Simply the Best

1. What was the best thing you have ever bought?

A. The best thing I ever bought was a computer. And the first computer I bought myself was a Commodore 64, followed by a Radio Shack Tandy computer. I actually started out on a Commodore Vic 20, but my mother bought that. I was still in high school.

       

2. What was the best book you have ever read?

A. I don't know what book I would consider "the best" book I've ever read. I've read a lot of books I've enjoyed, some that were well written but incredibly boring, and others that felt like guilty pleasures. I'm a very eclectic reader. So far this year, I've read books by C. J. Archer, Harper Lee, Debbie Macomber, Janet Evanovich, S.A. Chakraborty, Stuart Woods, and Louise Penny. 

3. What is the best trip/vacation/holiday you've ever had?

A. One of the best vacations my husband and I went on was a trip to Charlottesville, where we toured Monticello and the University of Virginia campus, and just had a really nice weekend looking at historical things and shopping around downtown.

4. What was the best movie or TV series you've ever watched?

A. The best movie(s) are The Lord of the Rings trilogy, all three are very good. The best TV series is harder to answer.  I thought Cagney & Lacey was an excellent series, but then Hacks is good, and so is Downton Abbey and The Big Bang Theory. And of course, there is MASH and The West Wing. I'm not sure I can pick just one.

These questions came from the Tuesday 4 meme.

Virginia 250: Blacksmiths, Builders of the Nation

With Virginia and the nation celebrating 250 years of freedom from England in 2026, I thought it might be fun to occasionally bring up some local history. At one time, Botetourt County stretched all the way to the Mississippi and into Wisconsin, which means my county's history is also the history of much of the nation.

A version of the following article appeared in 2004 in The Fincastle Herald under my byline.

Blacksmiths were very important and necessary folk during the colonization of America. They were needed to make iron tools, like plowshares, so the hard work of planting and building structures could be completed. 

Farriers were smiths who specialized in shoeing horses. But smiths not only shod horses, they created springs and wheel parts for carriages, made nails, pots, pans, and other utensils. 

The work was done with a hammer and anvil, using iron heated in a fire kept hot by hand-operated bellows. Without blacksmiths to work iron, the settlers could not have moved west as quickly as they did.

Today, mass production methods have all but eliminated most work done by blacksmiths.

In Fincastle, the county seat of Botetourt County, VA, one blacksmith shop still stands. The smell of molten metal and the hiss of fire in water do not echo on the town’s Main Street anymore, but visitors can see the efforts of blacksmiths of old in the Ludwig Wysong Blacksmith Shop museum at Wysong Park.

Imprints from horse hooves are visible in the sidewalk outside of the restored building. Inside, tools of the trade line the walls and two portable forges show how the smithy could haul his trade from place to place if need be.

The museum was dedicated in 1978, a gift to Historic Fincastle, Inc. (HFI) from two brothers: Rufus and Dr. H. D. Wysong. During the 1970s, while researching family history, they became interested in the old shop. It was the last remaining smithy in town, and they purchased it and restored it as a tribute to Fiedt Wysong, their ancestor.

The Wysong brothers partnered with HFI to reconstruct the sagging building. Wysongs from all over the United States donated money, and HFI provided additional funding to help acquire the lot, which is now called the Ludwig Wysong Memorial Park, in honor of Fiedt Wysong’s father. 

The family originally hailed from France and Wales. The Wysongs have traced their roots to 1558, where an early family member named Vincent fled from France to the Rhineland area of Germany to escape religious persecution. There, it is reported, the German pronunciation of the name “Vincent” corrupted it to “Weissanz,” which eventually became Wysong.

Fiedt Wysong (1755-1837) was an early Fincastle settler who owned many properties in town. The museum may not have been his shop – there were several in the area and no one knows which was his.  

But the current building was a working smithy until 1932.

Fincastle Historian Dottie Kessler says Fiedt Wysong operated a blacksmith shop in 1791.

His father, Ludwig Wysong moved to Wales from the Rhineland. He entered the English king’s service and landed in America in 1715. He located to York County, PA and married at age 60. He had 11 children, 7 boys, and 5 of those sons fought on the side of the patriots in the American Revolution, including Fiedt and his brother Valentine, who also lived in Fincastle. In April 1824, the Wysongs lived on the corner of Main Street and Water Street.

