InFauquier

WINTER 2019

The Dream Issue

Sugarplums, snow days, a long winter’s nap: What’s the season got in store for you?

Discover

Dream conference Dream analysis Dream homes Dream jobs Plus, AAHA voting rights film goes from dream to reality WINTER 2019

1

Our Outstanding Agents Provide Exceptional Service!

Contact Them For Any Of Your Real Estate Needs!

Alex Wood 540.222.7700

Amber Castles 703.399.5923

Ann Frias 727.808.7765

Beth Kramer 571.220.2662

Beth Liles 540.717.2337

Brenda Rich 540.270.1659

Cathy Kane 703.868.1976

Christine Duvall 540.270.6344

Diane Quigley 703.732.5952

Dink Godfrey 540.270.5779

Don Robertson 540.229.3825

Edie Grassi 540.878.1308

Ethel Goff Everett House 540.272.4074 703.477.3003

Frank Martin 540.270.1494

Hodge Miller 540.272.4967

Judy Rose Julia Foard Lynch Karen Goff Kateland Rich Flinn Kathleen Martin Kathleen Modolo Kathy Holster 540.359.5366 540.270.4274 703.408.1480 540.270.8558 703.867.1133 703.944.6437 703.930.0453

Kelly Davenport 703.303.6416

Mary Anne Dispanet Melinda Livingston Meredith Schmahl 540.219.1196 703.472.1400 540.270.2907

Monica Justiniano Nancy Richards 703.725.2381 540.229.9983

Cliff Weeks 910.391.5236

Dave Bryan 540.219.1159

Denise Goff 703.839.3300

Diana Feldman 703.434.2988

Jack Payne Jackie Douglass 540.227.0775 540.687.1263

Janet Light 540.219.7509

Joan Zorger 540.379.6313

Kim Herrewig 703.501.0072

Lisa Lisjak Mary Ann Dubell 703.499.2622 540.212.1100

Michaela Mummert 540.270.2907

Michelle Hale 540.222.0121

Mike Graham 703.927.3288

Pam Jenkins 540.219.3611Â

Paulina Stowell 571.275.8646

Stanley Heaney 540.812.5533

Otis Williams 703.627.1327

Starr Ibach Stephanie Wayne Tammy Roop 703.786.3229 703.965.1643 540.270.9409

Tony Pitorri 540.717.0874

Troy Price Vanessa Sfreddo 540.222.3260 540.270.7949

Kim Holzer 540.729.7462

Wendy Kamal 703.343.6929

Whitney Petrilli 540.878.1730

Century 21 New Millennium 8074 Crescent Park Drive, Gainesville, VA 20155 - 703.753.7910 85 Garrett Street, Warrenton, VA 20186 - 540.349.1221 2

WINTER 2019

IN THE

Winter 2019 – The Dream Issue

26 BOOK BY NORMAN FINE

LIFE & STYLE 18 One woman’s journey in race relations leads to Equestrian Equality.

23 Making dream homes a reality.

24 African American Historical Association creates voter film.

26 Research writer went looking for details on ‘blind bomber’ radar, and ended up in a most surprising place.

EXTR AS

■ Tidbits ............................................... 8 ■ Side by Side .................................... 21 ■ The Last Word ................................. 50

8

37 PHOTO BY CINDY GOFF

FACES & PLACES 30 Kettle Run senior Laura Thompson wins international engineering award for untangling traffic.

32 Musician, animal lover Jiamie Pyles finds her way from darkness to light.

34 A Freudian slip? How do you interpret your dreams?

37 Meet museum director Elizabeth Von Hassell.

40 PHOTO BY BETSY BURKE PARKER

FARE & FLAIR 40 Small but mighty, birds are a welcome part of winter: Find out how to tempt them to stick around.

43 Try your hand at homecooking with this suet.

46 Tea-time: ’Tis the season for warmth from the inside 48 A winter feast devoid of color. It’s a good thing.

Really!

49 Hearty seasonal beers

ON THE COVER

Dream a little dream ...

Cover photographer Cindy Goff, Piedmont Media art director, says she created the dreamy image as a photo illustration using a number of techniques she's perfected through work with Dreamspeed Photography.

"I shot this image of Mina ‘Mirkwood’ Goodman, multimedia painter, in her home. I stood on a wooden chair at the foot of her bed to get the overhead shot.

"There was beautiful afternoon light coming in the window which created the dream-like shapes on the bed and the wall. I also used two constant lights to fill in the dark areas around the room.

"I used a photo of old, chipped green paint on the oil tank behind my own house to create the 'wall' which I superimposed on the dream shot. It's blended in Photoshop in a way that preserves the original shadows of the original photos.

"To further enhance the dreamy atmosphere, Mina is wearing pajamas with moons and stars, and laying on a cloud pillow. In postprocess, I softened all the colors and the edges.

"Mina tried all kinds of poses and tolerated me moving furniture and lights around her house for a couple of hours.

Not really conducive to actually dreaming, but it worked perfect to get this shot that says it all."

PHOTO BY CINDY GOFF

WINTER 2019

3

Published quarterly by Piedmont Media Address 41 Culpeper Street Warrenton, VA 20186 Phone: 540-347-4222 Fax: 540-349-8676 Publisher: Catherine M. Nelson cnelson@fauquier.com Editor: Betsy Burke Parker betsyburkeparker@gmail.com Managing editor: Robin Earl rearl@fauquier.com Advertising Call 540-347-4222 Consultants: Anthony Haugan ahaugan@fauquier.com Renee Ellis rellis@fauquier.com Patti Engle pengle@fauquier.com Tony Ford tford@fauquier.com Rebecca Rosa rrosa@fauquier.com Marie Rossi mrossi@fauquier.com Design Production designer: Sawyer Guinn sguinn@fauquier.com Ad designers: Vincent Sales vsales@fauquier.com Cindy Goff cgoff@fauquier.com Annamaria Ward award@fauquier.com

‘Plan A’? Or ‘plan B’? We asked our contributors - ‘Are you living your dream?’

Their answers may surprise you (some are way past ‘plan C!’) She’s not really “evil,” but writer Connie Lyons has used a randomly flippant term of endearment to her advantage. “I had always dreamed of writing a novel, but never could get started.

One day my then-11-year-old grandson was joking around and called me Evil Gran. “Something in my heart caught fire, and the result was a fantasy trilogy. Evil Gran 1: Spear; Evil Gran 2: Tarnhelm, and Evil Gran 3: Ring are based on Wagner’s Ring operas. Ten years of work, 1,600 pages. My life’s dream, inspired by one silly remark.”

Designer Sawyer Guinn spent his youth with his head in the clouds daydreaming daily, but with age, today, he finds such wanting “fails in comparison to the real world.”

Steve Price says he’s for sure living his dream. “I was able to parlay my lifelong fondness for the spoken and written word into a writing and editing career. Add to that my good fortune of combining my ink-slinging professional life with my ruling passions of horses, fishing and country music, I’m delighted to report I’ve nothing to regret.”

John Hagarty retired after 38 years with the federal government. “After retirement I embraced the world of wine and beer as a home winemaker and homebrewer and am the manager, special events at a Virginia winery.

Residential Sales & Property Management

Staying active with golf, hiking, backpacking, skiing, volunteering, family life and writing rounds out for me what are some of the most satisfying years of my life. Indeed, a dream.”

Writer Betsy Burke Parker says her original childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian never wavered “until I learned you had to pass college calculus to get into vet school.”

She headed down a the journalism track after graduation, for 30 years serving as Horse and Field Sports editor for Piedmont Media, 5 years ago adding inFauquier. “As it turns out, this is my dream job – horses, Virginia countryside and no blood or surgery.”

Vineeta Ribeiro says she must not be “living the dream” because in order to dream, you need to sleep. At age 53, Vineeta is “perpetually in school,” either teaching STEM classes to high school students or taking graduate classes.

With a husband, six (mostly grown) children, a crazy dog and an occasional writing stint, Vineeta says she’s “happy, but a little sleepy.”

Over time, Pat Reilly says her “dreams have changed and expanded as new possibilities opened up, but they always had something to do with reading and writing.” In “retirement,” she’s directing a film festival, planning early childhood education programs in west Africa and going to Greece to teach English to refugees. “These are dreams I wouldn’t have dared to dream earlier in my life.”

She always heard it said, Alissa Jones points out, that when you find what you love to do, you’ll find what you were born to do. “I have many dreams, but what I was born to do is

write. I want to write books about family, honor, faith and legacy, about love and God and country. I dream about helping others find their voice.” Alissa has two grown children, three grandchildren, is a ministry training graduate and a STEAM teacher.

As a teacher at Hill School in Middleburg, John Daum says he lives his dream every morning when class begins and he’s able to share his love of Renaissance art, Medieval history, architecture and classic literature with students. Being a teacher affords him time to travel and “continually learn from new experiences and enjoy new stops in my lifelong beer odyssey.”

Conservationist, nature writer and photographer Pam Owen says she had many dreams as a child, but chief among them were someday working on a ranch in the American West, living in the Blue Ridge Mountains, working as a writer and photographer and being a life-long student of nature. “All of it has come to fruition.”

Master Gardener, career environmentalist and Warrenton Old Town resident Sally Harmon Semple is living her dream of being a mother and restoring an old house. She says her childhood dream of saving the environment is “going to take a bit more work.”

Mara Seaforest describes her life as episodic, driven by dreams and opportunity. “So far, I’m getting away with it.”

Norman Fine is living his dream life, he says, near Millwood, spending equal time riding horses and writing for his foxhuntinglife.com website.

Meet our OutstandingTeam

Charles “Chip” Miller, Broker/Owner

Becky Miller, Realtor/Owner

Tonka, Office Mascot

Karen A. Ingram, Realtor

Allison Jensen, Realtor

Bruce & Elaine Noble, Realtors

Randy Smyth, Realtor

Tish Smyth, Realtor

Janet Quaintance, Realtor

Angela Smith, Realtor

www.PiedmontFineProperty.com

Piedmont Fine Properties | 25 S. Fourth Street, Ste 200 - Warrenton, VA 20186 | 540-347-5277 Licensed in Virginia

4

WINTER 2019

Santa’s milk and cookie powernap is sponsored by Rankin’s Furniture.

Allow Rankin’s Furniture to be part of your powernap today.

Family Owned & Operated Monday-Friday 10am - 6pm 360 Waterloo Street, Warrenton VA Saturday 10am - 5pm |Closed Sunday

www.rankinsfurnishings. com 540-349-0617

DELIVERY AVAILABLE*

Financing by Lendmark Financial with approved credit

WINTER 2019

5

Follow your dreams

They know the way better than you do

As often happens, it was inspired by an ad.

Last January, I was reading a national newspaper. Inside, there was a powerful, full-page ad featuring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a full broadsheet page filled with the iconic black-and-white AP photo of King addressing the masses on the Mall. The shot was from the historic “march on Washington for jobs and freedom” Aug. 28, 1963 in response to police incidents in Birmingham that May. The photographer captured the moment – framing the crowd, catching the speaker’s fire and passion. King’s right forefinger is stabbing the air as he makes one of his many salient points in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

The headline, naturally: I Have A Dream.

I read the provocative speech – text overlaid on the photo – and realized the power of that one day stretches across 56 years.

A friend had just that morning been telling me stories about when he’d lived at Sen. Edward Brooke’s place on Blantyre Road near Warrenton. Elected in 1966, and re-elected in 1972, Brooke was the first black U.S. senator voted in after Reconstruction. A Republican from Massachusetts, Brooke shunned labels, my friend was saying, more centrist and progressive than his increasingly conservative Republican colleagues.

He opposed the expansion of nuclear arsenals, pushed for improved relations with China and championed civil rights, legalization of abortion and fair housing policies.

“

First, think.

Second, believe.

Third, dream.

Finally, dare.

6

WINTER 2019

– Walt Disney

tuitive

He urged Republicans to match Democrats in coming up with programs to aid cities and the poor. “He was a really neat person,” my friend said. Brooke sounded amazing.

Sen. Brooke had purchased a farm at the corner of Blackwell and Blantyre while he was in Washington, living here for many years and calling it, my friend said, his dream come true.

And there it was. The Dream Issue took shape.

To jumpstart research and development, later that week I asked for input from coworkers during a roundtable meeting at the Fauquier Times. “My childhood dream was to be an astronaut,” one said. “I wanted to be a tennis player.” “An artist.” “Maybe an exotic dancer.” There were lots of laughs and plenty of animated chatter about how we all ended up on plan B, or even C or D or E in our career and life choices, to be sitting at the same table at the same time on the same day in the same place. “I guess our dreams change like we do,” one of the graphic designers said. “Though, I guess I have always dreamed of living on a mountain. And I do live on a mountain.”

When I suggested the dream theme to the writing and photo team, they ran with it. Pat Reilly jumped in first with her considerable knowledge of the Afro-American Historical Association in The Plains and their research into the fight for voting rights, Fauquier Library’s Lisa Pavlock providing a winter reading list to support February’s Black History Month. Alyssa Booze Troetschel reports on the ongoing efforts of local, and national, Habitat for Humanity to provide housing for all.

Mara Seaforest introduces us to local musician Jiamie Pyles, who beat substance abuse to live her personal dream, and Vineeta Ribeiro explains the methodology of international engineering fair winner Laura Thompson to improve one of the county’s nastiest traffic snarls, the answer to many commuters’ dreams.

We hope as you dive into this Dream Issue, you ask yourself, “Am I living my dream?”

t h e c r e d i t u n i o n d i f f e r e n c e s ta r t s w i t h

it’s easy to join. get started today. apply online or stop by one of these branches. culpeper: 633 meadowbrook shopping center warrenton: 484 blackwell road vint hill: 4257-a aiken drive, bldg 102 orange: 115 north madison road visit website for all branch and atm locations 888-887-9136

Financial Solutions for Personal and Business. uvacreditunion.org insured by ncua

WINTER 2019

7

COUNTY TIDBITS

A winter dream-scheme Lots of ways to warm up this season There's so much going on through the holidays, New Year's and beyond. This list is just a starting point: Check the Fauquier Times weekly, and fauquier. com.

Join the Operation Santa team

Every year, kids send letters addressed to “Santa,” asking for everything from the year’s hottest toys to the most mundane basics, like a warm coat or shoes.

This year, you can make Christmas wishes come true.

Through the U.S. Postal Service, letters to Santa from low-income kids are being made available for “adoption” in a unique online program.

Donors can pick a letter from any city in the country, receive the wish-list and mail the requested gifts in time for the holidays.

The program is tax deductible. beanelf.org

Numbers down, but still a big haul at FEF

The total harvest dipped this year at the Fauquier Education Farm on Meetze Road, but the seven-acre Warrenton facility still took in more than 51,000 pounds of produce.

Established in 2010, the nonprofit operation donates its entire harvest to food banks in Fauquier, Rappahannock and Prince William counties, along with two assistance programs in Culpeper County.

“The biggest challenge this year was the deer,” explains program director Jim Hankins. “They caused far more damage than during any other season.”

Market at Bluewater Kitchen opens in Upperville

In the old Upperville Country Store

Fauquier’s Master Gardeners have created a visual delight at the historic oneroom schoolhouse east of Marshall. The gardens support pollinators as well. in each others’ company – or take it to bed for a late-night read, and at the end of the month, donate the books to Goodwill or another literacy program that provides books for the underprivileged.

It teaches about giving back to the community, experts say, as well as giving a good reason for social interaction in a warm, old-fashioned way. fauquierlibrary.org

Warrenton’s own John King plays Santa Claus for Christmas most years. space, the Market at Bluewater Kitchen has opened to join Bluewater’s catering and event company. Michael and Christina Kozich offer prepared meals, some grocery items, craft beer, local goods and more in addition to full-service catering. bwkitchen.com

Masters Gardener program

The Virginia Cooperative Extension 2020 Master Gardener program is being taught in Warrenton through the winter and spring.

