Crozet Gazette, May 2016 by The Crozet Gazette

INSIDE GAMING THE RULES page 4 CRUTCHFIELD page 6 PITCH-IN page 8 AUTHOR SCHOOL page 12 OUR BALLADS page 13

MAY 2016 VOL. 10, NO. 12

Current Crozet Population Estimated at 6,854

TRAIL MAP page 15 HAPPITIME IS OVER page 16 HOUSE SALES page 18 TRADE PACT FOOD page 19 PARK BIRTHDAY pages 21 SKIN ALLERGY page 22 LITERACY page 23 METEOR HITS page 25 SLUG LOVE page 28 MOREL MEAL page 29 SAUDI LESSONS page 30 AS LIKE AS page 32 TOP HEAVY page 34 KIDS CROSSWORD page 36 BEREAVEMENTS page 37 UPCOMING page 38 MORE SNIPPETS page 39

From left: Bill Dister, Dave Paulson, Nathan Vroorman, Erik Hultgren, Noah McMurray, Justin Beck, Jim Duncan, Rob Allen, David Vance

Crozet Cycling Club: The Dawn Zephyrs If you’re out on local scenic roads at the crack of day, you’re likely to see a posse of Crozet cyclists trailing slipstreams, winding like wind down the roads. “Who’s riding?” goes their nightly sign-up call. Meet-up is at The Mudhouse in Crozet at 6 a.m. Home plate, arrived at after an hour and covering some 18 to 20 miles, is Green House Coffee, where they pull in and stop neatly, as ducks settle on water. They grin with exhilaration. Their toes still have spring in them.

They feel alive on their bikes, and when their feet touch the ground again, they flinch and must get used to gravity. They’re in snappy, slippery-looking cycling outfits they call kits. The kit the Crozet Cycling Club guys are wearing takes off from the Crozet crest, sporting an azure blue that seems to soar and, right at the wearer’s heart, a red medieval rose. The look is sort of classy. It was made by Cutaway, a local cycling clothing company continued on page 27

The Crozet Community Advisory Committee was trying to find out how much population slack is left in the build-out of the Crozet Master Plan and heard from county planning officials at the CCAC’s April 20 meeting that they estimate the town’s current population at 6,854 people living in 2,753 dwellings. The figure is for the population living within the Growth Area boundary, which encloses about 4.5 square miles. Crozet’s population in the 2000 U.S. Census was 2,500 and by the 2010 census it had doubled to 5,560. The Crozet Master Plan projects a final build-out population of about 17,000. The original plan in 2004 was based on then-existing zoning densities and planned for a build-out population of 12,500. After the original plan was ratified, County planners announced that Crozet was potentially capable of a population of 24,000, which would make it larger than Waynesboro. In the 2010 master plan update, Crozet citizens systematically tried to reduce potential density concentrations, leaving downtown as the most densely allowed zoning with up to 32 units (apartments) per acre. continued on page 9

The Hill That Heals: Dogwood Vietnam Memorial The grief of war, nearly inconsolable, so long borne and yet still so keen, was palpable at the 50th annual rededication of the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial in Charlottesville’s McIntire Park April 20 as mournful rain soaked the crowd of 500 that gathered on its wet paving stones and the sodden hillside above the flags of the armed forces. Plaques were unveiled for 26 dead young soldiers from Charlottesville and Albemarle

County. So solemn was the occasion, so deep was the sacrifice it honored, that the crowd, vets and their families and other childhood friends of the dead, held on with reverence. What was it to suffer rain or cold compared to what the dead gave? Nothing. Where their graven wall stands and their wreaths are lined up, let every head hang humbled. For Jean Seal of Crozet, known to

continued on page 10

The symbolic, empty POW-MIA chair.

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CROZET gazette

MICHAEL J. MARSHALL, Publisher and Editor news@crozetgazette.com | 434-466-8939

LOUISE DUDLEY, Editorial Assistant louise@crozetgazette.com

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Published on the first Thursday of the month by The Crozet Gazette LLC, P.O. Box 863, Crozet, VA 22932

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: John Andersen, Clover Carroll, Marlene Condon, Elena Day, Phil James, Charles Kidder, Dirk Nies, Jerry Reid, Robert Reiser, Rebecca Schmitz, Roscoe Shaw, Heidi Sonen, David Wagner, Denise Zito.

Don’t miss any of the hometown news everybody else is up on. Pick up a free copy of the Gazette at one of many area locations or have it delivered to your home. Mail subscriptions are available for $29 for 12 issues. Send a check to Crozet Gazette,

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From the Editor What a Loving Town We Make The Gazette family would like to express our deep gratitude to the community for their generous support following the devastating stroke that struck in our home in April. We particularly thank those who offered the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for our sake, as well as the wonderful doctors and nurses serving in the University of Virginia hospitals. Coincidentally, crossword puzzle maker Claudia Crozet has gone on an indefinite sabbatical, but we look forward to her eventual return as a master of word-game fun. Gaming the Rules for Greed It’s time for the county to change its ordinance that allows developers to include unbuildable land in their density plans for their actually buildable land. Floodplain, stream buffers and critical slopes (those greater than 25 degrees) are considered “constrained land” but they still get to count when developers potential units. gear add upWinThe poster child for abuse of up at ter is for this policy is a new by-right Running

apartment project called The Vue on Blue Ridge Avenue. On land zoned R6 and designated at that density in the Crozet Master Plan, Pinnacle Construction and Development of Charlottesville will build nine 14-unit apartment buildings, a clubhouse and swimming pool to create a total of 125 apartments with an effective density of R18. This cynical and exploitative move is an act of sabotage to the master plan and destroys a happy 125-yearold neighborhood. This is possible because a parcel boundary line adjustment supported by former property owner Piedmont Housing Alliance attached 20 acres of floodplain along Powell’s Creek to the parcel facing Blue Ridge Avenue. The location two blocks west of downtown, with about seven buildable acres, should properly have about 20 single-family houses on it to fill in vacant area in the existing neighborhood, or if the townhouse expectation held out in the master plan was followed, perhaps 40 to 50 units. The project makes no attempt to offer road connections with

adjoining parcels, and instead envisions its streets as one big parking lot. The plan seriously undermines the potential market for apartments on the Barnes lumber yard where the Master Plan calls for them and makes the prospect of finding investors in downtown buildings that will be partially paid for by apartment rents that much more difficult. It is, in the opinion of your editor, whose has 25 years experience with Crozet development, the single worst plan ever advanced here. Execrable is the word that come to mind. The county should promptly correct this loophole in policy before other neighborhoods are similarly destroyed. Unbuildable land is just unbuildable land.

Correction The Gazette’s report in the April issue on the sale of the commercial properties in north downtown gave the sale price as $1.46 million. The correct price is $3.35 million. The Gazette’s figure did not account for all the parcels in the sale. We regret the error.

To the Editor Send your letters to the editor to news@crozetgazette.com. Letters will not be printed anonymously. Letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Crozet Gazette.

Bad Development Name I was disappointed to see that the new housing development on Crozet Avenue will be called “Chesterfield Landing.” For the most part, developers in this area have at least made a nominal effort at trying to choose a name with some sort of local significance. Stanley Martin Homes has a wide footprint in Virginia, and “Chesterfield Landing” sticks out here like a sore thumb, just as “Roanoke Terrace” or “Fairfax Court” would. I would hope Stanley Martin Homes would consider changing the name of the development to something that honors the local history and culture that they are so eager to advertise on their site. Danny Wysong Crozet Join Pitch-In

continued on page 8

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CROZETgazette

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Jason Crutchfield’s path to a successful career in education began on his high school football field. “When I was a junior, my coach let me call the plays, and I understood the offense better than he did. It made me want to go into coaching. I knew in order to keep doing this I had to go get a teaching degree, so that I could be a football coach. I was one of the fortunate people who knew exactly what I wanted to do and could hit the ground running in college as an education major.” After obtaining a bachelor of science degree from West Virginia State University, and a Master’s degree in arts, education, and administration from Marshall University, Crutchfield taught seventh grade social studies for five years in Johnston County, North Carolina. He then transitioned to a position as a teacher recruiter, and soon afterwards moved to Staunton, where he taught at Fort Defiance High School. His found his experience teaching AP students there to be a valuable one: “That was the first time that there were no zeroes in my grade book. Those kids weren’t messing around. I got a lot of my administrative experience working with those kids. You had to be on your game in terms of your preparation. They were sharp. You couldn’t slide anything past them.” He eventually assumed the role of assistant principal at Fort Defiance. “The irony is that I went to school to be a football coach and I ended up only coaching one year— my first year—then I had [my son] Osiris and I didn’t coach for a while after that. I coached tennis at Fort Defiance, and I was asked to coach football right before I left to become assistant principal at Stuart’s Draft Middle School.” Crutchfield came to Henley in 2007 and was assistant principal there until 2013. He became assistant principal at Brownsville in 2014 and assumed his role as principal on

Jason Crutchfield with students.

May 1. He replaces India Haun, who left in December to take a position as Director of Accountability and Research for Albemarle County Public Schools. Barbara Edwards, retired principal of Broadus Wood Elementary, served as interim principal until Crutchfield took over. Crutchfield says he’s enjoyed working with all ages of children, but that transitioning to elementary school has been a learning experience. “All ages are great, but they all have their challenges. I looked at elementary school as a unique opportunity. I’m used to receiving kids at the middle school level, and sometimes they would come to us with issues…. I want to give it a shot here at elementary school to fix whatever problems they might have before they get to middle school. I have a real opportunity. I’ve got the kids for six years here, in some cases, to really help and support them before they go to middle school. “I had a lot to learn when I came to Brownsville from Henley. It was a big learning curve. My joke is always that, when you’re working with an continued on page 31

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

To the Editor —continued from page 4

I was honored to participate in the 3rd annual Pitch-in-atthe-Park on Saturday, April 16. Over 40 community members spent a balmy spring day at Claudius Crozet Park pruning, weeding, mulching, painting, splitting wood, and generally sprucing up our well-used park to prepare it for the coming year. As busy as we all are, this relative few found time to give a half day or more to this vital cause. But I was surprised and disappointed that, in a growing community of 7,000+ residents, so few came out to help. Where were the hundreds of residents who use the park—to walk our dogs, play on the playground, swim, play ball, or celebrate Independence Day—on this one day of pitching in to clean it up? Are you aware that Claudius Crozet Park is 100 percent community-owned and operated, so that it receives NO financial or maintenance support from Albemarle County? This means that the residents—represented by a volunteer board—have

complete control over how our park is developed and what goes on there. But with that control comes the responsibility to maintain the park and keep it in good shape. Next year, please watch for this annual spring opportunity, and come out to donate some TLC and elbow grease to one of our most precious community assets! Then we can truly enjoy working and playing in OUR shared green space. Clover Carroll Crozet Pitch-in at the Park Thank You! Thanks to all the many people who came out to Crozet Park Saturday, April 16 to participate in our third annual Pitch-in at the Park. Under clear blue skies and temps in the low 70’s, forty-some volunteers tackled and completed a variety of tasks throughout the Park. After a day of painting, landscaping, splitting wood and many “fix-it” carpentry activities, the park looks stunning. The timing of these many activities couldn’t be more perfect as we get ready to celebrate our

The BB&T team helped edge, weed, and mulch one of the park’s beautiful rain gardens. From left to right: Diana Branham (kneeling), Cecelia Price, Krista Monahan, Megan Tinnell, Nancy Carter and Kelsey Dolan. BB&T employees not pictured include: Tonya Haney, Joanne Muse and Bryan Thomas.

36th annual Crozet Arts & Crafts Festival (May 7-8). Special thanks go to BB&T Bank and their local branch employees who provided the park with a grant to purchase all the supplies needed for the day and sent many of their employees to work shoulder-to-shoulder with us throughout the day. BB&T has been a long-term partner of Crozet Park, providing the loan that enabled the park to purchase and install the pool dome and make associated building renovations in 2012.

And, the timing couldn’t be better for BB&T’s involvement; the park is scheduled to pay off this loan in June, allowing the park to operate debt-free for the first time in several years. Thank you to Albemarle County Parks & Recreation who provided mountains of mulch, the trailer with all the tools and the John Deere Gator. These volunteer days simply wouldn’t be possible without their continued support; we appreciate their help and long-

continued on page 34

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CROZETgazette

Population

—continued from page 1

Planner Elaine Echols said the county does not make population projections but relies on data produced by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. She said the estimate was based on the building permits issued and that that method predicts a town population of 12,065 to 16,300 in the year 2030. Planners use a multiplier of 2.4 residents per unit to calculate the projection. “We’re trying to retain the aspects of Crozet that everybody loves while accommodating growth,” Echols said. The county’s goal is to update its growth areas’ capacities every two years. The procedure involves removing “constrained land”—floodplain, stream buffers and unbuildable slopes— from the available land, she said, though current ordinance allows property owners to include those unbuildable areas in their density calculations for their actual buildable land. The estimate struck some CCAC members as low. Former

MAY 2016 planning commissioner Tom Loach, suspecting that rezonings have already put more units in the pipeline for which permits are not yet issued, said, “We may be nearer our population goal now if you add that number in.” Planning director David Benish said that the number of unbuilt units in the pipeline can be known, but the planners did not come prepared with that data. Echols said the county could answer that by offering a potential range for population in already-approved rezonings. The answer has important implications for future rezonings. “What’s happened to date does not show us what might happen next in the next few years,” said CCAC member John McKeon. Others wondered if the 2.4 multiplier was an accurate one as the local schools seem more crowded than a .4 allowance for children in a household would suggest. CCAC chair David Stoner asked if county planners were using the argument that because some builders had chosen to go

New CCAC members James King, Mike Kunkel and Martin Violette.

with existing zoning on their properties, called by-right, rather than apply for greater densities (which exposes them to cash proffer expectations) other properties should be rezoned to create higher densities in places where the master plan does not call for those densities. The issue has come up in county comments on the Adelaide rezoning request on Rt. 250 next to Cory Farm. Benish answered, “We adhere to the density range in the master plans. To go higher would

require a Comprehensive Plan amendment. We try to keep the supervisors aware of holding capacity in the growth areas. That’s the reason for that statement.” CCAC member Leslie Burns asked, “Where is the line on the growth chart for when schools and traffic and infrastructure get addressed. Where do we see the projection for those?” “In the county’s Capital Improvement Budget planning,” Benish said. “We can continued on page 20

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Jim Camblos photographed the plaque of his high school best friend Erskine Wilde.

