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Giving an Old Mill New Life

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Story by Victoria L. Kidd, photos by Jennifer Lee

  There is something about old buildings. As demands on our time force us to move faster and faster, we find ourselves rushing between our “point As” and “point Bs.” While cityscapes blur past us without inciting more than a fleeting interest, there’s simply something about old buildings. Their architecture and style are hard to overlook. When we drive past them, they seem to move by us in slow motion. Between breaths we can almost see the spectral presence of those whose lives are forever tied to these buildings of wood and stone. Such is certainly the case when one drives past Aylor’s Mill, the enormous, five-story structure located at 401 East Main Street in Berryville, VA.

The building, which sits on a narrow lot butting up against the tracks used by the Norfolk-Southern Railroad, has served a number of tenants since its construction in 1928, but the most recent persons to become stewards of this historic site are Steve Scott and Julie Ashby, owners of an interior design studio named Hip and Humble. The pair are experts in what they call “antique and architectural salvage,” a design and production process that repurposes materials and items in a manner that creates a new—and sometimes unexpected—item.

For example, wooden planks from an old corn crib (a type of granary used to dry and store unhusked ears of corn) may be reshaped and used to make a one-of-a-kind kitchen table. Perhaps the large, rusting blades of a metal windmill may find new life as a chandelier or a nonoperational vending machine transforms into a bookcase. Ashby sometimes refers to the process as being “barn again,” a play on being born again, since the results truly do give an object new life.

“Everything can have a new purpose, a new life,” Ashby asserts. “We never really know what we will find or what will find us, really. We’ll get a call to come take down an old structure or barn and we’ll bring the materials back and let them speak to us. The shop is filled with antiques that really don’t need much repurposing, as well as items we have created from the things that have found their way to us.”

Truly, Scott and Ashby see inspiration in all old things, and this is perhaps the reason they believed Aylor’s Mill was the ideal place for Hip and Humble to call “home.” The mill has been repurposed before, although one could argue that no other business has been as ideally suited for the space as one that makes old things new again. Their story is the latest chapter in a history that starts even before the current building located at the site was erected.

According to local architectural historian Maral Kalbian, the structure stands atop the ashes of an 1893 flour mill that burned down on July 14, 1927. That mill was built by Loudoun County resident Tazwell Lovette. It would eventually come to be owned by Francis L. Aylor of Culpepper, Virginia. Aylor purchased the mill in 1922, subsequently moving his wife, Salina, and daughter, Roberta, to Clarke County.

His family arrived in July of 1922 and lived initially in a Main Street hotel, according to a 1975 article appearing in the Winchester Evening Star. (The article is safely tucked away under the care of Mary Thomason-Morris, an archivist and Clarke County enthusiast with the Clarke County Historical Association.) In September, they were finally able to acquire their family home on Church Street. Things were going well, but the mill was “tinder box,” according to Mrs. Aylor. Its heart was a coal-burning steam engine and wood stoves provided its heat. For a mill that had to remain dry to effectively process the grains, it was one spark away from tragedy.

The dry wood caught fire in the July heat of 1927, and while the firemen saved his papers and records, the building itself was a complete loss. Aylor was devastated, and he spent some time considering endeavors outside of the milling industry. The aforementioned newspaper article goes on to say that the townspeople rallied around the Aylor family, and a petition imploring him to rebuild was circulated among area farmers. Many even offered to help financially in his efforts to reestablish the mill that was so critically important to the county’s economy. Aylor decided he could not leave the people and the community who had shown him such support, and he set out to rebuild his mill—this time leaving behind the technology of the past and powering operations with electricity.

The structure standing today in place of the original mill remains much as it was when it was completed in 1928. Every inch of the building, which is now 87 years old, has a story. Even the wood, which stands underneath the pressed-tin shingling that covers its exterior, has a genesis tale of its own.

In a report titled A Brief History of Aylor’s Mill, Kalbian writes, “According to newspaper and oral accounts, the timber used for the construction of this mill came from Oregon and was shipped through the Panama Canal to Norfolk where it was loaded onto flatbed railcars and transported to Berryville.” A journey of more than 2,700 miles brought this material here to become part of a building that stands as a reminder of the importance of grain milling in Clarke County’s history. Many residents spent their lives working in the mill, and it is easy to visualize their labor when you visit.

You can practically see the women sewing up the tops of canvas bags destined for the passing railcars. The interior, with woods unpainted and exposed, has the feel of a place where thousands of footsteps have worn a path before. There is an unseen current to the space that almost provokes one to mimic the hurried gait of a millworker struggling to keep pace with the flow of work.

The scene of workers laboring at Aylor’s Mill could be appreciated until changes in demand for grains caused Mr. Aylor to close his business in the late 1960s. Grains were no longer the lifeblood of the agriculturally based economy of Clarke County. Orchards were now “king,” and his mill’s profits were greatly reduced from what they once were. He was 87 years old when he finally let the mill fall silent. He died two years after shuttering its doors.

Mrs. Aylor soon after sold the building. After changing hands twice more, it was purchased by Clarke County Roofing and Guttering, a business operated by Jay Hillerson. Ashby is humbled to have been entrusted with the building. “I know the mill is very important to Mr. Hillerson,” she says. “It’s an honor really to be allowed to become part of its story.”

Alongside Scott and Ashby, three young men are also leaving their mark on the structure. Eric Stewart, Kaleb Langley, and David Betz are the three “working rock stars,” as Ashby calls them, who are helping transform the space into the warehouse, workshop, and showroom that will store, inspire, and house the latest Hip and Humble creations. It’s taken a lot of work, but the process has been part of the fun, explains Scott.