HFI members helped the Wysong family clear the lot on the corner of Main Street and US 220, and local attorney Ralph C. Wiegandt and other citizens donated authentic blacksmith tools for exhibit. 

Today, one room of the museum contains benches and furniture, and is called the Wysong Meeting Room. The Wysong family holds reunions in Fincastle occasionally, bringing many hundred visitors to town. The building stands as a museum to the public and a memorial to the Wysong family. The building is open to the public during the Fincastle Festival and by appointment.

Almost 300 people attended the 1978 dedication and reunion, with Wysong representatives from 24 states present. The Wysongs turned the property over to HFI at that time. Mayor Harry Kessler, who was also an HFI member, accepted the deed to the property.

HFI later constructed a new Wysong Blacksmith Shop directly behind the older building. The blacksmith shop, complete with a working forge, cost HFI $30,000 and took two years to construct.

Members hoped to lure a blacksmith to town. However, that did not work out and the building became a source of rental revenue for the non-profit organization until this year, when HFI turned it into its offices.

Information courtesy of Fincastle Historian Dottie Kessler (now deceased) and Historic Fincastle, Inc.

Sunday Stealing

Tell Us Something

1. Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

A. I had to give that a try to see, but no, I cannot do that.

2. What foreign language did you study in school? How much of it do you still remember?

A. I had three years of Spanish and one year of Latin. I remember very little of it. I keep thinking I should return to the Spanish so I can become fluent in it again. When you don't use things like that, they disappear.

3. What recipe did you most recently prepare? Where did you get the recipe and how did it turn out?

A. I hate to cook and I've had a shoulder impingement, so I've not really done much "recipe" cooking of late. I guess the last thing I made was a version of K&W's baked spaghetti. K&W was cafeteria chain, and we liked to eat there. Alas, it has gone out of business, taking its baked spaghetti with it. Their baked spaghetti did not have tomato sauce in it so I could eat it even with stomach ulcers. When we make it at home, we leave out the onions. The recipe makes a good 13" pan full of baked spaghetti and I have discovered it freezes well if you wrap it up in wax paper first.

4. What song have you listened to over and over and over again?

A. When I learn a song on the guitar, I tend to listen to it over and over again to try to get the chords and rhythm right. I don't recall the last song I did that with. It was easier before Amazon messed with Alexa so that now when you ask for a specific song, sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. Before I could play a song continually until I had it in my head. The last song I really remember doing that with was Comfortably Numb, by Pink Floyd, which I've now since forgotten.

5. Are there currently any pets in your household? Are you considering adding another? 

A. There are no pets in the house. There are about 40 cows and two bulls in the pasture fields, though. We also have a nice bit of wildlife that includes deer, bear, turkey, coyotes, and now a bobcat!

6. As an adult, have you ever performed with a drama group? (Student productions don't count.)

A. I have never performed with a drama group as an adult. I have, however, been involved in drama but that was not theater.

 

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

PS: This is my 630th Sunday Stealing. That's 12.12 years of doing Sunday Stealing.

Saturday 9: Leather and Lace

Saturday 9: Leather and Lace (1981)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) As you answer these questions, are you wearing leather, lace, or both?

A. I have on Minnetonka moccasins that I use for house shoes that I suppose are of some kind of leather. It says it's a leather upper with faux fur in the shoe.

2) This song is a duet between members of two superstar groups – Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and Don Henley of The Eagles. Which band do you listen to more often, Fleetwood Mac or The Eagles?

A. I think Alexa tends to play more Fleetwood Mac, but I have both on my playlist.

 

3) In this duet, "lace" tells us she is stronger than we know and "leather" admits that sometimes he's vulnerable. Do either side of this lyrical equation apply to you? Do you think you're either tougher than people realize, or more sensitive than they know?

A. I think I am both tougher and more sensitive than people give me credit for. Many people think they know me, but they really don't.

 

4) Both Stevie and Don are born Westerners. Stevie spent her early childhood in Arizona and Don was born in Texas and stayed there through college. Today Stevie has two homes – one in Pacific Palisades and another in Phoenix – while Don has a beautiful home in Dallas. Do you feel rooted where you are? Or can you see yourself moving to another city or state in the future?

A. I have lived in the same house since 1987. I don't see myself going anywhere any time soon.

 

5) Stevie and Don were romantically involved in the 1970s, but after they broke up they remained friendly. Not only did they record this song in 1981, but they also went on tour together in 2005. Have you recently heard from an ex?