The long-running program educates and trains community residents on emerging and proven gardening and landscaping practices that preserve and protect the environment.

The 16-week program runs Tuesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m., starting Jan. 8. Classes are held primarily at the VCE office in Warrenton and taught by horticultural experts.

In addition to the classroom sessions,

More library: Paws to Read participants also complete 50 hours of community volunteering. fc-mg.org

Library story time – in your PJs! A special pajama story time is scheduled Jan. 14 at the Warrenton library.

Stories, songs and activities are planned at the family-friendly, free event.

More library: A holiday idea to warm your heart

To celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, or even all 31 days of December if you prefer, wrap up a seasonal book for your kids, young or old.

Open one “gift” each night, enjoy it

The Bealeton Library hosts a special Paws To Read event Dec. 21. Kids age 5 to 10 are invited to the library to read books of their choice to special therapy dogs. The free event runs 10:30 a.m. to noon.

Give a little love to shelter pets during ‘Foster Challenge’

The Middleburg Humane Foundation is participating in the Maddie’s Fund foster express challenge this holiday season. Through mid-January, the Marshall shelter is sending dogs and cats to short-term foster families, enhancing their adoptability.

MHF provides all food and necessary items for the foster stays. middleburghumane.org

The county’s library system has winter and holiday projects throughout the season, including a pajama reading event and the popular Paws To Read pet progam.

8

WINTER 2019

COUNTY TIDBITS Local theater tackles tough issues in 'The Laramie Project'

Dark Horse Theatre Company in The Plains will feature "The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later" Jan. 3 to 25. The play follows how one hate crime shaped an American community forever.

On Oct.6, 1998, gay college student Matthew Shepard was brutally killed on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. His death shook the town to the core, while putting them squarely on the map. Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie shortly after to conduct in-person interviews with residents.

Those interviews became "The Laramie Project."

Sixteen actors bring 50 characters to life, opening with narrator Peyton Slade, a merchant in The Plains, setting the stage for the audience.

"Laramie" will be performed at Grace Church in The Plains. darkhorseva.com

It’s not too late: Head out to a local cut-your-own Christmas trees run dark, light and everything in between for holiday tradition Like winter snowflakes, not all Christmas trees are alike. They come in all shades of green, some with long needles, others with short, branches ranging from willowy to sturdy. Your choice ultimately will reflect your needs.

Around the Virginia piedmont, farmers grow several different types of Christmas trees. Grayson County in southwest Virginia is the largest cut Christmas tree production area, but there are plenty of choices in Fauquier.

Hartland Farm and Orchard Markham hartlandfarmandorchard.com

Arboria Tree Farm Marshall 540-364-3166

JB’s Christmas Tree Farm Midland virginiachristmastrees.org

KK Christmas Trees Marshall buylocalvirginia.org

Stribling

Markham 540-364-1206

Evergreen Acres Nokesville evergreenacres.biz

PATH Foundation welcomes three new board members The PATH Foundation has announced the addition of Rodger Baker, Hanna Lee Rodriguez and Major Warner to its 2019-2020 Board of Directors. They are part of the 15-member volunteer board that leads the strategic direction of the PATH Foundation.

The three newest board members began their tenure at the Sept. 19 board meeting.

Previous board members Mark Van De Water, Patricia Woodward and Mary Leigh McDaniel have completed their tenure on the board.

“We’re incredibly thankful for the service of Mark Van de Water, Patricia Woodward and Mary Leigh McDaniel during their time on the PATH Foundation’s board,” Christy Connolly, PATH Foundation president and CEO, said. “We are lucky to have passionate community members at the helm of our organization, and we know that our board will provide mindful, effective leadership as we continue our work to strengthen

Hanna Lee Rodriguez, Major Warner and Rodger Baker are the newest members of the PATH Foundation Board of Directors. the health and vitality of our community. We look forward to the unique insight our newest board members will bring to the table.”

Manassas resident Hanna Lee Rodriguez, an attorney at Walker Jones, PC, also serves on the board of the Mental Health Association of Fauquier County, and previously served on the boards of the Fauquier Free Clinic and the Piedmont Symphony Orchestra.

Delaplane resident Major

Warner, associate superintendent for instruction for Fauquier County Public Schools, previously served as principal of Kettle Run High School and was selected as The Washington Post’s Distinguished Educational Leader for Fauquier County in 2015.

Warrenton resident Rodger Baker, is the former CEO of Fauquier Health and longtime member of the Fauquier Health System and Fauquier Hospital Board of Directors.

Myth or fact: Do horses sleep standing up?

Learn how horses doze (and other little-known facts) Do horses really sleep standing up or must they lie down? Can they dream? How much sleep do they need? How do horses’ sleeping habits compare to other critters? Can we get any takeaways for ourselves?

By Bill Fish Like cattle, horses are capable of sleeping in a standing position. Sleeping while standing is beneficial because it tricks potential predators into thinking the animal is awake and less vulnerable.

This ability to sleep while standing is due to a series of leg ligaments and bones called the “stay apparatus” that allows certain large animals, such as giraffes and zebras, to lock their legs.

Horses do not do all of their sleeping standing up, however. Horses engage in light sleep while standing, but cannot experience REM sleep unless they lie down. Horses regularly take short naps while standing throughout the day, which is likely the reason some people assume horses always sleep standing up.

Although horses are much larger than humans, often weighing more than 1,000 pounds, they do not require as much sleep as humans do.

Most horses only need five to seven hours of rest each day, and less than one hour of that rest is REM sleep.

Like humans, the amount of sleep a horse needs changes over their lifetime. Foals can sleep half the day away, while the oldest horses need only a few hours of sleep.

Horses tend to sleep at different times of day than humans do. They are not diurnal like us, nor are they nocturnal. Horses can sleep at any time, day or night, and generally spread their sleep out across each 24-hour period by sleeping for minutes at a time instead of one long block.

Horses likely dream, scientists have discovered, since they experience REM, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep, while lying down. Horses move their eyes during this deep sleep stage, and sometimes even lightly move their legs. Though we can’t know what horses dream about, it is likely, like humans, that they dream about things they experience in waking life.

Horses tend to lie down to sleep when another horse nearby remains standing. This practice evolved, research suggests, as a protective method. If all horses in a herd were to lie down to sleep at the same time, they all would become vulnerable to a predator’s attack.

Like humans, horses can suffer from sleep disorders. A horse can become sleep deprived if it feels that sleep is unsafe, either because there are predators nearby, or the horse is alone and has no buddy to provide watch. Horses can also have trouble sleeping because they are in pain, their sleeping space is not comfortable or they must compete for sleeping space with other horses.

Find more articles on how dogs, cats, fish and other animals sleep at tuck.com.

WINTER 2019

9

Flooring Specialists and More

Early’s Carpet, Inc. 14574 Lee Highway, Amissville, VA 20106 540-937-5500 Visit Us Online: www.earlyscarpet.com

+

Mon - Fri 9 am to 5 pm ~ Sat 10 am to 4 pm EMERGENCY SERVICES Your Hometown Store So Much Under One Roof!

Day, Night & Weekends Available The Largest In-Stock Inventory of Carpet,

You already know we are your hometown carpet Area Rugs, Orientals, Vinyl, Hardwood, and vinyl experts. But did you know…

Laminate, Ceramic & Remnants!

The Specialists Fu zz y

sts and More

Mr. Woo dy

Carpet, Inc. 14574 Lee Highway, Amissville, VA 20106 540-937-5500

Flooring Specialists and More M-F 9am to 5 pm ~ Sat 10am to 4pm EMERGENCY SERVICES Day, Night & Weekends Available

Winter reading list, With our guide, you can have it all It’s the coldest season, with the shortest days and longest nights.

Winter is custom-made for curling up with a good book. Or a good movie.

Or both.

Select from this list of classics old and new(er) perfect for a marathon reading session followed by a screening of the associated movie or mini-series.

Early’s Carpet, Inc.

2. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged,

by Ayn Rand.

Rand is a mesmerizing You already know we are your hometown carpet sto r y te l l e r, and vinyl experts. But So did you know… metown Store Much Under One Roof! and her semi+ nal works The Largest In-Stock Inventory of Carpet, remain the © 1. Shogun, by James Clavell.

Area Rugs, Orientals, Vinyl, Hardwood, Carrera most influYour Hometown Store So Much Under One Roof!

An Englishman shipwrecked in ential works Laminate, Ceramic & Remnants!

16th century Japan, this is a romanThe Largest In-Stock Inventory of Carpet, tic adventure story, full of fascinat- from late 20th century literature.

Area Rugs, Orientals, Vinyl, Hardwood, ing cultural and 3. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. historical detail.

Laminate, Ceramic & Remnants!This falls into the classic “book It was also made is even better than the (very good) into a surpris- movie” category. ingly good TV The Largest ville, VA 20106 mini-series star- 4. The French Lieutenant’s With a limited lifetime warranty, customers enjoy 0 In-Stock ring Richard Woman, by John Fowles. the benefit of free, lifetime parts for your custom Lose yourself in this beautifully window treatments.

Chamberlain to 0am to 4pm Inventory of written romance, set in Victorian RVICES follow up your s Available Carpet, England.

The screen version takes reading with 14574 Lee Highway, Amissville, VA 20106 some binge- the words to screen in a racy, lavish 540-937-5500 Area Rugs, Visit Us Online: hometown carpet manner. watching. www.earlyscarpet.com

know…

M-F 9am to 5 pm ~ Sat 10am to 4pm Orientals, EMERGENCY SERVICES Vinyl,Day, Night & Weekends Available Hardwood, You already know we are your hometown carpet Laminate, and vinyl experts.

But did you know…

Ceramic & Remnants!

14574 Lee Highway, Amissville, VA 20106 540-937-5500 M-F 9am to 5pm Sat 10am to 4pm Visit Us Online: www.earlyscarpet.com

EMERGENCY SERVICES:

Day, Night & Weekends Available

February is Black History Month, an annual celebration of achievement by African Americans. A great collection of fiction and non-fiction can be found at any of the Fauquier County Public Library locations.

Fiction: A Death in Harlem by Karla F.C. Holloway Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom The Last Thing You Surrender by Leonard Pitts Over the Fence by Mary Monroe Non-fiction: The African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories edited by Kai Wright Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies by Dick Gregory Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 15132008 by Henry Louis Gates Jr. 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark Whitaker

Visit Us Online: www.earlyscarpet.com

Visit Us Online: www.earlyscarpet.com 10

WINTER 2019

winter viewing list FUN FOR ALL AGES

AT THE WARF! Membership Not Required

5. The Once and Future King,

by T. H. White.

This is a timeless story embellished with fascinating detail about medieval life, knighthood, chivalry and nature lore.

6. Kristen Lavransdatter,

by Sigrid Undset.

A Nobel prize winner, Undset creates a fascinating tale of life in medieval Norway.

7. Girl With a Pearl Earring,

by Tracy Chevalier.

Delve into life in 17th century Holland and the painter Jan Vermeer, equally entrancing on the page and on the screen.

8. Through a Glass Darkly,

by Kathleen Koen.

This engrossing tale is set in England and France in the early 18th century. Both book and movie take a bit of attention, since this isn’t your everyday life story.

9. Scruples,

by Judith Krantz.

For something a little less heavy, try this “soap opera in print,” full of glamorous people,

gorgeous clothes and fabulous homes. A fun read, a fun watch.

Come for the Day!

10. Cold Mountain,

by Charles Frazier.

Fall into another time in this Civil War novel. A National Book Award winner, Cold Mountain supported an excellent movie adaptation, with solid and believable casting that brings the beautiful writing to life.

11. Out of Africa,

by Isak Dinesen.

The book is incomparably superior to the movie, but if you recall, the movie was fabulous. Plan to lose yourself in both.

12. The Thorn Birds,

by Colleen McCollough.

Travel to Australia in the early 1900s to follow this fast-moving love-adventure. The thick tome was made into a good mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain. Find it on Netflix for a multi-night winter entertainment package.

– By Connie Lyons

Group, Semi-Private, & Private Swim Lessons offered for ALL ages year round!

Go to www.swimwarf.com or stop by the WARF anytime for more information.

Aquatics More Parent & Child Classes!

We are now offering 3 different levels of Parent & Child Classes!

Go to www.swimwarf.com for current offerings!

The American Academy of Pediatrics now suggests that children at the age of 1 or younger should be learning to swim, and our hope is to make this available to all.

Register for swim lessons today at www.warfonline.com

TOWN OF WARRENTON Parks & Recreation

WARF Warrenton Aquatic & Recreation Facility

Warrenton Aquatic & Recreation Facility - WARF www.warfaquaticcenter.com 800 Waterloo Road, Warrenton, VA 20186 • 540.349.2520 WINTER 2019

11

Are You Ready?

Highland School Graduates are Ready Recent Highland graduates have gone on to attend the most selective colleges and universities in the United States:

Harvard • Yale • Princeton • Stanford • Dartmouth • Cornell • Brown

Columbia • Duke • Georgetown • University of Virginia • Swarthmore

William & Mary • Middlebury • Davidson • Carnegie-Mellon • Wake Forest Washington & Lee • Colgate • Bowdoin • University of North Carolina

James Madison University • University of Richmond • and many others!

Schedule a tour today at www.highlandschool.org/ready or call Donna Tomlinson at 540-878-2740

12

WINTER 2019 are.you.ready.infauquier.indd 1

8/28/19 8:18 PM

Perchance to dream …

Literature yields dozens of references to sleep-waking

By Steve Price Psychologists and neuroscientists have long been fascinated by the origins and significance of dreams.

But long before Sigmund Freud stroked his beard in amazement at the human dream sequence, world literature addressed the same issues.

Biblical narratives include dreams and their consequences, beginning with the Genesis description of Jacob’s dreaming about a ladder that reached to heaven, one on which angels ascended and descended. Among the interpretations are a bridge between heaven and earth, angelic communications between humans and the Almighty, and to foretell the many exiles of the Hebrew people throughout their history.

Jacob’s son Joseph had far-reaching dreams of his own. At 17, Joseph had two dreams. Both of Joseph’s dreams which angered his already jealous 11 brothers, and they sold him into slavery.

Imprisoned in Egypt, Joseph was ordered to interpret the Pharaoh’s dream of seven lean cows devouring seven fat cows and seven withered ears of grain consuming seven fat ears.

The quick-thinking Joseph predicted that seven years of abundance would be followed by a famine of equal duration and thus advised the ruler to store surplus grain.

In Homer’s Iliad, Zeus, king of the gods, sent a false dream in the form of the warrior king Nestor to Agamemnon (another king – the Greeks loved to hear about their royalty) convincing him to attack Troy.

Agamemnon agreed, evidence that Homer recognized the influence of dreams in our waking lives.

The character Catherine in Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” accepted a marriage proposal from Edgar years after connecting a dream about going to heaven with their union. As she says, “I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.”

“Alice in Wonderland” and “Through The Looking Glass” are more than a series of disconnected episodes. The Lewis Carroll novels are told in the form of Alice's dreams, written in third-person narrative.

Because Carroll chose dreams as the structure for his stories, he was free to satirize the Victorian Era’s customs and beliefs.

The more recent fantasy world of Harry Potter considers dreams so important that Hogwarts School includes a course in Divination, or dream interpretation. As Professor Dumbledore expounds in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, "In dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own. Let them swim in the deepest ocean or glide over the highest cloud."

Dumbledore cautions Harry Potter not to dwell on reveries at the expense of being practical: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

Dreams in verse

Poetry is a fertile genre for the subject of dreams as well.

As the title of Walt Whitman’s “I Dreamed in a Dream” indicates, the repetition of “dream” combines the two principal meanings: ambition and illusion.

Whitman imagined a utopian city: I dream’d in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth; I dream’d that was the new City of Friends; Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love—it led the rest; It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city, And in all their looks and words.

One of William Butler Yeats’s most popular verses is the wistful "He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven”: Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

In this age-old story, the poet assures his beloved that if he had the means, he would gladly offer all the treasures of the world. Were he a deity, he would lay a blanket made out of the heavens at his loved one’s feet.