“The other day we opened a door that hadn’t been opened in 75 years,” he says. “We are cleaning and repairing and restoring everything we can. It’s work, but it’s a lot of fun.” Much of the building will not be accessible to the general public, but every inch has nonetheless received careful attention that only people completely invested in saving and repurposing that which is old would give.

Ashby relays, “The building deserves to have us there and we are very, very lucky to be able to do the work. Steve and I really believe that if we give to the building it will give back to us. We are very committed to the work, and we are so excited to watch its transition.”

As that transition has taken shape over the last few months, the work that drives their business has simultaneously continued. Objects and materials still inspire them. American painted furniture, country style furniture, general store items, and more come together to create a scene that tells a story, a story either of times long gone or of how modern style can pay homage to the innovation and construction of the past.

Locals acquainted with how that story has been told while Hip and Humble operated out of its Strasburg studio will find the operation’s setup in Aylor’s Mill to be familiar. “We don’t create to keep up with trends,” Ashby explains. “We create for ourselves and our customers. We merge humble furnishings with great, upscale pieces—some of which we have created and others we have simply refurbished. All of these pieces are brought together in a space and staged beautifully, and now they are being brought together in a space that really honors the intent of our work.”

“We love what we do, Ashby says. “The work becomes part of these people’s homes. We become a small part of their stories. We pour ourselves into these objects and well, it works.”

“It works,” Scott agrees. “And we can’t wait to be making it work in the mill.” To learn more about Hip and Humble, www.hipandhumble.net or like “Hip and Humble Interiors” on Facebook. Their first big sale is October 2-4 from 10am to 7pm, so be sure to make time to visit the business that is giving an old mill new life.

Solitude, Then and Now

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By Wendy Gooditis

Do you have an olfactory memory? Does the smell of almond extract suddenly have you back in your grandmother’s kitchen? How about the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil? Are you at your desk on the first day of third grade, watching the teacher write her name on the board in a beautiful script you never did manage to attain? Most of us come across these scents now and then, and are beamed back in time to a very specific moment or place. I experienced a powerful shift of dimension last week when I entered the dwelling called Solitude on the mountain, just over the border into Loudoun County.

The time shift struck the moment I walked in the side entrance of the old place: it was the fragrance of summer vacations in my Great-Aunt Pat’s house in Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River. The smell of a house which has rested in silent contemplation of the bright summer past and anticipation of the sunlit one to come. Solitude, like my aunt’s house, has known the joys of summer vacation, and has also been the cozy refuge from the storms of February. I’m thinking that the huge stone fireplace in the beamed living room is a heart-warming center for Yuletide celebrations, and the lovely glade over which the house has presided for more than a hundred years is a heavenly backdrop for the spring wildflowers and the blazing autumn leaves.

The mountain was and is a place where city dwellers have built getaways for more than a century. In the days before clean city water and air-conditioning, the idea for some was to get out of the heat and possible contagion of the city and out to the cool, healthy mountain air. So families came for summers, rather than weekends. Then there came the trend of building hunting lodges, many of which were quite rustic. In 1900, the Southern Railway, predecessor of the Old Dominion Railroad, extended its railroad four miles from Round Hill to Bluemont. This greatly aided the efforts of those city dwellers who wished to enjoy the great outdoors on our mountain. One of these was Assistant Attorney General James C. McReynolds (under President Theodore Roosevelt), who built this beautiful, spacious, and sturdy hunting lodge, and called it Solitude. McReynolds later became U.S. Attorney General under Woodrow Wilson, who then appointed him to the Supreme Court, where he served until his retirement in 1941.

Once cars and navigable roads were everywhere, these houses were used more and more as weekend retreats. Many of these old retreats now house fortunate occupants year round. The house called Solitude has probably been all of these to a number of different families in its 111 years, and has most recently been a full-time home. But the elements of vacation house are built right in: the thick stone columns that once held up the roof of a deep porch, which now are embedded in the wall of the enclosed sunroom. The flagstone floor in the corner of the kitchen supporting the fascinating old wood-burning cookstove. The unplaned branches and trunks which make up the banister and the paneling, plus five fireplaces. The top-floor rooms with their slanting eves and old floorboards are the perfect setting for bunk beds and deep armchairs for story time.

But the comfort of the old structure will accommodate daily life beautifully as well. The kitchen is shining and convenient, with a large, granite-topped island and lots of room for a big table. Its door leads into the roomy dining room with a wall of windows showing a beguiling aspect of yard and woods. These and the spacious living room with its beamed ceilings and stone hearth, the long sunroom, a full bathroom, and two other rooms, each with stone fireplace, make up the downstairs. I rest my hand on the enchanting branched banister, and climb the stairs to a cozy landing, then on up to the second floor, where there are two large bedrooms and a bathroom. The bedrooms have wooden ceilings, paneling, stone fireplaces, window seats – right out of a story book. More stairs up to the third floor, with its two cozy rooms under the eaves, and I have seen the whole interior of the house. But there are more surprises outside.

The house is on 14 acres, nearly two acres of which are the clearing around the house. From the moment I pull in the driveway and pass between two stone columns, I feel I’m entering a different, possibly enchanted, world. There is a large old shed along the driveway, and tucked back against the trees is a small stone building that looks like a small pavilion, with sliding glass doors and a patio. My imagination instantly conjures ways to enjoy this space: a guest house, an artist’s studio, a space for yoga and meditation, a kids’ lair, or a kennel. On a practical note, the owner enjoys pride of possession of a handsome and fully functional outhouse! And the totally private and serene clearing surrounded by forest ensures that the place was not ill-named. Solitude is on the market now, and happy will be its new owners.

