Enjoy it while you can
Erika Howsare’s bittersweet obituary about a portion of Old Lynchburg Road in “A Quiet Place” [Places We’ll Lose, July 18] was touching and personal to me. This has been my road home for the past 15 years.
What drew us to our little spot carved out of the woods wasn’t so much the lack of “company,” although it’s certainly that too, but the opportunities. Here we have a chance to listen to the roar of cicadas at night, or the whippoorwills, or the haunting deep woods call of the wood thrush in the middle of summer. Here we can step outside in summer or winter and not see another house, and shiver at the sound of coyotes in January up on the ridge. Here we can live without curtains, or keep livestock without anyone complaining about the animals, or sit on the porch and listen to the wind.
Where else is it so private, so close to town? My life is in such sharp contrast to the lives of those who I observe while driving past Mosby Mountain. I’m free to complain about the mess my neighbors’ make; the car sitting so long it doesn’t run anymore, the crumpled mailboxes, the questionable art objects, the house that needs painting. From now on I’m going to remind myself to relish these things, because soon there will be no choice: All the lawns will be mowed and everything will be predictable as hell.
I’m going to save Ms. Howsare’s article. When the day comes—and I know it’s “when,” not “if”—and I’m sitting at a stoplight where there was once a canopy of trees, I’ll think about what was lost. It seems contradictory, but it will be one less opportunity down a road that will never be the same.
Marianne Sullivan
Millknock Farm
Charlottesville
CORRECTION
The July 25 cover story, “Super size me?,” referenced the upcoming Dave Matthews Band (below) shows at the John Paul Jones Arena as the venue’s “inaugural” musical event. While the DMB concerts are being billed as the John’s “grand opening” events, the first scheduled musical act is actually James Taylor. We regret any confusion.