A Caring Community: The Montgomery County Christmas Store.

The Montgomery County Christmas Store is living proof that the citizens of Montgomery County care about those that are at the bottom of the economic heap.  Almost 1600 families were served in 2010 which extrapolates to about 3600 people.  The way they are served makes this program unique.

The Christmas Store is divided into departments just like a regular department store or like Leggets that occupied that space for many years as a down town Christiansburg shopping center.

The Christmas Store has a 2011 budget of over $183,000.  The building is owned by the charity and the only paid employee is the CPA that does the books ( tis is required by law).

Families are selected on the basis of financial need.  Each family is allocated points that are spent like money as they select Christmas gifts for their family.  They shop for their families just like those families that have more money to spend.

New cloths are available for parents to select for their kids while gently used clothes are available for parents and seniors.

Many items in the store are new.   Department managers shop throughout the year for bargains at sales and closeouts.  Each family has points to use for household items.

Donations are received throughout the year at the store in Christiansburg or at the Northside Presbyterian Church in Blacksburg.  While gathering is a year-long activity distribution is accomplished in only 4 days in December.

About 3000 volunteers made the program work in 2010.  Some of their name tags were used to decorate this Christmas Tree. 

Watching the change.

Fall in the Virginia mountains can be so colorful.  The greens of late Summer often get blended with brown induced by drought or insects.  Generally,  Fall is greeted by yellows and reds that continue to intensify until the Fall winds and/or rains strip the limbs.   I love to watch the change and pay particular attention to the variation associated with the aspect of the sight (orientation of the slopes relative to the compass) and elevation.

Communities that remember.

Drive about 3 miles out  of Blacksburg on the Glade Road and find an amazing  collection of memorials to  military veterans and coal miners from the Sunnyside and Tom's Creek communities.  Some gave their lives but all listed served honorably.

For those who served in World War I, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam...

...and a unique and an appropriate memorial to those who served at a very tense time called the Cold War.

In addition to the military monuments are memorials to those who worked and died in the coal mines.

Remembering is a part of knowing who we are.

Shining Example

Blacksburg Farmers Market

Interested in locally grown produce? 

You don’t have to wait until beans and ”taters” are in. You can find, salad greens, home canned produce, and baked goods as soon as  it opens at the Blacksburg Farmers’ Market.  Also available are grass-fed beef (have a healthy lunch at this booth), plants, flowers, as well as woodcrafts, candles, etc.  You might even find yummy fried pies, made right there on the spot! 

The Market is located at the corner of Roanoke and Draper Streets, just one block off Main Street in downtown Blacksburg. There you’ll find a new covered pavilion that  is open on Wed. 2-6 and Sat. 9-2 from April through October.

Back Road Trip and Back

There are many back roads but in Montgomery County there is the Back Road. We have a map in the Cozy Cottage that describes the county in the late 1700s and it shows the Back Road running along the base of Brush Mountain in a north west direction and somewhat parallel to a trail identified as the Indian Road.

State Route 785 roughly follows the Indian Road along the North Fork of the Roanoke River from Luster's Gate to Catawba.  Our Cozy Cottage is on Harding Road which is also  SR785 just out of Blacksburg

A circle trip covering both of these historic trails can make a  pleasant casual outing or fill an afternoon with photo opportunities of country scenes. It is a short trip towards town to the intersection of Harding and Patrick Henry Drive. Patrick Henry connects to North Main Street. By traveling north on N. Main you will find Mt. Tabor Road which connects with the Back Road.  While it is not clear where one road starts and the other begins , once you navigate the first big curve crossing Mill Creek you know you are on the Back Road.

A short circle can be selected by turning down Dry Run. But continuing down the road increases the photo opportunities.

Even the rare straight stretches can fill your lenses with colorful contrast...

... a brown bromsedge covered hill contrasts with the green

meadow...

... or if horses or homes attract your fancy, there will be something to add to your photographic album.

We started our circle back by turning down Gallion Ridge.   A surprise awaits on Gallion Ridge; a French B&B.

This gravel connector leads you to a panoramic view of the upper Roanoke Valley and directs you onto 785 at a point to get a good view of the Yost's log house and McDonald's Mill.

The road passes many marked and unmarked

 historic landmarks as it meanders towards

Luster's Gate. The old Grubb's House must have a

 lot of stories. It appears old enough to have

been there when the road was the Indian Road.