Wendy Gooditis is a real estate agent on the Chip Schutte Real Estate Team with ReMax Roots at 101 East Main St., Berryville, VA 22611, phone (540)955-0911. Wendy would be happy to answer any questions you may have about real estate, and can be reached at Gooditis@visuallink.com or at (540)533-0840.

Boulder Crest Offers Vets Healing Renewal

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By Annie Young

We the residents of Clarke County have the honor of having the nation’s first privately funded, rural combat-veteran wellness center. It’s nestled in the mountain that we share with Loudoun County. Tucked in Bluemont is Boulder Crest Retreat Center, which hosts 700 combat veterans and their families each year since 2013. It is a relatively new facility; you may not even know it exists but its mission is mighty, powerful and far reaching. Prepare yourself to be inspired.

Entering the gate, you feel as if you are entering sacred space. The immaculate grounds and pond, newly constructed log lodge and cabins and Heroes Garden are pristine. But serenity isn’t effortless. Every detail is created for comfort, care, and healing. The gated retreat is secure with a world class staff dedicated to creating transformation in the lives of the combat veterans who come to Boulder Crest for two to seven days. Lives change, community bonds are forged, and scars are examined with knowledge and expertise.

Boulder Crest Retreat Center began as a vision of Ken and Julia Falke. As a master chief petty officer and an explosive ordnance disposal technician for the U.S. Navy, Ken Falke was seriously wounded. He saw first hand the needs of the wounded service men and women and their families. Often times they were frustrated with the lack of needed therapies or the inability to have their families close by as they recovered. The Falkes began hosting wounded warriors and their families at their home for short stays and shared meals.

This grew into the wish to have a few cabins on their property. Now Boulder Crest sits on 37 acres of land donated by the Falkes. The retreat includes a lodge, four breathtaking cabins, an archery range, two retired racehorses, a stone labyrinth, tipi, walking trails, pond, playground, chickens, rabbits and Heroes Garden. Everything has been built with private donations-from small checks from families to large corporate donations of linens and appliances. Every combat veteran and family member who comes for a retreat pays nothing.

Boulder Crest’s new executive director Dusty Baxley jumped into his position in July. He and the staff believe that the service men and women make up the Next Greatest Generation. The team of psychologists, therapists and staff has created the Progressive and Alternative Therapies for Healing Heroes or PATHH. The range of therapies offered during a PATHH program ranges from the 4,000-year-old labyrinth walk to archery and meditation.

Baxley wants the Healing Heroes to “form a community of brothers and sisters and go back home and reconnect.” Part of the reconnection is helping to find therapies that the veterans have benefited from, and finding resources where each veteran lives so they can continue to heal. That’s the essential part—22 veterans commit suicide every day.

But Baxley doesn’t just give a list to the veterans and wish them luck. He makes the call to connect and helps pave the path for a continued course of strength and recovery. Baxley urges us all to “step up and make a house a welcome home, make America, home.”

Boulder Crest is entering Phase 2 of its development. Having met the previous goal last December, Phase 2 focuses on raising an additional $10 million dollars to help serve veterans free of charge for the next five years. This would benefit 3,500 service men and women and their families. Boulder Crest also seeks to create the nation’s first non-clinical curriculum for combat related stress. The curriculum would include the variety of therapies offered and use a full time team of therapists. In the first six months of this campaign over a million dollars has been raised.

So how can we help our veterans beyond the platitudes and pats on the back that sometimes feel empty? We can strengthen resources like Boulder Crest Retreat Center that sits next to our county. A local Girl Scout Troop donates cookies so families on retreat can enjoy a treat together. Locals volunteer and help out in the Heroes Garden that has raised beds that are the perfect height for people in wheelchairs. Donations of any size help heal and create a space to welcome home veterans and help them assimilate back to life with family and friends and support from a community that cares about the Next Greatest Generation.

For more information visit www.bouldercrestretreat.org or call 540-554-2727. Boulder Crest Retreat is not open to the public, but everyone is welcome to attend special events.

Live United with Clarke County’s Nadine Pottinga

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By Victoria Kidd

The United Way of Northern Shenandoah Valley’s brochure asks a bold question. “What happens when people work together?” It’s a question answered every year during their annual Day of Caring. On a particular day in the waning weeks of summer, hundreds of volunteers from the Top of Virginia Region come together to spend time completing volunteer service in the area. With Joe Shtulman leaving the United Way after an incredible and successful tenure of 14 years, someone new is at the helm for this year’s Day of Caring.

A little under a year ago, the organization announced that its executive search committee had selected Nadine Pottinga to succeed the much-loved Shtulman. Pottinga leaves a role as the director of development for the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation. It has been reported that she was able to grow the foundation’s income by more than $1 million. Prior to that role, she led a campaign to garner $2 million as the executive director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Pottinga claims that her ability to lead organizations and build the relationships needed to fundraise is an unexpected derivative of her unique upbringing.

Pottinga’s parents met and fell in love while working at a hotel in England. Her mother is German, her father Dutch. Their language barrier did not prevent them from wanting to marry and start a family. They would subsequently move around a lot, pursuing opportunities in hospitality organizations that would afford them a better life. When Pottinga was a freshman in high school, her father was offered a job in Minnesota. It would be the family’s first time living in the United States. It was a difficult transition, although those before it could not necessarily be considered easy.

“I sort of always felt like a square peg in a round hole,” she explains. “ Every move was a transition, but it did make me very adaptable and flexible. It also taught me how to understand and work with all kinds of people from all types of backgrounds.”

That would prove to be an important skill when she accepted her first job with YouthWorks, a faith-based organization that, among its other programs, connects youth volunteers with nonprofits in their region to encourage service and community participation. “This is the job where I fell in love with nonprofit work,” Pottinga says. “I fell in love with the idea that I could help people learn compassion and understanding for others.”

