* * Why I write

I was the happy beneficiary of several pleasant, affirming experiences over the New Year’s Day holiday.

On New Year’s Eve, I attended an outdoor party, warmed by a blazing bonfire. I met a man who lives in central North Carolina and is here visiting relatives. When I introduced myself, he said, “I know who you are. I read one of your books.” He'd read my first one, The Spine of the Virginias, published back in 2008. He continued, “I wasn't that excited when my wife handed it to me to read,” he said, “but I was enthralled. It was well-written and educational. You have a nice conversational style that made it fun to read.”

The next morning, I got a note from a friend in Roanoke. She said she’d had brunch with old friends, and one of them mentioned that he was reading and enjoying my newest book, Chasing the Powhatan Arrow.

Later that afternoon, I attended another gathering – this one an open house with friends in Giles County. There, I met a couple who are in the process of building a house in the area, moving here from New Jersey. A few months earlier, they were having dinner on one of their scouting trips at the Palisades Restaurant in Eggleston where they found my first novel, Union, WV on a table, and she started to read it. After dinner, they left it behind but were already enthralled and when they returned home, she ordered it on-line.
Both of them read and enjoyed it. Then they bought and read my second novel, Providence, VA, about which they also raved. Union, WV and Providence, VA are my first and second novels. We had a long conversation about it, the story line and the characters.

I mentioned these happy occurrences on my Facebook page, and another friend commented, “I read War, WV while my husband was driving us through West Virginia today. I couldn't put it down!” War, WV is my third novel.

I started writing my books back in 2008 when I sold our family printing business and had some time on my hands. In that and each of the following seven years, I finished and published another, eight total. Each one seemed to follow naturally from the prior, and I was always motivated to continue. Which brings forward two essential questions: how and why?

When I began my first book, The Spine of the Virginias, my motivation came from the historic question about the formation of West Virginia from Virginia. I knew from my Civil War history classes and reading that the split happened during the war. But I didn’t know the motivation or the process. At that time, I had had no formal education in writing beyond high school English classes. But I’ve never been afraid of tackling big projects.

Over Memorial Day weekend in 2017, I was invited by the Virginia Museum of Transportation to ride six excursion train rides pulled by the famous Norfolk and Western 611 steam locomotive. I remember speaking with a girl of perhaps 10 or 11 who was on board with her grandmother. She was impressed that I had written books and asked me about the process. I said, “There are three steps. First, you have to find a topic that really engages you, because you’re going to spend lots of time with it. Second, you have to begin writing. Third, you have to not quit until it’s finished.” In hindsight, this strikes me now as more profound than when I said it. Too many would-be authors never write the first paragraph of the book they’ve always wanted to write. Too many others start but then never finish.

The “why” is a bit more elusive. Cumulatively over the years and the various titles, I’ve sold between 6000 and 7000 books, not including those sold on-line by Amazon and Barnes and Noble. While this doesn’t provide a living income, it’s been a nice supplement. I’m far from being on the New York Times’ Bestseller List.

While working on my third book, Harmonic Highways, I was interviewing lots of musicians on the Crooked Road. I asked one about the money side of traditional Appalachian music. He said, “There are a few people who have done extremely well.” To hit the big time, he said, “You need to be really talented, you need to work really hard, and then a miracle has to happen.” I concluded it was the same for writers.

Not being the beneficiary of a miracle yet, I gain acclamation and satisfaction in the process and in those kind comments people make. I write because it moves my soul.

Thanks to all who have read and enjoyed my books!

* * Every working person is essential

As I write, the longest shutdown in our government’s history is ongoing. From what I can gather some government employees are furloughed without pay, some are forced to work and aren’t being paid, and some are still working and being paid (as always), including, I might add, members of Congress.

 Terminology has emerged to differentiate those categorized in each group, as we’re now hearing about “essential” and “non-essential” employees. A friend of mine blithely quipped on a social media post about an effect of the shutdown, “If nothing else, we may learn what "non-essential" really means.”

 This got me thinking about the nature of work. Millions of people in our nation and around the world wake up every morning and participate in some kind of useful work – some even work through the night. So why are some non-essential, or otherwise deemed unworthy?

·      Is the janitor who cleans the bathrooms at your child’s school worthy?

·      Is the artist who paints portraits for commission sales worthy?

·      Is the scientist who studies the expansion of the universe worthy?

·      Is the farmer who grows our food worthy?

·      Is the autoworker who installs dashboards in trucks worthy?

So to my friend’s assertion, will the shut-down reveal to each us what “non-essential” really means? Maybe, and maybe not. Some may not seem essential, at least in the sense of immediate urgency. But few would not ultimately be needed by millions of us eventually.

·      Maybe overworked and unpaid air traffic controllers will do the job they’re called to do the best they can, and no planes will crash. Or maybe some will. Each day, the chance of catastrophe goes up.

