my godson, carter (son of my best friend, pam) graduated from amelia academy this evening. there were 15 kids in his class, most of whom he had grown up with and gone to school with since kindergarten. the speaker was the former baseball coach and local pastor and also father of one of the boys graduating. the ceremony was held in the school gymnatorium with a lady playing "pomp and circumstance" on an old piano. there was cake and punch at the end of the graduation and people were sitting in folding chairs and on the gym bleachers. outside, next to the school, the kids were playing dixie league baseball.
a piece of americana. a little school in a county outside of a big city. many of the students graduating had parents who also had graduated from this school.
i have been in and out of amelia for over 30 years, as i met pam the first day of college and have continued to visit often over all of these years. i know a few backroads, the shortest routes, and have watched the first food lion come in and the first macdonalds, which apparently didn't make it, as i drove past it tonight and it was torn down! it is a little place where everyone waves at each other as you pass in the car and you actually know the people. there is a village square and the courthouse, various family run businesses, including holman motors, now being run by the son of the original owner. a place where things pass down from one family to the next and not a lot changes. oh, some things have. when i first began going up there, there were only a handful of restaurants and you had to do your grocery shopping in richmond. no fast food restaurants, one truck stop, and a chuck's dairy freeze for sweets. winterham's market is still there, as is busic's in town, but busics closes after lunch...
while i never thought i would say this, i think there is much to be said for living in a place where the traffic is low, people still farm, and nature is still not totally taken over by satellite dishes and stoplights...
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