During her time with YouthWorks, she was accountable for everything from sales and marketing to volunteer placement and project screening. She would eventually find her way to the operation’s D.C. Metropolitan Region. “I loved D.C. It was a place that made me feel a little less like that square peg. It’s really a place where there are no outsiders…I decided to stay.”

Pottinga would take a position with the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital before accepting the position with the Muscular Dystrophy Association. “I loved working with nonprofits, and I loved making a difference. At the time I really just had one more goal professionally, and that was to work in some sports-related organization.”

She had grown up playing and loving sports. It was a way to fit in at any new school, in any new location. When she was offered the position with the Redskins Charitable Foundation in Ashburn, she felt she had found her place. Things were going well. She had met and married her husband, Jonathan Bullock. The pair had found a beautiful house on five acres in Clarke County. Everything was going well, but it wasn’t long before Pottinga felt something was missing from the nature of the work she was doing.

“About three months in, I realized I had made a mistake,” she says. “I’d spent so much of my career serving communities and developing others to lead service in their communities. I love seeing people work together to solve community problems. I wasn’t really doing that anymore. My work with the foundation was meaningful, but it felt different. I wasn’t really doing what I was passionate about. It felt like my first little bit of time there was a gut check. I stayed on for two years, but I missed the feeling of community and the feeling you get when you do meaningful work on a community level.”

One day early in the NFL season, she came across the announcement for the position with the United Way of Northern Shenandoah Valley. “It seemed too good to be true,” Pottinga says, reflecting on the day. “It was perfect. I was so humbled and happy to have been offered this role. It is truly getting back to the roots of the type of work I first fell in love with.”

Since assuming the title at the beginning of the year, she has come to believe that this is truly “her place” and this community is unique among all others in which she has worked. “This community is the most generous one I’ve ever worked in. You can feel a sense of optimism. People really care about this community, and people here are so good, so genuine. It’s really a privilege to work at their United Way.”

As such, she is very excited about her first Day of Caring. According to www.unitedwaynsv.org, 745 volunteers representing 45 companies and clubs came together last year to complete service projects in Frederick, Clarke, Warren, and Shenandoah counties. These volunteers completed 178 service projects across 89 separate locations. Projects are submitted by area nonprofit organizations, and are vetted by a committee which examines the nature of the submitted tasks and ensures suggested worksites are safe for the volunteers. With the projects identified, volunteers (either as individuals or as groups representative of participating organizations) are assigned to worksites for that day.

There are enough projects for 900 volunteers this year. It’s something special to be a part of, and Pottinga says that she is personally moved when she considers the day’s impact. “I truly get goose bumps when I think about it,” she says. “When I step back and think about the big picture, I am overwhelmed. It’s incredible that there are so many people who want to participate, and just think about the employers who are allowing their employees to participate during working hours! I can’t wait to see it; I only wish there were more of me so I could visit each site and meet every volunteer.”

“Those volunteers are special,” she continues. “I want the whole community to know that, and I want the community to know the United Way is a place where everyone can find a way to ‘fit.’ I spent a long time considering myself a square peg trying to squeeze into a round hole. This is a place where any sized peg can belong. Our core areas of focus—education, income, and health—include so many meaningful projects. You can absolutely find something you are passionate about, and we can absolutely use your help.”

Pottinga’s words really echo the organization’s answer to the aforementioned question about what happens when people work together. Their brochure offers, “United Way of Northern Shenandoah Valley believes in the power of people coming together to make communities stronger and lives better. Be part of the change. Work and play together. Let’s live united.”

Sharing Secrets with Robin Murphy

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By Victoria Kidd

Think about the last time you visited a bookstore. A sea of shelves present row-upon-row of titles waiting to ignite your fascination and imagination. Colorful jackets and covers beg for attention and entreat you to take a chance on the contents hidden within. Many dream about publishing a novel, but the discipline to do so escapes most of us. For Robin Murphy, an author from Maryland who will soon be signing her work at the Winchester Book Gallery, inspiration hit suddenly and the act of writing became as necessary as breathing. It simply had to happen.

Murphy is rare among writers, many of whom claim to have always felt the call to write. For her, the drive came on suddenly. “I never dreamed of being a writer,” she says. “I’m not even sure I can explain it well enough, except that the first story I ever wrote ‘just happened’ in 2006. I began to imagine this romance story that took place in Ireland and I sat down one day at my laptop and…wrote. It just poured out of me.”

Having no formal training in the world of writing and publishing, she listed the book on Lulu, an online self-publishing and eBook company. Success was not immediate, and she relays that she sold “a whole whopping five books to family” (including one to herself).

The itch to write did not subside, even after the disappointing sales associated with her first work. So, she took a few college-level writing courses. Murphy is also a graduate of Long Ridge Writers Group, a program that teaches writers both the craft of writing and the act of selling their work. Having built the foundations of a career, she made writing an integral part of her life. Today, she is attuned to her creative vision and finds that the voice inside her can whisper its inspiration at any time.

“Writing for me comes in different ways, in the sense that I never know when the creative muse will begin to knock on my brain crying to get out, but even if it’s percolating, I’m not always in the situation to just sit down and write,” she says. “Being at work is one of those scenarios, but what I always have with me is my journal. So if something pops into my mind on how I’m going to kill off a character, I quickly pull out my journal and make a note. I’ve even grabbed my smart phone in the middle of the night to write down a thought in my notes.”

