Friday Musings

Blacksburg, Virginia

For 32 years I lived in the mountains of Virginia in a wee slice of heaven called Blacksburg. My heart is still there though I currently reside in the humid flatlands of Eastern North Carolina, the “Inner Banks” as it were, where termites and roaches abound. After much deliberation I decided to keep my mountain abode so that I can return there after my second retirement. At present the house is unattended so I decided that I should consider it my mountain hideaway and go there as often as possible for a little R & R and to see to its needs.

Eastern North Carolina

The only weekend in February that I could make the trek to them thar hills was this one. I set out this morning and was about 25 miles outside of “The Green City” when I had to turn back. Route 264 to Raleigh was a mess. After I passed eight accidents, I decided not to chance it. This was a tough decision because when my daughters were little, we lived way out in the boonies on an unpaved road. No amount of snow or bad weather could keep us from getting to town if the need arose. There wasn’t even a skiff of snow on Rt. 264 and I believe I could have made it. What I didn’t believe was that a North Carolina driver who has no experience driving in bad weather would not run into me. What mystified me was how the other drivers could whiz past me going 80 mph after passing all those wrecks! When a huge flatbed truck loaded with steel beams came barreling past me, I was terrified that the truck would fishtail and knock me off the road. I arrived home safely and contacted everyone in Blacksburg that I had a date to see. Then, I decided to assuage my disappointment with a little treat. What could be better on a cold nasty day than a fire in the fireplace? I set up shop in my living room and turned on the gas logs. This is not a good substitute for a wood fire, but it is better than nothing. Turning on the gas logs is such a luxury that I rarely do it. However, I decided that the money I would save on gasoline could be spent on natural gas. I lit a few candles and watched “The African Queen” for about the hundredth time. All is well.

Wit and Wisdom

I lead a book discussion group and this month’s selection is Having our Say: The Delany’s Sisters first Hundred Years, a book I read when it first came out. The book chronicles the lives of Bessie and Sadie Delany who each lived to be over 100 (Sadie died at 109). Born in Raleigh in the 1890s, these women with indomitable spirits lived through the horrors of the Jim Crow Era. Highly educated, Bessie and Sadie moved north where one had a dental practice and the other taught school. Neither married—“Honey, we never married. We never had husbands to worry us to death!" This, according to Bessie, accounts for her long life. I find that I am enjoying the book as much as I did when I first read it many years ago.

Dental Woes


What continues to mystify me is that there are more Nobel Prize winning scientists in the USA than in any other country. We are smart people. So why can’t we figure out how to provide affordable health care? We are the only industrialized country with this problem. Thank God I can afford to pay $200 for one small dental filling. Pity the millions of Americans who cannot.When I am in public elementary schools, which is often, I ache when I see children baring black stumps where pearly whites should be. It is a crime that one of the wealthiest countries in the world fails to do right by its youngest citizens. Shame on us!