Recollections and Rememories

The Grayson County Project: 2007

In a deeper-than-ordinary conversation recently, I talked about the tendency for people of a certain age to spend much of our thought-time in the present reliving previous experiences—having rememories, as our kids used to say.

Recalling where and when your mind and muscles worked predictably well and without groaning is the better alternative, certainly, to the consideration of what gravity will yet do to the personal infrastructure, even as its stories move ever farther from and grow larger than the actual facts. Creative retelling is the norm, I think, and why not!?

I have lived a longish life full of potentially faded and forgotten personal volumes. But I hold onto more of these tales than most. I have told many of them to myself publicly over the years, with photos attached. As often as not, the entire story is held in pixels, not words.

Celebrating days gone by should not be labeled as maudlin sentimentality just because it is not freshly squeezed. The goodness of the light, of the moment and of the occasion can converge and enliven again, elevating and encouraging the one immersed in the recollection, even alone. Shared is even better. That is healthy reconnection, not a mournful lament of the good ole days. Of course I encourage such conversation—alone or together.

---

There is a back story I will not tell of my association with the New River Land Trust in Blacksburg (VA). This culminated in my “assignment” to accompany a writer from the Roanoke Times to the New River with my camera in October, 2007.

The resulting story of philanthropy and generosity would document the preservation of the integrity of a family home place by transferring usage of a stretch of the New River on their acreage in Grayson County. Their gift to the land trust would save it from development for a prison.

Over the decades, pastures sprout rocks. Piled up year after year, a few seedlings survive and grow from these piles, out of reach of the livestock. Turn 180 degrees and see the image below.

The white farmhouse is where we interviewed the 90 year old donor of New River acres to the Land Trust

My part in this project was funded by LandScope America (now defunct) and it paid serious money so that I felt rather professional. I had just published Slow Road Home and was actively self-promoting--as any self-published writer is compelled to be. This was midstream of the most stimulating and rewarding years of my post-retirement life.

And so I offer a few images from those days on the river, leaving out the people pictures from the porch in the white farmhouse where the 90 year old donor and his family told us their stories from those green acres over the generations.

This vantage point was offered for this project by the Hanes family (as in underwear) who were champions of stewardship in Grayson County.

The New River is said to be the second oldest existing river in the world. Its headwaters in NC cut across the Ridge and Valley province to enter West Virginia and flow finally into the Gulf.

October was the perfect time to take these shots from a low water bridge at Cox’s Chapel. Weeks earlier, tropical storms had roiled the river red with clay and topsoil. Now it was clear and calm and I was confident I would have some images worth my pay. (I would have done it for free, but don’t tell!)

I found the html page (below) from the Fragments post after the story had officially posted in the Roanoke Times in 2008 and on the LandScope America page. It reminds me (in the left sidebar) how busy I was and how energizing and full life was back then, when I wore a younger man’s clothes.