Ace, this state is giving me geographical vertigo. Why is it that North Garden is located along Rte. 29 South? Why not call it “South Garden?” And what is it north of?—Carter Graffer
Do you really want to go there, Carter? And by “there,” Ace doesn’t mean down to lovely North Garden, with its verdant pastures and celebrated CiderWorks, but into the whole map/territory can of worms. Let’s move beyond the fact that—how typical—you’ve defined Charlottesville as your default point of reference for understanding the world. How would you get to North Garden from, say, Lynchburg? Or Danville? Along Rte. 29 North, that’s how.
From a Google’s-eye-view, North Garden is not “north of” anything so much as “north within” the bare parameters of Virginia state boundaries. But that’s only one possible way of looking at it. You can also break it down regionally and place North Garden with Charlottesville in Central Virginia, which officially includes points as far south as Franklin, but also encompasses Lynchburg, Farmville, and—get ready for it—South Garden, a Richmond suburb that is, fortunately, south of North Garden.
Complicating the issue, all of these locations fall below the Mason-Dixon line, which means we have to start splitting hairs over culture. Like where—if anywhere—does the south become The South? How “southern” is Virginia compared to South Carolina or Alabama, and in any case, how is it that all three are more southern than Florida?
Ace’s point is that culture makes geography moot. Consider Charlottesville’s East Garden Chinese Restaurant and Buffet, which is indeed east of North Garden, but quite a ways west of South Garden. “East” here is a cultural designation, in the same vein that we use “western” to refer both to first-world monoculture and to Sergio Leone films. Debates rage, for example, about whether Japan is now a “western” country.
Of course, most of these arguments take place online. And if you really want to be shaken to your very core, dear reader, take out a map and try to locate the Internet.
You can ask Ace yourself. Intrepid investigative reporter Ace Atkins has been chasing readers’ leads for 20 years. If you have a question for Ace, e-mail it to ace@c-ville.com.