·      Maybe a massive storm won’t arise when the weathermen are furloughed, and their expertise won’t be needed. Maybe one will. Storms happen, eventually.

·      Maybe thieves or vandals won’t see the opportunity provided by unguarded national treasures to do mayhem. Maybe they will. The odds are increasing every day.

·      Maybe there won’t be an outbreak of Ebola or Zika or other infectious disease while the folks at the Center for Disease Control are sitting around the fireplace, wishing they could be at work. Maybe there will. Again, the odds are increasing every day.

·      Maybe the talented post-doctoral student from Indonesia now studying at Virginia Tech will accept the US government job she’s been offered, in spite of lingering fears of future shut-downs. Or maybe she’ll return home and do her pioneering work there.

We can’t know these things. Maybe we’ll get lucky and there won’t be a catastrophe. Maybe not. We do know that hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans are facing making ends meet without their salaries, through no fault of their own.

Frankly, the entire idea of essential and non-essential government work and workers rankles me. I retain enough faith in government to feel comfortable that whenever there was a job opening, there was a good reason for it.

I trace our common disrespect for government workers back to Ronald Reagan, who in one of the most politically potent expressions of my lifetime said, “Government is not the solution to your problem; government IS the problem.” This quote resonated with millions of people and effectively marginalized the work of people who are employed by the government, because it is not a stretch to conclude that if indeed government is the problem, then the people who work in government are the problem. Thus, we have spawned two generations of Americans to whom government service is not a “real job,” and somewhat unworthy. This also applies to those who work as contractors to the government but not directly on their payroll, people who incidentally will never get back pay.

This, then, has allowed us to significantly devalue the contributions of public school teachers, policemen, IRS accountants, park rangers, National Science Foundation scientists, National Weather Service weathermen, military men and women, and much more.

I am a member of Rotary International, the world’s largest service club. It has four “Objects of Rotary,” the second being, “High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations (italics mine), and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society.” All occupations are worthy! 

I hope by the time you read this, the shutdown will be over and all those who work for us as employees of the United States of America can get paid, and get back-pay where appropriate. But I’d like to see new laws passed requiring that Congress must live by the same rules as other federal employees. Then outlaw any future shutdowns. And let’s all change our mindsets and give government workers as much respect as we give anyone else in any useful occupation.  

* * Christiansburg’s Jack of all trades

One of our most eclectic local businesses is Travis Hauschulz’s Salvage Junkies, perched atop Christiansburg Mountain on East Roanoke Road, with his ominous driftwood dragon standing guard. The company is an outgrowth of his life partner, Christiansburg Town Councilwoman Merissa Sachs’ and his hobby of collecting all sorts of stuff. Outside, the store has a tangle of yard ornaments, lawn furniture, and novelties. But inside is where things get really interesting.

“Merissa and I were collectors of odd, unique things,” he told me when I stopped by for a visit recently. “We filled up the house to overflowing. About five years ago we decided that to get rid of some of it, we needed a store. Lots of people liked the unique things we were making. That’s how this took off.”

Sachs owns Logo Hub, another Christiansburg business. So both of them have entrepreneurial spirit in their bloodstreams. Logo Hub provides embroidery, heat pressing, screen printing, and vinyl lettering for a selection of personal items for business and corporate gifts.

“My name is really Travis Hauschulz, but everybody calls me ‘Jack,’ because I’m a jack of all trades,” Jack told me. A native North Dakotan, Jack lived around the country before settling here. “I consider myself a craftsman; I grew up in a shop. I’m a certified welder. I worked in industry with power plants, food processing plants, and towers.

“Our collection at home got too big and too vast. We added on a room at home just to house her Coca-Cola collection, memorabilia related to the corporation. Anything prior to 1953 is very collectible. There are a lot of Coca-Cola collectors! We have both rare and common things.”

Jack and Merissa were childhood sweethearts growing up in Grand Forks, North Dakota. In high school, Merissa moved eastward to Virginia and Jack moved westward to California. They met up decades later and have been together for a dozen years.

“We are constantly buying, looking for sales-worthy stuff. We buy from estate sales, barn sales, auctions, and the like, and have bought from as far away as Kansas. Sometimes a country home will be ready for destruction and we’ll go remove anything of salvage value. Old furniture. Sinks. Door knobs. Hinges. Flooring. Window frames.”

Those items are re-sold with only minor cleaning and repair. But Jack makes lots of stuff from salvaged materials like barn wood and whiskey barrels, designs he’s crafted himself.

“I buy lots of old whiskey barrels and make all sorts of things out of them. Rocking chairs. Kegerators. Ice chests. We go to the Jack Daniels factory and get a load of barrels three or four times a year. I make coffee tables out of old traffic lights. I use lots of barn wood for tables, chairs, and benches.

