An informal haunt for locals and travelers

By Ethan Vaughn

Tucked away on a second-floor corner of the Battletown Inn is a slice of Berryville’s real nightlife—but even though the Gray Ghost Tavern is named for a rumored phantom, the Inn’s owner insists that the only apparitions showing up there are the patrons.

“They say it’s haunted,” said James Lynch, who, along with Ming Chan, has been a co-owner of the establishment since 2006. “We’ve had ghost hunters wanting to explore. A paranormal group came in and heard some voices about two years ago. It wasn’t for a TV show, but they had all the equipment like you see on TV, for voice recording and television recording. They said they heard voices saying the words ‘get out.’ I heard their tape but I’ve never seen a ghost here.”

If indeed there are otherworldly dinner guests coming to chow down on Battletown burgers, it would be difficult to know which time period they’re checking in from: The Inn was built in 1809—the same year, noted Lynch, that both Abraham Lincoln and Edgar Allan Poe were born—and has served as a restaurant off and on for more than two centuries.

“We wanted to be true to the history of the building,” said Lynch. “We built a patio so people could dine outside, and we renovated all the rooms in the inn and added new equipment in kitchen. We didn’t change a lot of structural aspects, though. We mostly just freshened up the colors and made sure there were new amenities in the bathrooms. The history is one of the reasons people come here.”

His customers seemed to agree.

“I like the ambience, the historic ambience,” said Bonnie Savage. “It’s so interesting to come in here and see the period furniture, knowing this place is 200 years old.”

There are other reasons, too, that customers keep coming. The kitchen can whip up some mean fried green tomatoes, and the shrimp and grits is considered a restaurant highlight. The Gray Ghost meanwhile, offers something that’s hard to find in Berryville: a real, full-service bar.

“The atmosphere here is very different than anywhere else; it’s very cozy and nice,” said Scott Woodward, who’s been a bartender at the Gray Ghost tavern since last year. “And I’d say about 60 to 70 percent of our business, maybe even a little higher, is repeat business. You get some out-of-towners from D.C. or Baltimore coming in for the weekend, but mostly it’s local people.”

The Gray Ghosts boasts dozens of wines and an eclectic beer selection, and its patrons are treated to personalized options from Woodward, who has served as a bartender for two decades.

“I like to do seasonal things,” Woodward explained. “This fall I did Halloween pumpkin martinis, and I’m planning on some fruitier cocktails for summer. I’m going to have vodkas naturally infused with fruit instead of buying pre-flavored stuff. So a pineapple martini will be infused with actual pineapple. For a week to 10 days I’ll ferment the fruit and leave the vodka in it. It’s so much smoother that way. And now that it’s already 90 degrees I’ve got to get moving.”

Woodward’s efforts were not unappreciated.

“I like Scott,” said Bonnie Savage, the customer. “The Gray Ghost has a Cheers type of atmosphere, with local people who know each other mixed with out-of-towners. It’s nice. Plus there are so many options, from finer dining to pub dining to outdoor dining, and there’s live music. You can find pretty much anything you want here.”

Lori Mackintosh, a Berryville native and self-described repeat offender, agreed. “The restaurant uses local fresh produce to cook with,” she said. “Which is important to me, because that’s helping local farmers. I like the Gray Ghost. The bar setting is great, or you can eat outside. There’s all these dining options and such a versatile menu. It’s a great local business.”

Bartender Woodward said he hoped that versatility was what people would think of when the Battletown Inn came to mind.

“People think it’s a higher-end place, but it’s not just that,” he said. “You can come in for a fine meal, but you can get a cheeseburger and fries, too. The bar is very relaxed. I think we have the best food and drinks in Berryville. But, you know, I’m biased.”

The Battletown Inn is located at 102, W. Main Street in Berryville. Its telephone number is 540-955-4100.

Why Is My Pet Limping?

