THE MONEY PIT

Virginia’s slogan is “Virginia is for Lovers.”    I’m not exactly sure where that came from, but I can tell you that we loved Virginia!    I can’t imagine anywhere more beautiful than Virginia in autumn.  

Blackstone lies in Nottoway County in Southside Virginia.  For three centuries, tobacco was the dominant source of economy for Virginia and Blackstone area was no exception.  There were many families who for centuries had farmed the very land they lived on and they continue in this proud tradition of family ownership even today.  Of course, during the depression and following years, the growing of tobacco became less lucrative.   Nevertheless, most families maintain their farms in whatever way proves profitable to them and live in the beautiful old farm homes of their forefathers. 

During WWII and beyond, Fort Pickett, was an active Army base, but was closed sometime in the mid to latter part of the 1990’s.  Through the hard work of the local town fathers and citizens, the base was kept in use by the VA National Guard locating their state headquarters there, which was a big boost to the economy for the area that had felt the economic spiral of less tobacco farming, as well as tobacco use.  The town needed the local business that Fort Pickett brought, not only in sales of goods, but in growth from construction of new homes.

We moved into a furnished apartment in a private home on Main Street.  The owner was a local businessman.   Danny and Gloria took us under their wings and invited us to the Crenshaw United Methodist Church right away.  We were welcomed with open arms.   Every morning, I would stroll downtown and window shop.  Everyone I saw spoke to me or waved from their cars.  Soon, we knew just about the whole town.    Gloria would take me with her to Richmond for a day of shopping and told me all the best places to shop.  She, like me, loved a bargain!   We were a foursome and to this day, remain good friends and I am forever grateful for their generous kindnesses to us, including us in everything to make us feel welcome.

Along about November, when the leaves had fallen, but the weather was still warm enough to be outside, Sollie and I decided to go to a local estate auction.  Neither of us had ever been to an auction held in somebody’s yard before.   Stuff covered the entire property!  Beautiful antiques, china, and silver, along with all sorts of collectibles, linens, household goods, etc., was placed on tables or in box lots.    The crowd was huge. 

Estate auctions are taken seriously in Virginia.  People know what they want and how to get it.  We asked somebody how to bid, and they directed us to the trailer that was set up to give out numbers and register bidders.    When the auction started, the Auctioneer announced that the property would be auctioned as well and it would be in three parcels.  He said the house was open for inspection as was the former barn or carriage house which had been converted into two apartments.  One up and one down.  Then there were several building lots across the street that also was part of the property. 

All the local folks knew it, but the home had been in the family of the owners since it was built in 1900.   They were prominent people, but had to go to a nursing home and their two children did not want to keep the property.  Sollie and I decided we’d go inside and take a look, just for the hang of it.   Inside, we found the huge rooms, high ceilings, bulls eye moldings, French doors to the dining room, fireplaces with columned mantles and beveled mirrors.  The dining room’s wallpaper was old and yellowed with nicotine, but still showed a beautiful green toile scene of the George Washington era.  There was a butler’s pantry, a stove that must have come over on the Mayflower, and cabinets that went all the way to the ceilings.  It was heated by steam heat and each room had an old radiator that was putting out heat, as if were brand new.  The original old wavy glass was still in each window.

The front entrance had a porch that wrapped around both sides.  The grounds had mature boxwoods, lilac bushes, peonies, daffodils, asters, huge old fashioned spyria, lily of the valley, pyracantha and holly just loaded with red berries, and a total of 13 very huge pecan trees, maple and oak trees, and across the street, the lots were wooded with tall green pines.  What was there NOT to like about this place?  It only needed cosmetics.  I had always wanted an old home and loved to restore furniture so this would be a piece of heaven and Sollie’s office was just a few blocks away.   We’d have plenty of time.

I guess by now, you’ve figured out that on that day in November, we bought that house, apartments, and the lots across the street.  I’ll add here, for less money than we ever dreamed possible.   When it was over and the dust was clearing, we looked at each other and said, “What in the world were we thinking?”

We moved into the house in December and immediately started working on the “cosmetic” part.  Oh Lord.  Do you know the phrase “money pit?”

FUN, FRIENDS, and OFF TO BLACKSTONE

Our trip to Maui was just one of many through the years with our friends, Frankie and Ray, during the 80’s.  We also had the pleasure of meeting other members of their family and to this day, remain good friends.  Sollie and I had not had many good friends as couples after we married and moved away from our home town.  There is nothing more precious than good friends, especially when you are in a new area.  We were in new areas often.  There is a difference between acquaintances, friends, and good friends.    Thank God, we were richly blessed with all three through the years.

Our travels together took us to San Francisco, where we spent a week sightseeing and touring, and making memories together.  Alcatraz, China Town, Fisherman's Wharf, Wine Vineyards, Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, and the Redwood forests were all dazzling to us country folks.  Hanging on riding the famous cable car from Union Square to Knob Hill and a show with the “man himself”, Tony Bennett singing “I Left My Heart,” were also highlights to remember. 

Through the years, we spent several days in Orlando, Nashville, Washington, DC, and just about every summer, we rented a condo in the Destin/Ft. Walton beach area where we sunned, played golf, and swam in those pristine waters of the Gulf.  In the fall, we spent one week-end every year in Cashiers, North Carolina,  where we rented the same cabin every year overlooking the beautiful valley and mountains beyond.  Each place, each condo and each trip was spent sharing laughs, meals, shopping, reading, and just enjoying our good friendship.  I might throw in here, that being from different political parties never entered our discussions. Not even once.  We simply had fun together and it was a given that each couple shared expenses when buying supplies or eating out.  I have a few funny stories from those trips.  I may share with you on another post, but not this one.