“I have a workshop in a repurposed tractor trailer beside the store. I have a beeper that lets me know when I’m out there if a customer has entered the store.”

I asked him what he knows now that he wished he’d known five years ago when he opened. He said, “It’s a lot more work than I expected! By the time you go to an estate sale, you go picking, then you’ve got to pay for it, load everything up, move it all back here and unload it, clean it all up, shore it up… it ends up being lots of work.

“I look for things I know I can sell for some profit. Building our own pieces from salvaged materials is our most profitable segment of the business. For example, I can build a bookshelf with salvaged barn wood and make good money. You can’t buy something like this at a furniture store.

“I have a good repeat clientele. Merissa is great with social media, so when we get something new, she can post it and inform people.

 “Our biggest clientele is kids coming to school at Tech or Radford. If they’re outfitting an apartment, they need coffee tables, chairs, dressers, and bookshelves. I’ll buy this stuff seasonally to serve them.

“The antique market has fallen off, replaced by barn wood furniture and what’s called ‘shabby-chic.’ Some people still want antique pieces, the worn look and the quality build. I bought 6 dozen streetlamps from UVA when they were installing 400 new ones, and they sold out fast. If I could get 1000 more, I’d sell them all.”

* * Bringing passenger rail back to Christiansburg

Discussions are underway to bring passenger rail service back to Christiansburg after a 50 year absence. I’ve taken an acute interest in this, as my most recent book, Chasing the Powhatan Arrow, is about trains, and specifically how the railway presence has affected the communities through which they run.

Recently I got together with John Tutle who is on a volunteer committee to coordinate efforts between the various municipalities, stake-holders, and AMTRAK to try to make that happen.

“They’re seeing good ridership numbers in Roanoke,” he told me, regarding the new service expanded from Lynchburg in October 2017. “That’s crucial, because if they don’t get the good numbers they need in Roanoke, we won’t see it here. But they’re getting good numbers and they’re pleased. They’re going to see around 40,000 passengers in the first year.”

At this stage, Roanoke is the end of the line; you can only go or come from the east, through Lynchburg. John’s group hopes to change that, with the end of the line extended into Christiansburg and potentially to Bristol.

“If they can continue to have enough ridership in Roanoke, and if they feel they can expand, they’ll come here. It makes lots of sense and is getting good support here. Virginia Tech is strongly in favor, as is the CRC (Corporate Research Center). The town of Christiansburg has proactively bought property alongside the tracks near the Aquatic Center in anticipation of building a platform or station there. They’re putting in a parking lot that can be used now as overflow for the Center, but later used for train patrons.”

At this stage, Roanoke doesn’t have a station at all, merely a platform, near the Winston Link Museum, the Hotel Roanoke, and the Farmer’s Market. According to Tutle, Christiansburg would like to “jump a little bit more, and get a station as soon as possible.”

Tutle was personally not a train aficionado. But for years he’d been involved with the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and its economic development efforts, serving as a board member for many years and chairman in 2013. “I began to see (renewed passenger service) as an economic driver for the region.”

I envisioned more people leaving than coming, with local folks going to Washington, New York, and Boston on holiday visits. But Tutle felt that many people would use the train to come here, for graduations, football games, and recreation. “It will be a great way to bring people here, especially on the weekends.

“And it’s a great, relaxing trip. The train has WiFi so you can be connected and get work done. It’s 5-1/2 hours to DC, but there is no traffic and no stress.

“With I-81, we’re averaging five wrecks per day from Winchester to Bristol. Last Thursday, there were two traffic jams that turned several sections into a parking lot that lasted for hours. Trains certainly have the chance to be more reliable.”

During research for my book, I spoke with the station master in Lynchburg who told me that on weekends, especially prior to holidays, the train from there to Charlottesville, Washington and beyond is filled with students from Liberty University, Longwood University, and University of Lynchburg going home in a safe, affordable, traffic free way, making it almost a party scene. There’s nothing more fun (for college kids) than riding a train filled with college kids!

 “I was hesitant when I first got started in this,” Tutle admitted. “But I think passenger rail will make a comeback. I thought it was a fad. But I don’t believe that any more. It’s been eye-opening, how many people want to ride the train and how many people are riding now. Transportation to and from the station will be easy with services like Lyft and Uber. Hotels will offer service the way they now offer shuttles to airports.

“My committee started with the Blacksburg Partnership. I’m on the marketing side. I’ve done a couple of presentations where people have said they’ve been on trains and want to go again. They want to see a ballgame or show in New York, Baltimore or Washington.”

Personally, I’d like to see greatly expanded railroad service in America. We subsidize our highways and our airports and air traffic control. Why are we not willing to subsidize railroad service?