Vietnam

—continued from page 1

many from her years at Crozet Hardware, the memorial’s moniker as the “hill that heals” is slowly coming true. One of those men was one she had taken for hers, Wayne McRay. Until very recently their story was a memory that reduced her simply to sobs. Exactly 1,621 men are still missing on the battlefields of the Vietnam War. Some 58,000 men died and are accounted for. Event emcee Bruce Eades drew attention to the empty chair draped with the black POW/ MIA flag, with its profile of a head in captivity. There was a moment of silence for them. Later a new flag was raised to carry on the vigil for them. Memorial founder Jim Shisler, who has been dedicated to it, reminded the crowd that the Charlottesville memorial was the first in the country dedicated to the dead of Vietnam when it was christened on the same day in 1966. Roughly 100 men raised their hands when he asked Vietnam vets to show themselves. Shisler introduced the main speaker, Michael Harris of Staunton, a Vietnam vet and retired Virginia State Police lieutenant with 83 commendations and the distinction of being named Police Officer of the Year. He now travels the country with the half-scale model of the Vietnam War memorial in Washington, D.C., bringing the experience of the wall to people who can’t get to the real one themselves. Before he spoke, the American flag that had been flying over the Dogwood memorial since last year, tattered at

the fly end and faded, was lowered and a crisp new one that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol and the Vietnam Memorial was raised. The traveling wall has been to 500 cities and towns in the U.S. and 40 locations are on its tour in 2016. Harris noted that the wall has a mirror-like finish that reflects the viewer and brings him or her into relationship with the dead names. “[The wall] amazed me when I first saw it,” recalled Harris. “And I stood there in tears. Total strangers came up to me.” He said the wall has magic and strange coincidences happen around it. He told the story of a soldier from Roanoke. He had shown the soldier’s name to the soldier’s niece who came in search of it. She asked if anyone knew if he had any friend with him when he died. Twenty minutes later another man came up asking about the same name. He revealed that he had been present when the uncle was hit and evacuated and had stayed with him until he died the next day in a hospital. Harris noted that 400,000 items left at the D.C. memorial have been cataloged and are stored at a warehouse now. He said he looks forward to being reunited with friends he knew who died in the war. He struggled to command his emotions as he talked. This after talking about it countless times. Next the flags of the service branches were raised and their anthems were played by an army band. Congressman Robert Hurt, not running for re-election, noted that he has given out 550 pins to Vietnam War vets in the Fifth District this year. He gestured across the Rt. 250 Bypass toward the lower

CROZETgazette campus of The Covenant School, where children could be heard outside. To protect them was a reason people went to war, he said. The vets knew the reasons for Vietnam weren’t that simple, and the families there were children who had lost a relative to the war. That’s why they were there that day. Jimmy Flynn sang Soldiers of Vietnam, Welcome Home. “That’s a welcome many of them didn’t get when they first came home,” he said when he finished. “We vets really appreciate that,” said Eades. Col. James Kelly read the plaque biographies of two soldiers, Wayne McRay and James Kardos. He noted the rain. “God and the young men in heaven are crying,” he said. “We are the only generation I can find in [American] history that did not come home to cheers,” he said. “May it never happen again.” An American flag, folded tri-corner, was presented to Seal in McRay’s memory. Then the 2016 princesses from the Dogwood Parade and Miss Virginia placed flags in slots in the pavement, one for each of the dead. Their names were read aloud. Afterward, wreaths donated by various vets’ organizations and others were placed along the memorial’s circular wall. The rain fell harder and the crowd, soaked through their clothes, dug in. Jimmy Fortune sang More Than a Name on a Wall and a 21-gun rifle salute followed. Volleys rang out. Pop. Pop. Pop. Then came taps on a bugle, and then Amazing Grace played on bagpipes, which gave it the quality of a wail. The crowd was deeply moved and in culmination, as rain slacked off, it quietly disbanded. Their grief was

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not over, but it was recognized. “We remember,” said Shisler, “those who continue to suffer, not just those who died. Come back and look at these plaques.” “This is sacred ground,” said chaplain Joel Jenkins. “We have set apart a place of honor, sacrifice and gratitude. These men gave all. Bless their families and comfort them. This community has risen up to say well done [to them.] May we do our best to do our duty.” “It’s been a healing experience,” said Seal of her involvement with the anniversary. She first visited the Dogwood Memorial last year after many years of private suffering. The vets had taken her in after they learned her story and she joined the board that was getting ready for the 50th year commemoration. She spent the day before the rededication at the memorial rehearsing and getting the site ready. Later, quietly, she recalled the story of her engagement to McRay. “We met in the summer of ’67. I was a junior and Wayne was a senior [at Lane High School, now the County Office

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lessons, Martin structured her visit to Brownsville’s third graders as more of a writing workshop than a Q and A session. “I tell the students, this is not a speech, this is a workshop. I’ll tell you things that might help your writing, and you tell me things that might help my writing. They look at me like ‘are you sure?’” she said with a

smile. Students are always interested in where she gets her ideas, so she showed them pictures of her cats, her sons, and the maps and research that went into creating the books. “They want to know about the process—how long did it take?” She also gives tips on how to strengthen their own writing: “I try to say, what would make your writing interesting? You have to have obstacles and someone in trouble. You have to use words that are ‘juicy and delicious.’” Third grade teacher Darci Palmer said Martin, “…did a fabulous job. We worked with her on our curriculum and what we wanted to get across. The kids were definitely engaged and asked so many questions. They were very interested. She really helped them make connections to what we were working on.” She said Martin made writing skills such as character and plot development relatable to the children. Martin’s own journey to

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The best part of local author Lisa Martin’s job might surprise you. Martin, co-author of the “Anton and Cecil” series for middle grade readers, enjoys not just the process of writing, but also sharing her experience and knowledge with young readers. “The most surprising part of this whole experience has been the school visits. I can’t believe how fantastic they are,” Martin, who lives in Ivy, said recently, after conducting a writing workshop with Brownsville Elementary’s third graders. “I think it’s something adult authors really miss out on because they have bookstore events and people come and respectfully listen, but no one’s shooting out ideas for their next book,” she said, noting that she learns just as much from the children as they learn from her. “You get all this joy from them.” Martin’s trilogy of books: Anton and Cecil, Cats at Sea; Anton and Cecil, Cats on Track;

and Anton and Cecil, Cats Aloft (to be published in the fall of 2016), take place in the late 1800s and detail the adventures of two brother cats with very different personalities—one craves excitement, while the other is more timid. Martin drew inspiration from her own sons, who were 8 and 10 when she began writing the first book with her aunt, Valerie Martin, a highly-regarded adult novelist who was awarded the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Property. “Having kids that age really helped. They would fight, but then they would always come back together,” Lisa Martin said. The first book sees the brother cats separated and embarking on their own voyages, and is “essentially a story about family and loyalty and brothers, and getting back home again, and figuring out what you really love,” she said. After working closely with the teachers to find out what the students were learning and how she could reinforce their

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CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

By Phil James

In Search

phil@crozetgazette.com

Appalachian Singers & Their Songs

A special interest was kindled in America during the 1880s for finding and preserving the songs that had been passed from continent to continent by the oral tradition of generations of ordinary singers. Harvard Professor Francis J. Child was drawn into this movement, not as a collector, but as a research scholar. He built upon the study and collections of earlier scholars and collectors. His passion for that task defined the latter half of his 71 years. The fifth and culminating volume of his published balladry collection was unfinished at the time of his death in 1896. Succeeding generations of folklore and ballad scholars reference their own efforts to Child’s meticulously researched and numbered works, reverently referred to as the Child Ballads. The American Folklore Society was established in 1888 with Child as its first president. Subsequently, C. Alphonso Smith, professor of English literature at the University of Virginia, founded the Virginia Folklore Society in 1913. Smith made it clear that the society’s goal was the “pursuit of the ballad,” and, in particular, the variants of Child’s published ballads that could have been found in Virginia. The eminent English ballad collector Cecil Sharp (1859-1924) and his assistant Maud Karpeles first made their way to Charlottesville and Albemarle County in 1916 at the invitation of Professor Smith. A

Florence Shifflett (1878–1967) lived at the home of Mrs. Frankie Morris on Wyatt’s Mountain above Bacon Hollow when she sang for George Foss in 1965. [Photo courtesy of the Victoria Shifflett Morris family.]

The singing of Lura Hicks Starke (1892–1987) of Crozet (which included “The Three Little Babes,” also known as the ballad “The Wife of Usher’s Well”), was recorded in 1932 to aluminum phonograph record by UVA English professor A.K. Davis Jr.. UVA student and Crozet native Fred Knobloch had collected the text and tune to Lura’s songs in 1931, along with those of Martha Elizabeth Gibson. Mrs. Gibson’s “Sweet William” contained 18 stanzas. [Photo courtesy of the Starke family.]

guided jaunt into the western side of the county put them in touch with several singers including Nueal Walton (who sang renditions of “The Two Sisters” and “The Two Brothers”), Mrs. Orilla Keyton and Wesley Batten. After this trip, Sharp noted in his diary, “Brown’s Cove offers great possibilities...” Their productive visits back across the county with Napoleon Bonaparte (“N.B.”) Chisholm near Woodbridge collected 24 songs. Ballads were commonly sung while performing household and field chores, relaxing with neighbors, or traveling on foot or horseback. One singer remarked to Sharp while struggling to recall a particular tune, “Oh, if only I were driving the cows home I could sing it at once.” Sharp and Karpeles traveled to America’s Appalachian Mountain states from England three times: in 1916, ’17 and ’18. So capti-

vated was Sharp with the rich oral traditions of the singers he had encountered in the Appalachian Mountains that he noted in 1917 to economic geographer J. Russell Smith: “I’d like to build a wall around these mountains, and let the mountain people alone. The only distinctive culture in America is here.” Arthur Kyle Davis Jr., an instructor of English at the University of Virginia, was selected by Alphonso Smith to edit and publish the accumulated ballad and folklore collection of the Virginia Folklore Society. In 1924, shortly after Davis began that daunting task, Professor Smith passed away. The society’s collection, painstakingly edited by Davis, was published in 1929 as Traditional Ballads of Virginia. Soon after the book’s publication, Davis endeavored to expand the collection begun by Smith and the Virginia Folklore Society. With financial grants in place and the enthusiastic involvement of the state’s schoolteachers, the collection grew to embrace 3,200 variants of nearly 1,000 songs, which included Child ballads. Additionally, armed with a phonograph recording machine, Smith made 325 field recordings on aluminum phono records—some of our country’s earliest such recordings.

continued on page 14

Nueal A. Walton (1886–1958), was a farmer, orchardman, keeper of honeybees, and a ballad singer who could play a great harmonica. His father, John F. Walton, was forced to leave his home in Albemarle County’s Blue Ridge Mountains for the establishment of Shenandoah National Park. [Photo courtesy of Pat Ripley Bednar.]

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Singers

—continued from page 13

Some of the same songs that had been noted down by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles in 1916, such as those sung by Orilla Keyton in Brown’s Cove, were recorded for posterity on Davis’s record-making machine. He also recorded Keyton’s Mountfair neighbor Victoria Shifflett Morris in 1932 and ’33. As that older generation of singers faded, and the pace of society quickened, yet one more wave of song collectors appeared in the rural areas, hoping to hear and be inspired by the remaining traditional singers. Among the hopeful were early folksingers whose special interest included locating traditional material that they might adapt for new, younger audiences who frequented urban coffeehouses. For some of those seekers, it was simply the love of the song and its origins. For a small handful of others, the allure of yet-tobe-discovered, unpublished material was like an enticing song of the Sirens, promising

riches and fame. In the early 1950s, Professor Davis introduced one of his promising students, Paul Clayton Worthington, into the parlors of some of the remaining traditional ballad singers living in the Blue Ridge foothills of western Albemarle. Worthington, who had previously collected whaling shanties in his hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts, began making his own forays into the mountains, armed with his friendly demeanor and tape recording machine. On road trips to and from his New England roots, he performed some of the Blue Ridge mountain ballads in coffeehouses. In 1957, Paul, in turn, introduced ballad and folklore enthusiast George Foss to the Virginia mountains. Mary Bird McAllister, who lived close by the simple log cabin that Worthington had made into his Virginia base, provided Foss with many enjoyable hours of stories and song. “Mary Bird’s favorite song was ‘Across the Blue Mountains,’” he recalled, “and I heard it for a long time exclu-

Francis James Child (1825-1896), Harvard University professor. His landmark study of folk balladry was published first in 1882 as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The 305 selections contained therein commonly became known as the “Child Ballads.” [U.S. Library of Congress photograph collection.]