Her method has led to the creation of a successful series centered on a protagonist named Marie Bartek. The character discovers that a childhood psychic ability has returned. Bartek embraces her gift and works to create a paranormal (read ghostly and otherwise unexplained) investigative team of talented individuals called Sullivan’s Island Paranormal Society, or SIPS for short. The team investigates mysterious occurrences and helps people deal with paranormal activity plaguing their homes or businesses. Murphy explains, “Because of their talents, they get pulled into mysteries that involve murder, ghosts, demons, the mafia, and even pirates.” Their story is told through a series of four novels within which she has woven a tale of mystery, friendship, and romance.

The first book in that series, Sullivan’s Secret, ended up being recognized as an Amazon.com best-selling book. Murphy recalls what it was like when her work achieved that status. “I think I did a little happy dance in my kitchen the morning I found out, while my husband looked at me as though I had lost it,” she recalls. “No seriously, that was an inner goal of mine and I kept it in sight. I never gave up. I self-published the first three books in my series, and then my publisher, Creativia found me on Twitter and asked to see my manuscripts. It took off from there.” She gives credit to the publisher while recognizing that the investments she has made in her work has paid remarkable dividends. “It’s my passion and there’s nothing greater than seeing all of that hard work come to fruition. It’s exciting, but I’m also very humbled.”

When the ink dried on Sullivan’s Secret, Murphy found it hard to let go of the characters whose lives were plotted in the work. “I missed them and I felt they needed to grow and they had more to accomplish,” she says. “I’m not sure if there was a catalyst other than the inner drive to write. It’s just there. You can’t stop it.” Her successive works provide readers additional opportunities to delve into the lives of the inhabitants of Sullivan’s Island.

In addition to her successful paranormal series, Murphy (now a veteran author) has written a nonfiction title called A Complete “How To” Guide for Rookie Writers. She says that she loves helping others, especially new writers. The work details insights from her beginnings as a rookie writer and her adventures in self-publishing to how she achieved her dream of being traditionally published.

“I’ve read countless helpful books that tell you to go here, or go there, but I wanted to take it a little deeper and actually give the step-by-step instruction to make it easier. It’s simple to say go out to this link, but what happens once you get there? Writing is my passion and I have met so many amazing people that have helped me along the way. I want to share what I’ve learned…I hope I achieve that in this book, as well as from my website, www.rookiewriterssolutions.com.” The site provides writers numerous tips and insider tricks to help them market their work and achieve their goals.

While the site provides a crash course in what it takes to pursue a successful writing career, Murphy recognizes that it is an author’s work that drives that career. She encourages would-be authors to write as much and as often as they can. “Write…write…write!!! It doesn’t matter how you do it; just write it down. Get it out there on the page. Don’t worry about your commas, sentence structure, or point of view, just get the story down, and then you can go back and edit or take a writing course if needed.”

Locals seeking additional inspiration would be wise to check their calendars and reserve some time on September 26, 2015 from 11am to 1pm. On that day, Murphy will be at the Winchester Book Gallery at 185 N. Loudoun Street on the Downtown Walking Mall in Winchester. To learn more about Murphy’s work, visit www.robinmurphyauthor.com. Perhaps her story will help you finally pen yours.

Working And Living The American Dream

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By Samantha Piggot

For the last four years my family has been making friends with and buying gas from the 7-11 store on the corner of Route 7 and Triple J Road. I admit, I was so skeptical and sad when the old Triple J shut down and I heard the dreaded words . . . 7-11. The whole idea of a national chain where our beloved Triple J store had been made me cringe. What about the people, I loved knowing the girls in Triple J and they made the best breakfast sandwiches. The thought of a 7-11 seemed so ‘Un-Berryville’ to me. As we all know, change is the only thing that stays the same.

Then I walked into the sparkling new store a day or two after it opened. It was beautiful, bright, and clean. I couldn’t believe how lovely it was and how many selections were available. I decided to risk it, and get a cup of coffee. It didn’t taste the same. It wasn’t what I was used to, and I’m ashamed to recall, I told whichever poor soul was working at the time that it was not up to par! She politely replied, “7-11 sells the most coffee in the country, besides Starbucks.” I may or may not have replied to that. I was still miffed by the corporateness of this endeavor at the end of my street.

Regardless, I need gas (and coffee), so I continued to patronize 7-11. Back then it was out of necessity.

A few tanks of gas and gallons of coffee later, I started to notice something different about this place. The employees were nice. They knew I was a regular. They knew who my husband was, and that he always writes checks. If I did not have my very active boys with me, whoever was working would inquire as to their whereabouts. Before I knew it my boys were high fiving Shyam, the manger, and begging him to let them help stock the soda. What kind of place is this? A convenience store that embraces children?

That year we went to The Outer Banks for vacation and, as we headed home, we stopped off at the souvenir shop. My husband saw a gigantic Outer Banks pen; he scooped it up and triumphantly proclaimed, “We have to get this for Shyam at 7-11; their pens are always disappearing!”

Sure enough he bought that pen, and so began our friendship with the 7-11 crew; over an Outer Banks pen.

What I really wanted to know is what makes this 7-11 different than any other location I have been in. How is it so clean? Why are the employees so nice? Why is there no employee turnover?

I finally got to sit down with Prayas Bhatta, who operates and owns the Triple J 7-11 with his wife Shweta Bhetwal, and get the inside story to the success of his business.

Bhatta immigrated to the United States at the age of 21—his parents had been here working, for eight years. He had not seen them during that time. Bhatta had begun some college in Katmandu, Nepal, where he grew up, but when the green card sponsorship through his father came up, he had to drop what he was doing and come to the U.S. When he arrived, he found himself not equipped for a lot of jobs. His experience didn’t translate to much, here.

Bhatta’s uncle owned 7-11 stores in Culpeper and Manassas at the time, and he agreed to take him on. Bhatta started as any employee would, and quickly took on two jobs, working at one 7-11 from 2pm to 10pm and another from 10:30pm to 7:30 am. He worked 16 hrs a day, 6 days a week. He did that for a year, and saved up enough money to send his hard working parents back home to Nepal for a vacation.