A. I have not heard from an ex in about 45 years.

6) Stevie admits a lifelong passion for Animal Crackers, those little cookies shaped like tigers, bears and elephants. Is your go-to snack sweet, like Stevie's, or is it salty?

A. I am afraid I have a bad sweet tooth, with a particular affinity for chocolate.

7) Don likes Velveeta on his burgers. Describe your ideal cheeseburger.

A. My ideal cheeseburger is a nice bun without seeds on it, a decent sized but not overly large hamburger patty, thick American cheese (like it used to be before the pandemic, not those anemic things they sell now as cheese), a piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato, and a little mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup.

8) In 1981, when this song was popular, both Maserati and Mercedes Benz introduced luxury convertibles. Have you ever owned a convertible? Would a convertible be practical for your lifestyle?

A. I have never owned a convertible. I don't even use the moon roof on my Camry, so I don't think I would like a convertible. I'm not one for having pollen blown in my face while I drive.

 

9) Random question: What are you most looking forward to this week?

A. I am looking forward to seeing a dermatologist this week. Because I am in my 60s now and that is what you look forward to! Although I am also hoping maybe the bobcat will come around again. It was very cool to see that.

_______________

I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

The Bobcat

On Thursday, April 9, as I was putting away groceries, I saw the groundhog come out of his hole under the shed behind the house. I kept glancing at him, and then he disappeared.

The groundhog, not yet under siege.

Then I saw this thing up against the shed. I thought, is that the groundhog? And I stopped what I was doing and peered out the window. 

That's some kind of cat, I thought. And it sat there and it sat there and I got my cell phone and tried to take a picture but of course it captured mostly screen in the window. So, I went out to the garage door where there are no screens, and I took a picture. I looked at the ears and I said aloud, "That is a bobcat! Oh damn, where is my camera?"

I raced into my office and got the camera off the charger, threw it on my tripod, and went back out into the garage. By then the cat had moved in front of the shed.

I tracked him, trying to zoom in and click. I really wanted to get him in full body because of the tail, so my husband couldn't say, "Oh, it was just somebody's house cat."

It was a magnificent looking animal, just sort of investigating the area. It looked in my flower cart that lies sideways so it doesn't trap the rain, and it went around a tree. 

Investigating the flower cart.

I thought I had lost it, but then its head poked around the oak. I got a great picture of that.

Hello there!

Then it came on out and I got a wonderful full body shot of it.

I was so excited I was yelling, "Siri, call James on speaker phone" and when he finally picked up - he was visiting with his mother - I yelled, "There's a bobcat in the backyard, it's down where the ash tree was now, it's heading toward Lanetta's, oh it's in the field, I can't see it anymore." 

And I sent him a picture and he was pretty excited, too.

That's the first time we've ever seen a bobcat here.

My Bed

 

The Prompt: What is one "background" object in your house that you are grateful for today?

I am grateful for my bed. It's something I take for granted but it is such a relief to flop into it after a long day. I pull the covers all around me - my husband says I "nest" when I sleep - and get warm and comfy. In the mornings I wake up and lie there, thinking, "If I don't move, nothing will hurt," but of course one must get up anyway.

Some people do not have beds. Soldiers sleep on the ground. Homeless people sleep under bridges or in little tents. I am not that tough. I need a nice mattress.

_____________________

Kwizgiver has started a gratitude challenge. I like the idea so I will give it a try. As she states, "The Non-Challenge Gratitude Challenge. This isn't about being perfect. There are no points, no "failing" if you miss a day, and no pressure to perform. It’s just a gentle nudge to look around. I’ll be posting prompts here on the blog, and I’d love for you to join me in the comments--but only if you feel like sharing."

And that's her picture from her blog. I swiped it.

Thursday Thirteen

April Thoughts

1. The way redbuds hold their color like they’re not quite convinced it’s time to commit.

2.  A cardinal perched on the shed roof, giving that clear, insistent tseeer it uses when the air feels like rain.

3. The annual negotiation with the pollen: you again. Achoo! Somebody hand me a tissue.

4. The first evening you realize that it is still light at 8 p.m. Longer days, more sunshine.

5. The small, stubborn pleasure of finishing a task you’ve been circling for days. Taxes are in the mail!

6. The kind of silence you only get when the ground is thirsty and even the insects seem to pace themselves. We're in a drought; you can see the cracks in the dirt make the uneven land look like a 3-D jigsaw puzzle.