Mary Bird Bruce McAllister (1877–1962) was living at the home of Al and Hilma (Powell) Yates in Brown’s Cove when this photo was taken in 1960. Despite being illiterate, Mary Bird’s repertoire of songs and ballads numbered at least 150. [Photo by George Foss. Courtesy of the Phil James Historical Images Collection.]

sively from her. It was her story, her life. That’s the way that oral tradition worked: it gets tailored and edited at the subconscious level, and people remember what’s closest to them.” As Foss’s visits to the area increased in frequency, he began to branch out and knock on doors further afield. A particularly talented family of singers had lived in the area of Wyatt’s Mountain, near Bacon Hollow, in Greene County: Victoria Shifflett [Morris] (whose Godgiven talents for balladry later earned her an audience with President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House), her sister Effie, and their cousins Ella and Florence Shifflett. “Florence Shifflett was in her mid-eighties when I first met her,” wrote song collector George Foss. “She had always lived in the hills above Bacon Hollow. Some folks prefer to talk, and sing rarely, and then only if pressed. Florence Shifflett did not talk much, but for her, singing was as natural as breathing. Singing was a pleas-

ant way to pass a visit with friends or even to make one’s solitary hours go by more quickly. Whenever I was with her, she was constantly singing. Some of her songs, ‘Who Killed Cock Robin?’ ‘Peggy the Harmless Creature,’ ‘The Gypsy Laddie-O’ and ‘Across the Blue Mountain’ are among the most beautiful I’ve ever heard.” The 1960s saw the passing of many, many more of the traditional singers, and with them, diverse oral traditions with direct links to the Old Country. For those individuals who set aside modern ambitions and conveniences in order to sit and listen to those voices from ages past, it was a golden time, never to be repeated. “It is no exaggeration to say,” wrote Sharp in the introduction to his 1917 volume titled English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians, “that some of the hours I passed sitting on the porch of a log-cabin, talking and listening to songs, were amongst the pleasantest I have ever spent.”

Follow Secrets of the Blue Ridge on Facebook! Phil James invites contact from those who would share recollections and old photographs of life along the Blue Ridge Mountains of Albemarle County. You may respond to him through his website: www.SecretsoftheBlueRidge.com or at P.O. Box 88, White Hall, VA 22987. Secrets of the Blue Ridge © 2003–2016 Phil James

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

MOBILE GROOMING Now Available To Crozet! ITCHY SKIN? SHEDDING? SCRUFFY? TEAR STAINING?

Where Are the Crozet Trails? By Nana Corley One of the most common questions the Crozet Trails Crew hears is “Where are the trails?” Maps of the trails are available on our web site CrozetTrailsCrew.org (click on “Find a Trail,” then “Trails by City” and “Trails Near Crozet”). But let’s be simple and just go through the access points to the trails. In order for a trail to be considered “public,” it needs to be on public property (or a public trail easement) and there needs to be an access point that includes public parking. If the public trail segment does not include a public access point, it is considered semi-private and is only accessible by the properties that are adjacent to the trail segment. When you look at the map, look for green trail segments that are adjacent to a “P” in a blue circle (indicates a parking area). Trails in Old Trail Probably the best-established trail is the Lindy Bain Loop in Old Trail. You can get on this trail from Old Trail Drive. Public parking is located at the Village Center. From there, you would need to walk south along Old Trail Drive. There is an entrance on both sides of Old Trail Drive before you start up the hill towards Route 250. The west side of the street is marked with a trail sign; the entrance on the east side is directly across the street. Or you can enter the loop farther north on Old Trail Drive, through the future county park site (across the street from Woodbourne Lane.) Another place to enter the

Lindy Bain Loop is from the south side of Golf Drive, just east of Baywick Circle. There is a sign marking the trail at that location. The northwest section of the Lindy Bain Loop is currently closed, and will be re-routed when construction of homes in that area is completed. The section between Henley Middle School and Old Trail Drive will soon be seeing major construction activity, and should be avoided once it starts. Also in Old Trail is the Creekside Trail, which you can reach from the Old Trail community trail system, on the south side of Wellbourne Lane, across from Millstream Drive. Turn to your right behind the houses, to follow this lovely trail along Lickinghole Creek. The western end of this trail will be finished after construction in the area is completed. The Crozet Connector Trail We have a special place in our hearts for the Crozet Connector Trail, large parts of which are open to the public. From the west, there is an entrance in Westhall, at the end of Summerdean Road. Follow the paved path at the end of Summerdean Road, between two houses, then cross the pedestrian bridge. Turn right to follow the trail along the small creek. Public parking is available on Summerdean Road near the playground about a block south. As you follow the Connector Trail east, it runs to the south of Foothill Crossing and then continues towards Western Ridge. The public trail ends after crossing the Zvarych-Rosinski bridge continued on page 18

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CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Preschool Teacher Linda Reaser Retires by Rebecca Schmitz becca@crozetgazette.com Misty eyes, warm hugs, and fond memories were in abundance April 24 at the retirement party of beloved preschool teacher Linda Reaser. Held at Olivet Presbyterian Church, where Reaser sings in the choir and teaches Sunday school, the event celebrated her 35 years of devotion to Crozet’s preschool-age children. Praise was flowing as more than 200 parents, friends, and former students gathered to show Reaser how much she has meant to them and their families. “Mrs. Reaser’s program is really special,” said Lorel Marshall, whose 3-year-old daughter is in Reaser’s class this year, and whose son attended last year. “She’s so loving and kind, and every moment with her is a real teaching moment. The kids think they’re just having fun, but they’re really learning, and that’s very deliberate. And although she’s super loving, she views the kids as very capable and competent individuals.” Jenny Carter, who sent four of her six children to Reaser’s Happitime Preschool, agreed. “She expects a lot from them, and kids know when you believe in them,” she said. Carter recounted how anxious she was when she first began searching for preschools, noting how hard it was to imagine leaving her children in someone else’s care. “But I always knew when I went in to Mrs. Reaser’s classroom they were in good hands,” she said. “She filled in all the gaps. She made me a better person. She taught us how to be good

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mothers by her own mothering. I knew that if I needed parenting advice, she would give it to me straight.” Before opening Happitime, Reaser taught elementary school for eight years. After teaching for a year in West Virginia and a year at Broadus Wood Elementary, she taught at Greenwood Elementary School (which closed in 1984), leaving after her oldest daughter was born. Happitime Preschool grew out of a babysitting co-op she started with several friends, all of whom had children around the same age. When some of her friends began going back to work, they asked Reaser if she’d continue teaching their children, and Reaser agreed, having developed an interest in early childhood education and taking classes in the subject at the University of Virginia. “That was how I started an unofficial preschool with three-year-olds, and then the next year they continued as four-year-olds. The children came one day a week and they stayed through lunch and early afternoon.” Reaser said she enjoyed the idea of working part-time and in her own home, where she could go downstairs as late or as early as she wanted to catch up on work or prepare for the next day’s class. By the time her daughter’s preschool class had moved on to kindergarten, word had spread, and others in the community began asking her to teach their children. She and her husband, Al Reaser, himself a retired educator, began searching for property to build a house that would have a basement designed to be a licensed preschool classroom. They found that property on Browns Gap Turnpike, began building, and Happitime Preschool was born. One common refrain Reaser has heard from parents is what a good “feeling” they get when stepping into her school. The cozy basement walls are lined with toys, many from era in which the children’s parents grew up. No matter what time during the morning a visitor might stop by, the children are

CROZETgazette engaged and happily learning. Reaser and her teaching assistant, Carolyn Hughes, seem to have an almost magical way of keeping the children attentive and engaged. “I’ve never found it necessary to yell,” Reaser said in her calm, kind manner. “And I’ve always told parents they can go in and out of the classroom as much as you want to. I think that if you’re paying for something, you ought to be able to come in when you want to and see what’s going on.” When she taught elementary school, Reaser was particularly drawn to the hands-on teaching style, and was eager to put it into practice in a younger age group. “The hands-on developmental approach means that children get to experience things as they are learning. For example, when I’m teaching the alphabet sequentially throughout the year, at the same time they’re having experiences with each letter… so you’re able to teach science and music and nursery rhymes as you go through the alphabet. I found it to be a very effective way of teaching preschoolers and letting them experience something

MAY 2016 new every day.” Reaser has had only four teaching assistants in 35 years, and the low turnover rate is a testament to how much her assistants enjoyed working with her. Hughes has been Reaser’s teaching assistant for the past 13 years, and her three sons all attended Happitime. She marvels at how carefully Reaser planned her lessons each day. Hughes said if someone was going to be absent on an important day, such as when they did their spring planting, Reaser would rearrange her lessons to make sure the student got to participate another day. “She had plans A, B, C, and D, and we never knew until the last minute which one we were going to do. I don’t know too many teachers who do that.” Hughes added that, “She has two sayings that really stuck with me. The big one is ‘This too shall pass.’” She explains Reaser would often use it to reassure parents whose children were struggling through a tough stage of childhood or having trouble grasping a skill. “The other huge one she always talked about is how even as your

Linda Reaser with her husband Al.

sons and daughters grow up, they still need you. They might look grown up, but you get constant reminders that they are not.” A big part of her job is reassuring parents seeking guidance as their children navigate their preschool years. Reaser’s vast knowledge of child development has eased the minds of many a parent. “The people who were saying [at the retirement party] that you could ask me a question and I could give you an answer—that means a lot to me because I’ve tried hard to know what I’m doing,” she

says. “I’ve always encouraged parents that the most important thing you can do is read a book with a child and let them comment. Or, you ask them questions, so they learn to think as they follow a story. Individual caring is so important in those years. You will never have that time back.” Reaser’s love of teaching clearly runs in the family. Her daughter Lori has been an English and journalism teacher at Albemarle High School for 16 years, and Reaser says she’s always thrilled when the girls in continued on page 18

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CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Western Albemarle First Quarter Real Estate Report by david ferrall | ferrall@crozetgazette.com

Crozet Real Estate Market Is Still Solid Well, it sure seemed busy! The first quarter of 2016 started with warm weather and high hopes for a strong early spring real estate market. 2015 was a banner year for new construction and total sales, and interest rates remained low as the new year began. Open houses were busy, and agents reported high buyer interest and insufficient inventory. There was even a bubble of buyers from out west relocating for local gridiron reasons. Yet when the dust settled on March 31, sales were a couple short compared to the same period last year. There were 44 total sales in the first quarter, down two sales from the same time last year. This is at odds with the rest of Albemarle County, where sales were up 15 percent in the quarter (see attached chart provided courtesy of Nest Realty). Of these Crozet sales, 36 were for detached properties, and 8 were for attached homes. There was one sale over $1m; 1041 Half Mile Branch Road, just west of town, sold for $1.06m. It will

be removed for statistical purposes from this wrap-up. Eleven sales were for properties on an acre or more, which typically are in outlying areas. This is a fairly consistent figure, as 75-80 percent of all sales occur either in/around downtown or in one of Crozet’s subdivisions. There were two land sales in the quarter, down 60 percent from the five that sold at the same time last year. There were 35 sales of detached properties in Crozet in the quarter. The average price of these homes rose an eye-popping 18 percent to $470,000, at a cost of $170 per finished square foot. Thirteen of these homes were new construction, the same number as last year. The average size of these new construction homes rose to 3,265 sqft, compared with 3,100 sqft last year. This 5 percent increase in size partially offsets the 18 percent average price increase to $614,000 this year, but not totally. New construction costs are going up, and buyers are opting for more features. There were only eight continued on page 20

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Trails

—continued from page 15

to the east of Foothill Crossing. There is a stretch of private property (the large field) between the end of this public trail segment and the public trail system adjacent to Western Ridge. If you live in Western Ridge or have non-motorized access to the neighborhood, you can access the eastern-most segment of the Crozet Connector Trail, which is located south of Western Ridge and connects to Lickinghole Basin. There are no public access points in this section, but it’s worth the walk to visit the shallow lake with its abundance of birds and other wildlife. Other Trails There is a short trail at the south side of the Westhall neighborhood called the Lower Westhall Trail. Find one end at the south end of Eastern Avenue, off Park Road just before the new entrance to Westlake at Foothill Crossing.

Mrs. Reaser —continued from page 17

her Girl Scout troop tell her how much they loved having her daughter as a teacher. Reaser’s other daughter, Julie, lives in southern Virginia, where her mother says she is a “farm girl” and enjoys raising horses, chickens, and cows, as well as teaching environmental studies courses online. Before getting her master’s in environmental science, Julie taught high school chemistry for 6 years. At her retirement party, Reaser was constantly bombarded with hugs from current and former students, all of which she accepted with joy. Stewart Schill, a student of Mrs. Reaser’s from 2004, read a lovely, heartfelt poem he wrote in her honor to the gathered crowd. Michelle Sacre, whose mother had been in Mrs. Reaser’s fourth grade class at Greenwood, was one of the girls Reaser guided through Girl Scouts. Now a mother herself, Sacre stood up to speak about the tremendous effect Reaser had upon her life: “You’ve been my Girl Scout leader, my teacher, my mentor, and my

Take a couple steps up the slope and you’re in the woods. The other end of the trail is on the south side of Nicolet Court, behind the first house. This part of the trail passes through a grassy field down toward Lickinghole Creek. Public parking for this trail segment is at the playground on Summerdean Road. Finally, the Henley Hornets Trail, which was built by students from Henley Middle School, is an out-and-back trail in Beaver Creek Park. Its entrance is at the south end of the dam on the side toward the reservoir. From the parking lot, walk past the WAHS rowing team shed and along the edge of the lake to the trail. If you have any questions or comments about the status of the trail system, please contact Dan Mahon of Albemarle County Parks and Recreation Department, at dmahon@albemarle.org. To join in the work of the Crozet Trails Crew, visit our web site, CrozetTrailsCrew. org, and click on “Get Involved.” friend. You’ve given so much to the community.” Reaser’s best friend, B.J. Gay, spoke about their decades –long friendship; and Olivet’s pastor, Albert Connette, reflected upon her contributions to the church and to the community at large. Reaser has at times been nicknamed “the Energizer Bunny” because of the seemingly limitless amount of energy contained in her diminutive frame. In addition to serving as both a Girl Scout troop leader and assistant leader, she has worked at Sugar Hollow Girl Scout Camp for 32 years. She says she’s not worried about being bored after retirement: “I’m sure things will keep popping up. I just feel like there will be things, and things, and things, and that’s the way it will go. We’ll just see. I’m not closed for anything! “Preschoolers are my favorite age. They are full of joy and they love to learn anything new. How can you be around a group of preschoolers and not feel joyful?” No doubt, all the children who’ve been lucky enough to attend Happitime Preschool feel the same way about being around her.

