For Gomer Pyles, the Planet is a Playground

By Leslie VanSant

If you were casting the movie biopic of his life, the lead role surely would be filled by a cross between Jeff Bridges (the “dude” in The Big Lebowski) and Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams). Gomer Pyles, with a full white beard and a trademark bandanna keeping his flowing locks in place, has a Zen approach to life and gardening, and a boundless love of the outdoors and planet earth. He lives to watch the sun and moon rise another day, and see what happens in the “movie” he calls life.

“We encounter each other in our movies,” he said. “We have to just roll with it.”

Some know Pyles because he’s the principle of Able Bodied Computers, helping area residents, businesses and farms set up or fix computers for years. His friendly countenance helps calm clients whose computers and printers have decided to revolt.

Others know him for his art: photography. A California native, Gomer is actually a nickname he earned in middle school. He has a degree from Cal State in sociology and recreation, is a skilled carpenter as well as a computer savant. He has literally hitched, walked or driven across the country, gathering friends and memories along the way.

Since his first journey, a walk around Lake Tahoe at age 19, he has always packed an open mind, a guitar and a camera. For the record, he quickly realized he could not circumnavigate Lake Tahoe by foot in a week. But he also learned to make friends, and to also enjoy solitude.

“We all have to learn to overcome that fear of loneliness so we can live together better,” he said.

Gomer Pyles, at sunset.

Photos by Gomer Pyles

One of Gomer’s favorite photos.

One of Gomer’s favorite photos.

Fast forward to the 1980s and Pyles found himself in The Plains, working to renovate the old store building into the restaurant and bar called “Leathercoat” which is now Girasole. He liked being in Virginia, having had fond memories of visiting his grandparents in West Virginia, so he decided to put down a few roots. Literally. “My grandma taught me about gardening and canning,” he said, and his quirky garden planted in and around his old car is well known for its bounty. Annual harvests include peppers, garlic, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and more. He puts up pickles, salsa and sometimes apple butter.

He also credits his grandparents with instilling in him a desire for sustainability. He lives by the credo of reduce, re-use and recycle. He grows his food organically and shares the bounty that comes from the earth with his family and friends.

His love for nature and the earth also is crystal clear in his photos.

“I started taking pictures with an old Minolta in the ’70s,” he said, “but I didn’t really start seeing photography or the world like I do now until after my stroke in 2009.”

Pyles shares a photo or two a day via his Facebook page. He stops whenever his eye is intrigued and snaps away with a camera or his Iphone. Part luck, and a big part skill, his photos remind us all of the sheer beauty of nature found here in Virginia’s Piedmont. His themes may repeat, but the images are never the same. He captures sunlight dancing across a field, reflections in windows and puddles, birds, insects and flowers. There are countless images of the full or partial moon, and his work inspires thought and awe through the serendipitous beauty of nature.

He captions his photos simply “Along the road to a client’s farm,” which conveys his own wonder and the pure luck of seeing something that amazing and beautiful every day in his “movie.”