However, being poor, the only things of value the poet has are his dreams. And since dreams are delicate and vulnerable, he asks his loved one not to harm them.

Shakespeare also references dreams: To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life;…

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the character Bottom, whose head was turned into that of an ass, speaks for mankind when he wonders about the plight of mankind: I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.

Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream.

PHOTO BY SAWYER GUINN

The W.B. Yeats poem, ‘He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven,’ is celebrated by this sculpture in the Drumclife Churchyard, County Sligo, Ireland, near the cemetery where Yeats is buried.

WINTER 2019

13

Celebrating 40 Plus Years Top 50 CENTURY 21 Individual Producer, Mid-Atlantic 2015, 2016 CENTURION Honor Society Producer 2016 CENTURION Producer 2012-2017 Quality Service Producer 2012, 2015, 2016 President’s Producer 2013 Quality Service Pinnacle Producer 2013

BRENDA RICH

FAUQUIER RESIDENTIAL REALTOR OF THE YEAR

brenda.rich@c21nm.com | 540-270-1659 85 Garrett Street, Warrenton, VA www.c21nm.com | 540-349-1221 (office) 14

WINTER 2019

SAUCES& NOODLES& OLIVES& WOOD& CERAMICS...

Shop in-store or online at tasteovs.com!

815 Caroline Street Fredericksburg, VA 22401 540 . 373 . 1262

202 East Davis Street Culpeper, VA 22701 540 . 825 . 8415

NOW AVAILABLE AT WARRENTON JEWELERS

It’s beginning to look like the Holidays here at STOKES! We have all your holiday goodies!!!

Like Chocolate Covered Peanuts, Peanut Squares, Orange Slices, Cherry Slices, Peanut Brittle, Chocolate Covered Raisins, Creme Drops

Sharp Wisconsin Cheddar Sold on the Wheel Black Walnuts for all your baking needs!

BOOT SPECIAL! BOOT SPECIAL! BOOT SPECIAL! BOOT SPECIAL! Ladie’s

GORTEX

$144 99 $99 99

Men’s

$149 99 $119 99

CLOSE OUT! $79 99

$59 99 Lined Men’s Fleece Hoodies

Denim Lined Shirts

$18 99 $24 99 $36 99 Boy’s Girl’s

Flannel Shirts

Men’s

Toddler’s

4 to 8

Ladie’s

Ladie’s Fleece Shirts

Brits Knits Blankets Scarves

Hats

Gloves

Stokes General Store Co., Inc.

WINTER 2019

15

Life & Style

Stories by Betsy Burke Parker Photos by Randy Litzinger

THE WAY WE LIVE IN FAUQUIER

16

WINTER 2019

Equestrian Equality: Using race to conjoin past, present and future • Hear how councilman Sean Polster and supervisor Chris Butler are living their personal dreams • Afro-American Historical Association brings Fauquier’s lesser-known history to life WINTER 2019

17

Equestrian Equality Through understanding and acknowledgment of the colorful history of black horsemen and women, Linda Quarles Arencibia learns how future is tied to the past Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Through her new Equestrian Equality initiative, Linda Arencibia wants to make sure a little-known portion of American history isn’t forgotten. Equestrian Equality aims to bring attention to the successes of black horsemen and women, past and present.

She hopes by telling the story of black participation in the horse world from America’s first three centuries, she can renew interest in horse sports.

“Black equestrianism is unknown history,” says Arencibia, 65. She’s currently hard at work researching for a lecture that features 19th and 20th century African-descended women in the saddle. “I want it remembered. And I’d like to broadcast it.”

Black jockeys, who for a time outnumbered white jockeys, “were the superstars of the 1600s, 1700s, most of the 1800s” Arencibia explains, larger than life sports heroes.

Jim Crow laws changed the complexion of horse racing in the early 1900s, with barely noticeable, but hugely important, changes in licensing and operations, making it impossible for blacks to compete.

Several books have been written on blacks in racing, but Arencibia wants more: she hopes Equestrian Equality will bring into focus the wide arc of black equestrian history. “There is a misguided notion that blacks were historically uninvolved or minimally involved with horses, and that is simply not accurate. A thorough look at American sports history reveals hidden African American figures in all aspects of equestrian activity and industry,” she says.

How it all started

Charles Ellis Quarles, Jr., described by his daughter as a “serial entrepreneur”, had drive and a generous heart.

18

WINTER 2019

Ellis Quarles sold insurance in high school and was so successful that after graduating he moved from his mother’s home in Louisa County to Washington, DC to open his own insurance company. In the ’50s, Quarles also built Aetna Employment Agency, a chain of dry cleaners and a thriving restaurant and grill, Howards Fine Foods located blocks from historic Howard University.

Arencibia’s father also started a door-to-door cosmetics company in Philadelphia, a family operation he eventually sold to the Fuller Brush Company.

He had a restaurant and jazz club in Fluvanna County.

“Daddy had a confident, showy charisma, and, true to his style, he often had 5 year-old me tell jokes as a sort of ‘opening act’ at his club,” Arencibia recalls. “The bigger-thanlife vision that has become Equestrian Equality (must be) lodged in my DNA. “My father was an extraordinary person – visionary, very kind, but assertive, and tough when he needed to be. Once, on the drive home from visiting my grandmother in Louisa, my father … picked up a man who was ‘down on his luck,’ a hitch-hiker.

“My sister and I were not pleased that daddy put a dirty old white man who smelled of alcohol in the backseat with us on the long ride back to Maryland.

“We made that clear to our mom when we stopped for gasoline and daddy and the man got out of the car. My mom made equally clear to us that we had better not have any rude display.”

“My mother gave the man our spare bedroom that night, and next day he accompanied my father to Aetna. Daddy found him a job.”

Arencibia remembers the markers that imprinted in her a push for equality and inclusion in the late 1950s, a time of strict segregation, especially in the south. She recalls

Linda Arencibia is turning her love of horses into an educational initiative.

Race in racing • On May 17, 1875, Churchill Downs ran, for the first time, what it hoped would become its signature event: the Kentucky Derby.

Prominent thoroughbred owner H. Price McGrath entered two horses: Aristides and Chesapeake. Aristides’ rider that afternoon was Oliver Lewis, who, like most of his rivals, was black.

Aristides was trained by former slave Ansel Williamson.

• Isaac Murphy won the 1891 Kentucky Derby riding Kingman, owned by former slave Dudley Allen, the first and only black man to own a Derby winner. Murphy died of heart failure in 1896 at the age of 35 – two months before the Supreme Court made segregation the law of the land in Plessy v. Ferguson.

• Black men continued to ride successfully through the 1890s, but their role in the sport was tenuous at best. A Chicago sportswriter grumbled that when he went to the track and saw black fans cheering black riders, he “was uncomfortably reminded that black men could vote.”

The 15th Amendment and Isaac Murphy had opened the door for black Americans, but many whites were eager to slam it shut.

• After years of success, blacks began getting fewer jobs on the racetrack, losing promotions and opportunities to ride top horses.

White jockeys started to openly demand segregated competition.

One told the New York Sun in

ISAAC MURPHY

1908 that one of his black opponents was probably the best jockey he had ever seen, but that he and his colleagues “did not like to have the negro riding in the same races with them.”

• In a 1905 Washington Post article titled “Negro Rider on Wane,” the writer insisted that black men were inferior and thus destined to disappear from the racetrack.

• Obituaries of these early sports stars tell of the desperation that came with taking pride in a vocation, only to have it wrenched away. Soup Perkins, who won the Kentucky Derby at 15, drank himself to death at 31. Jockey Tom Britton couldn’t find a job and committed suicide by swallowing acid. Albert Isom bought a pistol at a pawnshop and shot himself in the head in front of the clerk.

EQUALITY, from previous page water fountains at the Louisa courthouse. “One said ‘white,’ the other said ‘colored.’ I asked my parents what they meant and why there were two fountains,” she says. “[Segregation] made absolutely no sense to me.”

The Quarles family moved to a suburb in affluent Montgomery County when Arencibia was a young girl. She was the only black in her elementary school, one of a handful in junior high and the only black female at her high school graduating class of 700.

“In that environment, I had the unique experience of taking a high school class in African history,” Arencibia says. “The teacher was a young white man, fresh out of college. Looking back I recognize that he and my parents framed my lifelong passion for African and African American history.

“Years later I thanked him.”

She credits the progressive nature of Montgomery Public Schools as well as the drive and values of that young teacher, Dan Housley.

President of a Maryland archaeology group, today Housley is in charge of a dig at Josiah Henson’s slave cabin in Bethesda.

The exposure to diverse people and communities created in Arencibia an awareness of race, and racism, and a respect and appreciation of ethnicity.

Arencibia recalls first entertaining ideas about her “self” when she was about 7. “I was your stereotypical tomgirl growing up, preferring to hop over the chain link fence in our yard than walk through the gate.

“Of course I inadvertently ripped the

Tips for entrepreneurs • Strive for perfection, but not to a fault When applied to business, perfection means you’re expected to deliver a flawless product or service. But attention to detail is a virtue only in a reasonable amount. If, after three weeks of working on a single page of text or design, you still worry it’s not good enough, perfectionism has obviously paralyzed your ability to gauge your own work.

To avoid this trap, abide by the “80/20 Pareto principle”: 80 percent of work is done in the first 20 percent of the time. Translation: Write fast, edit slow, or, in the tech world, produce a quick prototype then test and revise as needed.

• Fear factor There may be a bit of re-programming to go from being overwhelmed in a still male-dominated business

hem of my dress in the process. Little girls played in dresses then, wearing shorts under them so that we could climb trees or play kickball or softball.

“I would find spots outdoors to just observe nature and ponder life – mine or that of whatever creature was nearby – an owl in a tree, tadpoles in a stream. Whatever.

“I remember lying in an open field adjacent to an old apple orchard behind our house in Northeast Washington. The sky was blue with billowy clouds that I had recently learned were cumulus clouds. Behind me, wild sweetpeas grew in a beautiful tangle with bumblebees buzzing above them.

“Lying there with my hand behind my head, I thought ‘I could have been born in China or the U.S. I’m glad I am American. I could have been born a boy or a girl. I am glad I’m a girl. I could have been born white or negro. I’m glad I’m negro.’

“Everything in my world was so right at that moment.”

She once reprimanded friends who referred to a white student as “that white girl,” Arencibia recalls. “I have always been opinionated, and, for good or ill, very vocal, so I insisted that they not call her that. I guess I thought that she was being marginalized, so I suggested what I thought was a better descriptive.

“My Crayola crayons had a color called ‘flesh,’ so I said ‘don’t call her that white girl, call her flesh-colored.’

“My child’s brain did not process a few things: the supremacy implicit in making that peachy color the designation all flesh, or the fact that I was still suggesting the dear girl be identified by her skin color. world to being confident in your product or idea.

Instead of worrying about how clients are going to see you, earn their respect by utilizing a famously-female ability – listening and understanding, giving value to your product or idea.

• Playing nicely with others As an entrepreneur, you work and network with many ages and business positions. Everybody is glad to share advice and expertise. More diversity in your network will yield a more enriching difference in perspective.

• Start small If it’s something you’re passionate about, find a way to start testing it and doing it, even if it’s on a really small scale. Instead of debuting a wide range of makeup products, for instance, start with a niche product – locally-sourced lipstick or something you know will speak to your prospective customers.

‘One (fountain) said ‘white,’ the other said ‘colored.’

I asked my parents what they meant.

- LINDA QUARLES ARENCIBIA

“The concept of race is a curious thing.”

What her dad modeled to her about vision and people, Arencibia’s mother modeled about innovation, pioneering and the willingness to venture beyond the expected. Sarah Josephine Brown Quarles was the first African American service representative for C and P Telephone Company.

Arencibia studied at the University of Virginia, where she established her own “firsts.” As the first female president of the Black Student Alliance and a student leader, Arencibia was pivotal to the establishment of the University’s Office of Minority Student Affairs and the expansion of the Afro American Studies Program to departmental status. “Following the values established in my family and early schooling, I pursued the study of African American history and culture at UVA. I’ve always loved black history and do not make peace with the fact that today it is still largely unknown and unrecognized as American history.

Dates to remember

• January 20: Martin Luther King day • February: Black History Month • Ongoing: The Mere Distinction of Color – a multi-media exhibit connecting past to present through the lens of slavery and the Constitution. Montpelier estate, Orange County. montpelier.org “I’m still that girl lying in the sunshine in the field thinking about self, identity and what it means to be an American. Because of problems with racism, we are still struggling with those issues today.”

Building the dream

Four years ago, Arencibia was pursuing two courses that led to an odd intersection. She was tracing her family line, and taking a class on how to start a non-profit. Widowed mother of five sons, she’s long recognized the challenges and perils that present themselves to black youth, See EQUALITY, page 20

McClanahan Camera 540.347.2533

www.mccamera.com

info@mccamera.com

More than just a camera shop...

Photo Restoration

Special Holiday Hours until Xmas Mon-Fri 9:30am - 7pm Sat 9am - 7pm Sun Noon- 4pm

Custom Holiday Cards

Photo Gifts Custom Framing and Matting – Canvas Printing – Photo Lessons WINTER 2019

19

EQUALITY, from page 19 particularly black males. Arencibia explains how these concerns propelled her current trajectory.

“Unpacking my family history caused me to interface with a historian at James Madison’s Montpelier. I was deeply impressed with the work that was being done at Montpelier concerning the history of enslavement there and engagement with the descendant community of people enslaved by James and Dolly Madison. I was invited to a Juneteenth celebration (that year.)

“During that game-changing weekend, I learned about (one-time estate owner) Marion duPont Scott.

I learned that Mrs. Scott raised dogs and horses, and became quite a tour de force in racing and the horse industry,” Arencibia says. “Driving home from that wonderful celebration, I kept thinking of how nice it would be to have the capacity to engage black youth with horses. I initially dismissed that idea thinking that such dreaming only underscored the difference between being a descendant of duPont, or Madison, and being a descendant of enslaved people.

“I started researching and discovered a dropjaw, little-known history of African American presence in horsemanship.

“I became obsessed with black equestrian history and discovered that, like African American history in general, it is terribly understudied and underappreciated as American history.”

Arencibia credits Edward Hotaling’s, “The Great Black Jockeys” and Katherine Mooney’s “Race Horse Men” for feeding her research frenzy. “I want to broadcast the narrative of African American presence in horsemanship, and build

American idol

One of Linda Arencibia’s recent delights was meeting pioneer female jockey Kathy Kusner at a “Roundtable on black horsemen” at the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg. In the late 1960s, Kusner had been denied her jockey’s license because she was a woman.

Kusner sued, and won, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that made discrimination based race or gender illegal. Kusner, 79, was also the first woman to ride the Maryland Hunt Cup, and an Olympic and Pan-Am medalist in show jumping.

Today, Kusner operates Horses in the Hood, a charity providing access to riding for inner city youth.

Kathy Kusner, Horses in the Hood, visits with equestrianequality.com / horsesinthehood.org Equestrian Equality founder Linda Arencibia. networks that support and advance black equestrian activity.

“I shared my vision with whomever would listen – being as didactic and vocal as I’ve ever been.

Some responded with skepticism reminding me of the obvious – that horses are expensive. Others, like my friends at Montpelier, took my interest to heart.”

Before donating Montpelier to the National Historic Trust, Scott had employed multiple generations of black horsemen and farm help build what became a world-famous breeding and racing operation. As they retired, she gave many of them their own parcels of land. Scott was a trend-setter and a ground-breaker, and seemed to be color-blind at a time, and a place, that this wasn’t widely accepted.

Scott employed Fauquier horseman Charlie

Smoot, already an accomplished steeplechase jockey when she hired him in 1930. Once, when race officials at a North Carolina event tried to bar Smoot from competition because he was “a man of color,” Scott said that was fine with her, but that she planned to withdraw her horses if Smoot wasn’t allowed to ride. He was allowed to ride.