By 1993, a new job was calling Sollie’s name in Blackstone, Virginia.   Our daughter was living with us at the time, so we left the house in her charge, and rented a furnished apartment in Blackstone where we became instant and forever friends with the owners, the Sheffields.  The Olympics were due in Atlanta the next year, and I began to hear about homes being rented for that time in the area.  Since we lived within a few miles of the Equestrian events, it occurred to me that we might rent our home and pick up some extra money.  So, I tried to figure out a way to do it successfully, but at the same time, control who it was rented to.  I made a deal with Teresa that she could live there until the games but that I would rent it out if I could, and then place the house on the market.

Sollie’s job took him to the main office of his company located in Englishtown, New Jersey.  Occasionally, I went along for the ride to do some junking and antiquing.  Englishtown is a big area for horse lovers and there was a tack shop in the village.  I took along some photos of our house and proceeded to venture down to the shop to try my luck, asking if the owner might be coming to Atlanta for the games.  He wasn’t, but offered to let me post the pictures along with the information on his local bulletin board.  Within a short time, I had a call from someone who wanted to rent the house.  Bingo! 

The following months were spent getting the house ready for rental and to put on the market for sale.  Everything proceeded as planned without a glitch.   Teresa bought a house, our house rented, and our house sold.    Providential?  Indeed.

ALOHA MAUI!

Life wasn’t all bad.    After a while, you pick yourself up, pull up your big girl panties, brush yourself off, and carry on.  Fortunately for me, I had a wonderful support group of church friends, personal friends, and a family who loved me back into reality.   I now had confidence in the fact that no matter what, everything would turn out in accordance with God’s plan for my life.   

Sollie was still commuting to Milwaukee and about the only good that came from that as far as I was concerned, was that he accumulated an enormous amount of frequent flyer miles which allowed us to travel to places we had only dreamed of.  Our dear friends, Frankie and Ray were our constant companions and “partners in crime.” 

We planned our trip for months to Maui with them and finally the big day came when we flew out of Atlanta, first class, mind you, on Continental Airlines headed to our condo on the shores of the beautiful beach in Kihei on the island of Maui.  Not a week before our flight, Aloha Airlines (which we were booked on from LA to Honolulu and on to Maui) had a plane that lost a door in mid-flight and that very plane greeted us, shrouded, and under investigation on the tarmac in Maui.    I tried not to look.

Since Frankie and Ray flew a different airline, they had arrived earlier and had picked up the rental car and some maps and off we went to our condo.  We were not disappointed!  We could look right out from our balcony to see the locals harvesting some coconuts and beyond that, the most beautiful blue water I have ever seen in my entire life.   Ray immediately proceeded to the coconut guys who were up the tree, and begged a coconut for our Pina Colada's,  which we had worked up a real appetite for,  by this time.  Oh, what a sight!  We were giddy with gratitude for our good fortune with our accommodations and of course, the Pina Colada's added to our excitement!  Fresh coconut, fresh pineapple - it doesn't get any better than that.  We spread out all our literature and Ray, who was always designated as our “tour director” made the plans for the next few days. 

For seven days, we crammed in everything we could.  We visited the local villages along the coast with their beautiful old banyan trees where the oldest banyan in the world grows in Lahaina.  We lunched at the piers which had yachts and boats belonging to the rich and famous.  The family owned, Kula Botanical Garden with its wooden stairs tucked into the hills, made our leg muscles and our “buns” burn, but the display of 2,000 species of indigenous flora and fauna was breathtaking. 

One day, we got up early so we could make the trip to Haleakala National Park to witness the sunrise at the enormous crater and volcano.  It was worth every minute of my having to arise before sun up, which I don’t do very well.   Frankie and Ray and Sollie kept me laughing every mile of the way with hilarious antics and stories.  And “stories” they were!

Of course, no trip to Maui is complete without a Luau, and that nasty tasting poi which is a Polynesian staple made from underground plant stems of the Taro plant.   We picked the event that the owner of our condo recommended and were greeted by girls in grass skirts giving us leis which were made of shells.  The waiters brought us Mai Tai’s and hors d’oeuvres   Then the Kalua Pua’a (roasted pig in a ground pit) was placed on the huge buffet, along with just about anything you could imagine, including the nasty poi which tasted like bland hominy poured from a blender.   Then the hula girls took to the stage.    

There is no way in the world for me to describe the hilarious antics of Sollie and Ray, when the grass skirted girls invited them to the stage to have a few lessons in the art of Hula dancing.   These guys alone, were kind of bashful, but if you put the two of them together, on stage in front of hundreds of people, they showed no shyness at all.  They were movie stars!  They were all eyes when showed just how to swerve their hips and sway.  The harder they tried, the funnier it got, and they brought the house down.  

The road to Hana is truly one of indescribable beauty.  The black, red and white beaches were beautiful against a background of blue water like I’ve never seen before or since.  Occasionally we got out of the car and walked through a rain forest, or to a waterfall, or to a look-out over the ocean.  There were mango trees that lined some sections of the road and they fell like apples from a tree.    The waterfalls were sometimes tucked back into rocks with clear pools of water below and the rain forests are exactly that.  It rains inside them because of the humidity.   A bad hair day is a given if you go there.

After our exciting week, we boarded our separate planes and headed home.  Sollie and I had an interesting young lady sitting across from us who was dead drunk and had a little cassette player and with earphones plugged.  Tears were streaming down her face, but she made no sounds.   We sat there whispering to each other trying to imagine what was distressing her so.  She'd had a death in the family?  She's been jilted by her boyfriend?  She was sad to be leaving Maui?   Once in the air, she ordered more Mimosa's, which just added to the show for us.  She continued to cry and drink until she passed out cold and missed her destination in Honolulu!  It was another hilarious event to add to our memory book of the trip to paradise!