Back when I was a boy! (as I pull-up my trousers and speak like an older man:) Life was simple for a teenager growing up in Small Town U.S.A. In 1978, the population of Woodstock, Virginia was somewhere around 2500 people. Continue reading Our Jericho Mile
Tag Archives: Virginia
A Small Town Parade Filmed in 1952
This is an old home movie that captures the festivities featured in Woodstock, Virginia’s Bicentennial Celebration in 1952. Following the video is a short history lesson and a linked PDF with documents from the pageant held later that day. Continue reading A Small Town Parade Filmed in 1952
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Video-Main Street in Woodstock, Virginia during the Forties
This is another in a series of short home movies that I’ve been editing (while learning how to edit:). It’s from a collection filmed by the late (uncle) Sam Smith of Woodstock, Virginia , my hometown. Continue reading Video-Main Street in Woodstock, Virginia during the Forties
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Hitchhiking – A Bygone Adventure
I was loading groceries into my car in the Food Lion parking lot last week, when a young woman approached and asked for a ride up the road to her job at the Pizza Hut. Continue reading Hitchhiking – A Bygone Adventure
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You Know You’re in a Small Town if…
This is to be read at a Henny Youngman/Groucho Marx tempo.
So my Mom’s living in South Carolina and buys a retirement home up in the hills of the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. As is often the case, I’m not working and volunteer to live in the house while freeloading as I paint and remodel the new home.
Mom sends me a book to be delivered at the local Post Office. She has a small P.O. Box at the office, but it’s not big enough to hold a book.
I walk in for the first time ever.
“Hi. Yeeeah. My Mom sent a book for me from South Carolina”
The lone Post Office employee tells me to wait for a moment and surveys a pile of packages behind her. Then she grabs one.
“Here you go!”
“Thanks”
I went back to my car with the package, strapped-up with my seat belt, and started the engine. And then it dawned on me. I never mentioned my name or my Mom’s. Never a P.O. number. Just that my Mom had sent me a packaged book.
And it was the right package!
You know you’re in a small town if…
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A Perfect Day
A good number of years ago, family and friends had gathered together at Mt. Airy Farms, just South of Mount Jackson, to watch the biannual steeplechase horse races. Continue reading A Perfect Day
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Dinner Time
On almost every Sunday at 101 South Church Street., there was a family meal being served. This was the home of Ralph and Emma Lambert. Theirs was the classic Southern marriage, one that would endure over sixty-five years here on Earth. Hard-working and living within their means, they had raised a large family in such a small house. Work was Monday through Friday or Saturday, Church was every Sunday morning. Continue reading Dinner Time