Arencibia plans to offer her continuing research to schools in the form of lectures and maybe classes, and will possibly tap into the established Second Chances program linking prisoner rehabilitation and the retired racehorses at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

“We’re using the delightful horse to sugarcoat a bitter pill of our history. The idea is to look forthrightly at the history, and start by telling the story.

Inclusion is at the heart of Equestrian Equality.”

Welcomes Dr. Ahmad Babar & Dr. Zareen Babar To Warrenton!

Grand Opening December 2, 2019

20

WINTER 2019

SIDE BY SIDE

“

“

Fauquier’s leading lights; following their dreams Sean Polster

As a kid, you dream of growing up and doing something exciting, but as an adult, I wonder what metric we use to measure this?

For me, I would contend that I am truly living my dream of helping others and making my community a better place.

Looking back on my childhood, I remember going to the firehouse with my grandfather and uncle and thinking, ‘I want to be a firefighter when I grow up.’

Forty years later, I have achieved so much more. I’m lucky enough to have served the people of multiple cities as a firefighter-paramedic for 30 years.

My dream has changed over the years. I met my amazing wife 27 years ago and together we are still raising our three terrific children. It is a journey, with each stage in my life, just as I have changed, my dreams continue to change.

I will always work towards helping others as my parents taught me at a young age to give back before you take.

Chris Butler

SEAN POLSTER

BIO: Sean Polster currently serves as a Warrenton Town Council member; he’s also assistant fire chief at New Baltimore Volunteer Fire Department.

I am absolutely living my dream.

I’ve served the community in various capacities, as a Fauquier deputy sheriff, a volunteer fireman and now as county supervisor.

Born and raised in southern Fauquier, I always knew I would seek public office to represent the fine folks in this county. Preserving agriculture, while increasing our tax base, is my goal. Providing essential services, like more deputies and fire CHRIS BUTLER rescue first responders, as well as BIO: Chris Butler was the safety of the citizens, is also a elected in 2018 to serve priority. as chair of the Board of It is an honor to have been choSupervisors. Butler is sen as chairman by my fellow board finishing his first term as members for two consecutive years. county supervisor in the It's also been such a pleasure to work Lee District. with these great folks to solve the problems that we all face.

I am living my dream, but I am not a politician. I sought the office to help my neighbors maintain the rural agricultural heritage of Fauquier, and it is a very humbling experience and a dream come true to represent the county I am from.

– By Alissa Jones

How do you see yourself

in

Dreams?

Contemporary portraiture • Professional Headshots • Seniors • Personal Branding • Conceptual Portraits 39 Garrett St, Warrenton, VA 20186

(540) 878-1383 DreamSpeedPhotography.com

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY DREAMSPEED PHOTOGRAPHY

2018

WINTER 2019

21

6

22

WINTER 2019

Dream home

Habitat for Humanity is building community for area residents

By Alissa Booze Troetschel

Fauquier Habitat for Humanity builds more than houses these days – it’s building community on Haiti Street in Warrenton.

The change in focus began three years ago, to empower residents – Habitat homeowners and others in the neighborhood. The goal is to envision and then create the community in which they want to live.

Habitat embraces the principle that lasting change comes from the inside out, not from the outside in.

“Habitat for Humanity, we’re the people pulling people together,” says Mary Correia, who arrived two years ago to serve as community development director. “It’s not ‘Here’s what we think you need, Neighborhood.’

“It’s easy to see the house but it starts with the people,” stresses Darryl Neher, executive director of Fauquier Habitat For Humanity.

The Haiti Street neighborhood

Fauquier Habitat for Humanity has a presence on Haiti Street, a section of town sandwiched between Old Town, High Street and Eva Walker Park.

The organization has built 11 houses on Haiti in the last 30 years. Another house is under construction.

Habitat currently owns five dwellings on the street. One is informally used for neighborhood gatherings, two homes are uninhabitable and the remaining two are unavailable for rent at this time.

This past June, community development specialist James Johnson began to facilitate conversations with residents to identify goals for their Haiti Street neighborhood. Periodic cleanup days was one stated goal. Warrenton police officers lent a hand in sprucing the street up.

Residents also asked for financial education, so Habitat is lining up speakers.

A community garden was planted last year. With the help of the Piedmont Environmental Council, it was replanted this past growing season.

Dozens of local craftsmen and women, builders and regular citizens work together on Habitat projects, giving back to the community in the notion that sharing is caring.

PHOTOS BY BETSY BURKE PARKER

Volunteers work to construct a Habitat for Humanity home by Eva Walker Park in Old Town Warrenton.

Project Engagement

After listening to the issues and concerns of residents, Habitat staff developed a curriculum for Project Engagement – a series of training courses. The first class was in July, and the second in September. Community members learn leadership, organization and communication skills, and how to advocate for their goals. Warrenton government, Piedmont Dispute Resolution Center, Boys and Girls Club, and churches are ready to help as needed. Building social cohesion is an ongoing effort.

Haiti Street is very much a front-porch community. The connections are social, Correia says, but until now, residents weren’t working together to effect change.

Habitat brings Haiti residents together twice a month. Anywhere from a handful to 15 to 20 people attend, Neher says.

Alice Gibson was among the dozen or so residents who attended in September. She has lived on Haiti more than 25 years: Habitat built the house she lives in now. She sat at her oval oak kitchen table while a welcome breeze blew through the window on a baking autumn afternoon. She appreciates the support she receives from caring neighbors and Habitat staff during the bi-monthly meetings.

Gibson does have concerns about her neighborhood, though. She wants drivers to slow down, and she’d prefer loud music ends at a decent hour.

“They play music late at night and disturb neighbors and the ones who have to get up in the morn-

ing and go to work,” Gibson says.

She’s talked to these neighbors, but “they paid no mind.”

Carolina Gomez regularly attends meetings that Habitat holds. A pleased expression crosses her face as she describes trusting her neighbors.

She believes that what she leaves in her yard will stay there and not be taken.

But Gomez is concerned about some neighbors’ use of alcohol and drugs. She, her husband and their three kids – 19, 12 and 11, moved into a Habitat-built house on Haiti Street two years ago.

One very cold day she saw a woman lying on the ground. She walked to her and said, “You’re very important. How can I help you?”

Habitat’s end goal is to be out of a job. Residents will take over the role of convening, planning and putting their plans into action. Success, though, is measured in “relentless incrementalism,” Correia says.

Community Impact Grant

Habitat’s efforts at community building just got a hefty boost. In late summer, Fauquier Habitat for Humanity received a Community Impact Grant of $100,000 from the Virginia Housing Development Authority. The money will fund a survey of the neighborhood to determine what options exist for creating affordable housing, including but not limited to single-family homes. Strategies will take zoning ordinances and the comprehensive plan into account. The objective is to maintain the ratio of occupant-owned to rental housing.

“We’re going to dream big,” Neher says.

Habitat will collaborate with an architect to develop design standards for modern housing models that reflect the area’s architectural past.

That’s in the future. But for the present, Deloris Yates gets excited about one component of Habitat’s efforts in her neighborhood – the cleanup days. She wants everyone’s yard to be tidy. Yates is Gibson’s daughter and has lived on Haiti for a dozen years.

“I ain’t lying,” Yates says. “It used to be bad down here – the crowd and the activities.” Speaking of Habitat, she said, “They’re doing a good thing.”

WINTER 2019

23

‘All Souls to the Polls’ explores

By Pat Reilly

A Circle of People You Can

TRUST

Marshall Consulting Group

Certified Public Accountants

douglas marshall douglas marshall

Accounting Services Strategic CEO Services Tax Planning & Prep Financial Projections Budgeting Analysis Bookkeeping Financial Statements Estate & Trust Tax Prep Business Consulting Estate Planning ... and more!

Every year, Rev. Lemuel Montgomery collaborates with Karen White, president and co-founder of the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County, to write a play to entertain and educate and raise money for the non-profit headquartered in The Plains.

This year’s performance centers around a video they made called “All Souls to the Polls” that includes three skits written by Montgomery, enacted by local performers and based on decades of White’s research on the history of voting in Fauquier. Each skit highlights an incidents of voter suppression that occurred in the county even after the 15th amendment in 1870 gave all citizens the right to vote regardless of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

“Next year is an important year for voting,” says Montgomery, who is pastor of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Amissville and musical director of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Warrenton. “We want to motivate people to get involved. It’s a bipartisan effort.

“I think all people living now should know the struggles we had, what our foreparents did in the past and that we are blessed to have this opportunity (to vote). It’s very important to choose our leaders.”

The first skit in the “All Souls” video focuses on 1914 and the “Grandfather Clause,” which allowed men to vote despite being illiterate or unable to pay a poll tax if their relatives had been able to vote before 1867.

Only white Americans had already had the right to vote prior to 1867— in other words, white men were "grandfathered in" by the clause. In the video, an educated young black man shows up to register to vote in 1914, but is denied because his grandfather, who was enslaved, had

PHOTOS BY BETSY BURKE PARKER

The Reverend Lem Montgomery produced a film depicting the history of voting for blacks. been unable to vote before 1867.

Then there was the Poll Tax. “Poll taxes applied to whites as well as blacks and adversely affected the poor citizens,” explains Montgomery. “In Virginia, anyone, including white women, was discriminated against if they could not pay the poll tax.” He illustrates the difficulty, reading from a historical document called “What a Colored Man Should Do in Order to Vote.”

“You must reside in the state for two years and the county one year and the precinct 30 days and must pay all poll taxes for three preceding years at least six months before the election. He must answer any and all questions put to him by the registrar.”

Those questions are the subject of the third skit, about what was called “The Literacy Test.”

Carolyn Bland of Chester Gap plays a young woman named Betsy who shows up with her friend Shirley to register to vote in 1959, decades after women were given the right to vote. They are told they must take

Managing Principal Managing Principal

5 Lane, Suite 150 400 Holiday Court Suite 202 5 Rock RockPointe Pointe Lane, Suite 150 Warrenton, 20186 Warrenton, VAVA20186 540.347.2161 540.347.2161 www.mcgllccpa.com www.mcgllccpa.com 24

WINTER 2019

Conway Porter discussed the history of voting in Fauquier County at Lord Fairfax Community College. It wasn’t an easy process for blacks, Porter explained.

the history of voting in Fauquier

OLD DOMINION CONSERVATION and EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ‘Tis the season ... to protect everything you love about Fauquier’s beautiful countryside In this season of giving, please remember those hard at work conserving everything that makes Virginia’s Piedmont a magical place to live, work and play.

The Old Dominion Conservation and Educational Foundation supports open space preservation, education about land and waterways conservation and countryside pursuits in the Old Dominion Hounds territory, located in Fauquier County and Rappahannock County.

Afro-American Historical Association director Karen White discusses the film. a test. The test questions are tough, i.e. “In the space below, write your understanding of the duties and obligations of citizenship under a constitutional form of government.”

The young women ask the Registrar for clarification and are told they can not be helped with the test. The women are denied registration. “It was a real eye opener to me to play Betsy,” says Bland. “Before this I never knew about the poll tax or the literacy test.”

“The ridiculous questions that were asked on that test. It would be impossible for anyone to answer, even the greatest scholar,” says Montgomery. “It really bothers me when people do not go to vote today, when you see what our forefathers went through to have that right.”

Montgomery lived some of that history. He came to Fauquier County to teach at all black Central Elementary in the early ‘60s from his native

North Carolina, where he took part in the Greensboro sit-ins protesting whites-only lunch counters. In 1968, the year he was transferred, due to school integration, to a white school to teach current events. It was the year the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. He couldn’t face teaching again for a week, he recalls.

AAHA President White points out that the overt examples of voter suppression shown in the skits were just the tip of the iceberg in the early 20th Century. “It wasn’t just the Klan running around at night in scary garb shooting and burning,” she says. “If you voted, you could lose your job.”

White sets the historical context as part of the “All Souls to the Polls” performance, which debuted at Lord Fauquier Community College in September and will be reprised weekly for Black History Month in February.

AAHA preserves another side of region’s history

The Afro-American Historical Association in The Plains houses a museum of photos, paintings, quilts and other artifacts illustrating the black experience in Fauquier County and elsewhere.

Museum director Karen White says that archives show that Fauquier was home to 10,550 slaves in 1860, more than any other county in Virginia.

White says her mission is “to balance the lop-sided history” she was taught in a one-room all-black school in Morgantown, just south of Marshall. “Once you understand your family history, you realize the role we played in building America and maintaining the nation,” White maintains.

White began researching black voting history 20 years ago at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, because poll books are an important snapshot of history.

The national theme of Black History Month this coming February is “African Americans and the vote.” The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the 15th amendment, which gave black men the right to vote, and the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the same right.

AAHA is sponsoring a contest for middle and high school students to create a poster on any aspect of voting. Submissions will be accepted through Jan. 8, with winning artwork displayed at the AAHA. The AAHA is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Upcoming activities, open to all, in 2020: Conservation seminars on: Rural landscapes and land management best practices Conservation stewardship Estate planning and land preservation Activities for adults and children of all ages: Native landscapes and wildlife educational walks Open trail rides through the Old Dominion Hounds territory Inaugural Golf Tournament fundraiser – May 9, 2020 Visit the Old Dominion Conservation and Educational Foundation Facebook page for more information, events and news.

Support our rural countryside today! To make your tax-deductible gift online, please visit www.guidestar.org/profile/83-4431129 or send your donation by mail to P.O. Box 222, Orlean, VA 22182.

aahafauquier.org WINTER 2019

25

Running the research circle leads back to family Little-known invention the size of a hockey puck turns out to turn the tide of World War II

By Norman Fine

Most Americans are aware of the many breakthrough and turning point stories from World War II. Widely known is the tale of Polish and British codebreakers that decrypted Germany’s Enigma, and the creative, sometimes outlandish plots by Allied spies.

But if a historian had to name the single invention created at the 1939 outset of the war that proved most influential in getting to D-Day in 1945, and, in the end, prevailing, it would have to be the resonant cavity magnetron. Without this tiny device – about the size of a hockey puck – the world would not have marked the 75th anniversary of DDay on June 6, 2019.

Yet, how many people even know what this early form of radar is?

As it turns out, my family knew, long before I did.

Research into this curious World War II invention led me to a most surprising place.

My own heritage.

Sparking a boy’s interest

Capt. Stanley Fine, right, his wife Shirley and nephew Norman in 1945. Stanley was a B-17 navigator who flew missions with the new ‘blind bombing’ radar in World War II.

Give the Gift of High Speed Internet!

A Local Business Solutions Provider for World Wide Technology

• Innovative Fixed wireless solution faster than satellite and DSL • Stream a movie, download a large file, and conduct business all at the same time

• No data throttling • Unlimited Data • Small Business Solutions

Email: sales@SonusTechnologies.com Or Call Today: (540) 364-6910

www.SonusTechnologies.com 26

WINTER 2019

Shortly after the end of World War II, my uncle David had taken my cousin and me to an open house at his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. MIT invited the community to see many of the new technologies that had been developed there during the war years.

At the open house, special efforts had been made to capture the interest and imagination of youngsters – we were pre-teens and titillated by science. It was on that very day I vowed I’d become an engineer.

Years later, after graduating from Dartmouth’s school of engineering, a colleague and I as consultants to Raytheon found ourselves on a team tasked with designing an improved large-screen radar display scope for use by air traffic controllers in the FAA’s next gen system. The team was to redesign the old vacuum tube circuits and replace them with new transistorized circuitry. The advent of the transistor had rendered the large, power-hungry vacuum tube obsolete.

By the time the project was over, we had designed the first fully transistorized radar information display.

With the brashness of youth, my associate and I decided to start our own company.

It was the period of the Cold War, and aerial reconnaissance was a high-priority mission for the military. Much of our work was for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the Air Force and for other contractors for precision, film-recording radar and infrared scopes.