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

NAFTA Asparagus By Elena Day elena@crozetgazette.com It is the season of renewal and regeneration. The festival of Beltane, approximately halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice, was and continues to be celebrated on May 1 in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Beltane, is a joyous celebration of rituals to protect crops and people and encourage growth. It marks the yearly passage into the growing season and the greening of the earth and coincided with driving the cattle out to summer pastures. May is the month for local strawberries. The moon is named Ohiaihah—Little Ripening of Berries Moon by the Onandaga people of the Iroquois Confederacy. Asparagus abounds at local farm markets. These spears are flavorful and stout. These are not the skinny spears available all year long that current trade pacts have forced on us. Today agriculture, or agribusiness, runs counter to earth systems. According to the lead article in the March 2016 National Geographic on food waste, agriculture is “responsible for 70 percent of the planet’s fresh water withdrawals, 80 percent of the world’s tropical and subtropical deforestation and 30 to 35 percent of humancaused greenhouse gas emissions.” Nature, within the framework of current agriculture, is a commodity. Commodification relegates soils, water resources and humans to objects of trade. That which is commonwealth is for use by corporations to increase their economic worth. Corporate policy promotes extraction of water, gas, lumber and ores and depletion of soil fertility until no longer profitable. Mitigation of any environmental damages is slow or abandoned to national governments. Loss of jobs is rarely a consideration. (Think to the future when the utility companies shut down the aging nuclear power plants after having earned profits and high dividends for shareholders for decades. Think about when they abandon the massive cleanup of radioactive wastes to the government /our

tax dollars.) In the early 1990s, President Bush I, or “the First,” was involved in negotiations that resulted in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA created a continental U.S./Mexico/ Canada trade bloc. Although there was opposition by labor, environmental, religious and consumer groups (core Democrat constituencies), Bill Clinton championed NAFTA when he won the presidency, Congress ratified it and Clinton signed it into law on December 8, 1993. NAFTA took effect on January 1, 1994. In December 1993 at the Summit of the Americas in Miami, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was first publicly proposed. It would eliminate or reduce all tariffs among all the countries of the Americas except Cuba. NAFTA was supposed to increase growth and prosperity in North America. Instead it fulfilled Ross Perot’s prophecy of the “giant sucking sound” of U.S. companies fleeing to Mexico to lower wages, and lower environmental and labor protections. (The “sucking sound” from our own industrial North to the un-unionized South had happened decades earlier.) Trade deficits, i.e., the gap between U.S. imports and exports, surged and reached historic levels during Bush II’s administration. In the first term of Bush II, the U.S. lost 1.9 million jobs. Food imports into the U.S. from both Mexico and Canada increased. Food safety standards on imports decreased as U.S. government food inspection agencies were overwhelmed. Some 170,000 smaller scale family farms in the U.S. have gone under in the 20 years since NAFTA went into effect. NAFTA drove Mexican peasants off their ancestral lands into cities, to the border maquiladoras, and to El Norte. NAFTA paved the way for U.S. companies and Mexican subsidiaries to plant the massive fields of winter tomatoes and cucumbers and berries for the North American markets without any consideration for aquifer deple-

continued on page 32

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CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Population

—continued from page 9

approve or disapprove rezonings, but there is enough by-right development possible SUMMER PRESCHOOL SummerCamp Campnow in Crozet to stretch our Preschool Summer Ages 2 1/2 - CAMP 5 Ages 3 - 6 Ages ½ -several 5 current [infrastructure] capacSign up2 for days or for the gentle, safe & loving Sign up by the A gentle, safe & loving Creative whole summer. weekly ity.” phere for young children weekor for the whole atmosphere for young Creative weekly children themes. Private, in-ground wading member Mary Gallo to begin to CCAC n exploring summer. thethemes. world & to Private, explore the world & pool for daily swimming. in-ground wading pool pare for kindergarten. observed that changes in state to prepare for for daily swimming. kindergarten. law will mean $20,000 proffers HALF DAY & FULL DAY from developers for each NUMEROUS OPTIONS NUMEROUSSCHEDULE SCHEDULE OPTIONS detached single-family house Close to Crozet, Charlottesville & UVa (434)434.979.2111 979-2111 www.millstoneoﬁ vy.com www.millstoneoﬁvy.com will drop to $5,000, so developers’ contribution to public infrastructure costs will shrink. “We have not kept up with infrastructure needs here since 2000,” said Loach. Benish said the county estimates it is $130 million behind in financing needed projects. Stoner suggested that the CCAC take it upon itself to do Mindfulness more plan updating rather than Meditation wait on the county to be able to tackle it. The Crozet Master Wednesdays at 7 PM Plan was due to be updated in Come join us! 2015, but current work plans call for the update to be done in Beginners welcome 2019. Adelaide developer Kyle whitehallmeditation.org Redinger made his third appearance before the CCAC, his first since a workshop session with the county’s Planning Commission. He has reduced the rezoning request on the 20 acres (15.5 developable) from 93 units to 80, he said. Forty units are now single-family detached houses. The original plan had none of those. Singlefamily houses are projected to cost $500,000 and townhouses

Real Estate

—continued from page 18

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attached properties sold in the quarter, all but one being resales in Highlands, Old Trail, and Wickham Pond. The lone new construction sale was the last townhouse in Haden Place. Since most of the sales were resales, prices were down significantly to an average of $245,000. Going forward, there are only new construction town and villa-style attached homes in Old Trail. Hopefully new subdivisions in the pipeline will offer more attached options, as these are typically more affordable than detached homes. Sadly, distressed sales continue to plague the area. There

The latest version of the plan for Adelaide, shared at the CCAC meeting

$300,000, he said. “We have a truly improved design,” he said, calling it “a mixed affordable community.” Asked if Habitat for Humanity is still intending to be involved, he answered, “We’d love to have them.” Neighbors from Cory Farm challenged the claim that the development adds to the Crozet trail system by noting that they lead nowhere but to the parcel’s boundaries. They also objected to the statement made to the county’s Architectural Review Board that the project has “no formal opposition.” They asked to be recognized as formally opposed. Loach pointed to Foxchase as an example of what could be done on the property by-right and that that route involved less infrastructure expense. The Planning Commission’s public hearing on the rezoning

request is set for May 10. In other business, attorney Valerie Long, representing Riverbend developers, told the CCAC that the company is willing to put a culvert that will take the Crozet connector trail, which follows a creekbed, under the section of Eastern Avenue that is about to be built to connect Foothill Crossing with West Lake Hills and Westhall in eastern Crozet. The Crozet Trails Crew, represented this time by CCAC member Phil Best, is trying to prevent new roads from presenting crossing challenges for trail users. The 15-member CCAC rotated on five new members at the meeting, including Western Albemarle Rescue Squad Chief Kostas Alibertis, Dean Eliason, James King (of King Family Vineyards), T. Michael Kunkel and Martin Violette.

were three reported distressed sales in the quarter, the same as last year. These sales (lender-owned properties and foreclosures) remain a sad byproduct of the Great Recession of 2009-2010. But according to CoreLogic’s last Equity Report, 91.5 percent of all homes in the U.S. now have positive equity. If you have driven down Crozet Avenue over the past few days you have no doubt noticed the land clearing going on across from The Meadows. This new neighborhood, tagged Chesterfield Landing, promises new, detached homes on yards around a half acre in size. This is currently the only new neighborhood likely to have sales this year. Prices will start in the mid

$400,000s. Looking ahead, the real estate market in Crozet should remain solid, limited only by inventory shortcomings. This forecast is echoed by Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for realtor.com, who believes “low inventory and tight credit will limit the gains we will see in 2016.” Freddie Mac concurs, stating “challenges remain, with low housing supply and declining affordability being a key concern in many markets.” The Crozet real estate market is facing low inventory and declining affordability, but historically low interest rates and increasing rental costs should help keep Crozet property transactions firm this year.

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

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Happy Birthday to Our National Parks! By Clover Carroll On the chilly spring morning of Saturday, April 9, more than 40 people crowded into the meeting room of the new Albemarle Tourism and Adventure Center (which shares the old train depot building with the Crozet Artisans) to hear a presentation by Shenandoah National Park Superintendent Jim Northrup. After the informative talk, about 15 of us caravanned to Sugar Hollow, where Northrop led an invigorating five-mile hike along the North Fork of the Moormans River, a good portion of which fell within park boundaries. Northrup was introduced by Kurt Burkhart, executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau, who thanked Ann Mallek for making the new facility possible and pointed out that this was part of an ongoing series of nature-related presentations planned for upcoming Saturdays at the Tourism Center. Not only are the National Parks celebrating their 100th birthday this year with many special events and opportunities, but also Shenandoah National Park is still celebrating the 80th birthday of its establishment in late December 1935. While the Shenandoah National Park is best known for the 105-mile Skyline Drive— which stretches along the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains from Rockfish Gap north to Front Royal—its 200,000 acres offer much more, including 70 overlooks, 500 miles of hiking trails (including the Virginia

segment of the Appalachian Trail), campsites, lodges, and cabins, waterfalls, swimming holes, and abundant wildlife, both flora and fauna. Forty percent of the park has been designated as protected wilderness, and the area has a rich cultural heritage, from its historic orchards to the Civilian Conservation Corps’ infrastructure building to Pres. Herbert Hoover’s Rapidan Camp retreat, which is still open for tours spring through fall. Hawksbill Mountain, located on the border of Madison and Page Counties, is its highest peak at 4,050 feet. The park entertains 1.3 million visitors annually. For this year’s National Parks Centennial celebration, the National Parks are pulling out all the stops. Commemorative postage stamps will be issued in June, a commemorative coin was issued in April, an iMax film entitled National Parks Adventure is coming to the Smithsonian as well as the Richmond Science Museum, the May issue of National Geographic will feature all of the national parks, and Kids to Parks Day will be held nationwide on May 21. Special events this summer in Shenandoah include five musical performances, a naturalization ceremony on July 6 at Big Meadows welcoming 90 new U.S. citizens, the rededication of the Hawksbill Mountain summit observation platform on August 20, and a Founders Day employee picnic on August 25 with the creation of a time capsule. For details on these and other events, visit www.nps.gov/

continued on page 37

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By far the most common problem that I see as a veterinarian is allergic skin disease in dogs. Ear infections, rashes, hair loss, itching, and foot chewing—these are all common manifestations of allergies in dogs. In humans, allergies are also a very common problem. I am pretty confident that you probably know a few people close to you who suffer from allergies. With humans, we tend to see sneezing, runny nose, congestion, sinus infections, itchy eyes, and asthma. Not to mention the rise in food allergies. It seems to be an ever-more allergic world in which we live. Or perhaps we are all just becoming more and more sensitive to it. Or maybe it’s a little of both. Interestingly, we don’t often see dogs coming in with sneezing and congestion from allergies. In fact, this is pretty uncommon, even when the exposure is through their nose/ respiratory tract. Dogs tend to have their histamine release from allergy exposure in their skin. This causes the skin (including ears) to become itchy and inflamed. If mild, you may just see your dog itching or licking a bit more than he used to. Chewing on the feet is a common sign of this allergic itch. Now, ramp up the allergic inflammation a notch or two, and the skin starts to change a bit. Not only is it itchy, but now the allergic inflammation creates a change in the microenvironment of the skin. The skin surface is now warmer, there is more oil production, and there is often more dandruff and shedding. This is important because dogs’ skin, like our own, is completely covered in microorganisms, mainly bacteria and yeast. Normally, these yeast and bacteria live in a perfect balance—we don’t even know they are there because our skin keeps them in check. However with allergic

inflammation, that microenvironment upon which they live is now changed, and they love it. Bacteria and yeast start to overgrow and go from peaceful cohabitants to a rebellious uprising. Now your dog has a bacterial and/or yeast infection. The most common occurrence of this is yeast infections in their ears. Please note: it is exceedingly rare for dogs to have ear mites. In 14 years, I’ve seen ear mites a handful of times, compared to thousands upon thousands of yeast infections. The signs of this are quite obvious—itching and scratching of the ear and shaking the head a bit more than normal. If you take a brief second and simply lift up the earflap, the ear canals should look pale pink and particularly clean. But yeast infection ears have a characteristic brown/black waxy discharge, as well as some redness and sometimes thickening. If you see this discharge in your dog’s ears, your dog has a yeast infection and you should contact your vet for some treatment (typically very easy to eradicate with some drops and cleaning). Just as common are skin infections. Scabs and hair loss along the back. Rashes in the groin and armpit areas. Red, raw skin between the toes and paw pads. A “yeasty” odor and a greasy coat. Relentless itching. These are all the typical symptoms we see of allergic skin disease in dogs, due to overgrowths of bacteria and/or yeast on the skin. Although allergies are very easy to spot and diagnose, they are increasingly difficult to understand, and often difficult and frustrating to treat. My dog Boone has significant skin allergies. He is now a sixyear-old yellow Labrador, a classic breed for allergies (although some breeds are more predisposed than others, we see allergies in all breeds and mixes of dogs). When he was about two years old, we noticed he was

continued on page 37

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

CRozet BoaRd of tRade PrOSPEriTy UniTy From left: Ally Baker, Kathryn Burr, Hannah Hetmanski, Sebastian Provencio

Henley Kids Take Medals in Literacy Challenge Ally Baker, Sebastian Provencio, Hannah Hetmanski, and Kathryn Burr, students at J.T. Henley Middle School, competed in the Virginia Association of English Teachers (VATE) fifth Annual Literacy Explosion held online on April 9. The Literacy Explosion is a statewide language arts festival designed to celebrate and promote the integration of literacy and 21st century learning skills by encouraging and rewarding students’ excellence in reading, writing, speaking, presenting, filming, drawing, and acting.

Students show their understanding and appreciation of a text and expertise in their use of language, communication, and digital media in one of these formats: book covers, book trailers, digital posters, photo essays, podcasts, and videos. Baker won a first place medal in the book cover category. Provencio and Hetmanski finished first and second place, respectively, in the book trailer competition. Burr took top honors in the digital poster category. Their winning works were created as projects for their seventh grade English class.