“I’d like to see a shuttle train from Blacksburg and Christiansburg to Roanoke,” Tutle said. “It would really tie the area together.

“I’m really impressed by how many people want to ride the train. It’s not a whim. It’s not a passing fad.”

* * Margie Lee's Lynch Family

My new friend Professor Margie Lee recently attended a gathering at the Avoca Museum in Altavista, Virginia, of descendents, both slaves and slave owners, of the Col. Charles Lynch Jr. family. Her family was mostly slaves.

 “Weird,” she said to me about it, over and over. When I pressed her to articulate her feelings, she said, “If you want to understand, we’ll need to go there.” So we did, she driving her classic Thunderbird convertible, wind whipping her curly black-to-grey hair.

We met curator Michael Hudson in his office in the upstairs of an outbuilding alongside the courtyard of the Fauntleroy mansion built in 1901 at the home site of Revolutionary Patriot Colonel Charles Lynch. He told us, “This was the second ‘Gathering at Avoca.’ The first in 2013. The original Lynch family came from Galway, Ireland in 1725. Charles’ father, Charles Sr., was a runaway who stowed on ship of indentured Irishmen that brought him to the New World.”

The term, “lynching,” the often indiscriminate hanging of black men, originated from this family. But Hudson was careful to explain that that was a bastardization of Col. Charles Lynch’s actual actions. Instead, Lynch, as a patriot, defied colonial governor Thomas Jefferson’s order to gather but not punish loyalists to the crown, strapped many of them to a tree and struck them with 39 lashes. “He never hanged anybody, much less any Negroes,” Hudson said.

Charles Sr. died and left land to his four sons, William, John, and Christopher who settled along the James in Lynchburg, and Charles Jr. who moved 20 miles south to current Altavista around 1755.

Long story short, Charles Jr. established a plantation and become wealthy and politically active. He joined the patriot movement to have his colony split from England. He amassed many slaves to work his land. Negroes had no identity other than a given name, were not allowed to marry, and were bought and sold like any property. Negro women were repeatedly raped and impregnated by their white owners. Thus, thousands of mulattos, mixed race people, were spawned throughout the South, with pigmentation in a variety of shades.

So part of Margie’s family was illustrious Virginia patriots. Another part was their chattel. While Col. Lynch was helping to create our new nation, his slaves were working the tobacco fields, tending the garden, cooking the food, and caring for the horses.

Margie is head of a department at the Vet School at Virginia Tech. She said, “I have done lots of genealogy research, but I have not been able to determine any definitive presence of the black side of my family until a hundred years later, around 1870. Blacks were essentially invisible.

“I’m assuming that slaves took the surname of their masters. Everybody in my family seems to have taken the name of the people who owned the land where they were enslaved. My family traces back to one of Col. Lynch’s grandsons.”

Lynch, a Quaker, manumitted many of his slaves, meaning he freed them before a government-forced emancipation. All of his slaves were freed by 1796 at his death. However, the state of Virginia passed laws prohibiting freedmen, and the former Lynch slaves were re-enslaved by his son soon thereafter.

Margie indicated that many of her family members, as well as many other local blacks, owned land, due to the generosity of their former owners. The Lynch family sold land to their freed slaves after the Civil War. Most other freed slaves throughout the South weren’t so lucky.

About the gathering, she said, “There were black people, there were white people, and every shade in between. I was conflicted. Others there were conflicted, too. A group of people, related by blood, returned to a place where, ‘My people owned your people and I hope they were nice to you.’ It makes people uncomfortable.

“The history we’ve been talking about was my family history, but not by my family’s choice. Lots of blacks in America today have white blood. I was shocked to learn that my family’s whites were prominent. Attending this event, for the first time I grasped the full range of what that meant.

“I am from the first generation of African Americans in my line to achieve the American dream. I grew up in a house on a dirt road in rural Virginia and became successful. I have two doctorates, a PhD and a DVM. The 1970s was like the second wave of release from the plantations; it was part two in America, the land of opportunity.

“Your people have history. I have almost no knowledge of my family history. We had no documentation. I’ve been holding this at arms length all my life. The whites were living this Leave it to Beaver life and all of a sudden, they were treating us like part of the family. ‘Come on over!’

“I am angry at how my people were held back by government policies. I could make an argument for reparations, and I would never have considered that before. It is absolutely calculable what economic gains my family has been deprived of.

“The first slaves were brought over in 1619. Not until my generation were blacks afforded the American dream. I grew up in that little sliver, that golden period of possibilities that almost defies logic, where we could be successful.”

On our way home, she asked rhetorically, “Why were my cousins and I doing so well, advancing in the American dream when the generations before us were incapable? All of us who went to college not only did well; we did really well. Affirmative Action opened some doors, but we had to do the performance part ourselves.

“They hired me at Virginia Tech, but not because I’m black.”