Working at a state-of-the-art level, however, we had one problem – a scarcity of published design guides and reference texts. Searching the literature, the best we found was one volume from a set of books known as the Radiation Lab series, which MIT had published right after World War II. My search through radar writing drew me in surprising directions. I found “Radar in World War II” by Henry Guerlac, a two-volume history of the MIT Radiation Lab – Rad Lab – and its development programs.

Rad Lab had been created in 1940 for the sole purpose of designing advanced radars – so-called microwave radar. Under great pressure, scientists produced rapid – and historychanging – results.

It was in that book I learned of a gadget called the resonant cavity magnetron, invented in England and secretly revealed to high-ranking American scientists and military just before the U.S. entered the war.

This so-called magnetron was the revolutionary device around which microwave radar sets were designed.

The Axis, Germany and Japan had radar as well, but it was primitive by comparison – analogous to going to war with muskets against rifles.

Germany swept over Poland in 1939, and Britain’s very survival was soon seriously in doubt by leaders on both sides. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, hobbled by a powerful mood of isolationism in the U.S., helped Britain by sending military supplies. Germany answered with the U-boat, and Atlantic Ocean shipping lanes became a sea of carnage.

Early British and American radar designs had been met first with indifference, even resistance, by some Allied leaders.

Yet they swiftly proved critical to the war effort. During the Battle of the Atlantic, radar located U-boats deep underwater, destroying them to reopen shipping lanes. Nazi leaders were bewildered by the losses.

Too, radar helped overcome the typically overcast European weather, which, from 1941 through 1943, had caused the scrubbing of almost 80 percent of planned bombing missions and hobbled Allied pressure on Germany. In early 1944, Nazi war infrastructure remained intact, and the Luftwaffe continued to be a potent force. Both had to be destroyed before sending Allied troops onto Europe’s mainland.

Microwave radar–equipped B17s were sent to England for the U.S. Eighth Air Force Heavy Bomber Command. More radar-equipped bombers – ”Mickey” ships – arrived

a few months later.

Radar completely changed bombing protocols, and, by all accounts, won the war.

Radar helped fliers “see” through cloud cover, bomber crews blindly dropping bombs accurately on targets as an act of faith. Luftwaffe took to the air to oppose the bombers of course, but, because of Allied radar “vision,” they were shot down as well.

Just six months after the introduction of radar bombing, there were precious few German planes in the sky, little fuel to run them and not many experienced pilots to fly them.

It was the window of opportunity the Allied needed.

On June 6, 1944, the largest land invasion of combat forces by sea in all of history took place in Normandy, France. By nightfall on D-Day, the Allies had a tenuous toehold on the enemy-occupied continent.

And the rest, legitimately, is history.

In a family way

Knowing that my uncle Stanley had been a highly decorated B-17 navigator, I called him a year ago when I started researching my latest book, “Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in World War II.” I asked if he’d ever come across one of the Mickey-equipped B-17 crews or

known any Mickey navigators.

I wanted to talk to one if possible, and surely Stanley would know.

After a moment of silence, he gave me a most surprising answer.

“Norman,” he said, “I flew the first production model of the Mickey radar to England to begin my combat tour. I was a Mickey operator.”

The trail had led me to my own uncle.

With this new offensive weapon in his hands, and with his lead B-17 prominently in full view of defending German fighter planes, my uncle Stanley led wave after wave of heavy bombers through flak-filled skies to their targets, in their own way, turning the tide of the war.

It was a writer’s dream come true, times two: I had a little-known story that begged to be written for a nontechnical readership, plus, I had insider access to one of the warriors who pioneered the use of radar as an offensive weapon. I subsequently located the former Rad Lab scientist who designed the Mickey radar, in short, giving me the information I needed to tell this most remarkable story.

“Blind Bombing” comes out this month. The illustrated 256-page hardcover book is published by University of Nebraska Press. Find it on Fine’s website, foxhuntinglife.com.

Roofing is in our name, but

Siding & Windows are a big part of our game!

Services Include: Roofing, Siding, Gutters & Windows Family Owned & Operated Bringing Customer Service back!

Experience of over 20 plus years HAAG Certified | Offer 0% Financing

703-753-4585 FREE ESTIMATES

6593 Merchant Place Warrenton, VA 20187 | PeakRoofingContractors.com

Who Can Solve Your Cleanup Needs?

Our prompt service and great pricing will make your clean up project easy from start to finish.

THE BEST PRICE AROUND. PROMPT, ON-TIME SERVICE. PROFESSIONAL DROP-OFF & PICK-UP PERSONNEL PLEASANT, KNOWLEDGEABLE OFFICE STAFF.

Need Some Help With The Heavy Lifting?

The Pitch Crew is a dedicated team of onsite pros offering Full-Service junk removal for your home, business, renovation, specialty projects and more!

PROVIDING FULL-SERVICE REMOVAL OF ITEMS SUCH AS:

Pick the Right Dumpster For Your Next Project!

Appliances Electronics Televisions Furniture Call for a quote today!

571.292.1403 | www.HandymanCans.com

Refrigerators Carpeting Mattresses* Tires*

* Additional charges may apply PLEASE NOTE – we are not able to remove household trash, paint, hazardous materials, concrete or dirt. Contact us for more information.

A free line.

CALL TODAY! 855-495-LINK Se habla español.

WINTER 2019

27

Faces & Places

WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE GO

Making sense of the non-sensical: Local student wins international award for (theoretically) fixing Fauquier’s spaghetti junction • Is Freud’s seminal work on dream interpretation is still relevant today, a century later? It is!

• Jiamie Pyles shares her journey from rock bottom to top of the charts. Hear her story.

• National Sporting Library and Museum director Elizabeth Von Hassell is ‘living her dream’ every day 28

WINTER 2019

Story by Vineeta Ribeiro Photos by Randy Litzinger

WINTER 2019

29

Improving traffic? It’s not just a dream for this local high schooler Laura Thompson puts her thoughts into action with U.S. 29 flyover project Standing atop the hill overlooking construction at a busy Warrenton interchange, Laura Thompson sees her dream being fulfilled.

Sort of.

The introduction of an overpass and traffic circles, and the elimination of the traffic light that for years caused epic backups along U.S. 29, both validates and invalidates the Kettle Run High senior’s year-long science project.

As part of her independent research as a junior last year, Thompson used sophisticated techniques and software simulations to optimize the timing of the stoplight at the Lord Fairfax Community College-Lee Highway intersection.

The fact that the Virginia Department of Transportation upended her exhaustive research and bypassed her sophisticated stoplight timing recommendations by putting in a flyover and adding new turn lanes is no matter. The fact that they never put her plan into play isn’t important.

The fact that VDOT erased her fix altogether doesn’t bother the 17-year-old Kettle Run senior.

That the state’s transportation officials at last acknowledged the seemingly insurmountable problems at the U.S. 29-15-17 intersection – and did something about it – validates Thompson’s ongoing fascination with the infamous local juncture.

Thompson drew inspiration for the school project that rewarded her with international acclaim from her daily drive to the Mountain Vista Governor’s School. The straight-A student takes morning STEM classes at Mountain Vista – taught at the Lord Fairfax campus, before returning to Kettle Run for afternoon classes. Many a tardy pupil fell victim to the timing of the light. It was the butt of ongoing jokes at the beginning of class most days.

Granted, Thompson, who is chronically early for everything, wasn’t among them.

Still, she decided to take a crack at finding a solution to a problem that plagued others – students, commuters, locals – daily.

“The Effect of a Genetic Algorithm on Traffic Efficiency,” Thompson’s project, used artificial intelligence to continuously “breed” and select the best strains of computer algorithms to determine the optimum solution for the timing of the light on U.S. 29. Thompson made observations and recorded the timings at the intersection at various times of the day. She wrote computer programs to simulate passenger-length and semi-truck-length vehicles traveling in light, medium and heavy traffic conditions, and compared the average “vehicle trip time” through the intersection to figure out a solution.

It was an impressive, if exhaustive, project, and it caught the attention of Thompson’s professors, then regional, then national, then international judges at a dizzying series of science competitions over the past year.

In May, Thompson’s local plan went global – she won $1,000 and third place in “Robotics and Intelligent Machines” at the 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix. Thomp30

WINTER 2019

son became the first Fauquier student to place at the world-wide competition: More than 1,800 high schoolers from 80 nations compete annually for millions of dollars in awards, including full college scholarships.

“The level of competition is fierce,” says Erica Deane, director of Fauquier’s Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Only winners of regional, state and national science fairs are eligible to

present their projects internationally, so every participant there has already bested others in two levels of science fairs.

“Intimidating” is how Thompson sums up the intense competition. “It was so stressful, because the higher you go in science fairs, the more specialized your judges become.”

In addition to winning the Fauquier Regional Fair and receiving the Intel Excellence in Computer Sci-

ence Award, Thompson received allexpense-paid trips to ISEF in Phoenix and to Albuquerque for the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. She also earned the Yale Science and Engineering Award, U.S. Air Force Award and was a Presidential Scholar Nominee.

How it happened

Seeking solutions to complex problems, MVGS juniors are instructed to complete a research project. “Research opportunities at Mountain Vista Governor’s School are one of the things that makes our program unique,” explains Dr. Rosanne Williamson, school director. “Laura’s project and her commitment exemplify what we are trying to accomplish through this program.”

Students enter the program as sophomores and learn research techniques through a formal, process-driven course which culminates in the design of their independent research projects to be executed their junior year.

Thompson says she was nervous, “but not that stressed in Phoenix at ISEF, because I never expected to win there.”

Her robotics and intelligent machines project – one of 22 categories available – used artificial intelli-

‘I was nervous, but not that stressed ... at the International Science and Engineering Fair because I never expected to win there.

LAURA THOMPSON ISEF winner, and Kettle Run senior

gence. “If you didn’t have AI in your project, you were probably the odd one out,” Thompson explains. Most of her competitors used neural networks, she says, but her project employed a genetic algorithm.

In addition to tackling robotics at MVGS, Thompson is also an accomplished pianist. Last summer, she was selected a Virginia Space Coast Scholar and attended the prestigious residential academy at NASA Wallops Flight Facility.

Thompson is president of the Interact Club at Kettle Run, an offshoot of the Rotary Club.

“We are so very proud of Laura,” Deane adds. “She worked incredibly hard on her project, and in doing so (became) the first Fauquier student to place at the International Fair. She deserves our utmost respect and congratulations for her achievements.”

In turn, Thompson credits her family for support. “I respect my father so much,” she says. Michael Thomp-

son, a global fraud practice lead for the FICO data analytics company, is her “mentor,” she says. During her research study, her dad instituted a strict “24-hour rule,” Thompson recalls, meaning she had to have struggled for a full 24 hours before she could seek his advice on a particular portion of the traffic project.

A lot of the traffic study required intense concentration, Thompson says. Sometimes, when she was focused on coding, her mother, a registered nurse at Fauquier Health’s emergency department, would bring dinner to her room.

“I would tell students to take a coding class,” Thompson says when asked how to get involved in science and engineering. “Just do it. If you like puzzles, you’ll like coding. “Science fair (projects) open up opportunities you didn’t even know about.”

“We’re very grateful that Laura had the opportunity at ISEF,” Michael Thompson adds. “She … en-

Local high school student Laura Thompson created a unique stoplight timing fix for the Lord Fairfax intersection on U.S. 29, something ultimately negated by DOT’s new flyover. joyed meeting finalists from all over the world. We are very thankful to MVGS, her teachers and the science and engineering fair for providing her with this opportunity.”

Thompson says, maybe – probably – her love of algorithms is encoded in her genetics. She plans to major in computer engineering in college, maybe with a minor in aerospace engineering.

BE THE REASON SOMEONE SMILES TODAY THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT! Help us make a difference in your local community by donating time, money or equipment.

LET US LIGHTEN THE LOAD

Non-medical Support Care, Grief Counseling, Durable Medical Equipment Comfort & Care Support - formerly Hospice Support of Warrenton 42 N. 5th Street, Warrenton

(540) 347-5922 • HOSPICESUPPORT.ORG WINTER 2019

31

She had a dream of making it in music But addiction stood in the way Find out how the power of MLK’s writings on agape love reached across the decades to ‘save’ Jiamie Pyles from herself

By Mara Seaforest Jiamie Pyles started her life as a trailblazer.

She says a series of bad choices derailed her in her teens, but today, she’s back on track to continue the trajectory.

“When I was 6 months old, my parents joined up with other hikers to forge a trail on foot from our home in California to the Eastern seaboard,” Pyles explains. As a toddler on the trek, she was nicknamed by other hikers as “The Child of America,” she says.

“I grew up in The Plains, got a good education, but for a long time, I was dealing with addictions to drinking and smoking cigarettes,” Pyles remembers the pain of her struggles.

Pyles turned 40 this year. She received athletic and academic scholarships to study at Foxcroft, and completed her junior and senior years at Fauquier High.

The first time Pyles was arrested for drunk driving, she says she “brushed it off and kept right on behaving badly. The second time, they sent me to jail.”

Pyles traces her addiction problems through music. “I played guitar and sang for years in hopes that I could somehow make an actual career out of it one day,” she says. “I was in my first real band, The Awed Hawks, in upstate New York in 2002. I played in several different groups, including an old-time-music, all-female trio called The Black-Eyed Susies.

“When my dad had a stroke in 2008, I moved back to Virginia to help him. I played mostly solo here, except for a show every now and then with a friend. Performance anxiety was a problem, just as it had been up in New York.

“I dealt with it by drinking. I got arrested for DUI after a show in 2016.”

Pyles recalls the anguish of facing her fears, and tracing back to the real, underlying reason she kept turning to substances.

“The day after I got arrested, I canceled all of my upcoming shows and put my guitar in a temperature-controlled storage unit,” she says. “I didn’t take it out for an entire year.” Pyles put all her energy toward healing.

And it worked.

“My first show back was last year in 2018 at Buchanan Hall in Upperville for Amy Potter’s American Roots Review Festival, and it was a dream come true,” she says. “So many of my friends came out to support my return. I was then two years sober. It kicked me back into playing music publicly in just the most beautiful and supportive way possible.

“Truly a dream come true.”

It took hitting rock bottom

“Immediately after the arrest, while I was awaiting trail and sentencing, I got sober and quit smoking on my own volition, cold turkey,” Pyles says, noting that white-knuckling sobriety wasn’t working – she knew it just had to stop. All the way. “It was a terrifying time. Twenty days in the Fauquier County Jail was definitely a life-changing experience.”

As it turns out, like many, the Fauquier jail has a small but wellstocked library. In her desperation, Pyles turned to reading, and she was drawn to the works of Martin Luther King Jr. “I knew who he was, of course,” she says of what became her epiphany, her turning point. “The ‘I have a dream’ speech, but I’d never read any of his books. I read everything they had of his in jail.

“King’s idea of agape love — the dream of universal wholeness and compassion — inspired me to transform my nightmare of bad choices into dreams of political activism and education.

“Most of the other women prisoners were in for drug-related crimes. It was definitely a bondPHOTO BY MARA SEAFOREST ing time. They did a prayer circle Jiamie Pyles sings and strums playing in concert at Girasole during for me the night before I left. I was the October ‘Music in The Plains Day,’ an event she helped organize. very moved by that. The day I left, 32

WINTER 2019

they lined up and gave me a real farewell. I’ll never forget their human kindness.”

With jail behind her and a life to rebuild in her late 30s, Pyles investigated Alcoholics Anonymous. “I went to a few meetings. They were good people, but not my community.

“I found my community in my hometown, The Plains.”

Pyles realized she wanted to – needed to – give back. She wanted to become a counselor to help others and realized she needed more education.

Almost a year after her release, she enrolled at NOVA. “I decided to start with just one course that I knew I would like,” she recalls the return to school. “I got an A. The next semester I took two courses. That also went well.

“Now I’m taking a heavy load and in spring I’ll have my associates degree. I can’t wait to help other people find the hope within themselves that I’ve found.”

Pyles’ career may lead her into counseling, or she may become an advocate for laws that reflect the reality of the struggles people have with addiction.