North Branch Student Wins in Letter Writing Contest Rheannon Loth, an 8th grader at North Branch School in Afton, was one of four middle school students out of 1,248 entries to receive a state-wide honorable mention in Virginia in the 2015-2016 Letters about Literature contest. Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12 sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. Loth wrote to James McBride, author of The Color of Water. In one part of her letter, she noted: “Before reading your book, I was painfully ignorant of issues regarding food for fam-

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Politics and the Election with Christopher Rowland ilies and of discrimination against minority groups. I am accustomed to having a full pantry and fridge with a generous selection, and it struck me as kind of crazy that you could write with such grace and beautiful language about how your family was always hungry or how you and your siblings battled for food.” North Branch School opened its doors in 1983 with a handful of students in a living room and currently has an enrollment of 120 students on an 11-acre campus in Afton.

The Lodge at Old Trail is thrilled to welcome back Christopher Rowland, the Washington Bureau Chief and Assistant Managing Editor of The Boston Globe. Among his many assignments over the years, he oversaw The Globe’s 2012 Presidential Campaign reporting. He is a real Washington insider and will be discussing the ins and outs of the current election, the candidates and what it all means. This is one Third Thursday you won’t want to miss! Make your reservation early. RSVP to 434.823.9100 or rsvp@lodgeatoldtrail.com

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CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Vietnam

—continued from page 11

Building on McIntire Road]. We dated and spent a lot of time together. It was a bad year, 1968, for getting drafted. He was still in Charlottesville when I was a senior. He left in December of ’68 to go into the army. He had been drafted. He would not have joined. He did what he had to do. He didn’t leave the country to try to avoid it. His older brother James had been a Green Beret, but he was out. He had a younger halfbrother and a half-sister, Tom and Sue. The family lived just north of Barracks Road. “After basic training he left for Vietnam on June 1, 1969. He was scheduled to come home on May 21, 1970. “James and Wayne were very close as brothers and Wayne’s death devastated him. [Local photographer] Jim Carpenter was in the same class at Lane. Wayne told Jim once in study hall that he expected he would be drafted and sent to Vietnam and that he did not expect to make it back. Jim told me that. “Wayne was killed on Valentine’s Day. We were planning to get married when he got back. He sent lots of letters but never talked about what was happening there. When he left here he was a kid, but after nine months there, all that was taken away. He never took pictures. One of his buddies took the picture we have on the plaque. That was the only picture we ever had of him. It was a polaroid. He sent it to me. I was totally surprised to see the transformation in his face. You could see the war in his face. He had the best smile and he smiled all

the time. He was happy and funny and he teased a lot. He enjoyed it. He was not in the yearbook because he purposely skipped that day to avoid getting his picture taken. “He was a little rebellious. He rode a motorcycle and back then that gave boys a bad name. He was a good guy and always good to me. We had so much fun together. He reminded me of the movie Grease—how a boy acts around you and how he acts around his friends when he has to keep up his macho image. “We met through a boy dating my sister. They rode motorcycles together. I was babysitting for my sister then. I stayed at her house while she worked and then I would stay nights with her. Wayne would come by and we would sit on the steps and talk. He thought he was too old for me. I was 17 and he was 19. He thought we should break up. That upset me terribly. But we kept seeing each other at school and he kept coming to my house after work. He worked part-time at K Mart and Ridge Drive-In and Humpty Dumpty. On the weekends we would go to movies and go get pizza. I would have to sneak out to ride the motorcycle with him. “We talked about getting married when he was home on his last leave. I begged him to get married before he left. He said we’d have plenty of time when he got back. I worked for Charlottesville Savings and Loan. I decided to buy a wedding band for him on lay-away and I paid on it every week. We talked about it in letters. After he died I went down and paid it off and picked it up. I had it put in his coffin. His brother Tom

Pageant princesses from the Dogwood Parade placed flags for the 26 dead.

Jean Seal with the flag honoring Wayne, with Tom McRay

put it in there. “I’m a whole lot better than I have been. I’ve come a long way. I never went to memorials. Tom asked me to go last year to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. and I found Wayne’s name. But I only went once. It’s quite moving to see that wall. 58,000 men died. It’s hard to imagine that many gave their lives. “Last year before the [Dogwood] memorial event I went over the day before and Tom Oakley, who is a board member, was there. I told him my connection. He introduced me to all the guys. They hugged me and made me feel part of it; that I belonged. “It has helped me to not be emotional over it. I still do, but not as bad. Over the years I tried not to think about it. That didn’t really work for me because any time things came up I would break down. “I never thought he would die there. I always thought he would come home. I got the news when an Army officer came to my house and returned letters I had sent that he never got. I wrote every day and he wrote at least once a week. His mother and father were told he was missing in action. Ten days went by before his body was identified. Then it hit me he wasn’t coming home. His brother told me that he was in a half-track that hit a land mine and he was burned up. “They had a funeral with full military honors at Holly Memorial. I rode with the family. They included me. We were

engaged. I was over at their house all the time and I told them what was in our letters.” Two years later Seal married, a marriage that produced two children and ended in divorce. “I always wondered what my life would have been if . . . . It was not meant to be. Coming to Crozet was meant to be. I love Crozet. “Wayne was my first love. Back in ’69 most kids did not go to college. You met someone in high school and you got married. I consider myself another casualty of the war. The loss affects so many people. War touches so many people. “His best friend Tom left on the same plane as Wayne. But Tom went to Germany and he came home. Tom could never accept the fact that his best friend was killed. I still talk to him pretty regularly. He was not given leave to come home for the funeral and it made him very anti-government and sent his life in a different direction. It’s really sad. He called me at 1 a.m. the night before the 50th anniversary. We talked a long time. The memorial and me going through it helped him a little bit. He shared that. He lives in Maine. I visited him six years ago. He has Wayne’s obituary posted at his door. He said he says something to it every day. He never married. He came home to Charlottesville after Wayne’s funeral. We became friends. He didn’t really know me before. We rode across country to get him to his next continued on page 38

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Crozet

Weather Almanac

APRIL 2016

By Heidi Sonen & Roscoe Shaw | weather@crozetgazette.com

One in 108 Billion Odds What is the chance of being hit by a meteorite falling from the sky? That is impossible to say for sure, but only one person in human history is a “confirmed hit.” Ann Hodges of Sylacauga, Alabama was minding her own business, taking a nap in her home in 1954, when a space rock crashed through her ceiling and ricocheted into her hip. She was hospitalized, but was not seriously wounded. An estimated 108 billion people have been born on earth throughout history and 7.4 billion are still alive today. But Ms. Hodges is the only person we are sure that has been hit. There, of course, have been many close calls. In 2013, a Russian meteorite had a sonic boom that damaged buildings and injured more than a thousand people, but no one was actually hit. In the late 1980s, a blue, slimy, meteorite crashed through the ceiling of a house in Portland, Oregon. Scientists and news crews were summoned but the space rock melted. The blue rock was actually frozen septic sludge that had leaked from a jet airliner. When the plane came down for a landing, the temperature got warmer and the frozen sludge broke off the plane and fell through the house. Ooops. But wait a minute. Heidi and I are meteorologists. We

know almost nothing about meteorites or any astronomy for that matter. So why is atmospheric science called “meteorology” if it doesn’t involve meteors? The word meteoris derived from the Greek word meteoron, meaning “in the sky”. The word was used by ancient Greeks to describe anything in the atmosphere. That included what we now think of as weather or astronomy. Astronomer comes from the Greek words astron, which means “star”. The word meteor is now used for any particles or debris within the Solar System that enter the earth’s atmosphere. The Hodges meteorite weighs about 8½ pounds and is on permanent display at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama. Ms. Hodges was a private person and never welcomed the huge publicity from the meteorite. She died 18 years later at just age 54, and her friends and family all said she never quite recovered from the events of that strange day.

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becoming an author is unique. While she loved writing poems and fiction in high school, her father, an accountant, encouraged her to major in something “practical.” So she studied business in college, eventually earning a Ph.D. in accounting. She taught college level accounting for two or three years, but “I really didn’t love it. I really liked the teaching part—that was fantastic, but I didn’t enjoy the research aspect that went with it.” After her children were born, “I stayed home with them for a little while, which turned into a long while,” she said with a chuckle. Inspired by the books she read to them, she started writing children’s poetry and submitting it to magazines, eventually getting published in Ladybug magazine. Finding it hard to break into publishing, she decided to join forces with her aunt, Valerie Martin. “She is a full-fledged adult novelist. She has always been a writer,” Martin said of her aunt, an English professor at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts, who has written a dozen adult novels, and whose novel Mary Reilly was made into a movie starring Julia Roberts. “My aunt said, ‘Why don’t we write something together, since I can write long things for adults and you can write short things for children.’ She said she wanted to learn how to write for children, and I wanted to learn to write longer stories. “It took us three years to write the first book. It was a three-year master class…. There are so many subtleties that you don’t think about. It’s challeng-

ing to write humor, and to write dialogue to sound like people actually speak is very tricky. It can come out sounding leaden.” Martin said she not only learned a lot from her aunt, but had fun in the process. “We have really similar, very dry senses of humor.” The duo decided that their main characters would be cats, since both of them had two cats. They chose to set the story at a shipyard and at sea because “My grandfather was a ship’s captain his whole life and he traveled all over the world on freighters.” Martin said they had to write the other two books in the trilogy much more quickly, so young readers wouldn’t age out of the series. “We had one year for the second one, and six months to write the third one.” Martin explained the books are in the “middle grade” category: “People think it means middle school, but it actually means ages 7 to 12; upper elementary. I think third to fifth grade is really the ideal.” The books will stay a trilogy, with no more planned. Martin, whose husband teaches business at U.Va. and whose sons are now 15 and 18, has two more books in the works. One takes place in Virginia and is the story of a young boy’s quest to save the last red wolf, which is in danger of extinction. The other takes place in New Orleans, where Martin grew up, focuses on Mardi Gras, and features a werewolf. Martin has no doubt that she will be spending more time with her young readers in years to come: “Going to visit a school is an incredible source of inspiration. I wish I could do it every week.”

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by another hard freeze on the 10th. A week later, we hit 90. Welcome to spring in Virginia.

and May has started off wet. Now we have the perfect combination of ideal temperature and plenty of rain. Grass is growing at the fastest rate of the year…about four inches a week. That will keep you plenty busy mowing. April temperatures were a bit crazy. April 6 dropped to a damaging 24 degrees followed

Rainfall

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Crozet Mint Springs 2.39” Crozet Elementary School 2.59” Yancey Mills 2.80” White Hall 2.89” Nellysford 1.20” Waynesboro 1.70” CHO Airport 3.37” Univ. of VA 2.57”

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Cyclists

operated by Phillip Robb, who is a cycling coach at Miller School, which has made its name famous in scholastic cycling circles. At Green House, the morning cook counted the headlights as they flashed by and the right stand of coffees was waiting for the guys. Meanwhile they put by their bikes and compared notes on the ride. Their legs are pistons, with pumped-up thighs and drive-shaft shanks. They appear to be all splendid athletes and together they have élan, a zestful camaraderie. The rides go out on weekday mornings, regardless of season. There are about five different routes to go on. Some are easier than others. You hit the chosen route. And after the ride, after the exhilaration of 50 mph down hills and the conquest of climbs, the riders split, go home, clean up, and go to work. Noah McMurray actually cycles to work in Charlottesville and from there home to Free Union every day. He’s logging something between 400 and 500 miles a week on his bike. “It’s a great group of guys,” said Rob Allen. “I travel for work a fair bit and I look forward to getting home and getting up at 5:30 and getting on the road.” “Jim [Duncan] has done a great thing for the community,” added Erik Hultgren. “It’s a very positive group. We stop and go back for people.” Duncan is the club’s founder; it has gone on to form an “easy riders” group, something like 10-mile routes for the less manically committed, and women’s riding group. Learn more at the club’s Facebook page. “We’re just kids trying to stay happy and healthy, and racing each other,” said Duncan. On weekends the club might take in a long ride, something 60 to 70 miles, such as down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Rt. 6 and back. “This area’s hard to beat. It’s gorgeous. We stop to take pictures,” said Duncan. “We take time to appreciate where we are. Morning commuters know us because of our headlight power. We stick together as a group. We’re extremely conscientious

JIM DUNCAN

—continued from page 1

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CCC riders on their way up the dam at Sugar Hollow one February morning.

about safety and sharing the road. We live here and we don’t want to piss off our neighbors. “I quit soccer because I destroyed four joints, ankles and knees,” Duncan said. “So I took up cycling.” “Knowing somebody else is coming out gives you motivation to get up,” said McMurray. “You’ll hear about it if you wimp-out,” said Hultgren. They are riding high-quality equipment, but they say the bike “doesn’t matter.” Most keep their bikes in repair themselves or ask a friend for help. “It will tell you when it needs love,” said Justin Beck. The club has been at it for a year now. It started as a Wednesday morning thing and “snowballed into every day,” explained Dave Paulson. “It’s a remarkable group.” “We don’t take risks,” said Hultgren. “We call out to each other about hazards and cars. There’s not a whole lot of cars at our time of day. It’s a peaceful time. We ride two-by-two until a car appears. The vast majority of drivers are respectful and safe and friendly.” The group is open to new riders, but the club doesn’t want the group to grow too big, to get out of control, or become unsafe. “The start time culls the unserious,” observed Beck. “It’s a good group—easy going, hard working, and friendly,” said David Vance, who discovered cycling last year. “Lighter builds are suited to cycling because there’s less weight to move. It’s a great way to get in shape.” Their coffees done, they mounted their bikes and in a flash, like surprised birds, each sped off to his day.