7. A stack of envelopes that all want something, and the quiet satisfaction of telling them they can wait. Or maybe they can all be dealt with online.

8. The particular blue of the sky that only shows up between fronts.

9. A Wordle solved in a way that makes no sense to anyone but you.

10. The dogwood buds that look like they’re holding secrets. And then that wild spectacular white when they finally bloom!

11. The relief of a sentence finally landing the way you meant. And then the wondering if that ever really happens.

12. The smell of the ground warming, that odor of leaf mold and damp bark, and the particular scent of something green thinking about becoming greener.

13. The steadiness that comes from naming what’s here, not what’s missing.

_________________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 954th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Virginia 250: Amsterdam in Botetourt

With Virginia and the nation celebrating 250 years of freedom from England in 2026, I thought it might be fun to occasionally bring up some local history. At one time, Botetourt County stretched all the way to the Mississippi and into Wisconsin, which means my county's history is also the history of much of the nation.

A version of the following article appeared in 2004 in The Fincastle Herald under my byline. I thought it fit with the history theme as well as the lost communities I've noted in recent months in this series.

When it comes to local history, there is no stopping Daleville’s Gene Crotty when he starts talking about Botetourt.  He is currently researching his fifth book, a history of the Amsterdam area.

The 75-year-old writer doesn’t just sit and read books to do his research.  His current project is on the area he calls home.  He has walked miles and miles over the terrain between Daleville and Amsterdam.  During his journeys he has picked up over 10,000 artifacts that go as far back as 10,000 B.C. 

“I have something from about every century that man has come here in the Amsterdam area,” Crotty said.

Because he paid attention to his surroundings, Crotty is credited with two major archeological finds in the Daleville area. Arrowheads and rock tools from the sites fill his basement and other parts of the house.  He roams the area looking for foundations and historic clues.  He has found the lost ruins of churches and other long-forgotten buildings simply by exploring the Amsterdam and Daleville areas on foot.

All of this information has built up inside Crotty, and now he is ready to take it out and put it into a book.

“He wants to know and learn as much as he can about everything,” his wife Judy explained.  After 40 years of marriage, she has learned to let him “do his own thing” and in his retirement that thing is research, writing, and collecting rocks to fill up her laundry room.

The 75-year-old writer still gets out and roams around the grounds of Daleville. Sometimes that takes the form of the local welcoming committee when he goes to greet new Daleville residents.

"We call him the "mayor" of North Daleville,” Judy said. “He loves people.”

His books reflect his love of people, too. They are not epistles about buildings, but instead are stories about the folks who lived in an area. His forthcoming book on Amsterdam will be the same way, and he believes he has pinpointed the first two white men in the area.  Those men traveled as far as the New River. 

“It’s difficult to get real facts about who was the first English settler,” Crotty said.  At one time this area was part of Orange County, so deed references in the 1730’s and earlier are hard to get to. They are also incomplete, he said.

He has a knack for reading aerial maps and figuring out travel routes and migrations, things important to the settlers of Botetourt County in the years before the nation became sovereign.

He claims the Amsterdam area, now “dried up and blown away,” was a major landmark of prehistoric man as well as for the later settlers who moved up the valley of Virginia heading west. In Amsterdam, Crotty said, they had to make a decision about their direction.

“There are only three routes through the Blue Ridge Mountains, and one of them tends to send people right through the Amsterdam area,” he said. “Amsterdam is the area where folks took divergent trails west or south around Tinker Mountain. It was an important interchange in the westward movement.”

He also has found indications of prehistoric man’s trampling in the area and evidence of buffalo, even though some archeologists claim the animal did not roam here. 

"Tinker Creek was called Buffalo Creek originally,” Crotty said.  He has read diaries dating back to 1651 that mention buffaloes in the Amsterdam area and around Big Lick.

The area also was not entirely wooded in Amsterdam.  There were big meadows “with grass up to your chest,” according to diary entries, Crotty said. “Amsterdam has disappeared but at one time it was a real hub of life.”

The retired tax professor has no time to talk about the IRS or anything else when there is history to be uncovered and converted into books.

He wrote his most recent book, The Visits of Lewis & Clark to Fincastle, Virginia at the request of George Kegley, a member of the board of The History Museum and Historical Society of Western Virginia.  The book appeared in time to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the adventures of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their exploration of the American west.

