The morning sun often slices through the trees of our back yard in the morning and spotlights one of the reasons why we chose to move to the Blue Ridge Mountains after 23 years in Washington. I shot this picture in 2005 because I thought it captured the beauty of life right in our back yard.
Visitors who consider moving here often ask: "Can you make a living in Floyd?" I often shrug and respond that "it depends on what you want to do and what you consider to be a living."
Amy and I made a good living for most of our lives. She was an actress and later a regional sales manager for the May Company. I was a journalist, a political operative and even a business crisis communications consultant for a while before returning to journalism. When people ask what it takes to make a living in Floyd, I usually tell them that you have to work twice as long to earn half as much but always add that the effort is worth the time.
Why? Because settling here is not about making a living. It’s about making a life. I’d much rather photograph a high school basketball game than try to jostle a hundred other photographers for position to shoot another boring politician. I’d rather jump out of the way of an onrushing football player than dodge a Humvee in a war zone.
We didn’t come here to make a living. We came to make a life — one far removed from the plastic, self-imposed stressful existence in the urban jungle. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to places most people only read about and do things that were far beyond my wildest dreams when I left Floyd in 1965. I’ve got a beautiful, loving wife, family and friends throughout the county, a great home and a lifestyle that starts with walking out into my back yard to greet sunrises like the one above.
In the last few weeks, some people are tried, unsuccessfully, to take my living away from me.
They’re missing the point. Making a living here is not that important. Making a life is.
(Photo taken in June 2005. The sun’s rays were enhanced with Photoshop)
Added to the above comments, don’t forget the cool mountain breezes carrying the sweet scents of freshly-mown hay & honeysuckle growing along the roadsides………..the serenity that comes from sitting on the front porch watching a flock of sheep grazing in the field across the road……..the ability to go into town in jeans and a T-shirt without anyone looking down on you…….the absence of the “keep up with the Jones'” mentality in the area…….I could go on & on……….
Will:
In our case there was a lot of difference. In NOVA, I was always on a plane to somewhere else, often overseas, and too often in harm’s way. My travel schedule didn’t leave a lot of time for friends, good times or the like. In a brightly-lit urban area, we couldn’t sit in the yard and gaze at the stars. Here in Floyd County, the night sky is brilliant. We couldn’t sit on the back porch and listen the coyotes howl and the bobcats screech. Our cats didn’t gather at the windows to watch the family of deer graze in the front yard.
I worked seven days a week most of my time in Arlington and didn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing assignments. Shooting high school sports wasn’t an option. They don’t rank that high in a city where politics, crime and war are the highest priorities.
In Hong Kong in 1998 the United Air Lines 747 I was on lost an engine while attempting to take off and we stopped just short of plunging into the harbor. In New Mexico, the pilot of a private plane ferrying us from Santa Fe to Albuquerque lost an engine and crash landed in a cow pasture. I walk with a limp and drive a car with handicapped plates because of too many close calls on two many assignments. When Amy sat me down in 2003 and said I was living on borrowed time if we didn’t change our lifestyle, I had to agree.
In Arlington, I paid $2.60 for a cup of coffee in a local shop where I might see two or three people I knew over a week’s time (on those rare occasions when I was in town for a whole week). In Floyd, I pay a buck for a cup of better-tasting coffee and often spend the morning talking to a dozen or so people I know who wander in and out.
In Floyd, it takes five minutes to drive the four-and-a-half miles into town. In Arlington, it took 60-90 minutes to drive reach the District of Columbia — four and a half miles away.
Yes, there were things we could do in Arlington that we couldn’t do here: We could order Chinese food for delivery at 2 in the morning, grab a bite to eat 24 hours a day and walk to the local cineplex. But the pre-6 p.m. "bargain" ticket there cost more than the after 6 prime-time ticket here. We can get Chinese food in Christiansburg and Roanoke and if we get a craving to eat at 3 in the morning, there are all-night places in both towns about 30 minutes away.
I lived in urban areas from the time I left Floyd in 1965 until we moved here in 2004. Amy was born in an urban area and lived in cities nearly all of her life. We wouldn’t trade life here for any of the cities where we’ve lived.
As one who has always lived in rural areas (mostly Ferrum and Floyd) I don’t get it. Didn’t you have a life in NOVA (friends, good times, etc.—)? What makes folks want to leave the suburban life and move to places like Floyd? What is so different? Couldn’t you photograph HS sports at Langley or South Lakes HS as easily as Floyd? What makes places like Floyd so desirable to suburban folks? Is it the people, the scenery, or something else? I know the rat race/materialistic mindset predominates in NOVA, but I am sure there are some fine people up there as well. I know you have roots in the area, but the number of people who want to live here makes me wonder if I have it that much better than I imagine I do (I have always had “a life” and it is a good one).
When I moved back to Southwest Virginia (specifically, Ferrum) from Northern Virginia in 2002, a lot of folks I knew in NoVA told me, “But there’s nothing to do there!” I pointed out in reply, “All of my favorite activities are outdoor ones. So there’s everything for me to do there.”
>>She was an actress and later a regional sales manager for the May Company.<< Is it wrong of me to be tempted to ask if she knew Mary Livingstone? 🙂
Hi Will–
I come from Roanoke, spent three years in NoVA, and have lived in Ferrum since October 2002. My primary reason for going to NoVA was friends who lived there and to get a better paying job. The friends I still miss terribly, and I miss visiting D.C.’s monuments and museums, but the better-paying job did little to offset the much higher bills, for instance.
For me, I tend to prefer living in scenic areas (nearly all of my favorite activities are outdoors ones) and I could never fit into a place where, literally and metaphorically, I got honked at for driving the speed limit in the slow lane. I had no interest in the big house or any shows of affluence; I grew tired of dealing with the federal government everywhere I looked; and the incredible emphasis on money, a fast pace, and development was overwhelming. When my then-girlfriend and I decided to marry we decided we didn’t want to raise children in that kind of environment, and we moved back down to SW VA a few months after the wedding.
Several friends of mine also wish they could move back here too (one told us that as sad as she was over our leaving, she “cheered that we were getting out”), but don’t either due to family in the NoVA area, or they don’t figure they’ll be able to get work doing the same things they’re doing there.