“I’m not trying to say I shouldn’t have been arrested. In fact, my arrest was the best thing that ever happened to me. There are a lot of people in our communities dying from addiction-related issues. I keep thinking I’m the lucky one who was arrested.”

Music soothes the soul

Coming back to music filled Pyles with trepidation. She was – understandably – fearful that performance anxiety might lead her back to alcohol.

“My first appearance was in Upperville, where Patsy Kline had played,” she says. “A lot of people came out to see my set and it was so wonderful to perform without alcohol. I still shake when I’m on stage but now I’m finding healthy ways to deal with it.”

Throughout her period of forging a new path in life, The Plains Community League elected Pyles to their board of directors. “What a great opportunity to be part of a group that’s giving something to the community,” Pyles notes. The League sponsors scholarships, tutoring, Thanksgiving baskets and other holiday projects.

Community League member Debbie McLaughlin has known Pyles for years. “I was in touch with her when she was in jail, sent handwritten postcards and notes, to make sure she knew her community was here for her, to let us help,” McLaughlin says. “She took on her challenges with inspiring courage.”

“My first project with the Community League was getting the Little Free Library in the heart of town. Through the league, I helped organize ‘Music in The Plains Day’ this past October. It was really fun to see our town come alive.”

Pyles performed that day in the garden court of Girasole, the restaurant her father, Gomer Pyles, helped renovate back when it was just an abandoned store by the railroad tracks. She was a hit, but she knows that with so many more paths open to her down the road, music is only one.

A licensed house and dog sitter, Pyles started her Faery Dog Mother business a few years ago.

She attributes much of her ability to gain control of her substance addictions to the animals in her life. “Animals are truly healers,” she says.

We offer quality, full-service installation, maintenance, and repairs of all plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical systems at affordable rates.

When you need us, just call us: 540-717-0784 www.griffithplumbinghvac.com griffithplumbingmechanical@yahoo.com

Integrity Home M O R TG A G E C O R P O R A TI O N NMLS ID# 208516

,LLC

Professional Long Arm Services

Edie Grassi

REALTOR® ABR®, GRI, SFR Cell: (540) 878-1308 • Office: (540) 349-1221 edie.grassi@c21nm.com • edie.grassi.c21nm.com edie.grassi@c21nm.com • edie.grassi.c21nm.com edie.grassi@c21nm.com • edie.grassi.c21nm.com

SHOP COMPARE PRICE & QUALITY WE STRIVE FOR LESS THAN 10 DAY TURNAROUND 540.764.4178 ♦ phantomquilters1@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook @phantomquilters www.PhantomQuilters.com WINTER 2019

33

So-called fixed-gaze induction isn’t just for movies: a dreamfilled trance can be conjured with the gentle swing of a pocketwatch and an open mind. Freud’s dream analysis stemmed from his hypnosis research.

PHOTO BY CINDY GOFF

You’re feeling very slee-ee-ee-py Discover how Freud’s century-old dream analysis is still relevant to modern society

By Alissa Jones Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed dreams were a product of our subconscious minds, and, more specifically, our repressed wishes or desires.

Right or whacked out, Freud developed many theories about interpreting dreams – in fact, he, literally, wrote the book.

“The Interpretation of Dreams” was released in 1900. In it, Freud explains his theory of “wish fulfillment,” and he introduced some other theories considered shocking

How much is enough?

How much is too much?

A new online tool, My Life Asleep, calculates how much time you’ve spent asleep in your life, based upon your age.

As an example, if you’re 60 years old, you’ve probably spent 24 years asleep: That’s 1,220 weeks, or 204,884 hours in slumber.

For those brave enough to know, the site will also tell you all the things you could have been doing, had you not been sleeping. hillarys.co.uk/your-life-asleep/

34

WINTER 2019

at the time.

I got an A in Psych 101, but I really never gave Freud a second thought.

He was so 20th century by the time I was in school.

The longer I live, however, the more I recognize that indeed there's a strong veracity to his theories. A dream that involved my military-deployed son and a seemingly unrelated holiday symbol got me to thinking.

Most dream analysts and mainstream physicians agree with Freud’s chief theory that “dreams are the pathway to the unconscious.” Freud offered that by studying our dreams, and the symbols in them, our hidden, unconscious desires can be unearthed, traced, followed and, if necessary, studied.

According to Freud, some relevant symbols in dreams, are the human body, birth, family members, death and being naked. Freud related parents appearing in dreams with people who are highly respected.

Freud also believed that most symbols in dreams relate somehow to sex, a shocking finding in the prim late 1800s.

Keeping in line with Freud’s belief that dreams are a product of our ‘re-

pressed wishes or desires,’ perhaps when an Eiffel tower showed up in a dream I had a few years ago, it represented my desire to return to the city of love, or perhaps, it represented my desire to return to a love, or maybe, to be loved again. The online dream interpretation website, Dream Of, explains that to see an Eiffel Tower in a dream represents “dignity and integrity on display to others that is beyond reproach.”

I like that notion. I’m going with that one, because it rings true to my life today.

But then there’s the dream in which I watched my son, returning from one of his deployments in Iraq.

After having hugged my son in the dream, I saw the word, Valentine, written in red block letters under one of his eyes. It was a little weird, even though I was comforted by having my son safe in my dream.

I’m not sure what Freud’s take would be on the symbolism, but I’d like to think in some way it represents the love a mother feels when her son returns safely from war.

It was after 1953 that scientists at last began to seriously study sleep and dreaming, giving credence to Freud’s lifetime work. Quickly, they discovered that we dream mostly during REM sleep, or rapid eye movement. They confirmed that it is during REM that we have the most

Good night, the 4-1-1

The American Sleep Medicine, a nationwide resource for treating sleep disorders, gives these six tips to improve the quality of sleep: 1. Stop drinking caffeine by the early afternoon.

2. Avoid large late-night meals.

3. Keep your bedroom cool and dark.

4. Turn off all electronics when getting ready for bed to avoid being distracted.

5. Maintain a regular sleep schedule.

6. Skip the late-afternoon nap, as it can make it harder to sleep at bedtime. restorative sleep.

Physician Dr. Michael Amster said at a conference that the human brain uses sleep to recover and recharge, therefore sleep deprivation can cause a lag in attention. The ability to process information slows tremendously if we don’t get enough sleep. Alertness goes down, memory is slower, the ability to cope and reason decreases and you can become much more irritable.

Dr. Demetrius S. Maoury of Warrenton’s Piedmont Internal Medicine believes that sleep is one of those human requirements that doesn’t get enough ink. "Sleep is like air,” he maintains. “We don't think about it until we don't have enough.

We then appreciate it's importance.

“Sleep is crucial for optimal health, energy and mental acuity."

PAWS AWHILE PET MOTEL pawsawhilepetmotel.com • (540) 347-4855

WINTER 2019

35

ENJOY A FREE CULINARY DINING EXPERIENCE

ENJOY A FREE CULINARY DINING EXPERIENCE

HOME FOR HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS THE HOLIDAYS Get a flavor of our community and a night out on us.

Get aappetizers, flavor of our community and a night out on us.

Enjoy dinner, dessert and beverages.

Enjoy appetizers, dinner, dessert and beverages.

Choose your Thursday. December 5th or 19th Choose your Thursday. December 5th or 19th

RSVP 468-2750 RSVPto to(703) (703) 468-2750

7820 BALTUSROL BLVD · GAINESVILLE, VA 20155 · 703-468-2750 · WWW.RUI.NET/THE-WELLINGTON ·

@THEWELLINGTONATLAKEMANASSAS

RETIREMENT UNLIMITED, INC. COMMUNITY · FRALIN & WALDRON FAMILY-OWNED & OPERATED IN VIRGINIA FOR MORE THAN 35 YEARS 0 BALTUSROL BLVD · AGAINESVILLE, VA 20155 · 703-468-2750 · WWW.RUI.NET/THE-WELLINGTON · @THEWELLINGTONATLAKEMANAS

36

A RETIREMENT UNLIMITED, INC. COMMUNITY · FRALIN & WALDRON FAMILY-OWNED & OPERATED IN VIRGINIA FOR MORE THAN 35 YEARS WINTER 2019

The sporting life

The direct director: Meet the National Sporting Library and Museum’s Elizabeth Von Hassell

PHOTO BY CINDY GOFF

Elizabeth Von Hassell says she has found her ‘dream job’ at the Middleburg facility.

By John Hagarty The first thing you are drawn to is the life-size statue of a riderless horse in military saddlery, head hung low in exhaustion, eyes closed.

War Horse is the first piece of art you’ll encounter before entering Middleburg’s National Sporting Library and Museum, an internationally known facility containing more than 21,000 other items of art, statuary, rare books and more.

The statue was commissioned by the late Paul Mellon; Tessa Pullan’s bronze represents the 1.5 million horses and mules who gave their lives during the Civil War for both the Blue and Gray.

The NSLM was founded in 1954 as the National Sporting Library by the late George Ohrstrom Sr. and the late Alexander Mackay-Smith. Ohrstrom was an avid foxhunter, president of the Orange County Hunt, and a breeder of thoroughbred horses.

Mackay-Smith was an author, horseman and visionary leader who passionately promoted equestrian sports. Together, the two men gifted future generations the joy of all things field, forest and stream.

Today, the museum and library are under the leadership of executive director Elizabeth Von Hassell. Born in Winchester and raised in Berkley Springs, West Virginia, Von Hassell says field sports have always been part of her life. She grew up horseback riding, foxhunting, fishing and shooting with her father, then as now holding an appreciation for the art and literature associated with those sports.

“I have the ultimate dream job,” Von Hassell

says. “I’ve always thought it a privilege to live in the Piedmont. I have a deep-rooted desire to protect our countryside because it’s essential to the viability of the sports we represent at the museum.”

Von Hassell’s resume reflects what she brings to the organization she leads. After graduating from college, she worked in a variety of jobs unknowingly leading to her dream position.

Marketing, strategic planning, public relations and similar positions in the corporate world in New York City, including a stint with a major pharmaceutical firm, led her to accept a job close to her heart: director of development at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange County.

“I worked diligently in making sure a large portion of that estate would be placed in conservation easement. The effort was successful. Today, 2,000 of those acres are protected from growth in perpetuity,” says Von Hassell.

The portfolio

NSLM comprises two buildings on the six-acre property. One is a fieldstone and stucco building that houses the sporting library. It was built new to look like a “carriage house” for the historic brick house, Vine Hill. Vine Hill has been expanded for the sporting museum.

The grounds are dotted with mature trees and landscaping creating a university campus-like setting as you walk the grounds.

In addition to the War Horse statue, other outdoor sculptures such as a fox, horse and foal set the stage for what the visitor will experience within.

The library contains the largest collection of sporting literature in the world. There are more than 7,000 volumes of rare books dating from as early as the 1500s. Subjects run the gambit from angling, horsemanship, shooting, wildlife, coaching and more. There’s even a volume on dueling.

The sporting library is a research facility, not a lending library. Tours of both the library and museum can be arranged in advance.

The museum contains more than 800 paintings, statuary and decorative art.

“It is without a doubt an absolute gem of a collection,” says Von Hassell.

Both the library and museum have programs making them an integral part of the local community. Art classes, presentations, lectures, live concerts and school events place the emphasis on learning through participation.

Recently, internationally known artist Andre Pater held a standing room only discussion on his new art book. He will return soon to teach a masters drawing class. “He is one of the absolute best contemporary artists alive today,” says Von Hassell.

Every Wednesday a gallery talk is held showcasing traveling exhibitions, new acquisitions, or permanent collection pieces. Each talk is original, reservations are not required and admission is free.

Recent exhibitions included a presentation by artist Paul Brown on pencil, pen and brush art, a roundtable discussion on African-American jockeys, a glass sculpture class held by artist Joan Danziger and an equine sculpture workshop. nationalsporting.org

WINTER 2019

37

Annual Holiday Sale

20% Off Lawrence J. FinkeL M.D. eMiLy MiLLer, Pa-c

38

WINTER 2019

All Cosmetic Products and Procedures Entire Month of December Call 540-347-2020 to schedule today!

360 Church Street Warrenton, VA www.finkelderm.net

Fare & Flair

LIVING WELL INSIDE AND OUTSIDE Bird is the word • Help out the local avian population in a variety of ways this winter • Virginia Working Landscape study determines heart-breaking declines • White-out your winter with chef Jason Von Moll’s seasonal menu Story by Pam Owen Photos by Amy Johnson

WINTER 2019

39

Groundbreaking local study finds how to help grassland birds in winter Results of a study on the decline of native birds in “Science” estimates 29 percent, or 2.9 billion, of birds have disappeared since 1970.

The study was the idea of Fauquier conservationist Amy Johnson, a scientist and grassland biodiversity survey coordinator at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal.

In 2017, she became the director of Virginia Working Landscapes, initiated in 2009 by Warrenton’s Jocelyn Sladen.

VWL partners with a network of agencies, landowners and citizen scientists to promote the conservation of native biodiversity and sustainable land-use through research, education and community engagement.

Johnson, who has dedicated her life to studying grassland birds, worked with a team at SCBI to survey grasslands during breeding season. They were comparing the effects on birds of fields es-

How it started Virginia Working Landscapes was the inspiration of Fauquier’s own Jocelyn Sladen, a passionate conservationist who VWL director Amy Johnson says was “instrumental” in founding the organization.

Sladen still sits on its steering committee, which is made of up of VWL landowners, “helping to guide the direction of program activities,” Johnson adds.

In 2009, Sladen and her husband, Bill Sladen, brought together a mix of private landowners, scientists and representatives of conservation organizations, including staff from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (then known as the Conservation Research Center), for a meeting at the Sladens’ farm in Warrenton.

“Native biodiversity of plants, birds and insects has long been declining in our region,” she wrote in the summary of that first meeting. “Although the causes are varied, traditional agricultural practices are unquestionably part of the problem.” The group hoped “to bring together landowners and both the public and private entities to develop and encourage creative science-based strategies to preserve habitat, create healthier ecosystems on working land, that is land where we live, work and farm.”

SCBI took on the sponsorship of the program, appointing scientist Tom Akre, who attended the original meeting at the Sladens’, as director, and was among the scientists on Johnson’s research team 40

WINTER 2019

tablished in native warm-season grasses versus those with non-native cold-season grasses such as fescue.

In previewing sites in winter, Johnson noticed a significant difference in the bird communities than during breeding season.

This gave her the idea of conducting a winter study to determine the effect on overwintering birds of different combinations of plant communities and their management.

“We have a lot of birds that only come here for the winter that we don't really know very much about," Johnson says, lack of winter habitat being a limiting factor for birds. “We still have a lot of management practices here that could be influencing our bird communities that we’re not thinkLOGGERHEAD SHRIKE ing about.”

Finding no other study about grasslands in the published in the “Journal of Wildlife ManageMid-Atlantic had addressed these issues, Johnson ment,” echoed the Science study, Johnson says. and her team started “How drastic this decline in many of our common one. With only a quarter birds has been. … Grassland birds have been hit by of Virginia’s land being far the very worst,” especially sparrows. open, and most of that While many factors have contributed to the private land used for decline, for the targeted species in her study, she agriculture, she knew points to habitat loss and degradation on breeding it was critical to get the and wintering grounds as among the major ones. help of private landThe study compared how many birds, and owners to be able to which species, inhabited fields composed of nastudy birds. tive warm-season grasses versus cold-season In all, 25 proper- grasses that were managed (burned, mowed, had ties ranging from 35 to agricultural chemicals applied or were left as con5,000 acres across 11 servation buffers) at different times of the year.

A field sparrow munches on warm counties were surveyed Sixteen species were targeted for the study — season grass seeds to load up on for three winters (2013- American goldfinch, Eastern bluebird, eastern calories for winter.