“William Clark could have met Judith in 1801,” he said.  Judith Hancock was the lady from Fincastle whom Clark eventually married.  “She must’ve made quite an impression,” Crotty said, because she was still a child then.

Crotty’s intense research sometimes refutes the local lore of the area, and that’s okay with everyone who knows him. “Gene’s a stickler for getting it right,” Kegley said. “He’s a good researcher.  He knows where to look.”

Crotty’s Lewis and Clark book doesn’t add a lot of new information, Kegley said, but it does put the information “together so that it has meaning and context.  Gene sets the stage in history and relates it to everything else that is going on at that time.”

His legendary research skills have made Crotty renowned for hunting down the obscure facts that elude others. His home library would make a history librarian drool over the many old books, maps, diaries, and other papers that he searches.

Crotty’s other books are all on Thomas Jefferson and printed by the University of Virginia. Those books are offered as premiums to donors, according to Kegley.

“He's fairly highly regarded at the university for his work,” Kegley said.

Source: 2004 interview with Gene Crotty by this writer.

Additional information: Gene Crotty passed away in 2017.

Sunday Stealing

F.A.B.

F. Film: What movie or tv show are you watching?

A. We have been watching Sheriff Country. We were watching Brilliant Minds, but it seems to have been removed from the schedule. When we can't find anything else to watch, we watch Downton Abbey. 

A. Audio: What are you listening to?

A. I am listening to The Black Wolf, by Louise Penny.

B. Book: What are you reading?

A. I am reading Mary Johnston: Memoirs.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

__________

I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Easter Parade

Saturday 9: Easter Parade

Revised and revived from the archives

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This song is best known from the 1948 movie of the same name, but it was originally written for a 1933 Broadway play called As Thousands Cheer. In the play, a young man reads about the parade in a New York newspaper and decides to go and show his lady love off to parade goers. What's the most recent parade you attended?

A. I haven't been to a parade in at least 15 years. I used to have to go them all the time to take photos for the newspaper, so I am paraded out.

2) On Broadway, the song was performed by Clifton Webb. He'd had a busy stage career, appearing in musicals as well as plays by Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, but when he was in his mid-50s, he was considered too old to be a leading man. Broadway offers stopped coming. He was unexpectedly cast by Otto Preminger for the film noir Laura and a new career was born. He worked steadily in Hollywood for 20 years and earned three Oscar nominations. Tell us about a time you were grateful your life took an unanticipated turn.

A. I can't think of anything.

3) Today he's fondly remembered by the students at UCLA who have benefited from The Clifton Webb Scholarship of the Arts. If you could give an endowment to a school or charity, what would you like it to be used for?

A. I would give one to my alma mater to be used for women who want to go to college after they're beyond the traditional age one goes to such institutions. 

 

4) The biggest chocolate Easter egg was made in Italy, measured 34 feet tall and weighed a staggering 15,000 lbs. Do you think it's possible to have too much chocolate?

A. I'm sure that it's possible to have too much of anything, including chocolate.

  

5) After chocolate, the top-selling Easter candy is Peeps Marshmallow Chicks. They're so popular that they were once the subject of a Jeopardy clue. Do you often watch Jeopardy?

A. I haven't watched Jeopardy! since Alex Trebek died. I tried to but I could not get into the new hosts and it just wasn't the same.

6) Jellybeans are also popular this time of year. In a 2024 poll, jellybean fans responded that black licorice is their favorite flavor. It's Crazy Sam's least favorite. How about you? What jellybean flavor is at the top of your list, and which is at the bottom?

A. I don't care for jellybeans at all, but the black licorice would be the one I would leave.

7) We've been talking a lot about sweets this morning. The only holiday that generates more candy sales is Halloween. When do you eat more candy: Easter or Halloween?

A. I have no idea.

 

8) According to the National Retail Federation, Americans are doing more of their holiday shopping this year at discount "dollar stores" than at department stores like Target and Walmart. Do you often make trips to the "dollar store?" If yes, what do you usually pick up there?

A. I only go to a dollar store occasionally, and that's usually for something like birthday wrapping paper.

 

9) Easter is considered the season of rebirth. What makes you feel refreshed or rejuvenated?

