I was a middle child, growing up, with sufficient space between my older sisters and younger brother that I enjoyed my own experience of the world. I was neither the object of vigilance by inexperienced parents nor the focus of longing my brother would be, as the last child and only boy. “Birth to graduation on...
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Lately I’ve been seeing strange headlines. “Man Swallows 100 -Year-Old Museum Exhibit.” “Woman Robbed by Clown While on Toilet.” “Man Forced to Eat His Own Beard.” And then “Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed U.S. General,” this last courtesy of Fox News. It all got me to thinking, (which, for me, is also unusual...
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I wrote an article several years ago about fishing in Canada, and received some nice phone calls from readers with similar experiences. Well, I did it again. A lot of my friends think I’m crazy to drive 850 miles, one way, to catch a fish. But, to me, the experience is much more than...
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I had an uncle who once shot his television set. I don’t know if it was a symbolic gesture involving his existential angst at the overwhelmingly nonsensical zeitgeist of late 20th century de-culturalization, or if he was just ticked off because “Bonanza” had been canceled, but he put a couple of slugs through the...
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I remember a time when most of America looked like Rappahannock County. Oh, there were differences of course -- the kind that come with regions, climate and architectural influences -- but what was similar was the quality of rural life, small towns and the human scale of Main Street USA. Since that time significant...
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I suppose by now you have seen the fliers and advertisements welcoming you as a new “owner” of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. Congratulations, all around. Pretty nice ads, don’t you think? Here is some free advice: When someone welcomes you as a new owner of something you didn’t shop for, didn’t want, didn’t buy and...
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When I was a kid, folks used to visit people. We’d go see neighbors and relatives. It doesn’t seem like people do that much anymore. Maybe they do, and it’s just me. When I returned home from church last Sunday, Linda told me that we had had a visitor. What’s more, that visitor had...
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By the time he was 30 years old, Samuel Langhorne Clemens used his nom de plume of “Mark Twain” every time he went out his front door into the public life. That way, he said, Mr. Clemens could blame all of his incendiary rhetoric on his look-alike, Mr. Twain. That scheme mostly worked, and...
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Hasn’t this been a gorgeous spring? I don’t think I have ever seen the redbud trees in such splendor as they were a few weeks ago. They are always beautiful, especially alongside the dogwoods, but this year they were particularly full and rich with color. And just the other morning, riding out toward Sperryville...
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What do you get when you cross a Saint Bernard and a Boxer? Well, come over and see me, Jeremy, and you will discover that you get a big, smart, four-footed pal. One that is very bright, trained to an invisible fence; one who has learned all his manners, and properly so. I weigh...
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I’ve been taking it pretty easy this week. After spending the last month getting my firewood for next year, I turned the wrong way the other day and something got twisted in my back, and that requires me to take it slow for a while. But I still have a lot of blessings to...
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Judging from the reaction in the major media to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s reinstatement of Confederate History month, the starry cross of the Confederacy remains America’s most controversial icon. The Saint Andrew’s cross embedded in this emblem can be seen as a symbol for the cross roads and cross currents of American history. For many...
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The title of this article comes with apologies to Shakespeare, or whoever wrote all the plays and sonnets we attribute to him. I have another “inconvenient truth” for Al Gore: The polar ice caps are not melting. They have moved to Virginia. The fact is I normally like snow. I have always been a,...
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There once was a time when life was not so hedged in and our elected officials were infinitely more accessible. Recent headlines remind us that White House access is severely restricted — or was meant to be. Just over a hundred years ago, however, gatecrashing was a different matter. In 1894 at age 16,...
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