The log store was operated by Walter Bennet and Bax Johnson was often there according to my dad. This was a place to buy supplies or visit with Bax. You get the impression farmers didn't need many supplies!

You know you are making a circle when you see another non functioning mill that was fed by Mill Creek, the same one crossed near the start of the Back Road. The old map identifies it as Bennet's Mill.

This attractive home was formerly a school until consolidation. You can see it was well built as you observe the straight lines of the old school.

You can complete the circle by continuing on by the old cheese plant, up the mountain, around Ryan's Curve( or Craig's Bend) , passing the Bug Shop to Wrights Way and the Cozy Cottage.

There are many places of interest neither photographed nor described in this blog. That means we will just have to make the loop again!

Coming Home

Coming Home

Reminiscing September 15, 2006

Today, I drove Dad’s 1979 GMC truck to the refuse dump/recycling center. I drove down Ryan’s curve, up through Happy Hollow, out Mt. Tabor road, down Bishop Lane, up Hwy 460 and then into Coal Bank Hollow. The trip was about 3 miles long, and because I didn’t want to distribute my trash over the scenic countryside I never got in high gear. The return trip was even more interesting because I turned wrongly on Bishop road going the other way from where I had traveled it before. I give you these travel details to illustrate that you don’t go straight to anywhere in Montgomery County, Virginia. In my short trip I could see sets of mountain ranges in every direction with a different view at each turn. This is the heart of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Just a few miles from Coal Bank Hollow, one can get on the famous Appalachian Trail that meanders along ridge tops of these Eastern Mountains from Maine to Georgia.

I was taken with the beauty of this pre-fall. Technically it is summer but in the Virginia Highlands there needs to be more seasons to describe the climate adequately. It was sweltering hot just a week or so ago and it will probably be that way again before serious leaf fall. But for now it we have the green of spring, the yellow (Golden Rod) of late summer and the coolness of fall, not cold but the kind of cool that makes you enjoy physical activity outside. I had the windows down and at my slow pace the breeze was refreshing. It almost made the trip to the dump something to write home about.

I turned 66 last month. I left Blacksburg when I was 23. Why? I had graduated from Virginia Tech, for one thing and I wanted to further my education at a Western university. But still I ask, why? I thought, “I’ll bet Daniel Boone had some of the same interest that I experienced when I was younger.” “What’s beyond that mountain? What adventures lie ahead? If I leave can I find my way back? Those were real questions for me and I have a career full of stories. But more importantly, I have a large family that still recognizes that they have roots in these Virginia Mountains.

What is it like to return to the mountains? It is not a complete return but the times at home have been more frequent and of a longer duration than in previous years. I still see the beauty of God’s creation, but the journey has given me new eyes. What were mono colored green mountains now look like waves of the ocean with differing hues of blue, green and gray. The clouds can change from soft and fluffy to dark and bold in what seems to be a flash.

Since I’ve been away barren and back woods places have become prime building sites. Properties that once had rows of peach and apple trees now have columns of houses. The mottled pink and white colors of the springs-past have given way to the symmetry of rooftops. And I wonder if the people that have swarmed to the mountains appreciate the place that now holds them. I hope they respect and work to achieve a balance between use and preservation of this colorful region.

My journey has also given me new insight to the people of the region, my kin and my neighbors as well as the “foreigners “ that have moved in. Foreigners don’t necessarily mean from another country. It’s just that they are “from off,” i. e. “not from around here.”

Some of what I saw as normal black/white/gray has taken on soft shades like the mountains. Most folks with whom I grew up were from Scotch-Irish decent. But they had been away from the motherland so long that they were no longer Catholic, in fact they were almost anti-Catholic. As I grew up I probably had little thought about diversity (probably had never heard the word) . But if I did it would have meant something like people from Floyd or Carroll counties that moved in or real foreigners that had relocated from another state. The English of natives often shocked foreigners who failed to recognize the Celtic terms and phrases ( although somewhat modified) that have stayed with mountain people. And around here folks communicate as Jesus communicated. They tell stories, some are true, some mystify, some make a point, others just stimulate a laugh or another story. The best stories understate the main point and some do only what a native story teller can do; cause one to laugh at the antics of the teller or people of the region. If outsiders told the same stories they would be “making fun.”

Coming home as a stranger to strangers is an interesting journey. May I have eyes to see and ears to hear and appreciate the new colors that blended traditions and modern advances produce.