A. I feel refreshed when I splash cold water on my face.

_______________

I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Gratitude Challenge

Kwizgiver has started a gratitude challenge. I like the idea so I will give it a try. As she states, "The Non-Challenge Gratitude Challenge. This isn't about being perfect. There are no points, no "failing" if you miss a day, and no pressure to perform. It’s just a gentle nudge to look around. I’ll be posting prompts here on the blog, and I’d love for you to join me in the comments--but only if you feel like sharing."

And that's her picture from her blog. I swiped it.

The Prompt: One thing you can hear, and one thing you can touch.

I can hear the rumble of thunder in the distance, even over the sound of the air conditioner. Yes, the air conditioner is running here because it is in the 80s in early April. It should not be that warm, but I accept that I do not run the weather department of the world. I am grateful for the rain (if it comes) and grateful for the air conditioning. I'm also grateful for my ears!

I can touch my glass of water. This is incredibly mundane, but I drink lots of water every day, almost a gallon. The glass gets me out of my chair, and I make many trips to the kitchen for refills (and then to the ladies' room because, well, lots of water). That mundane glass of water gets me up off of my butt and onto my feet at least hourly.

Thursday Thirteen: Space Edition

Last night around 6:35 p.m., Artemis II blasted off into space, taking with it four people who will orbit the moon.

It's a feat not attempted in over 50 years.

So here are some space facts to acknowledge this mighty and exciting adventure.

1. Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to leave low‑Earth orbit since 1972. Low‑Earth orbit (LEO) is the zone close to Earth where the International Space Station circles. Humans haven’t gone beyond it since Apollo 17 launched on December 7, 1972, and returned on December 19, 1972.

2. The crew will ride inside the Orion spacecraft. Orion is NASA’s new human‑rated capsule. It’s the part that holds the astronauts, keeps them alive, and brings them home. Artemis I flew it without people; Artemis II is the first time it carries a crew.

3. The rocket that launches Orion is called the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS is NASA’s heavy‑lift rocket. Think of it as the muscle that gets Orion off Earth. Once its job is done, it falls away and Orion continues the journey.

4. Orion’s heat shield is the largest ever built for a human spacecraft. It has to survive re‑entry from lunar speeds, which are about 25,000 mph. That's far faster than anything returning from low‑Earth orbit.

 

5. The Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth. About 1.5 inches per year. Over millions of years, that adds up to real distance. 

6. NASA’s Deep Space Network can hear signals weaker than a refrigerator light bulb from billions of miles away. Three giant antenna complexes, one each in California, Spain, and Australia, keep spacecraft talking to Earth long after they’re tiny specks in the dark.

7. The International Space Station orbits Earth every 90 minutes. Astronauts see 16 sunrises and sunsets a day. Their internal clocks do the best they can.

8. Voyager 1 is so far away that its radio signal takes more than 22 hours to reach Earth. And it’s still sending back data, albeit slowly, faintly, and stubbornly.

9. The Moon has moonquakes. Some come from tidal forces, some from meteor impacts, and some from the lunar surface expanding and contracting as it heats and cools.

10. A spacesuit is basically a one‑person spacecraft. It controls pressure, temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and waste. It’s life support wrapped around a human body.

11. Artemis aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon. This is a deliberate shift in who gets written into exploration history.

12. Earth’s atmosphere is astonishingly thin. If Earth were the size of an apple, the atmosphere would be about as thick as the skin. Everything we breathe and depend on is in that fragile layer.

13. Every footprint left on the Moon is still there. No wind, no rain, no erosion. There's just dust and time. They’ll remain for centuries, maybe longer.

_________________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 953rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

What Will We Find?

This is a meme I don't do much. You can find it here.

I thought these were interesting questions.

1. What will we find on top of your refrigerator?

A. My husband, who is 6' tall, uses the top of the refrigerator as a storage place for his hat, his belt, and his suspenders when he comes in from his day. There is also a fly swatter up there and probably a lot of dust. I am 5' 1" tall and I can't reach the top of the fridge to clean it without climbing on a stool.

2. What will we find on your nightstand?

A. On my nightstand, you will find a box of tissues, medication, several small bottles of water, and a personal humidifier.

3. What is in your purse or handbag?

A. My pocketbook (that's what I call it, maybe it's a southern thing) contains tissues, my asthma inhaler, credit card, driver's license, Chapstick, and a pack of gum.