2016). Most sites were meadowlark, horned lark, Eastern towhee, killon private land in the deer, northern bobwhite, red-winged blackbird, for the winter-grassland study. She northeastern Piedmont, American tree sparrow, field sparrow, fox sparrow, took his place when Akre moved on including Fauquier, and savannah sparrow, song sparrow, swamp sparrow, to SCBI’s Working Land and Sea- the Shenandoah Valley. white-crowned sparrow and white-throated sparThe study results, row. Other birds present were also counted, and scapes program.

Although grasslands were not necessarily the focus of VWL when it formed, landowners in the program were interested in planting and maintaining meadows with native plants, including wildflowers and warmseason grasses. Johnson’s study used a mix of some of these meadows and traditionally farmed hayfields and pastures as sites for her breedingseason and winter studies, including the Sladens’ farm.

Along with the grassland studies, VWL is now conducting a study on native orchids, such as ladyslippers, which are mostly forest species. Sladen says she’s like to see the program continue to evolve, trying to develop different techniques and experiment and exchange ideas — landowner to landowner — to “try to bring as much biodiversity to our PHOTO BY RONDA GREGORIO own land as we possibly can.”

Amy Johnson surveys a site in for her study of grassland birds in winter.

the total came to 7,505 individual birds representing 41 species. Since winter birds tend to stay hidden, they can be hard to spot, so the team used computer modeling to estimate numbers.

Researchers found that the number of birds overall, as well as the number of species, was higher in WSG fields than CSG fields. And the fields with the native grasses managed the previous winter or left unmanaged also had more species than any other group.

Winter can be a stressful time for birds, Johnson explains, and providing food and shelter for them is important for their survival. Even pasture and hayfields can help support these birds by incorporating native-plant communities into those fields, she adds.

The timing of management was found to be important. Early June, the peak time for mowing hayfields, coincides with peak nesting season – May 15-July 1. Mowing during that time can contribute to “94 percent mortality of baby birds" at a site, Johnson says. Fields that were grazed were less of a problem for the birds: “Birds and livestock can do very well together, depending on the stocking density,” Johnson says.

Size matters when it comes to the functioning of grasslands. Large, contiguous grasslands — 30 or more acres — are necessary for a healthy, stable, diverse community of birds. But maintaining even small plots of native plants supports insects, which most birds rely on for food, particularly the insect larvae, the primary food for young birds.

Johnson says the study “gives us tangible things we can do on our own property that can

SAVANNAH SPARROW

Leave it to Tammy to Manage the Details.

Call

540-270-9409 for an appointment.

PHOTO BY CHRIS CERRONE

A cardinal and an evening grosbeak consider the menu options at a local bird feeder during an ice storm. help mitigate this problem or even help reverse the decline.” It shows how important the role of private landowners. Having such extensive access to private lands to conduct research is unique in the scientific community, she adds.

While the amount of grassland that Virginia had before humans arrived is debatable, the clearing of much of the forest land that came with human settlement undoubtedly made way for more grassland and shrubland birds. Some moved in from western prairies.

“We've created this mosaic of mixed-use land, landscapes — a lot of which is working agriculture,” she explains. “The grassland and shrubland birds now depend on these open lands.” vaworkinglandscapes.org

Tammy RoopDBA 540.270.9409 www.tammyroop.com 85 Garrett Street Warrenton, VA 20186

New MilleNNiuM ® 540.349.1221 WINTER 2019

41

MAKE IT AN

DAY

Senior Night

WEDNESDAYS 2PM 'TIL 9PM SENIORS (55 YRS +) RECEIVE

Roofing is in our name, but

Siding & Windows are a big part of our game!

50%Off

ENTIRE PURCHASE

Wednesday December 18th (6-9pm) Come celebrate the Holiday!

Karaoke w/DJ

*NOT TO BE COMBINED WITH OFFERS OR PROMOTIONS. DINE-IN ONLY.

TUESDAYS 4PM - 9PM

Kid's Night!

Games, Crafts, Activities & Kids eat Free!

Services Include: Roofing, Siding, Gutters & Windows

Tuesday DECEMBER 10 - 24th (5-9pm)

COME SEE THE "ICE QUEEN"!

OPEN CHRISTMAS DAY! *Gluten-friendly Menu available 6445 Lee Highway | Warrenton, VA (540)428-1820

Family Owned & Operated Bringing Customer Service back!

Experience of over 20 plus years HAAG Certified | Offer 0% Financing

You’re in luck with our FREE estimates call today!

24 HOURS

FREE ESTIMATES

Who can solve your cleanup needs?

rentaldumpstersva.com

703-753-4585

6593 Merchant Place Warrenton, VA 20187 | PeakRoofingContractors.com

Pet House Suites Extras: Scenic Walks, Play Time, Play Dates, Pool Time, Tuck-In Service and Cuddle Time

Geriatric pet care Diabetic pet care Veterinary services available

is your pet’s ultimate vacation destination!

We offer Boarding, Grooming, and Daycare for all pets 42

WINTER 2019

Conveniently located across from Walmart on 657 Falmouth Street 540.347.7875 pet-house-suites.com

Dreamscape: Backyard birding Resident birds change every season, but by designing your yard for comfort, you can catch the parade Catching sight of a cardinal in your backyard feeder or birdbath is an exciting and colorful way to mark the start of winter. Bright red feathers are a stark contrast to surrounding greenery, and if you’re lucky, you can watch him smash a seed on a branch or dipping his beak for a long drink.

As Virginia’s eighth largest county at 647 square miles, Fauquier offers many different bird habitats.

From mountain uplands to near-sea level wetlands, the county’s conservation-rich lands are full of winter birding opportunities.

Experts note that as winter sets in to the Piedmont, there’s a changing of the guard in resident birds. Cardinals and jays replace bluebirds and barn swallows. Larry Meade, president of the Northern Virginia Bird Club, says

the seasonal do-si-do is an annual rite of passage. Established as a nonprofit in 1954, the Northern Virginia Chapter of Ornithology offers a welldeveloped and helpful website and hosts monthly bird walks.

At the tail end of fall migration, warblers and northern songbirds pass through the Piedmont on their southern journey. Hawks, too, become more active as wind updrafts provide perfect coasting conditions.

As winter takes hold, waterfowl and sparrows return to the area, and rare birds occasionally pass through.

Meade recalls a snowy owl that laid up a few days at the Springfield Mall a few years ago. And he reports a limpkin, a Florida native, has been reported at Fountainhead Regional Park in Fairfax County recently.

Birds of a feather flock to American Bird Conservancy The non-profit American Bird Conservancy in The Plains is dedicated to saving birds and their habitat across the western hemisphere. Its work seeks to eliminate extinctions, protect habitat and expand the capacity for birds to grow and thrive.

In other words, the organization is a birder’s best friend. Daniel Lebbin is vice-president of threatened species at ABC and an avid birder.

Lebbin, 42, holds a degree in biology and environmental science and policy from Duke and a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell.

He has worked for the World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy and the National Zoo, and participated in field research projects in Jamaica, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Lebbin co-authored “The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation.”

“Some of my earliest memories are watching birds at my grandparents’ feeder,” he says. “I became in-

terested in birds at 12.”

Today, he relies on an app, eBird, to help with his ongoing obsession. eBird allows users to manage lists, photos and audio recordings and to view realtime maps of species distribution. eBird is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year by members around the world.

With some 400 different species of birds in the Old Dominion, you’ll have no trouble staying entertained.

“Birding can be as little or as much as you want it to be. You can make it a second career, or in my case, a first career,” says Lebbin. “The more people who understand and care about nature, the more they help us achieve our goals at the conservancy.”

George Fenwick established the American Bird Conservancy in 1994 after 17 years as director of science at the Nature Conservancy in Arlington. nvabc.org

PHOTO BY LEAH CHALDARES

Simple homemade suet recipes including peanut butter give a perfect sticky ‘base’ to hold seeds and fruits, all excellent calorie sources for over-wintering birds.

Suet: Make your own

Become the most popular bird on the block with these simple to make and oh-so-tasty winter treats Go out on a limb: Make this easy spreadable suet to smear on tree limbs where small birds can peck at it in a protected place.

1 cup cornmeal 1 cup sugar ½ cup flour ¾ cup water 1 cup peanut butter 1 cup lard (fatback or leaf lard) 1 cup raisins In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients with the water and raisins.

Place peanut butter and lard in a small bowl or pan and melt together.

Add to the cornmeal mixture and refrigerate for two hours until firm enough to spread. Place big spoonfuls of the mixture on tree branches at varying levels (but not too close to the ground) for different bird species.

All natural 'peanut' suet: No fillers or artificial ingredients in this recipe.

2 cups shelled, unsalted peanuts ½ cup raisins 2 to 3 tablespoons cornmeal Process peanuts in a food processor until they’re the consistency of peanut butter. Then add the raisins and process one minute. Add the cornmeal and pulse.

Press the mixture into a mold and

chill. Hang in a suet feeder.

Tropical treats: Attract woodpeckers, as well as chickadees and nuthatches, with this suet recipe made with coconut. This suet mix won’t melt when it’s warm outside.

1 cup lard (fatback or leaf lard) 1 cup peanut butter 1⁄3 cup coconut 2 ½ cups oats 2 ½ cups cornmeal 1/8th cup each – raisins, nuts, birdseed Melt lard and peanut butter in a pan. Stir in coconut, oats, cornmeal, raisins, nuts and birdseed.

Pour mixture into a pan and chill overnight.

Cut into squares and wrap in plastic for easy freezer storage.

Hang in a suet cage feeder.

Bird cake: This can be sliced for use in a suet cage or hang in a recycled onion bag or mesh hanger.

1 cup lard (fatback or leaf lard) 1 cup crunchy peanut butter 1 cup honey 2 cups whole wheat flour 1 cup oats 2 eggs Mix ingredients and pour into a greased 9-inch square pan. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool, slice and place in suet feeder or crumble into a mesh bag. birdsandblooms.com – By Betsy Burke Parker WINTER 2019

43

Bring in the birds • Provide a variety of foods, a variety of feeder types, and a variety of feeder locations. Different bird species have different needs (close to, or inside, a protected covert or with an open flight-path entrance.)

• Provide still and running water if you can.

Winter temperatures require a heat source, but birds don’t need the water “warm,” just unfrozen.

• Leave a little debris in the corners of your backyard for cover – a pile of twigs from your

fall yard clean-up is perfect, or make one by trimming a few tree branches and piling them in loose, teepee formation. It doesn’t have to be unsightly or messy – use your design sense to make an artistic array that becomes a safe spot for small birds to escape bigger raptors, high enough to evade domestic cats and dogs, and a place for them to smash seeds collected from your feeders in peace.

• If you have a recurring problem with birds flying into your windows, put up reflective film, or hang a few aluminum pie-plates from your foundation plantings to discourage them from coming too near the house.

• If you have squirrels getting into your bird feeders, install a wire mesh under the feeders to keep them from climbing up.

• Late winter is the time to plan your spring birdhouses – learn about where different spring and summer species want to build nests and prepare your nesting boxes to put out as soon as the weather breaks.

• Reduce lawn by planting native species.

The U.S. has 63 million acres of lawn, and almost none of it supports bird-life. Add some native plants to bring back the birds.

• Avoid pesticides and herbicides. If it kills bugs and weeds, it probably kills birds, too.

All I want for Christmas … is a solid ‘Bird Count’

Join the team to tabulate the totals Christmas Day, 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then-nascent Audubon Society, set up the “Christmas Bird Census” to count birds across the nation to make important, and ongoing, scientific collection.

This year from December 14

through January 5, tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the nation brave snow, ice and winter cold for the critical wildlife census.

The long-term perspective is vital for conservationists to inform strategies to protect birds and bird habitat. audubon.org

3 billion birds can’t be wrong – help reverse the decline The biodiversity crisis has come to our backyards. In less than a single human lifetime, 2.9 billion breeding adult birds have been lost from North America since 1970. The dark-eyed junco has lost an incredible 175 million individuals from

its population. The white-throated sparrow has lost 93 million.

Ninety percent of losses came from just 12 bird families, most of them familiar to Fauquier’s feeders – sparrows, warblers, finches and swallows.

Funky chicken?

No, but they’re rare birds

The 283 species documented in Fauquier include many notable records. State-level rarities include Boreal Chickadee (a bird banded, providing the state’s only record), Tufted Duck, White-tailed Kite, Townsend’s Solitaire, Say’s Phoebe (twice), Northern Shrike, California Gull, Swallow-tailed Kite, Painted Bunting, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. Regional rarities consist of Brant, Ross’s and Greater Whitefronted Geese, Surf and Whitewinged Scoters, Long-tailed Duck, Red-throated Loon, Leach’s Storm- The goldfinch chages plumage in the Petrel, Rough-legged Hawk, Com- winter and looks more like a green finch. mon Gallinule, Upland and Baird’s Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Red-necked and Wilson’s Phalaropes, Common Tern, Black Skimmer, Chuck-will’s-widow, Loggerhead Shrike (a former low-density breeder, that might still be nesting in the county), Sedge Wren, Bicknell’s Thrush, Lapland Longspur, Snow Bunting, Golden-winged Warbler, Clay-colored, Le Conte’s, and Lark Sparrows, Dickcissel, Brewer’s Blackbird and Evening Grosbeak.

44

WINTER 2019

Eastern Bluebird

County, state show some bird-love

The front of the Fauquier County seal bears two symbols long associated with the county – Warrenton’s old courthouse and a falcon. The falcon represents strength and swiftness, on the seal clutching a set of scales to pay tribute to John Marshall, one of the great founders of America and contributor to the development of our judicial system.

In 1950, Virginia’s General Assembly chose the northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) as state bird.

In 18th century England, the cardinal was known as “the Virginia nightingale.”

The cardinal is state bird for seven states – Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina.

– By Betsy Burke Parker

Escape Madness. the

No stress, no pressure, just magnificent wines.

Magnolia Vineyards & Winery is located in Amissville, just off scenic Route 211 in Rappahannock County, approximately 10 miles west of Warrenton. Owned by Glenn and Tina Marchione, we are a family-run boutique winery and vineyard, making small lots of mostly Bordeaux varietals. Quiet country peace, tranquility and great mountain views. Our regular tasting is paired with cheeses and chocolate. The Tasting Room is open year-round, including Thursday – Monday through the fall. Check our website (www.magnoliavineyards.com) or Facebook page for current hours and events.

We have partnered with nearby Granite Heights and Narmada wineries in a tasting voucher venture! Stop by any of the 3 to purchase yours for just $20 (plus tax) and it’s redeemable for a tasting at each winery (a $30 value).

200 Viewtown Rd., Amissville, VA • 703.785.8190 • magnoliavineyards.com

Hours Mon-Fri 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Sunday 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm

Woodland Scenics nn Bachma

MTH Atlas

Lionel

Starter Sets 10% Off

American Flyer

Kato

w

It has been my pleasure to help people find their way home for over 25 years.

LET ME HELP YOU FIND YOUR WAY TO THE HOME WHERE YOU CAN CREATE LASTING MEMORIES!

BRENDA PAYNE Realtor®, ABR, GRI SFR, E-PRO 540.270.1795 | 540.347.2250 (O) www.brendapaynerealestate.com 492 Blackwell Rd. Warrenton, VA 20186

WINTER 2019

45

Keep calm and drink tea ’Tis the season for warmth (from the inside)

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,” said Pooh.

“There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.”

A.A. MILNE, Winnie-the-Pooh

By Sally Harmon Semple A restorative cup of tea has been credited with calming the nerves, waking us up and helping us sleep.

It’s that versatile.

This winter, plan ahead for all three and consider growing your own tea garden. It’s an easy way to connect with the earth through your garden and add a restorative sense to your toils in the soil.

True tea, from the lovely Camellia sinensis shrub, is not a crop typically grown on the U.S. mainland, but do not let that deter you. Fauquier is on the edge of tea's winter hardiness zone, so tea can actually indeed be grown in a sheltered and protected microclimate such as slightly shaded areas near the south side of your home.

Another way to do it it to plant camellia in a large container to bring indoors in the winter.