After a year, Bhatta’s uncle promoted him to manager of the busy Manassas location. Bhatta started to realize the value 7-11 can provide for owners and employees. “If you are willing to work hard and learn, you really can realize the American Dream,” Bhatta reflects.

The Triple J location has been a convenience store and gas station since at least the 1950s. The Slater Family purchased the land in 1949; it is not clear from the tax records if it was a store before they owned it. According to Berryville native Irene Pope, “Slater was the sheriff and he ran it. Then his children took over and ran the store, until Joe Lambert bought the property, that must have been early 80s.” In fact, the Lamberts, whose family corporation still owns the property, did purchase it in 1980. This was right about the time the state put in the Route 7 bypass.

Joe Lambert (deceased) ran the gas station and store for over 20 years. Many locals, myself included, remember the family atmosphere and local feel of the Triple J store.

In 2005 when Joe decided to retire, the location was one of the hottest commodities in three counties. Several large chains were in the running for the busy, profitable spot. In the end, 7-11 had the winning bid and after much renovation the store opened under corporate ownership (as all 7-11’s do).

When Bhatta learned about the location and that it would be available for private sale, he was intrigued. He and his wife spent a month driving to the store and watching the traffic pattern. “It didn’t take long to realize, with the volume of traffic on Route 7 in the morning, this was a great location,” Bhatta recalls.

He said it was a natural step for him. He knew 7-11 and understood how it works—as well as what ownership would mean. One thing he knew for sure was there was more hard work in front of him. Bhatta welcomed the challenge. Unlike many 7-11 owners, Bhatta works at the location at least five days a week. This business is not simply an investment to add to a portfolio, the store is a representation of the American Dream. He has to continue working to keep that dream alive.

Bhatta has a special work ethic. He exemplifies and imparts to his employees that hard work and a clean store are the start to running a really successful business. “We want our customers to leave with a smile, even if they didn’t walk in with one,” he said.

This is where the true success lies. When anyone walks through the doors of Bhatta’s 7-11, they can tell there is a difference. The store itself is amazingly clean: the floors, the coffee bar, the restrooms. The employees care. Because just like Bhatta they realize that the customers write their checks.

Marina Cash has worked at this 7-11 since before Bhatta owned the business. She is always ready to help and always asks about family and work. Manager Shyam Khatri has been with Bhatta for 4 years. He is another integral part of the store’s success.

Bhatta says as soon as he met Khatri he offered him a job and more money then he was making at his current 7-11. “Shyam is from the same area of Nepal as I am. Beyond that I knew he was hard-working and loyal, and that he had a dream—and that he was a keeper.” Any customer could easily think Shyam is the owner just because of the care he takes for the store and the customers.

The culture and climate at Bhatta’s 7-11 is all about being positive, family values and consistency. Bhatta also has the great pleasure of having his father working alongside him now at his 7-11.

A lot of the employees are able to communicate with people in three or four languages. That goes a long way to make customers feel comfortable. “They are the ones that make it happen, they do a great job,” Bhatta said. “I’ve been in their shoes.”

A Revolution of Love

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By Victoria L. Kidd

Every July offers us another opportunity to reflect on our individual liberties and freedoms. After all, on the fourth of the month we celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and remember that our nation’s ideology of freedom was born of revolutionary acts. While the holiday is often most associated with fireworks, family barbecues, and main street parades, it’s a day that is about much more than that, and this year it feels particularly meaningful to me.

As we rip June from the wall calendar, many of us will stop (as I will) to reflect on how the freedom to marry, granted by the Supreme Court’s decision on June 26, makes the upcoming month of patriotic fervor seem even more appropriate. As a plaintiff involved in the litigation that brought marriage equality to Virginia, it’s a particularly meaningful month to me. It’s the first full month during which I will travel without driving through or to a state where my marriage remains unrecognized.

My wife and I were married in 2011. We’d been together for seven years at the time, but marriage had seemed unattainable, despite the slowly increasing number of states allowing it. Eight years in is a make-or-break mark for many relationships. For us, it was time to reflect on our partnership, our careers, our academic pursuits, and the time we have left together. Our discussions covered a wide range of topics, but we came to the conclusion that what was missing in our lives was not related to our career or academic successes. We concluded that it was time to start a family.

Christy and I both come from conservative backgrounds. We were raised to believe that if you wanted to start a family, you needed to be married. Thus, we stood before friends and family in a little church in Washington D.C., recited our vows, and retired to the church’s office to sign the paperwork that would render us legally married, or at least legally married in the nation’s capital. The following year, Christy gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Lydia.

And that’s when the issue of marriage equality really started to get under my skin. I was barred from being listed on my child’s birth certificate, barred from adopting her subsequently, and otherwise consigned to be nothing more than a “co-custodian” under the laws that were in place at that time. I was a legal stranger to the child I cared for while Christy was at work. I was her mommy—but not really. I was her caregiver—but unable to make emergency healthcare decisions for her. My relationship, which felt so solid and real to me, existed in a murky deep-water byway of legally sanctioned discrimination.

Aside from the implications that the state’s ban on marriage equality had for Lydia’s relationship with me, there were impactful implications for the relationship I had with my partner of now eleven years. Christy, a veteran, could not sign a VA home loan with me, barring her from the benefits her military service afforded her. Each year, we paid hundreds more in taxes because we were not able to file jointly. We had to have complicated and unnecessary conversations with doctors, insurance offices, and other professionals serving our family. When at work in D.C., Christy was considered married with a family. When she crossed the border into Virginia, she was considered a single mother. The implications of the state’s ban on marriage equality echoed through every part of our lives.