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MAY 2016

The Unloved Slug If you are like most gardeners, you probably hear the word “slug” and are instantly repulsed. Visions of slime and eaten plants may come to mind. But slugs deserve far more respect than gardeners and others give to them. These invertebrates have the very important job of helping to recycle organic matter, returning it to the soil ultimately for the benefit of growing plants. If you think that these critters exist to destroy your plants, then you have been misinformed. Unfortunately, it’s easy for that to be the case. University extension websites across the country perpetuate this very mistaken notion, and a

book was even put out several years ago titled 50 Ways to Kill a Slug. The reader was told that slugs “are guaranteed to infuriate, [they] parade through the garden, munching on tender plants and leaving slimy trails that will always seem to be concentrated in areas where your bare hand will be most likely to touch the greatest surface area of slime.” In spite of having gardened for more than half a century, I cannot relate at all to these comments. Why is that? What makes my gardening experiences so totally different from those of other long-time gardeners? The answer is not a mystery. Simply put, I live in agreement with the natural world. I love nature and I have embraced it virtually all of my life. Spending as much time as

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If this slug’s antennae weren’t visible, you might think you were looking at a seal whose head is at the right. (Photo: Marlene A. Condon)

possible in the out-of-doors as a child and as an adult, I have seen first-hand, and often documented by way of photography and handwritten journals, the roles that various organisms play in the natural world. If you took one of my classes or attended one of my slide presentations, you would stop thinking of slugs as “pests” and instead recognize them for the very important animals that they truly are: Mother Nature’s recyclers. It’s vitally important for all organic matter (the remains of organisms that were once alive) to be recycled back into the environment. That’s because all living things, including us, are composed of recycled organic matter. This is the reason discarded vegetative scraps and inedible animal parts should never be sent to a landfill where it will be locked away and wasted rather than reused. Slugs feed upon all kinds of things, from dead animals to sickly plants to animal droppings. By doing so, they recycle nutrients that your garden needs to grow well. In other words, they fertilize your plants so that you don’t need to spend time, effort, and perhaps money to do so. Yet gardeners are constantly told to kill all—yes, I said all— of these lowly-yet-oh-so useful animals. This advice is nonsensical, so why does the gardening community take it to heart? The problem is that the study of horticulture does not include learning about the natural world. Therefore gardeners are often not familiar with the actual roles that all organisms play to keep the environment— including their gardens—functioning properly. The reality is that unless you understand how the natural world works, you simply cannot garden well. Gardening involves

knowing about the lives of the animals out there so you can comprehend how they interact with plants and each other. A slug—there are many species—is typically a fat little animal that looks damp. It reminds me somewhat of a miniature seal, only without the feet. And like seals, slugs are usually found where it is wet. These animals will die if they dry out. Thus they tend to avoid direct sunshine, staying among and underneath plant debris on sunny days and only venturing forth into the open on cloudy or damp days. If someone tells me that he has a slug problem, I tell him that he must be keeping his garden too wet. In nature, cause and effect is always logical. But in order to determine what is causing the effect observed, you must investigate exactly what the gardener is doing and how that affects the behavior of the animal in question. For example, sometimes a gardener over-waters his garden, or perhaps he has applied so much mulch that it never dries out. When organic matter remains constantly wet, it starts to rot. That means microorganisms have begun to recycle it. If plants are growing so close together that they don’t have enough air circulation to dry them off, they too will start to rot because conditions aren’t right for the plants to remain healthy. Mother Nature wants to remove such plants from the environment as quickly as possible because they are not likely to be able to reproduce. If plants are not going to help perpetuate life, they are wasting precious real estate. Therefore Mother Nature sends in slugs that can recycle the rotting, sickly plants more quickly than the microorganisms are capable of doing. This action opens up the space sooner for new plants to grow that may perform better than the previous plants in that location. Sadly, gardeners see the slugs and blame them for destroying their plants when, in reality, the slugs are correcting a cultivation “wrong” performed by the gardener. So this is why we have slugs: They tell you to change your gardening ways so your plants can grow well and strong instead of sickly and weak.

CROZETgazette

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MAY 2016

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Your Friendly Family Jewelry Store Since 1945 Morels photographed by the author’s son, Joel Zito Slezak of the Free Union Grass Farm, a member of the Morel Secret Society

The Secret Society of the Morel Mushroom Around this time of year in western Albemarle County there are two groups of people: those who know where to find the morels, and those who wish they did. Unfortunately, I’m a member of the latter group. The morel is a beautiful edible mushroom, with a conical shaped cap and a kind of beehive, textured surface. Cut them open and they are hollow. The morels in Virginia grow now through June and are quite a delicacy. If you own any land, people will come to your back door and say, “Oh look, I found these on your property and thought I’d bring you some.” And of course now that they have assuaged their guilt by bringing you some, they are also keeping a big pile for themselves! When you ask where they found them they become evasive. “Oh, you know, down by the stream. I really can’t remember.” The morel society is a coy bunch of folks. They don’t want new

members. My son Joel claims he will show me the spot where he finds them nearby, and I believe him. He just hasn’t gotten around to it yet. I understand. Last week some friends had the same experience. A local guy showed up with a huge bag of morels and left some with them, which they shared with me. He couldn’t quite describe to my friends where on their land he found them. He never does. So my intention was to write about spinach this month, but instead I’ll tell you what I did with those gorgeous mushrooms. My asparagus is up and the hens are laying. And thank goodness for Goodwin Creek Farm and Bakery who supplies their wares to the Crozet Great Valu where I can buy my weekly loaf of delicious bread. Maybe someday I’ll become a member of the Morel Secret Society. But until I do, I’m glad to have friends who are.

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MAY 2016

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Emergency Medicine physicians wear many hats, as Dr. Sudhir and I discussed last month. This versatility leads to some interesting opportunities to practice in different venues. Cruise ships, for example, are always looking for ER docs to staff the ships. While I have yet to try out cruise ship medicine, emergency medicine has been a magic carpet for me, allowing me to practice medicine around the world and thus open windows into other cultures. In the 1990s the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was awash with oil money and anxious to modernize its healthcare system. The government had built state of the art hospitals stocked with the latest and greatest medical equipment and technology, but they were short on people to staff them. They were particularly short of doctors and nurses. Stiff cultural restrictions meant that Saudi women could not be nurses nor would men consider it. The nursing shortage was easily and economically solved by recruiting nurses from the Philippines as guest workers. There was no such cultural prohibition against Saudis becoming doctors, however, and so the Saudi government looked to the U.S. academic medicine infrastructure to help train young Saudi physicians. That’s where I came in. I was teaching at Yale in 1995 when our faculty was approached by a representative of the King of Saudi Arabia to staff an academic emergency department in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Riyadh means gardens in Arabic. Sounds nice, right? The deployments were for three months but you could bring your family if you wanted. Well, that’s nice too. Of course my wife would have to wear an abaya, a head-

to-toe shawl, when in public. Hmm, that might be a tough sale at home. Like Henry Ford’s Model T, you could get an abaya in any color you wanted, as long as you wanted it in black. The Kingdom provided very nice housing, which included a harem. I thought that might be interesting, although also a tough sale at home, but it turns out a harem is just a part of the house forbidden to male visitors. It seemed like an adventure, so of course I jumped in without too much thought. We packed up the three young kids, gave the cat and dog to some semi-willing family members and flew off around the world. We hopscotched through Europe, seeing some sights along the way and finally arrived in Riyadh. It was 105 degrees outside and it was midnight. I did not see any gardens. In fact it was a desert. I was anxious to inspect my harem, so we found our hospital-provided driver and left the airport. We rode on modern super highways in air conditioned comfort and all along the roadsides were families who appeared to be picnicking at two o’clock in the morning in the desert. This was a custom we would come to see as normal. The days were so hot (110 degrees average) that many people slept in the daytime and socialized at night. Visitors to the hospital began arriving at nine p.m., always with lots of food in baskets, and streamed in all night. Everyone was wide awake and alert in the wee hours of the morning. Well, everyone except me, who could not let go of my day-night cycle. I was a little nervous on my first day on the job. I did not speak the language, I did not understand the culture and I did not know what the expectations of the patients and the continued on page 35

CROZETgazette

Principal —continued from page 6

eighth grader, you can reason with them and talk it out, but you can’t always do that with a kindergartner, not if they’re hiding under their desk,” he said with a laugh. “I had a lot to learn, and everyone at Brownsville has been so dedicated and willing to help me. That’s what’s been really great about being here. The teachers have been so gracious to let me into their classrooms and learn what they’re doing.” Crutchfield believes one of Brownsville’s greatest strengths is its sense of community, which he hopes to maintain and strengthen, even in the face of tremendous community growth. He praises Brownsville’s parents for being so involved in their children’s schooling and for sharing their skills and knowledge by serving as volunteers. “The families are great, and they’re doing a great job with the kids. Parents come in and they volunteer their time. We have a lot of knowledgeable parents with a lot to offer. Our parents are very involved.” “We have had so much tremendous success here. I want to make sure we don’t lose that, so part of my goal is to maintain that success. As a leader I have to make sure I’m getting input from all sides.” In elementary school, Crutchfield said, “It’s important that kids find their place.” He hopes their years at Brownsville will spark new interests and help them discover what they love to do. He also wants to foster their curiosity and encourage them to be self-sufficient learners. “Kids need a general curiosity for learning things. We want to develop their own intrinsic motivation to want to learn, to find things around them interesting, and when they have a question, to seek out the answers on their own, versus an adult guiding them. That’s what we’re really trying to do, foster that curiosity. They need the motivation to take that next step to find out the answer on their own. That’s where the real learning will take place and

MAY 2016 where they’ll really see the value in it.” Crutchfield keeps plenty busy outside the halls of Brownsville. “My wife and I have four kids, between the two of us. I had two, and she had two. We’re like the Brady Bunch!” He met his wife, Erica, his first day at Henley, when both were putting lunch money on their children’s accounts. His daughter, Brit’nee, 26, is in veterinary school at the University of Illinois. Son Osiris, a senior at Western and a star defensive end on the football team, will play football for U.Va. next year. Noah is a junior at Western, and Gabe attends the Math, Engineering Science Academy at Albemarle High School. “They’re four great kids,” he says with a proud smile. An animal lover, he also has three dogs and one cat. His wife has owned a hair salon, Top Knot Studio, on the downtown mall for the past four years. Crutchfield grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and his love of the Baltimore Orioles is well known at Brownsville. “I try to go to two or three games a year,” he said. He also loves to hike and spend time outdoors, and is a trail manager for the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club. “I’m in charge of about 1.6 miles of the Appalachian Trail. We work to monitor it and clear away trash. Every month there’s a maintenance trip.” He marvels at how fortunate the community is to be able to appreciate the natural beauty inherent in this part of the country. He also enjoys playing basketball and supporting his children at their events and activities. He keeps busy by serving on the Health Advisory Council for the School Division and on the Board of Directors for the African-American Teaching Fellows in Charlottesville. Crutchfield wants to remind everyone—parents, caregivers, teachers, and children—that his door is always open. “Hopefully every child feels comfortable and things make sense, and they feel like there’s a place for them here. And that’s what I think we’re doing here.”

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MAY 2016

Let’s Tell it As it Is by Clover Carroll | clover@crozetgazette.com In 1954, language lovers were outraged when R. J. Reynolds launched its new ad campaign featuring the jingle “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.” I was too young at that time to recognize that they should have boasted, “Winston tastes good as a cigarette should.” Ogden Nash did, though, and quipped in the New Yorker, “Like goes Madison Avenue, like so goes the nation” (a take-off on the old political saying, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation”). Was this the beginning of advertising’s attempt to get attention by openly disregarding proper grammar (a practice known in the trade as “unconventional grammar”)? Apple’s “Think Different,” the Dairy Council’s “Got Milk?” and Mercedes’ “More power... Less doors” also stick in my craw every time I hear them. These slogans may be catchy and sound as if they might have been spoken by the man in the street. But they also sound— dare I say it?—uneducated and flippant. The confusion of “like” and “as” when making comparisons goes far beyond advertising. In researching this lexical choice— one that drives me up a wall and that I never hesitate to correct—I find I have stumbled across another grammar controversy as virulent as the Oxford comma debate. People have been replacing “as” with “like” in conversation for years—isn’t Donald Trump’s main claim to fame that he “tells it like it is” (whether or not you agree with “it”)? Even the Grouchy Grammarian, hero of the highly entertaining eponymous book by Thomas Parrish, is tempted to give up on this one, and admits that this careless switch is acceptable in conversational speech. But those who know better— such as university professors, literary editors, and college entrance exams—still avoid it in formal writing, where it can make the difference between sloppy and elegant prose. So it behooves us to know which

word to use when. This is not a simple matter, which is probably why it gives rise to so many errors! The issue arises because “like” is a preposition and “as” is a conjunction. A preposition is a connecting word that conveys relationship, such as “about,” “under,” or “with.” Prepositions are never followed by clauses (noun + verb); we would all cringe at “under the moon is green” or “dances with wolves howl loudly.” Therefore, “like” is correctly used only for simple comparisons and should be followed by a noun or pronoun; for example, “her garden looks like a Monet painting” or “he eats like a horse.” A conjunction, on the other hand, links two nouns or clauses in an additive fashion. Other conjunctions include “and,” “or,” and “but.” When the comparing word is followed by a clause involving a verb, you should always use “as.” For example, “her garden looks as if it could use weeding” or “he eats as if there were a famine coming.” While “as” can play many roles in a sentence, “like” should never be used in the conjunction’s role; “As” can be followed by a noun (quick as a cricket), but like should never be followed by a clause involving a verb. As you can see (not like you can see!), “as” is sometimes, but not always, accompanied by “if.” Let’s look at some common examples. “It looks like it might rain” is colloquial, but not grammatically correct because “it might rain” is a clause. In formal writing, we would say, “it looks as if it might rain.” “No one makes apple pie like my mother does” sounds clumsy, and for good reason. Since “like” is followed by the verb does, the conjunction “as” should be used: “No one makes chocolate cake as my mother does.” Similarly, “He can’t play soccer like he used to” is incorrect, because in the second clause, the verb play is implied: “He can’t play soccer like he used to play.” Therefore, like should be changed to as: “He can’t play soccer as he used to.” An easy test is that if you can

replace like or as with “the way,” “as” should be used: “He can’t play soccer the way he used to” or “No one makes apple pie the way my mother does.” As delightful as it is to read, the recent international bestseller, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald—translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies— makes the same common mistake. “Sara shrank behind the counter just like Caroline had known she would” (184). Since the comparing word is followed by a clause involving a verb, the sentence should more correctly (and gracefully) read, “Sara shrank behind the counter just as Caroline had known she would.” This author (or translator) also uses “Like always” instead of “as usual”: “Like always, it would end with Pete’s wife giving him more … homemade jelly than he could eat” (201). “Like always” is an ungrammatical construction because the writer is really saying “like it always happens,” which involves a verb. “As usual” or “As is always the case” are better choices. If in doubt, think of the many epic similes in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey—surely you remember those from 9th grade English class? “…its crackling roots blazed and hissed, as a blacksmith plunges a glowing ax or adze in an ice-cold bath” or “Just as an angler poised on a jutting rock flings his treacherous bait in the offshore swell… so now they writhed.” Imagine how ugly these classic figures of speech would sound if “as” were replaced by “like”! Have I made the matter clear as mud? And have I proven that I am a grammar snob? I realize this is a relatively arcane grammatical problem, but to me, it is an important one. Perhaps I am being exceedingly picky… but fortunately, I am not alone. Like Ogden Nash, I love beautiful turns of phrase and dislike their corruption. We all want to express our ideas in the most graceful and clear way possible, and it is satisfying to unravel the skein of how best to do so. I hope good writers will continue to tell it as it is.