Chinese tea, Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, is slightly more cold tolerant than Indian variety and is the better choice for this region.

Tea plants do not like soggy soil, but water your tea plant well for the first year – about an inch a week.

It will take several years for a shrub to become established enough to spare the leaves for

Lemon balm can be used to make home-brew tea. your first cup of tea. Keep plants pruned to create strong branches, multiple growing points and a height between 3 and 6 feet.

Once the shrubs are established, harvest some leaves. Take only new leaves; older leaves are too tough for tea.

For something simpler, grow chamomile to brew a calming herbal tea. Harvest the little daisylike flower heads when they are in full bloom and dry them before use. Morning harvests are best since that is when the essential oils are at their peak.

You may use either the perennial Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) or the annual German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) that may reseed itself. Chamomile makes a wonderful bedtime tea, but high doses of chamomile during pregnancy should be avoided.

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is an easy to grow herb with mild sedative properties. Harvest and dry the leaves for a straight herbal tea or create a lemony bedtime blend with your chamomile.

Beware that lemon balm seeds profusely so pinch off the flower spikes.

Lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) is a better behaved lemony garden plant. It is a tender perennial in Fauquier, meaning that it will need protection in harsh winters. The long shiny leaves of this little shrub have a marvelous lemon scent and can also be used for potpourri.

For lesser known bedtime teas, try hops or skullcap. Hops (Humulus lupulus) grow on a great-looking garden vine. Hops flowers contain compounds that aid in reducing anxiety and restlessness.

If the bitter taste of dried and steeped hops flowers is not to your liking, take Piglet's advice

Coffee craving? We’ve got your covered

PHOTOS BY RANDY LITZINGER

The tea ritual is an ancient restorative tradition that helps re-center you heart, mind and soul, say practitioners, rhythmic steps in an ancient ceremony.

46

WINTER 2019

• Middleburg: Uncommon Grounds, Cuppa Giddy Up • Gainesville: Trummer’s Coffee and Wine Bar • Marshall: Cordial Coffee Company, Flying Heron Herbs, Spices and Teas, Red Truck Bakery • The Plains: Happy Creek Coffee and Tea • Vint Hill: Vint Hill Coffee • Warrenton: Red Truck Bakery, Deja Brew Cafe, Great Harvest, Gateau Tea Room • Starbucks: 4 Warrenton locations

Drying chamomile flowers

• Place flowerheads in a single layer on a paper towel • Microwave on low for 60 seconds • Repeat drying in one minute intervals until almost dry • Allow to air dry for 24 - 48 hours before storing and add some honey to your brew. Some new hops varieties have been hybridized with tea drinkers in mind. The “Teamaker” hop is less bitter with a higher concentration of spicy, floral aroma oils.

Skullcap may sound scary, but it is simply a purple wildflower in the mint family. The name refers to the flowers' resemblance to helmets worn by soldiers in the Middle Ages. Leaves from the native Mad-dog skullcap, Scutellaria lateriflora, so named because it was once erroneously proclaimed to cure rabies, have a mild sedative property.

Skullcap grows from cold, moist stratified seeds, so now in early winter is a good time to sow their seeds. They form a 2-foot tall naturalized ground cover in moist to wet soil conditions, under light shade to full sun.

Traditionally, leaves are harvested when the plant starts to bloom. You can cut off the top twothirds of the plant and strip the dried leaves to make herb tea.

Harvesting herb leaves

• For maximum potency, harvest on a sunny morning just after dew evaporates • Harvest no further than the second set of leaves so plant can recover • Stop harvesting in early September to avoid winter damage

Something for the Entire Family at:

Your Football HQ Sunday Specials

24 Luxury Bowling Lanes

Lounge & Billiards Table

Arcade & Laser Tag

RED EMBERS BAR & GRILL

December Event Line-up: December 20th WITNESS PROTECTION

December 21st LIVIN’ THE DREAM

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT! Friday & Saturday | 8:30 pm • No Cover • After 6pm • 21+

December 27th BROADSOUND

December 29th HIJYNX

Red Zone pkg - $9.99 each • 1 game bowling • Shoe Rental • 1 Game Laser Tag Football Fun Pack - $49.99 • 4 $15 Game Cards • 4 Soft Drinks • 1 Lg 16” Single Pizza

Salsa Night Gift Cards Thursdays! Available

Family NYE Package

Tue, Dec. 31 - Balloon drop at 4 PM Bring in 2020 Early! Open - 6pm Bowling • Laser Tag • GameCards • Pizza • Soft Drinks $99.99 ($178 Value) Up to 4 People

Party with us on New Years Eve!

21+ NYE Celebration $10 Cover - Balloon drop at 12 AM Entertainment Package: Drink tickets, bowling & laser tag for $25 per person!

8300 Sudley Road Suite, Manassas, VA • (571) 719-3284 • UptownAlleyManassas.com WINTER 2019

47

Winter whites

Don’t fear the lack of color on this menu – embrace the season for its flavorful nuances

By Sandy Greeley

If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, visit The Front Porch Market and Grill in The Plains and make it a reality.

Snow or no, executive chef Jason Von Moll has created an all-white menu to suit the season.

A Virginia native, Von Moll says cooking is a lifelong passion, inspired by his childhood summers spent on his grandparents’ North Carolina farm. He cooked breakfast with his grandfather, helping his grandmother fix dinner.

“We did mostly southern comfort food,” he recalls.

“Her green beans are out of this world, made with bacon fat, butter and onions. She gets all the flavor.”

His grandparents often smoked whole hogs in summer, and they invited the whole family over to the farm to feast. “He would fire up the giant smoker, and cook all night,” Von Moll remembers the anticipation.

Von Moll’s grandfather owned and operated several local restaurants in nearby Eden. “I started washing dishes when I was 13,” he says. Von Moll skipped culinary school, training in the family kitchen and later at The Tobacco Company restaurant in Richmond and the Hard Rock Café in Myrtle Beach.

“My favorite dish is shrimp and grits,” Von Moll says, though he adds Asian flair to some specialty dishes, Thai-style and Korean-style.

Von Moll’s white papers Old-fashioned potato soup

Hearty winter cooking can take a whimsical turn, says Chef Jason, with home cooks seeking seasonal flavors. Think presentation when planning a menu, and consider lending color to the meal through your choice of tableware, garnishes and decor rather than using the typical rainbow of food selections.

48

WINTER 2019

Chef at The Front Porch in The Plains, Jason Von Moll isn’t afraid of white in the kitchen: he created an allwhite feast for the season including potato soup, local apple slaw and golden raisin-studded rice pudding.

4 cups water 4 large potatoes, peeled and diced 2 small yellow onions, peeled and diced 2 tablespoons unsalted butter Pinch salt Pinch celery salt Pinch freshly ground black pepper Pinch nutmeg 1 cup whole milk 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour Pour the water into a pot. Add the diced potatoes, onions, butter, salts, black pepper, and nutmeg to the pot. Cover and cook slowly over low heat for 1 hour. Mix milk and flour together. Add to the hot soup, increase the heat to medium, and stir until it comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Apple jicama slaw 2 Granny Smith apples, cored and julienned 1 small jicama, peeled and cut into thin batons 1 cup coarsely chopped Italian flatleaf parsley,

plus extra for garnish ¼ cup whole egg mayonnaise 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard Mix together in a large bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use, garnish with the extra parsley and serve.

Alabama white JASON VON MOLL BBQ sauce ½ cup mayonnaise 2 tablespoons white vinegar 2 tablespoons creole mustard 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish 1 teaspoon dill pickle relish ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper Thin with water to desired consistency.

Rice pudding 2 ½ cups whole milk 1/3 cup uncooked short grain rice Pinch salt 1 large egg ¼ cup dark brown sugar 1/3 cup golden raisins 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon Combine milk, rice and salt in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover and cook until tender, 20 to 25 minutes; stir often.

Meanwhile, combine the egg and brown sugar, and mix with a whisk ½ cup rice mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add the tempered egg mixture to the rice mixture, and cook over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes until thick: do not boil again.

Remove from the heat, and stir in the raisins, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Serve warm or cold.

It’s the Saison du Suds, thanks to Fauquier’s latest micro-brewer entry Warm up with a powerful punch from Altered Suds’ signature sip, or toast the season around the region

By John Daum Sometimes in the middle of the holiday whirlwind, it is nice to get away from it all and escape somewhere new to recharge the batteries.

Better yet, take the time to nourish your mind and your spirit.

Luckily, in Fauquier County this isn’t at all difficult to do. With an abundance of breweries that are new to the scene, day-trippers are able to get out and experience some really excellent local and regional breweries perfectly tailored for a short day-out, with or without friends or family.

Keep to the county to enjoy Fauquier’s newest brewery, Altered Suds on Main Street in Warrenton’s historic Old Town. Altered Suds has a unique subterranean location that makes it noteworthy from the start.

When you descend the long staircase below street level to get to the tasting room, you might feel as though you have entered a secret beer clubhouse created just for you. Food from Molly’s next door is available for take-out, but you came for the beer. Pull up a seat at the bar or in one of the quaint seating areas and enjoy a wide selection of so-far delicious rotating taps including “Saison DuSuds” which clocks in at an impressive 6.2 percent alcohol and packs a much richer fla-

vor than most saisons available these days.

“Sugar Magnolia” is another winner coming from the craft brewers at Altered Suds. It is a creamy milk Stout made with chocolate tea which adds a nuanced layer of flavor to the aftertaste.

Not far from downtown Warrenton, make the escape to Barking Rose Brewing Company and Farm on Old Culpeper Road. Their inviting taproom is dog-friendly and great for groups of friends.

Barking Rose beermakers use ingredients from the farm in many of their brews. Offerings include some tasty Belgian inspired selections. If you’re a fan of traditional blonde ales, order “Conviction,” which at 7.3 percent alcohol carries more body than typical offerings in the blonde ale category.

Conviction also has sumptuous spicy notes that many say makes the link from selecting local, craft beer from the tap.

Leave room for Barking Rose’s wonderful Belgian Dubbel, “Alastair.” Alastair has a perfect balance of caramel and cherry notes that would pair beautifully with most holiday foods. A Barking Rose growler of Alastair would be a nice touch as a hostess gift for holiday parties since it goes so well with traditional Christmas fare.

A full-day brew cruise to Richmond reveals that the commonwealth capital has quietly become one of the top beer cities in the nation. The Veil has developed quite a following in the few years it’s been open, as have Ardent Craft Ales and Vasen Brewing Company. All three are near each other, making it easy to test all three and check off much of your holiday shopping list.

I highly recommend a trip to Garden Grove Brewing and Urban Winery in the Carytown neighborhood, which also has a rich variety of shops and restaurants to enjoy. Near Carytown, you’ll find another brewery stand-out, Canon and Draw.

Canon and Draw has a number of great beers on tap, but a solid winter choice is “Berries and Cream.” This lovely blend marries the traditional India Pale Ale with a berry finish, elevating it with the addition of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and sweet cherries.

Similar to the currently popular milkshake IPAs found in craft breweries, Berries and Cream keeps the flavor profile of a traditional IPA intact, allowing the berries to add a finishing touch without a cloying sweetness to overwhelm the palate. barkingrose.com alteredsudsbeer.com

Be part of the season of growth and advertise in Spring 2020

inFauquier

540-347-4222

Contact your sales consultant to place your ad in the Spring 2020 issue.

Proposed publish date March 20th, 2020 WINTER 2019

49

Taking Heart to heart: 1970s photo shoot pivotal in career Was it nature or was it nurture?

Photographer considers her family history of inspiration My mom was the greatest, most naturally talented photographer I have ever known.

Jane Mountain Goff wasn’t concerned with the technical aspects of photography.

Instead, she was committed to documenting all the people and events in our small town in southwest Virginia.

She chose a camera, not a written diary, as her tool for remembering.

I recall being a young girl, watching her work, and wondering what it would be like to be a storyteller with images.

Mom captured multiple generations of family and friends by taking thousands of photos of parades, band competitions, flower judging, church picnics, bridge games, funerals, Christmas pageants, cutting grass, washing cars, family reunions, weddings, bridal showers, Christmas trees, gardens and gift openings.

Shooting photos in the 1960s and ‘70s – even the ‘80s – was a big deal. Remember, this was a time of actual film that needed to be handled with utmost care.

It was also a time of photo processing that took days to see your images. Today, we can click “preview” and see the digital image immediately, but, back then, you had to take film to the photo lab, and they had to use chemical baths in a darkroom to make negatives and contact sheets, then painstakingly – by hand – make individual prints of every single shot.

She seized any opportunity to “make a picture.”

Poring over her photos stuck to the pages of enormous albums was one of my favorite pas-

50

WINTER 2019

The Last Word

BY CINDY GOFF times as a girl. No doubt this look back at her captured history caused me to look “forward” at the world differently because of it.

I started snapping my own series of dreaming photos when I was about 10. I would create an image in my mind and find the way to reproduce it with my little point–and–shoot camera.

Since then – some 40 years – there’s been a never-ending stream of these dream images.

Some have been willed into reality, most have not.

The first dreaming photo I created was a recreation of the cover of Heart’s Little Queen album.

I had become completely obsessed with Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart the first time I saw them on the Midnight Special – a sort of pre-MTV show on NBC – in 1977. As a child of the ‘70s, they were my kind of rockers – powerful and unapologetic, and making it on the world stage. The sisters looked like gypsy angels, I thought, on the album cover.

I knew I could recreate my own version of it, and, by doing so, tap into Heart’s energy.

My girlfriend, Samantha and I went through the odd, never-ending supply of old clothes in her attic and painstakingly created our own gypsy outfits to conjure these strong female role models.

We practiced posing in front of the mirror, and then I scouted out the perfect location outside, just like the Wilson sisters.

Of course, I insisted that we wait for a windy day so our hair would blow back properly. Our

costumes remained laid out at the ready in case the wind started to blow.

On a perfect breezy day, we stood in front of some pine trees in my grandparents’ garden in Chilhowie. I put the Little Queen cover on the ground in front of us for reference, and my mom posed us with great direction.

It was like a real rock and roll photo session except that she used a Kodak point and shoot.

We felt like glam girls anyway. We posed and preened, and my mom got the shot.

Mom was not photographing us because it was cute that we were dressing up as Heart. She participated, as an artist. She didn’t just tolerate my childish whim to re-create this beloved album cover scene; she believed in my vision, and she encouraged me to follow it.

By allowing me to orchestrate my first photo shoot at such a young age, she gave me a new confidence.

This enthusiasm for allowing myself to be completely creative, to play dress-up, to love what I produce came from a place that was, and is, totally pure. Today, as a professional in the business of creating, and re-creating, dreams for people, I embrace that same enthusiasm and let it guide my work.

My mom helped me discover that everyone has this pure place inside them, and it was that sentiment from which I found the name for my photography business, Dreamspeed Photography, and my tagline: “You can become anything at the speed of dreams.”

My mother died in 2010. As time has passed, I’ve gained perspective about our relationship.

Most times we were at odds, fighting constantly, but the Little Queen photo project was our finest hour and something I cling to as a forever-captured memory. The power of that day is still with me.

Relax...

THE DIGITAL EDITION goes where you go.

FOR YOUR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION GO TO: WWW.FAUQUIER.COM | WWW.PRINCEWILLIAMTIMES.COM ALREADY A PRINT SUBSCRIBER? CALL 540-347-4222 WINTER 2019

51

Authentic Amish Made Structures, Furniture, Home Decor & Gifts

Outdoor Furniture

Bedroom Furniture

Home Decor

Dining Room Furniture

Big Green Egg

Structures 2122 N. Frederick Pike Winchester, VA

5451 Old Alexandria Tnpke Warrenton, VA

1348 E. Market Street Leesburg, VA

540-667-5689 540-341-7883 703-687-4303

thisnthatamishoutlet.com

52

WINTER 2019

Financing and rent to own is available on most building structures. Gift Certificates.

15 year warranty on most structures. Restrictions apply.