More importantly, the ban allowed and encouraged others to see us as “less than.” To see our family as “less than.” When the law says you are second-class citizens, people treat you like second-class citizens. When we’d finally had enough, we asked the ACLU of VA and Lambda Legal to represent us in post-Windsor litigation to challenge the laws that left our family unprotected. Once filed, our lives became indescribably public. While we mostly were applauded for our actions, some people found our efforts as a reason to reject or ridicule us. I had people refuse to sit next to me at certain community functions. Others would publicly make known their disgust through hate-filled words and actions. They jeered as we left the courthouse and posted threatening commentary on social media sites.

These reactions were not unfamiliar to me. After all, I started openly talking about my sexuality in 1998, just after Matthew Shepard, a twenty-two year old student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, tortured, and left to die. Shepard’s sexual orientation was, by almost all accounts, a significant factor in how his murderers treated him. His death coincided with a period of my life where I was struggling to determine the extent to which I would live authentically, and in the end, I decided that I would no longer lie by omission or try to live as a person I wasn’t.

Coming out was difficult. In the mid 90s, being a member of the LGBT community was difficult. I was subjected to far worse discrimination and hate than (thankfully) most people experience in their lives. I was denied promotions and fair treatment at work. I was subjected to violence, up to and including the threat of rape. I was spit on by strangers, abandoned by family, and rejected by friends. But those experiences have never deterred me, because I know the advances, and acceptance, we’ve seen in the past ten years is fueled by a power much greater than hate.

I know that love, the foundation of every faith and every action worth doing, was and is the fuel of the LGBT rights movement. In particular, love is the fuel that has caused the wildfire of marriage equality acceptance to burn across this country in a matter of years equivalent to a speck of time for this planet. Yes, love fuels our revolutionary acts.

Love is a simple, short word of tremendous power. I feel it when I hold my wife’s hand. I feel it when I hear my daughter call me mommy. I feel it when a young LGBT person says, “Thank you for making my future better.” Yes, love is a simple, short word of tremendous power between two people, between neighbors, between congregation members, and between communities of those who understand that we are one global human race.

And I think the past June holds a lesson for us and for anyone who will listen. It’s a lesson about that love. Love is revolutionary. If we love each other, from the moment we wake to the moment we go to bed, we are revolutionaries. If we find outrage in discrimination, in actions that subjugate people and separate them, or in actions that offer violence to another because of their race, gender or gender expression, religion, nationality, or sexuality, we can and should use that revolutionary act to fuel a work greater than ourselves, greater than our lives.

Revolutionary acts have secured marriage, but we cannot abandon our work toward justice, equality, and peace yet. There are still people being fired or being refused housing for being gay right here in America. Globally, LGBT people live in fear for their lives. Using the hashtag #lovewins, the trending celebratory hashtag used to mark June’s historic Supreme Court decision, ISIS made their response to marriage equality by throwing four gay men off a rooftop and tweeting about their deaths. Every year hundreds of transgender individuals are murdered across the globe, and that number includes numerous U.S. citizens.

Outside of the LGBT rights movement, corporations are destroying our environment—selling our future for immediate profit. The new Jim Crow is a system of incarcerating a disproportionate number of African Americans for longer periods of time and a secondary system of making it nearly impossible for them to regain the right to vote and participate in the democratic process after being released. People are being gunned down while worshipping and churches are again burning in America.

I believe the world needs a revolution. It needs a revolution of love. It has to be a revolution of joined hands and open hearts. It spreads one person at a time, one act at a time, one commitment to living a life of compassion and love.

Love gets us to the finish line of any fight, and in June, we’ve certainly learned that together, if we fuel our revolution with love, we can fight and we can win.

Magic Down By The River

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Story and photos by Jennifer Lee

The 2nd annual River & Roots Festival at Watermelon Park on June 26 and 27 may have been a little damp and muddy, but the spirits of the nearly 1,000 attendees were soaring the whole weekend thanks to a combination of excellent music, beautiful surroundings, and unique offerings for people of all ages.

The David Grisman Sextet was the music headliner Saturday night, playing old and new favorites of his self-described “dawg music,” a combination of bluegrass and Django Renhardt-influenced jazz. Lilting jams floated over the river and crowd, culminating performances by ten regional and national acts including Pat Donohue, The Hillbilly Gypsies, Danny Knicely with Wyatt Rice and Mark Shatz, White Top Mountain Band, Town Mountain, The Hot Seats, and Furnace Mountain. Local favorite, The Woodshedders, capped off the weekend with a jam-packed party of revelers under the Dance Tent on Saturday night.

“Despite the rain, everything went well,” said Frazer Watkins, co-founder of Shepherd’s Ford Productions, the group who puts on the Festival in partnership with Watermelon Park. He said the biggest reward of this year’s festival was having the participation of several environmental organizations and other groups. The Friends of the Shenandoah River hosted a special interactive activity for kids; The Downstream Project hosted a wildlife photography workshop with National Geographic photographer Ken Garrett; the Piedmont Environmental Council engaged participants to be ‘Watershed Heroes’ to protect river and stream health; and local farmers demonstrated cheesemaking and discussed their farming practices.

“We were able to exceed our contribution goals to the Shenandoah Riverkeeper and we selected Friends of the Shenandoah River (FOSR) as the 2016 recipient of the River & Roots Award,” Watkins said. Shepherd’s Ford Productions and Watermelon Park Campground donated over $3,000 to the Shenandoah Riverkeeper this year and will be able to give FOSR even more in 2016.