Asparagus —continued from page 19

tion on marginal border lands. Mexico, the birthplace of corn, now imports corn from the U.S. When U.S. agribusiness began dumping corn at below costs of production into Mexico, prices paid to Mexican farmers for corn fell 70 percent. The worst of NAFTA is that it has elevated individual corporations to the level of the sovereign signatory governments. Investors/corporations can directly challenge a government’s environmental or labor laws, regulatory permits, consumer health and safety policies and financial regulations if they suspect that these undermine “expected future profits.” Investors bring the case before a World Trade Organization (WTO)-appointed tribunal of three private attorneys (from either the World Bank or the U.N.) that rotate between acting as judges in these “investor-state” cases and representing the investors. The tribunals are empowered to order unlimited amounts of taxpayer funds to compensate the investor if the ruling favors the latter. Investorstate cases have doubled in the second 10 years of NAFTA. Late last year, after a decade of litigation, the U. S. Congress repealed the law requiring retailers to include the country of origin of red meat. The meat industry had fought the country of origin or COOL law since the early 2000s. The WTO repeatedly ruled against the U.S. and had recently authorized challengers Canada and Mexico to begin extracting $1 billion in economic retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. The repeal of COOL is a setback to the food labeling movement. After NAFTA, the Bush II administration negotiated and signed CAFTA or the Central American Free Trade Agreement. (It passed by one vote in the House of Representatives.) CAFTA was to bring prosperity to Central America. Instead labor and environmental standards declined, privatization and deregulation of public services increased, immigration northward became an even steadier stream, and the Central American countries are now

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CROZETgazette racked with drug- and gangrelated violence. George “W” bragged that when he entered the White House the U.S. had trade agreements with only Mexico, Canada, and Israel. When he left office, the U.S. had trade agreements with 17 countries. In 2007, after negotiations for an Andean Free Trade Act or AFTA fell through, Peru signed a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S. that was implemented in 2009. The Obama administration has since signed bilateral free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and Korea. The Obama administration is pushing hard for Congressional ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the “mother” of all trade agreements. This latest “free trade” agreement, which will again stick it to American consumers and workers, is between the U.S., Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. (I noticed that Trader Joe’s advertises New Zealand Grass-Fed Angus Burgers. There will be many more pounds of far-traveling New Zealand meat available if TPP is ratified.) The TPP will be quite the coup for U.S. and transnational corporations at the expense of the citizenry of the countries within the pact. In the U.S. it will make it easier for corporations to ship jobs overseas, further depressing domestic wages and exacerbating income inequality. Imported, unlabeled, possibly minimally inspected and thereby unsafe foods will more easily find their way into our supermarkets. TPP has given Big Pharma corporations a new monopoly to keep cheaper generic drugs off the market. TPP, like all the other previous pacts, allows corporations to sue governments if the environmental and health regulations in place threaten profit margins. Peru is likely to be the first country to ratify the TTP, despite widespread protests. After Peru signed a TPP-like free trade pact with the U.S. in 2007, the economy and the middle class grew, and poverty decreased. However, societal costs included criminalization of protestors and immunity for

MAY 2016

police and the military in squashing indigenous resistance to foreign land appropriations in the Amazon. In June 2009 dozens of indigenous Peruvians were killed and hundreds arrested in the Bagua military-perpetrated massacre. Increased logging for export is predominantly illegal, and it has been documented that gold mining often involves slave labor. Peruvians are concerned that environmental and labor standards currently unenforceable under the current pact will further deteriorate under TPP. One concern among others is that less expensive generic drugs will become unavailable to Peruvians under TPP. Regarding asparagus, 20 years ago there was no Peruvian asparagus sold in the U.S. Today Peru is the largest exporter of fresh asparagus and second to China in the export of canned or jarred asparagus. Ninety-nine percent of the asparagus, both fresh and processed, is for export. Mexico is exclusively in the fresh asparagus market. It exports 95 percent of the asparagus it grows. Asparagus is not feeding the masses in either Peru or Mexico. Instead, land that might have been owned by smaller farmers growing food for local consumption is lost to big Ag. In Peru asparagus monoculture/agribusiness has resulted in water shortages in the Ica Valley. Most of the asparagus is grown in the Ica Valley, one of the driest places in the world. It is a reclaimed desert, greened by water manipulation/managed irrigation. Water is severely rationed to the inhabitants. However, one giant asparagus farm uses as much water per day as the city of Ica, population 200,000 plus. Small farmers have sold land to asparagus agribusiness as the water table in the valley plummeted. Water is diverted from the Ica River, which rises in the mountains and is already compromised because of mining pollution. In our part of the world asparagus is harvested in the spring for four to five weeks a year. Then it is fed manure or compost to promote the next spring’s spears. In Peru, the plants are forced into dormancy by switching off the water. Water is introduced and continued on page 35

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MAY 2016

Top Heavy Have you ever wondered how much of the world’s biological productivity humans consume each year? Are we living in harmony with the energy patterns of Nature? Or are we in danger of taking too much honey from the hive, of drawing too much water from the well? To help address these questions, we will begin with an overview of the productivity and energy efficiency of the biosphere. Spring has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun now traverses the northern side of the equator. The sleeping continental giants of North America and Eurasia are arousing from winter hibernation. The northern Atlantic and Pacific Ocean waters are stirring again with new life. As air, water and soil temperatures warm and the sun shines longer and more brightly, terrestrial and aquatic plants rev up. We are entering upon the time of year when the biological economy is most productive. Photosynthesis on land and sea is shifting into high gear. Humans, like all other life forms that cannot make their own food, are utterly dependent upon photosynthetic plants. Plants transform carbon dioxide obtained from the air into the organic building blocks of life from which all our food is derived. Their productivity makes our life possible, providing the energy and nutrients we need to live. Climate and nutrients determine the productivity of the various ecosystems that comprise the biosphere. Because temperature, precipitation and soil fertility differ widely across the globe, ecosystem productivities also vary widely. For a given surface area, estuaries, swamps, marshes, and tropical and temperate forests are the most productive ecosystems for transforming inorganic carbon dioxide into organic biomass. They typically change 1 to 3

percent of the energy of sunlight falling on them into chemical energy stored in new organic matter. The open ocean, deserts and tundra are among the least productive, capturing and retaining as little as one hundredth to perhaps a few tenths of a percent of available sunlight. Lakes, grasslands and agricultural lands fall in the midrange of productivity. Oceans are vast, covering most of the surface of the Earth. Their extensive surface area compensates for their relative barrenness. In terms of total quantity, they are the most productive ecosystem. Tropical rain forests also are major producers of organic material. Together, oceans and tropical rain forest account for half of all new biomass made each year. Cultivated lands contribute only about 6 percent to total annual plant growth worldwide. So at first glance, it might appear that humans do not consume much of the world’s new biological wealth (what ecologists call ‘net primary productivity’) created each year. Yet, when ecologists add together the crops, wood, animals, fish and other biomass we extract from cultivated lands, grazed lands, forestry lands, and fisheries and combine that total with biological productivity losses caused by urbanization, desertification, and conversion of more productive forests to less productive cultivation and pasture, they find humans are co-opting nearly 40 percent of available terrestrial production, and about 25 percent or more of world production! In other words, by manipulation of the landscape, we have diminished the natural biological productivity of the earth. And of what is available for consumption, we take the lion’s share. If we set the total value of food and other biomass consumed each year at 10 million dollars, one single species— Homo sapiens—takes between 2 and 3 million dollars for itself. On average, the rest of the nonplant world must fend on a

meager dollar or two per species. In the energy economy of the natural world, this level of gluttony by a single species of omnivore or carnivore is not possible. Fundamental energetic constraints on population size would have intervened. I will explain. With each step (trophic level) up the food chain, roughly 90 percent of energy is lost as waste heat to the environment. The biomass (energy) of grass is much greater than the biomass (energy) of rabbits and other herbivores. And there are many more rabbits (herbivores) than foxes (carnivores). Humans, like eagles and wolves, stand atop the food chain energy pyramid. The privilege of being on top comes with the constraint of being greatly restricted in number. There simply isn’t enough energy flowing up from plants through the vast, interconnected and interdependent web of life to support huge populations of omnivores or carnivores. But unlike eagles and wolves, human population is relentlessly increasing. By a thousand percent, we have made the energy pyramid top heavy. Scientists have investigated the total weight of large animals (more than 100 pounds) that have lived on earth at any one time during the past 100,000 years. They have discovered that the combined biomass of humans, our domesticated livestock, and large wild animals is 10 times greater now than their combined biomass before the advent of the Industrial Revolution. The manmade imbalance in the energy pyramid began slowly to emerge about 250 years ago. Since the 1950s, the disparity has skyrocketing upward. How have we accomplished this? By dramatically augmenting natural energy flows with energy generated from fossil and nuclear fuels, hydroelectric, wind and solar power. We draw upon the equivalent of an extra planet’s worth of net primary productivity from these sources each year to support our population of 7 billion. Most humans would starve if we stopped generating energy technologically; there simply isn’t enough natural, biologically

generated energy to support this many of us. I raise this issue in light of the goal to power the world’s economy with renewable energy as expressed in the Paris Agreement negotiated during the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The U.S. Energy Information Agency projects that world energy consumption will grow by 50 percent over the next 30 years. This means that the human-induced energy imbalance will worsen, even if all generated power were to come from renewable sources. I caution my readers, especially those of you who are younger, to be less sanguine about wholeheartedly pursuing a renewable energy paradigm to power the world economy as it is presently configured. There is much more at stake than climate change. Can we handle power on a planetary scale wisely? Can we employ it in ways that cooperate with the natural world? I urge you to ponder and weigh not only the benefits but also the risks arising from our choosing to deviate so widely from Nature’s established energy patterns. It is an unrepeatable experiment; conducted within and upon the ecosystems that support us.

To the Editor —continued from page 8

term partnership. As many of you know, Crozet Park is community-owned and operated. Our success is tied directly to willing volunteers who give their time and energy. Many of these volunteers do so on a consistent basis because they use the Park and know it is simply not sustainable without their help. I mention this not only as a thank you but as a call to action for anyone who enjoys all the amenities the Park has to offer, many of them provided completely free. Next year’s Pitch-in at the Park will be Saturday, April 15. Please post this to your calendar and plan to join us. On behalf of the Park’s Board of Directors, thank you! Kim Guenther President, Claudius Crozet Park

CROZETgazette

Medicine —continued from page 30

other doctors were of a western physician. But I settled in, practicing medicine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Much about medicine is standard throughout the world, but each country has its own fascinating variations. One of the first patients I treated had sickle cell anemia. I have treated a lot of “sicklers” in my practice in the U.S., particularly at Yale as we were an inner-city hospital serving a large African-American population. Sickle cell anemia (sick as hell anemia some call it) in the U.S. strikes almost exclusively African Americans and it is extremely painful, so much so that opioid medications (narcotics) are almost always required. No one would think of not using narcotics to assuage the pain. In Saudi Arabia sickle cell anemia is more widespread in the population so I was going to see a lot of it, I thought, and I was anxious to share my expertise with the Saudi staff. I

MAY 2016 approached my patient to take a history and of course the history was severe 10-out-of-10 pain in his chest and abdomen and legs. Because of a genetic mutation in his hemoglobin molecules, his red blood cells were being deformed into a sickle shape from their normal smooth oval shape, and they were thus blocking his micro-circulation, causing agonizing pain as the downstream tissues were deprived of blood flow and oxygen. While this was obviously a severe case, it was like child’s play for a seasoned doc like me. I called for an IV and morphine, causing a small crisis in the ED staff. After some muttering and head shaking between my interpreter and the nursing staff, the chief of the ED was summoned. He patiently explained to me that narcotics were strictly forbidden in the culture. I got the feeling he had had this conversation with other western physicians over the years. “Yes, but how am I to treat his pain?” I asked. “Try Motrin,” he said. I could hardly believe my ears. We had a somewhat heated

conversation that ended in a compromise. I would start with Motrin, but if that didn’t work (how could it?) we were going to the head of the hospital to discuss obtaining some morphine. They had it, but just did not like to use it. To my surprise my patient thanked me for two Motrin and said he thought he could manage at home with some Tylenol. “Inshallah,” he added, meaning if God wills it, he will be better. I learned a lesson from that patient and that culture about the subjective nature of pain and the degree to which faith can affect outcomes. I also learned how shaky the foundations of some of my medical certainties were. And I never saw another sickle cell anemia patient during my time in Arabia. Well, my Saudi education was beginning, and so I approached my next patient a little more humbly. She was covered head-to-toe in a black abaya and her face was obscured by a dark veil. It was not hard to decipher her emotions, though, as she began the encounter with

an obviously angry diatribe to my translator. “What did she say?” I asked. The translator winced and reported, “She says the parking is inconvenient, the wait time is too long and the facility is dirty.” I had to smile a little. I felt like I hadn’t even left home.

