are copyrighted, but I'm sure you will agree they are stunning. His ongoing intelligent and informed tales of events and activities in that part of the world are worth a browse.
It does bring back memories of some times I drove through that rural, no, let me say RURAL county in western Virginia The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian trail go right down the side, and the miles and miles of forest and the magnificent valleys and streams are surely American treasures. Green, green, green, green.
In the '70s I drove my Honda 600 Coupe for Richmond Power to see dealers in that region. On one trip, I had driven to Floyd from Roanoke, and decided to go back to Richmond the hard way, across Floyd county, and up over the mountain, downshifting like the little car that could.
I moseyed through all these little dinky towns that looked like they were from some old album. I stopped for gas at an ancient station beside an unspoiled general store that was a gem, clomplete with old guys in the front playing checkers or something, most likely hiding white lightning in a jar under the counter.
I say that because on a similar trip during the prior winter, I had been offered a drink in Galax, Virginia, not in Floyd county, same hilly and forested rural area, but a little farther south-west (Galax is the site of an original Old Fiddler's Convention). This was in an auto and tractor repair place that I was setting up with Toro repair parts. I can still see this filthy black shop, some men in the back fixing something or other, but in the front was a little area with local characters sitting around a pot bellied stove, my client and friend Gene among them telling stale jokes, eating pretzels, and passing - I know you'll think I'm making this up - a mason jar with white lightning. Of course they expected me to tke a slug to be accepted, and it truly was terrible.