Kids had a blast at the festival, too, as evidenced by the dozens of them playing in the river, hula-hooping and dancing near the stage, roasting marshmallows over campfires, and participating in the first Kids Talent Showcase for singers and musicians aged 2 to 12. River and Roots calls itself a “transformational festival, changing lives and the world by offering sustainable practices and community building in its foundation.” The joyful sounds and sights of children playing, impromptu bands forming around campfires, families frolicking in the river, and old and young alike enjoying very fine tunes on the shores of our beautiful river demonstrate its success.

Watkins and fiddler Dave Van Deventer formed Shepherd’s Ford Productions in 2004 to present roots music through festivals, concerts, and studio recordings. This year marks the 12th of their annual Watermelon Park Fest, headlined this year by none other than Loretta Lynn and joined by over a dozen other acclaimed performers, September 24 to 27. So, if you missed River and Roots, you still have a chance this year to enjoy great music and friends in what really is one of the happiest places on Earth!

Visit www.watermelonparkfest.com for tickets and more info.

Examining a Life Fully Lived

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By Victoria L. Kidd

Around town she’s known as Wendy Clatterbuck, although her literary and given name, Wendell Hawken, graces her published works and drafted manuscripts. On the streets of Berryville, she readily offers an easy smile as she warmly greets people in a way that only residents of small, close-knit communities do. Strangers smile back without any awareness that this delightful woman has experienced sorrows unfamiliar to most. Her life is an interesting tale—and one of tremendous courage—told through poetry, and her most recent work catalogues her journey travelling alongside an ailing husband, Vaughn Clatterbuck, who lost his battle with multiple myeloma and myelodysplastic syndrome in September of last year.

The work is called Throat of Morning: A Memoir in Verse. It has recently garnered praise from Fish Publishing, an Ireland-based publishing house that hosts a number of contents recognizing talented writers working throughout the world (www.fishpublishing.com). Hawken’s work was selected as the best short memoir in a 2015 contest to which nearly 800 writers submitted their work.

The work is a true masterpiece, threading details of Clarke County life throughout a series of poems addressing the varied emotions one feels as he or she watches a loved one battle serious illness. “When hospice comes in,” she explains, “they ask you, the caregiver, to write a journal. For me it was really a method of staying sane while everything else seems out of control.” The journal was intended to help Hawken understand her own journey of grief while supporting her husband.

Writing from a place of pain is not unfamiliar to Hawken. An earlier published work called The Spinal Sequence again channels images familiar to area residents and anyone who has ever had any connection to farm life. These images are settled between verses addressing the very real pain associated with watching your child suffer. The work chronicles a time directly following a 2011 freak golf course accident that left her son a quadriplegic. (The book is available for purchase through Finishing Line Press by way of their website at https://finishinglinepress.com.)

Poetry gave Hawken a voice to pry out the stifling pressure of these experiences and speak not just for herself, but also for any wife and mother who has experienced the same. “What I feel is not unique,” she says. “We all carry a bucket of sadness around with us. Sorrow is unavoidable, but I know that writing about that which hurts is reaffirming. That’s the exact word the judge in the contest used when speaking of my work. He said the work was reaffirming, meaning that we see our world, its beauty, and the joy of life most clear when we explore that which hurts. The Spinal Sequence explores the hurt of watching a son suffer and the hospice journal dealt with the unrelenting care associated with a slow death.”

In both cases, she asserts that the words are simply a means to explore that which hurts while putting into perspective how rich and wonderful life is when you accept that living requires one to experience a variance of emotions, including those most unpleasant. Poetry seems to lend itself well to this type of exploration, although it was a talent Hawken only discovered later in life.

Her first poem, An Ode to My Uterus, was written during her recovery from a hysterectomy at age 47. She would eventually return to school and earn her MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College in 2005, nearly four decades after receiving her undergraduate degree. Her first full collection, The Luck of Being, was published in 2008 by The Backwaters Press in Omaha, Nebraska. It includes many poems developed during her MFA program, but her home in Clarke County still plays a vital roll in the work, as she sees her farm as a grounding source of inspiration.

“A sense of place, this particular place, is very important to my work,” she states on her website (http://wendellhawken.com). Her place is a farm called “Bartley.” Her husband’s family use to clatter the bucks in New England when the royals hunted there. Their profession lent itself to the their surname, and the town from which the Clatterbucks came was called Bartley. The farm serves as a thread stretching through history to connect past with present and give roots to Hawken, who can often be found reclining in one of the many green rocking chairs that grace the homestead’s impressive front porch.

It’s a porch that often provides her a spot of solitude she finds necessary for her work. “I come and sit out here and reflect on things,” Hawken states. “The words can come from anywhere. There will be an incident at some point, maybe someone’s tone of voice during an exchange or something simple like the way a butterfly juts up and down among the flowers here. It can be anything. It sticks with me like a burr until I explore it, until I think about it. It’s usually something someone else would find easy to ignore, but if you have the gift of solitude and time, you can really think about why it sticks. What is its meaning to your own spirit? You see, I want to lead an examined life. I want to be aware of the authentic reality of the human experience, including both that which is joyous and that which is painful.”

Hawken essentially argues with her work that those extremes, joy and pain, cannot truly exist without each other. To ignore the one and gloss over that which brings hurt is inauthentic, and she believes that there is too much “smoothing things over” today. She says, “That’s not real life, and to ignore the feelings that are painful…well, that simply ignores a very significant and important part of the human experience. I hope that readers can connect with my work in a way that helps them live more authentically.”

She says that the recent award for her memoir has energized her, and she is looking forward to seeing what future incidents—no matter how small—inspire her to write. No matter the inspiration, it can be assured that Clarke County and Bartley will serve as the birthplace for her work. After all, there are few places in Virginia that afford one a better pace and place from which to live authentically and examine the ebbs and flows inherent in a life fully lived.