Asparagus —continued from page 33

the spears appear. Peru has the highest yields globally. Labor costs are low and water is cheap. Peruvian asparagus caused asparagus prices to fall drastically in the last decade and a substantial number of U.S. growers went out of business. Imported asparagus has a high carbon footprint (read air miles). One other thing to keep in mind when you eat the spears year round is that all asparagus entering the U.S. is sprayed with methyl bromide, a fumigant, pesticide and ozone depleter. More about the TPP next time….

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2 _____ May Alcott, author of “Little Women” 3 The winning baseball team has more of these 5 All-boys middle school in Crozet 6 35th U.S. President, often called JFK (born May 29, 1917) 8 The _____-bitsy spider went up . . . 9 U.S. President between Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower (born May 8, 1884) 10 Arts & _____ Festival at The Park 11 Hot fat for frying chicken 12 Ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts 14 School next door to Brownsville Elementary 16 Ten is _____ than 14 18 Yogi _____, great catcher for the New York Yankees (born May 12, 1925)

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Gazette Vet —continued from page 22

starting to lick and chew on his feet. We weren’t sure at first if he was just bored or neurotic, because he is definitely a “licker.” Over time, the licking continued and eventually I started to see some moist skin between his toes. Around this same time, he got his first ear infection. I’m a veterinarian, so I regularly take a look in his ears, and I recall one day lifting one up and being horrified to see all the redness and black discharge. I swear he wasn’t even shaking his head one bit! We treated his ears and started bathing him a bit more to deal with his feet. Over time, I have changed his diet, used special shampoos, used topical medications, and event steroids and antibiotics to continue to put out these secondary infections that would pop up on his feet and then his chin. He would respond to the medications, but then once off them, the itching and skin lesions would slowly start coming back. We have definitely learned to live with a certain amount of itching and licking. There is a balance there —no chewing would require being on medications 100 percent of the time,

SNP Birthday —continued from page 21

shen/index.htm and click on Calendar. Congress’ mandate to the National Park Service is to “manage parks to remain unimpaired for the enjoyment of current and future generations.” This mandate translats into preservation and protection of the ecological integrity of all Park lands, such as maintaining air and water quality, protecting wildlife, and combining both plant and inection invasive species. Sadly, the resources available for these efforts are inadequate; there is a 90 million dollar backlog of maintenance projects within the park system, including road, trail, overlook, and visitor center maintenance as well as the need for enough staff

MAY 2016 which won’t be good for his long-term health. However, never using medications would mean that his skin would continue to get worse and worse, becoming so damaged at some point that certain areas would be chronically infected beyond repair. So I have tried my best to ride the line between these two states. More recently, I have felt like I have been losing this battle, so I finally did some allergy testing on him. This is a pretty easy test now (but expensive), where we draw blood and send it to a special lab that tests for some regional allergens. To no surprise, Boone’s main allergies were all to grasses. So now he is currently receiving allergy shots, which are pretty easy to administer. The purpose here is to give very small amounts of the offending allergens to him over time, hoping to teach his body to develop a tolerance to these things. Allergy shots tend to work in about 75-80 percent of my patients who go for them and ultimately allow us to use less medication over time. Allergic skin disease in dogs can be frustrating, but with a good partnership between you and your veterinarian, most dogs can be well managed and live a full life, with plenty of romps in the grass.

to meet visitor needs. We can help by joining the Shenandoah National Park Trust, which provides significant fundraising help to supplement government support, or the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, which helps to maintain hiking trails within the Park. At the conclusion of Northrup’s presentation, Dan Mahon, Albemarle County Parks & Recreation Outdoor Recreation Supervisor, addressed the long-standing relationship between the County and the Park, especially the current demand for a “recreation lifestyle” and the need for updating both local and national park infrastructure. Ann Mallek presented Northrup with a jar of White Hall Ruritans apple butter as a thank you. Then we headed out for a memorable hike in the Shenandoah National Park!

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BEREAVEMENTS Hiram Cornellius Bartlow, 90 November 23, 2015 Roger Dale Eddy, 70 March 13, 2016 Arlene Eiserman Anns, 87 March 28, 2016 Henry A. Schwartz, 84 March 30, 2016 Mary Frances Morris, 73 April, 2016 Edith Louise Leathers, 74 April 3, 2016 David Wilkinson Carr, 91 April 6, 2016 Ruby Lee Collins Gunter, 86 April 6, 2016 Lawrence Joseph Mawyer, 92 April 6, 2016 Charlotte E. Barbour, 94 April 7, 2016 Mark Craig Harris, 56 April 7, 2016 Linda Woods Nicholas, 75 April 9, 2016 Emma Louise Upchurch Priest, 96 April 12, 2016 Janet Lynn Grinstead Crawford, 60 April 14, 2016 Earl Early Byrd Haskins, 74 April 14, 2016 Evelyn Hastings Kerr, 89 April 16, 2016 Elizabeth Anne Seaholm Wood, 71 April 16, 2016 Oliver Lorenzo Wells, 90 April 17, 2016 Genevieve Marshall Murphy, 82 April 21, 2016 David Russell Handy, 51 April 25, 2016 Robert Andrew Smith, 58 April 25, 2016 Sara Anne Tompkins Brown, 83 April 26, 2016 Dorothy Elizabeth Mowry Daughtry, 91 April 27, 2016

CROZETgazette

MAY 2016

Vietnam

MAY 10

Margie Shepherd

—continued from page 24

base in California. It was just a friendship. There was nothing romantic. We talked a lot. I flew home. After a couple of months I got a package. It was an engagement ring. The note said, ‘You were Wayne’s girlfriend and I was his best friend and I think Wayne would want me to take care of you.’ “Being at the 50th with other people, it helped me to be able to talk about it and put a little closure on it. Vietnam was so unpopular and the boys were so badly treated when they came home. They thought they were fighting for their country. So many came back so badly damaged mentally from what they had been through. It’s a sad, sad situation, but I consider myself a better person for knowing Wayne. “The memorial foundation guys say that people need to see how the war affected me and my family. When we got the news of Wayne’s death is the only time I ever saw my Dad cry. My mom and dad liked him a lot and they were happy about the marriage. I was a kid and I didn’t think he would die. It was totally devastating. You make all these plans and things change so quickly. Tomorrow is not promised and you have to live in today.” She stopped to wipe her eyes again. “I never foresaw that I would be alone late in life. “I’m giving the flag they gave me to Tom. His son is interested in the family history. I was happy to be allowed to accept it. I felt very honored.”

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Margie Shepherd, longtime Henley Middle School teacher, will read from her book Double Vision, Stories From Childhood, at Over the Moon Bookstore in Crozet, on May 10 at 7 p.m. The public is invited.

MAY 14

Batesville Day

Make plans to come to the 41st annual celebration of Batesville Day. The day’s famous 10K will start at 8 a.m. The biggest little parade around featuring the Henley Middle School Band, the Charlottesville Municipal Band, Rivanna Winds, and the Albemarle Morris Men will march at 11. A village fair will begin at noon with a first-time-ever tug-o-war between the North Garden and Crozet Volunteer Fire Departments, games and free books for the kids, plus, food by Two Brothers Southwestern Grill and two hours of blues provided by the Central Virginia Blues Society—all free–

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Orchestra Concert

The upcoming Crozet Community Orchestra concert will be performed on Sunday June 5, at 4 p.m. at Crozet Baptist Church, directed by Philip Clark. Admission is free. The program includes well-known marches arranged for full orchestra and Vivaldi’s Concerto in C with Nancy Garlick on solo sopranino recorder. The CCO will sponsor a joint clarinet and violin recital on Saturday, May 14, at 4 p.m. at Crozet Baptist Church. The CCO’s first clarinetist, Julia Klein, and violinist Bethany Reitsma will perform separately and together with piano accompaniment by Linda Blondel and Margaret Belanus. The recital is open to the general public and free of charge.

CLASSIFIED ADS BECOME A CONFIDENT PUBLIC SPEAKER and inspirational leader at Crozet Toastmasters every Tuesday from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Tabor Presbyterian Fellowship Hall. Contact cbrown8853@ gmail.com COMPUTER CARE Quality computer repair in your home or office. Virus removal, networking, wireless setup, tutoring, used computers. Reasonable rates. Over 15 years’ experience. Please call (434) 825-2743. CROZET ARTISAN DEPOT presents “A Jewelry Affaire,” celebrating new work from our fabulous jewelry artists in May! Please join us for a Second Saturday reception on May 14 from 4-6 p.m. Refreshments served. CROZET YMCA is hiring opening shifts at the front desk: 5:15-9:00 a.m. plus weekend rotation shifts. Contact Jeri at jevans@piedmontymca.org

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will take place in a field on the east end of town until 2 p.m. For more information, including how to participate in the race, parade and fair go to batesvilleva.org. Sponsored by the Batesville Ruritans.

COMMUNITY WIDE YARD SALE in OLD TRAIL, Crozet. Visit all of Old Trail’s neighborhoods for individual yard sales on: indoor/outdoor furniture and decor, lawn and garden, books, clothes, toys, and more. No early birds please. Saturday May 7th from 8 AM to noon. Old Trail Community, Crozet. Just off Route 250 across from Western Albemarle High School. COMMUNITY YARD SALE Wintergreen Community Flea Market, Saturday, May 14, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Tuckahoe School, behind the Nellysford

Farmers’ Market. Tables available. Call 434-361-2625. Donations accepted May 13 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. on site. HABITAT FOR HUMANITY GOLF TOURNAMENT to be held Monday June 6, at Stoney Creek Golf Course. All proceeds will benefit Habitat for Humanity. We are looking for Hole Sponsors ($250/great advertising) and Players ($145/great fun) and includes box lunch and dinner. A silent auction will be held with many amazing items! Contact Fred McGee at: 434-760-2089 or FredMcGee@icloud.com. MEMORIAL DAY AT PIEDMONT CHURCH MAY 29 Piedmont Baptist Church in Yancey Mills will host its annual Memorial Day program on May 29 at 4 p.m. with the Wing of Faith Singers of Charlottesville in concert. For more information, call Anita Washington at 295-3266. NO MORE EXCUSES M2 Personal Training offers 8 classes per week taught by certified personal trainers in Crozet. Or set up a group training session or oneon-one session in your home to help meet your fitness/health goals. Check out www.m2personaltraining.com for more information. Contact Melissa Miller at 434-962-2311. REGISTERED PIANO TECHNICIAN to service your piano. Tuning, in-home repair. Wendy Parham RPT 434-218-9093 or wendyrparham@gmail.com.

CROZETgazette

Green Olive Tree Snippets

MAY 2016

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Crozet Artisan Depot

By Sheila Freeman What do you collect? There are as many answers to that question as there are categories of matter. Cookbooks, salt and pepper shakers, small squirrel figurines or all sorts of anything elephant. Some people are heavily into angels or prayer cards. My mother would never pass up a church bulletin or pamphlet. What about stamps and coins? Who can resist sea glass and sea shells? Why do you collect what you do? Most of us started to collect because the first item was encoded in a special memory of a person or event. The baby lamb from childhood makes one more partial to lambs. A first snow globe that was a gift from grandma. There comes a time or an age when many of us have to divest ourselves of our collections. We pass the stuff of life to our family and friends or to a place such as The Green Olive Tree. As painful or as liberating as the parting may be, there can be a kind of material “namaste” involved. We at The Green Olive Tree often receive collections. Many shoppers are excited to find a special item to add to their groupings. Recently someone gave their collection of hippopotamuses, which was not a common sort of collection when you think of all the owls we see. Last month we had a volunteer appreciation lunch at Crozet Baptist Church. More than 30 volunteers attended. There’s space for more help if you would like to join us. Everyone has special talents that can make us better. The next bag sale is the week of May 16.

where creativity meets community In the historic train depot at:

5791 Three Notch’d Road Crozet, VA 22932

www.crozetartisandepot.com Wed. - Sat. 10 am - 5 pm; Sun. 12 - 5 pm; Closed Mon. & Tues.

434-205-4795

facebook.com/CrozetArtisanDepot

Come Visit the Olivet Preschool! 3 day - 3 year old class 4 day - 4 year old class

Providing a Christian preschool opportunity for families in our community

The Olivet Preschool at Olivet Presbyterian Church 2575 Garth Road, Charlottesville 434-295-1367 (church office)

olivetpreschool.org • betsy@olivetpresbyterian.org

McAllister Painting Licensed and Insured Over 20 Years Experience - Free Estimates All aspects of painting Interior and Exterior Gutter Cleaning & Power Washing “No job too small”

Call Todd at 434-960-4775

carpentry 434-962-9966

30 YRS EXP.

CLASS A LICENSE

INSURED

ronbrownconst@gmail.com

ALL ENGINES POSSIBLE New location! 6037 Rockfish Gap Turnpike, Crozet Open Monday - Friday 9 am - 6 pm; Saturday 8 am - 1 pm; Closed Sunday

Quality Work | Affordable Rates 434.823.8392 434.953.7931 cell www.allenginespossible.com

Accounting - Bookkeeping Tax Services - Notary Public BY APPOINTMENT

1186 Crozet Avenue In the Blue Goose Building in Downtown Crozet

Phone: 434-823-1420 Fax: 434-823-1610 M I L L E R O U U N L I ON S F S K B I S CU T RA I L S E E R L N U C I NCOD EMA A MOT H E R E I E A A DOL L E Y F N N E F Y F L A T L S E S MOK SOL S MA Y W E M E MOR I

B E R R A L I T T S YO