No Place Like Home

     What does the word home mean to you?  It can take on several different meanings such as a place to sleep or a place where one finds comfort.  It can mean a place of well-being and calm.  My definition of home is a place defined by our landscape and surroundings, traditions and our connections with our families.
     I have just returned home from a week's vacation in the Shenandoah Valley and Appalachian Mountains.  It has become a yearly tradition that I join my daughter Alison every January at Massanutten.  We spend the week snow skiing, exploring the mountain villages and relaxing with each other. Massanutten is located just minutes west of the Shenandoah National Park, between Luray and Harrisonburg, Virginia.  Steeped in the rich, local history of the Civil War, the region is home to numerous dairy farms, mountain retreats and caverns.
     While in the Shenandoah Valley region this week, me and Alison got a chance to talk to a few "real" local natives of the area.  It was evident that they love their mountainside home just as much as we love our seaside hamlet.  They spoke passionately about the mountains, the ridges and hollows that define their little  nooks within the mountainside.  Their homes are secluded within the crevices of Swift Run Gap, surrounded by forests, the wildlife, the clouds and the ghosts of those Civil War soldiers who followed Stonewall Jackson through the valley.
     At the eastern base of the Shenadoah National Park on Route 33, is a small mountain community called Lydia. Most of the residents are descendants of those families who were forced to vacate their homes within the newly created national park in the early 1900's.  There is still a bitterness among the locals of being "bought out" by the federal government and the repossession of family lands.  Their family cemeteries are within park service boundaries.  An agreement between the families of mountain descendants and the park service allows the families to continue to maintain the small, burial plots on the mountain.
     There are not many modern family homes in this community.  When you drive through, it is almost as if you are stepping back in time.  Smoke wafts from their chimneys, firewood stacked along the porches, and homes with no paint.  It almost looks like a scene from the movie Deliverance.  Sometimes I almost imagine the banjo picking boy sitting on one of those porches.  This little community is also in "shine" country.
     My daughter struck up a conversation with a retired professor turned water colorist from the University of Maryland one evening.  He had painted a picture called The Laundry House.  She noticed right away that she had seen this house on her many travels to Massanutten and it's location in the community of Lydia.  The professor told her the story about the house.   Built many years ago, the home is tucked along the edge of the mountain and Route 33, Spotswood Trail.  The occupants of the home hang their laundry on their porch clothes line.  The hanging laundry is a message or a "sign" that the moonshine is ready.  Even the color patterns or types of clothing indicate the cost or flavor.

Photo by Greg Versen.

      We were so enthralled by this story that we had to go see for ourselves.  Unfortunately, no laundry was hanging from the line when we rode by.  But the story was of true mountain folklore.
      I saw many similar characteristics of both the mountain community of Lydia and Goose Creek Island.  These are places where women wore sunbonnets while weeding their gardens, families that feasted on the earth's bounty of wildlife, and lived among the multitude of blessings that enriched their lives.  I could imagine folks visiting one another on their porches, their voices singing in the church and their walks along the dark paths at night with only the stars above providing illumination.
     It is the people's stories and their folklore traditions that make a community a home.  Whether it is in the mountains or along the shores of Goose Creek Island, it is a place were people live in harmony with each other and their surroundings.  It is the people who are the backbone of the land; strong, independent, salt of the earth people.
     Whenever you have the opportunity to visit a region away from home, make it a point to really explore and talk with the "real" people of the area.  You will find that although you may live miles apart, you will see how similar your homes are to each other.

For those of you who are interested in visiting the Shenandoah National Park, I encourage you to visit their museum at Big Meadows.  This museum tells the story of the creation of the National Park during the depression years and also focuses on the families who lived there.  President Herbert Hoover's mountainside home is located within and can be accessed in the summer time.  For more information, go to www.nps.gov/shen/