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those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of County
News Online
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It’s a slower
world; some even carry firearms
By Susan Olling
We started a new adventure when Mr. History was offered early
retirement in February. He wanted to be moved from the D.C.
environs by the end of May. Sounded good to me. Things moved
faster than any of us imagined. We’ve been living in the Old
Dominion since the Wednesday before Memorial Day.
Mid-February through mid-May was an almost constant period of activity:
getting the old house ready to put on the market and selling it,
finding a house down here, purging “stuff”, packing, moving and
unpacking. Several trips to Wal Mart for items that we didn’t
bring with us (towels, trash cans, pizza cutter, etc.). We went
to the local Kroger and cruised the aisles. It had been a long
time since we filled a grocery cart so full. Thank you, Kroger,
for putting those delicious powdered sugar donut holes so close to the
store entrance. Several boxes have jumped into the carts in the
three months we’ve been down here.
There are many folks who we can’t thank enough including Francie and
Kenny, our realtors in the Free State and the Old Dominion
respectively; friends who provided humor when we needed it, the staffs
of the hotels and restaurants we patronized when we were in
transit; the moving company; the Lowe’s delivery guys and Harold the
plumber, who came on the Saturday before we sold the old house to hook
up an icemaker in the new refrigerator we had to buy. The old one
sprang a leak.
There have been a number of pleasant surprises since we’ve moved
further south. One of these was the visit to the Department of
Motor Vehicles. The long waits we anticipated didn’t
happen. There were so many license plates from which to
choose. I’ve always liked the lighthouse plate (which they had),
but there were others in the running: the Chesapeake Bay plate
and one with Robert E. Lee’s picture on it. I went with the
lighthouse plate for two reasons. The others had to be ordered,
and we might take my car out of the Old Dominion to places where
General Lee is not a politically correct historical figure. Mr.
History has the James River System plate for his toy.
While we were getting the vehicles legal, the lovely ladies
at the DMV explained about getting our drivers’ licenses. In
rural counties in the Old Dominion, there is a mobile unit that comes
once per month for drivers’ licenses. The nearest full-service
DMV offices are in Lynchburg or Farmville. The mobile unit was
due the next week. The ladies suggested that we appear after
11:00 because the older people got there at 9:00 when the office opened
and waited until 10:00 when the mobile unit got to work.
Everything went smoothly: we had our pictures taken, and those pieces
of plastic came in the mail five days later.
We know we’re not in the Land of Liberals for a couple of
reasons. We’ve seen people carrying firearms. The most
recent sighting was today when Mr. History saw a gentlemen at a big box
store with his weapon and two clips of ammunition. “In God We
Trust” appears on county police cruisers. There are more pick-ups than
Priuses. The Silverado’s and F-150’s that look like you have to
vault into them.
There have been other things to get used to. We don’t have to
lock the car or cover the trike at night, because we don’t leave them
outside. We don’t have to turn the outside lights on at
dusk. No one else does. It didn’t take long for the folks
at the bank to know us by name. Orchards and big box stores are
further away, but that gives us a chance to explore the area. We
can watch impressive thunderstorms, especially if they’re north us.
Appomattox County’s about half the size of Darke County and has a
population slightly over 15,000 people (2015 estimate). We live a
couple miles outside the Town of Appomattox (just over 2,000 people as
of 2010). Four buildings make up the Appomattox County
schools: the high school, middle, elementary and primary.
School started August 8th. We were told that 8:30 a.m. and 3:30
p.m. were not times to be on the roads: all those school buses.
The hordes of tourists are now history. The big draw here is what
the locals call the Surrender Grounds, Appomattox Court House National
Historical Park to the rest of us. Not too far away are Sailor’s Creek
Battlefield; Red Hill, Patrick Henry’s last home; and Poplar Forest,
where Thomas Jefferson went to relax. James River State Park is
about twenty miles away. A bit further afield are the
National D-Day Memorial, Burke’s Garden, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the
Back of the Dragon and Monticello. Michie Tavern, close to
Monticello, does a great southern buffet.
It's a much slower world down here, and that’s not so bad.
Editor’s Note: For
those of you who may not know, “Free State” refers to Maryland and “Old
Dominion” refers to Virginia.
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