Cranial cruciate ligament injuries in dogs

By Matthew Nicholson, DVM

There are many reasons why a pet may develop a lameness or limp. Some of the causes can be sudden in onset, while many may have a gradual progression. It is important to recognize the onset of symptoms, activities that exacerbate the lameness, duration of signs, and response to any medications. You should be aware that you must not administer any medication to your pet without the direct consent of your veterinarian. Your pet’s tolerance to medication is much different than ours, and there are many human medications that can be toxic to animals due to differences in metabolism.

One of the most common causes for lameness diagnosed in dogs is an injury to the cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) of the stifle (knee joint) in the hindlimb. This ligament is synonymous to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in people. Although the injury can occur from a single traumatic incident, most occur as a gradual weakening of the ligament over time. The reasons for this are numerous, and continue to receive the greatest attention in research.

We have learned that there are structural factors of the knee that may lead to instability and subsequent injury. One factor is the tibial plateau angle (TPA), the portion of the shin bone that makes up the base of knee joint. If this angle is too steep, it may predispose a dog to tearing the CCL due to a shear force. Other factors that may contribute to CCL tear include weakening of the other stabilizers of the knee joint including: the surrounding ligaments, joint capsule, contours of the joint surface (including the kneecap), meniscal cartilages that help to cushion the knee, as well as the supporting muscle groups—in particular the quadriceps and hamstring muscles.

With instability due to a CCL injury, the body responds by trying to stabilize the knee with the development of scar tissue. Our goals in treating a non-surgical case would include redevelopment of muscle tone and mass and trying to control inflammation and pain.

Unfortunately, it can take weeks to months for a dog to recover from a CCL injury without surgery, and many of these patients go on to develop significant arthritis compared to those that have had surgery. For this reason, surgery is often recommended. The goal with surgery is to aid in stabilizing the knee and/or correcting other contributing factors like a kneecap dislocation.

There are several types of surgeries to aid in stabilizing the knee due to CCL tear. Historically, the surgical goal was to re-establish the stability that the ligament used to provide—such as replacement with a graft of the patient’s own tissue, or more commonly stabilization with suture material. Other, newer procedures like tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO), and tibial tuberosity transposition (TTA), are aimed at reducing the shear force that may have contributed to the tear and stabilizing the knee during weight bearing.

Recovery from surgery typically requires three months. Surgical success rates are generally 90–95 percent when considering the TPLO and TTA procedures. Essentially, this means depending on the procedure, and other factors that may have contributed to the injury, 85–95 percent of patients will have good to excellent use of the injured leg after recovery. Rehabilitation is critical in your pet’s overall success and recovery. This helps address some of the other factors such as muscle tone and muscle memory in stabilizing the knee. It also aids in reestablishing range of motion and comfort.

Matthew Nicholson, DVM, is veterinary surgeon practicing with Veterinary Surgical Centers in Winchester, Va. Contact him at 540-450-0177 or visit veterinarysurgicalcenters.com.

What We Can Learn From Third Graders

I’ve been reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals about President Lincoln and his cabinet. In every chapter, it seems, there is an account of a long speech by a public figure that drew a thousand people or more—often in towns no bigger than Boyce or Millwood. The speeches captivated audiences by clarifying complex ideas in a point-by-point fashion that’s rare today.

The speeches were reprinted—in their entirety—in hundreds, even thousands of newspapers throughout the country. And people read them!

Literacy rates were somewhat lower then. But what people did with those skills was a lot different. Soldiers of modest means wrote eloquent letters home. Writing in diaries was common; the entries in them are an important part of how we understand history of earlier times. People had long conversations about the issues of the day.

Contrast that to today’s sound bites. Elections can be decided by random remarks posted by bloggers from cell phones.

A lot has changed.

It’s easy to blame the media’s penchant for pithy phrases, or the internet, or cell phones. Or to point the finger at kids who communicate with text messages instead of conversations—sometimes when they’re in the same room.