4. What will we find on your coffee table or side tables? How about your kitchen or dining table?

A. On my coffee table, you will find a wooden bowl made by my good friend Willie from the wild cherry tree we had in the back yard. I fill it with candy during Christmas but mostly it stays empty, although I noticed there is a single tiny little Mr. Goodbar in it. On the kitchen table, you will find place mats that have sunflowers on them, medication, cloth napkins, and the local newspaper.

Carvins Cove: A Lost Community Beneath the Water

With Virginia and the nation celebrating 250 years of freedom from England in 2026, I thought it might be fun to occasionally bring up some local history. At one time, Botetourt County stretched all the way to the Mississippi and into Wisconsin, which means my county's history is also the history of much of the nation.

Carvins Cove is being talked about a lot these days because a Google data center is locating at The Botetourt Center at Greenfield. This is an industrial park the county created in the 1990s and its purpose has changed several times over the last 30 years.

The data center is supposed to use up to 8 million gallons of water a day when the entire thing is built out.

We recently visited the Cove. As you can see in the photos below, the lake is down considerably, as indicated by the dirt at what should be the water line at full pond. We've been in a drought situation for over a year now.

However, there is more to the story of Carvins Cove than water usage. Right now, it's a water reservoir with a conservation forest area that locals treat as both landmark and backdrop. 

But beneath that calm surface lies the memory of an entire community: farms, a school, a church, a resort hotel, even an amusement park. All of it now rests under the water that supplies much of the Roanoke Valley.

This is the story of how that happened.

Before the Water: A Frontier Settlement

Carvins Cove began as a small early‑19th‑century settlement built around a grist mill on Carvins Creek. Its namesake, William Carvin, was one of the first settlers in the Hollins area and held a 150‑acre land grant along the creek.

By the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Cove had grown into a modest but lively rural community. Before its destruction, it included:

• Rocky Branch School

• Cove Alum Baptist Church

• Cove Alum Springs resort hotel

• Tuck‑Away Park, a small amusement park

• At least 60 homes

It was a place where Botetourt and Roanoke families lived, farmed, worshipped, and gathered. It was a quiet valley.

The First Rumblings of Change (1920s)

The community’s fate shifted in the early 1920s when the Virginia Water Company announced plans to build a dam to impound water in the area. By 1926, the company publicly confirmed the dam would be constructed at the falls of Carvins Creek.

An 80‑foot abutment was completed by 1928, but the reservoir itself remained unrealized for nearly two decades. The valley continued its daily life, even as the shadow of the future lake grew longer.

The Final Years of the Community (1940–1946)

Everything changed when the City of Roanoke acquired the Roanoke Water Company in 1942. With municipal backing, the reservoir project accelerated:

• The city began purchasing and condemning land throughout the Cove.

• On February 14, 1944, the last structures were auctioned off.

• In total, Roanoke acquired over 12,000 acres for about $1 million.

• In 1945, German POWs were brought in to help clear timber.

By May 1946, the reservoir filled and overtopped the dam, sealing the valley’s fate. The official dedication followed in March 1947.

What Lies Beneath

During drought years, the waterline drops enough that stone foundations and remnants of the old community reappear, ghostlike, along the shoreline.

Even when the water is high, hikers and riders sometimes notice old chimneys, walls, or roadbeds tucked into the woods. They are quiet reminders of what used to be there.

Carvins Cove Today: Water, Wilderness, and Memory

Today, Carvins Cove is:

• The primary water source for roughly 130,000 customers in the Roanoke Valley.

• One of the largest municipal parks in the United States (ranked between 2nd and 9th depending on the source).

• A major recreation area offering hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, paddling, and fishing.

It’s also fed in part by the Tinker Creek tunnel, opened in 1966, which diverts Botetourt water under Tinker Mountain into the reservoir.

Carvins Cove is no longer a village, but it is very much alive.

Why Carvins Cove Still Matters

Carvins Cove is a rare place where natural beauty, local history, and regional infrastructure intersect. For Botetourt County, it’s a reminder of:

• The early frontier families who shaped the region

• The sacrifices made for public water access

• The way landscapes hold memory, even when transformed

Standing on the shoreline today, it’s easy to forget that a community once lived beneath your feet. But the past is still there in the foundations that surface during drought, in the old photographs preserved by local families, and in the name “Carvin,” which still echoes across the valley.

