Fries, Virgina, my hometown

Fries Virginia, (pronounced FREEZE, NOT "fries" as in French fries, altho some say, we Freeze in the winter, and frys in the summer)If you look it up on a map, at best, it will be a small black dot, at worst, it wont even be listed at all, but it exists, down in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, right on the banks of the placid New River. A former cotton mill town, that lost it's mill in the mid 1980's it continues to exist primarily as a bedroom community, and as a “jumping off point” for folks that like to use the New River Trail state park. Even though, there is no jobs in this community (besides running stores, or restaurants) the town continues to exist, and surprisingly, grow a tiny bit.

Their was lots of advantages to “coming up” here, a small town deep in Appalachia. The main ones being that practically, everyone, knows everyone else, and as young kids, we where allowed to free run of it! The folks, for the most part where extremely friendly, and generous well beyond their meager means. Where else in America could a 10 year old kid, be let out on the street, alone, in the morning, get a $5 haircut, walk up the street to a restaurant, spend another $5 on a burger, fries, and drink, and still have a $1 left over for the tip.... Walk a bit more, to the Rec Center, play “50 cent a game” bowling, OR go swimming in the pool for $2 and stay till almost dark, and if it was a Friday Night, another $2 got you into the dance held at the Rec Center.. Many of us did! Practically everyday during the Summer months (with the exception of the haircut of course)

No this was not all that long ago, this was back in the early 1990's and to this day, there are kids running all around during the summer months, and about the ONLY change is now, that Burger, Fries, and Drink, will take closer to $5 bucks, so you need to bring a bit extra for the tip. (and no, these are not small cheese burgers, but big ones) But swimming, Bowling, and dances are still very well attended, even though you would have a hundred young teenagers running all over town till the dance closed at 11PM, their was never a vandalism problem, or even a theft problem (their was occasional incidents, but for the most part, they where minor, and it was usually known “who did what”) We would stand on the sidewalk, and our parents would ride up and down the street slowly watching for us after the dance let out, OR, we rode home with an older friend that had their license. This behavior still goes on till this very day!!

It is considered NORMAL....


Try that with teenagers in Los Angles, Chicago, or Washington DC!!!

And not to mention, the music! Yea, I will freely admit it, I love Bluegrass Music. (well before it became cool) I suspect that most of my friends do too, even though many WON'T admit it.
For as far back as I can remember, their has always been impromptu gatherings of local musicians right down on the main drag, or own assorted back porches thru town, heck for that matter parking lots around town, and in some cases, down on the river bank.

Now don't let me paint too good a photo of small town Appalachia, it is not all “Kittens and Rainbows”. First off, opportunity, and jobs, are very hard to come by. There is also what I refer to as “The old guard” folks that get into possessions of power, than resist ALL change. For example, since the mill closed in the mid 1980s, and the company GAVE the building and property to the town, they spent well over 20 year trying to find someone to put a new industry in it. The town actually TURNED DOWN several good offers on the mill property over the years, they would turn the offers down over petty, petty reasons. I recall one, back many years ago, when Coors was considering to put a bottling plant in the old mill, and the “old guard” completely freaked out, when they learned that *GASP* they might make “BEER”!!! And BEER, was something that just could not be allowed in the town...

What a joke, they never once realized that, the beer, would be loaded onto trucks, and sent out across the Mid-Atlantic states, nor about the plethora of good, high paying jobs it would bring, nor about the tax revenue the factory would generate, nor the massive use of the towns water supply, resulting in huge water bills for the town... NOPE...

It was allowing BEER, into the town, and that was completely out of the question....No matter, that right down the road, about 3 miles on ALL 3 main roads out of town, there are gas stations, that sell it, all day long....AND GASP, it gets taken back to town....

Their where a few more potential buyers turned away, for various reasons, I won't go into them, but, at present, the mill has been torn down, at EXPENSE to the town, and they are considering making a nice riverside park, in its place, because people will come to town, to use the park...and they will spend money!!!

True, but what the park users spend in a year, would probably not come close to the money generated by Coors in 24 hrs, But hey, what do I know, maybe I should be glad they are protecting me, and my family from the horrors of BEER.

The current Town leadership does seem to be a much better than the one of 20 years ago, I wish them the best!

Than you have a small “redneck” contingent, who once you get to know a few of them, you realize that for the most part, their bark, is far, far worse than their bite.

Than you have a small number of even sadder cases, of extreme poverty. I knew kids, that lived in the woods, in old school buses, and others that lived in clap board shacks in the woods with dirt floors. These folks did not even have electricity or running water. They really anit too much to say about these folks, yes many of these cases are due to their parents extreme irresponsibility, but some are just terrible victims of circumstances. Some in the community, and local churches look after these folks the best they could, but in many cases it was barely adequate.

But worst of all, and I mean this sincerely.. Is the “out of towners” that ride thru here, and say “hey this is a nice place!” see how cheap property values are, and buy a house, intending to retire and move here. This really is not a “Fries” problem per-say, but one that is becoming endemic to Appalachia as a whole. This can be a good thing, in many cases, but it can be a very bad thing too. I will elaborate on this in another posting.

Well I told you about my hometown....The good, the bad, and the ugly... To me, the good far outweighs the bad, even tho my family now lives many miles away, in an even smaller Appalachian community.

Many folks say we are blessed with lots of culture, the concept of “culture” is alien to me, we live this way, because it is “Just the way it is....”

Here are a few video clips of my hometown, and a couple of news articles, I was going to post some photos, but, these videos, and the slide show in the Richmond times article are far superior to my photography skills.

Enjoy!

First off, is a recent newspaper artical, with a nice slide show..

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/sports.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-10-20-0119.html

http://media.gatewayva.com/photos/rtd/slideshows/20081020_FRIE/

Now, a great video, with a bit of the History of my hometown, and some great music in thar!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2U49oCrgKs&fmt=18

Well, what do you fellers think?