No, it’s not the media, it’s not the kids, it’s not our mobile devices. It’s us. Heck, I send or receive 50 or more texts a day in the shorthand that passes for language today: R U crzy?

All this is preamble to an item that landed on my desk: the Ninth Annual Black History Dramatic Reading Contest, February 16, at the Josephine School Community Museum in Berryville. Third, fourth, and fifth graders will read from a selection of Black literature and authors. Awards will be given out for each level. How cool is that.

We adults are buying into sound bites and busily posting driveling diatribes on social media, then come the children to teach us how to read in public and give a speech—or, maybe more importantly, to listen to one.

In this spirit, on the cover of this Observer is Fanny Jenkins, a longtime teacher at the Josephine School. The photo was published in Images of America, Clarke County by Maral Kalbian.

She and the school are part of a complicated story. There is no celebration for an age of forced segregation. But who knows? Maybe one Clarke County kid giving a dramatic reading will grow up to be the one who reignites a passion for letter writing or fosters an America at ease with complex ideas, in which we all try to understand the points of view of people with whom we disagree.

How cool is that. In texting parlance: awesome!

By Doug Pifer

The crowd gasped as the released hawk flew strongly to a perch twenty feet up a tree. After looking around to get its bearings, it launched itself once again and flew away across the countryside.

The group had assembled  at Claytonville Farm, near Millwood , to witness the release of a red-tailed hawk by the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center. Six weeks ago the bird had been discovered standing in the parking lot of a bank, unresponsive and unable to fly. Heather Sparks, a staff wildlife rehabilitator, picked up the bird and brought it to the center where Dr. Belinda Burwell, the center’s veterinarian and director, determined that the bird was an immature bird in a weak, emaciated condition near starvation. After several weeks of careful feeding, weighing and monitoring, the bird had gained weight and was placed in a special outdoor enclosure where it could fly freely and exercise its wings, building up strength until it was ready for release back into the wild.

Before she  released the hawk, Burwell explained to the Claytonville Farm gathering that red-tailed hawks depend upon their ability to hunt mice, squirrels, and other small animals. Hawks in their first year of life are particularly vulnerable during fall migration season. A minor accident or injury that lays them up for several days threatens their survival. No one knows what calamity befell the young hawk before it was found, but it could now continue on its way.

Red-tails are common in this part of the country. Lordly in demeanor, with a rasping, echoing scream, they exemplify to me everything a hawk should be. During autumn and winter they’re the hawks you are most likely to see perched along roadsides on fence posts or dead trees, scanning the ground for prey.

Adult red-tails measure nearly 20 inches from beak tip to tail, with a four-foot wing span. With piercing light brown eyes the size of a man’s, they have binocular vision that can pinpoint a field mouse from 50 feet in the air. Thick, yellow toes tipped with inch-long, curved talons look truly fearsome. But red-tailed hawks are gentle giants. One that’s perched in the open for any length of time is likely to be mobbed by crows and other birds. When it flies away, the crows follow in hot pursuit. But the hawk never seems to fight back.

Many folks keep poultry in their backyards these days, and occasionally lose a free-roaming chicken to a predator. Seeing the scattered feathers, people often blame the red-tailed hawk they see sitting on a nearby perch.  During the 19th and early 20th centuries, farmers used to routinely shoot them, calling them “chicken hawks.”

The truth is a red-tailed hawk is probably over-equipped for the prey she hunts. For many years the USDA gathered data on the stomach contents of all hawks and owls that were shot as predators. Overwhelmingly the crops of red-tailed hawks contained the remains of rodents and other small animals. This led to the eventual federal and state protection of all hawks and owls. Now it is illegal to capture, trap, or shoot any bird of prey.

In the 20 years my wife and I have kept poultry, we’ve never lost one to a hawk. Great horned owls, foxes, raccoons and dogs are the most likely culprits, in our experience. While a red-tail, particularly a young bird, will often come by and perch near our birds and cause an uproar among them, I believe they are more interested in catching the emboldened rodents attracted by chicken feed.