Sources include the Western Virginia Water Authority; the City of Roanoke archives; the Roanoke Times historical coverage of the Carvins Cove project; the Botetourt County and Roanoke County historical societies; the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; and regional histories documenting the Cove Alum Springs resort, the early Carvin land grants, and the 1940s reservoir construction.

Sunday Stealing

Random Revelations

1. Is your phone Apple or Android? What about your laptop?

A. I have an iPhone. My laptop is a Dell, though not a very good one.

2. Can you say "thank you" in more than one language?

A. Gracias. 

3. What do you draw when you doodle?

A. I draw lines, doodles, loops, sometimes little people.

4. Which do you enjoy more, Scrabble or bowling?

A. Scrabble. I haven't been bowling in at least 35 years.

5. Can you juggle?

A. I cannot juggle, unless you are talking about multitasking. In that case, I juggle the laundry, a phone call, and a word processing program all at once sometimes.

6. Have you ever worn pajamas in public?

A. I do not recall ever wearing pajamas in public, except at the hospital when I had to walk up and down hallways with my little IV thing attached to me.

7. Was your best subject in school the one you enjoyed the most?

A. My best subject was always English, followed by history, and I enjoyed them both.

8. When you're offered the senior discount before you ask for it, are you offended or grateful?

A. I would love to have every senior discount available, but I am seldom offered them.

9. Do you agree that with age comes wisdom?

A. No, because I know some older folks who obviously never learned a thing.

10. Do you consider Sunday the first day of the week or the last day of the weekend? 

A. This is a good question. It has always puzzled me that Sunday is the first day of the week on the calendar but it's the day everyone goes to church, which is supposed to be the Sabbath. Monday always seemed like it should be the first day of the week to me.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Indian Lake

Saturday 9: Indian Lake (1968)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, a family gets on a bus and heads off on vacation. Think about the last trip you took. Did you travel by car, bus, train, boat, or plane?

A. The last trip I took was by car.

2) Once they get to Indian Lake, they swim, have a picnic and go canoeing. Are you looking forward to any of these activities this summer?

A. I am not looking forward to any of those activities this summer. 

3) "Indian Lake" became familiar to TV audiences because it was used in commercials for the Dodge Charger. In the 1960s, most households didn't have remote controls to enable viewers to mute or skip commercials. Today, we do. When a commercial comes on, do you watch or do you turn down the sound or, if possible, fast forward past it?

A. I thought commercials were the signal to get up and go to the ladies room. And some shows won't let you fast forward through commercials anymore when you're streaming.

4) The Cowsills were a family singing group who had four Top 10 hits between 1967 and 1969. The brothers were self-taught musicians who enjoyed playing at church and school events. When their father, Bud Cowsill, became their manager, he insisted his wife Barbara and their youngest, Susan, join the band. He wanted the Cowsills to become "a latter-day Von Trapp family." Without looking it up, do you know who the Von Trapps were?

A. The Von Trapps were the Austrian family immortalized in the movie The Sound of Music.

5) The Cowsills were the inspiration for the sitcom The Partridge Family. It ran for four seasons and the fictional Partridges had three Top 10 hits, were nominated for a Grammy and made David Cassidy a star. Are you familiar with The Partridge Family?

A. I am quite familiar with The Partridge Family. I thought David Cassidy was quite handsome, and I wished I were as subtly beautiful as Susan Dey.

6) The Cowsills starred in an advertising campaign for the American Dairy Association. On TV and in magazine ads they proclaimed that "Milk is the lift that lasts." Decades later, oldest brother Bill recalled that he seldom drank milk. How about you? Do you often drink milk?

A. I am allergic to milk, so I do not drink it.

7) While Bud Cowsill engineered the family band's success, he also contributed to their demise. The Cowsills were scheduled to appear 10 times on the influential Ed Sullivan Show but were fired after the second because Bud was too confrontational backstage. He also had a reputation for being abrasive with record company executives and concert promoters, and this affected the band's ability to find work. Do you have a hard time biting your tongue or controlling your temper?

A. I can have a temper sometimes. I try not to but am not always successful.

8) In 1968, when this song was popular, Leonard Bernstein released his award-winning recording of Mahler: Symphony No. 8. Do you enjoy classical music?

A. I like to listen to classical music sometimes.

9) Random question – Here we are in March. If you made any New Year's resolutions, have you kept them?

A. I did not make any New Year's resolutions.

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I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.