Independence is a small town, a few thousand neighbors, a couple gas stations, enough churches to keep the souls clean, and one grocery store: Food City. The liquor department is located next to the soda and across from the ice cream. It's not a separated section. Their security amounts to a hand written sign that says "NO BEER SALES ON SUNDAYS."
Down the street is Grandma’s Bakery and across the road is The Gun Shop. Around the corner is Jesse's Barber Shop, where I stop for a hillbilly haircut.
The public laundry is at the edge of town, on top of a hill. It's $1.25 a load and 50 cents for a box of suds. That is if you can get it out of the machine. I'm not dumb, but I went so far as to read the instructions OUT LOUD and follow methodically along and I still couldn't get the Tide to drop.
The laundry was nice. Nice and empty so I was able to give the soap machine a couple of swift Fonzie hits. I switched to my all powerful Kung Fu kick. There was some success; I managed to knock the clock across the room off the wall.
An old man walked in. My luck, it was the manager and he catches me in a sweat, beating up his detergent dispenser. Buck said he'd owned the shop the last five years. He shuffles across the floor, reaches 'round the side and pulls a handle and the soap drops. Buck is magic and I'm blaming my stupid haircut for my lack of common sense.
Restaurants in Independence include Aunt Bea's, Paul's, and Brown's Restaurant. Brown's has "'REAL GOOD FOOD" written in a yellow ribbon on their menu. Everybody was at Brown's, mostly because the diner was closing in two days and moving eleven miles up the road to Sparta, North Carolina.
The staff at Brown's was feeling the love. Owners Doug and Vera Brown had all 25 tables full. When one table would empty, another customer would come through the door.
Pan fried chicken was the special. A big, fluffy homemade dinner roll clung to the edge of the plate, stuck in place having absorbed some of the grease from the chicken.
The waitress is young, but treats everybody with TLC. "Darlin' you want more tea?" And then she gently picks up a knife and slowly helps a very old man with his eats. "Sweetheart, let me cut that steak up for ya."
She serves Hush Puppies and hot cups of coffee followed by Chocolate Mint pie and Pecan cobbler. Customers who said they 'couldn't eat another bite' were ordering dessert anyway, just to savor the final days of Brown's.
The rain on Wednesday was consistent. Aside from checking in at the Grayson County Library, I spent most of the day out of the weather visiting the Old Grayson County Courthouse. Built in 1908 the courthouse featured arched windows, Flemish gables, octagonal towers and was deemed an "architectural gem" and a Virginia Historical Landmark.
In 1986 the community fought efforts to raze the building and have the square turned into a parking lot. Extensive renovations turned the building into a local historical museum.
Political memorabilia featured presidential pins. An orange and black nickel-size button read "Vote Fer Elmer" and beside it a purple and red pin with "NIXON NOW."
The backbone of the community is music as Crooked Road, a Virginia Heritage music Trail runs throughout the state. The ladies at the gift store talk up Wayne Henderson. "He's the one who built Eric Clapton's guitar," said Lee Lang who wore a striped blue oxford under her light blue sweatshirt. I gave her a blank stare and she sternly whispered, "Don't say you've never heard of Wayne Henderson?" That slight tongue lashing sounded like grade school when Sister Clavereen would yell at the class and call us "Brassy Outfits" when we failed to pay attention.
I clip-clopped through the old judge's chambers eyeing up grey and white record albums of Fields & Wade Woods. The old cardboard sleeves were balanced on picture rails and tied down with cobwebs.
Grayson's musical history was laid out under glass in a 24 x 36-inch picture frame. Photos of local groups included Glen Smith who played the Old Time Fiddle and the Claw Hammer Banjo. The Courthouse Ramblers were a group of eight sitting on hay bales. They looked straight out of Hee Haw.
There was Fiddlin' Will Poole and his son and the New Ballard's Branch Boy Trotters. Six good ole boys on a back porch with a sad looking hound. The names of the groups reminded me of my mom's church choir. For a while, they had so many gigs they felt they should have a name. A lot of their bookings were for funerals so my mom suggested they call themselves "The Cass-kets." I think the group whispered amongst themselves and said a lot of prayers in her name.
The night ended with a fiddle and banjo jam session at the old courthouse. 13 musicians showed up ranging in age from 10 years old up to 59. I didn't recognize any tunes, it was mostly "pickin' and a grinnin'."
Thursday I'm back on the road, heading west to Damascus, Abingdon and into Wise. I'm hoping to cross into Kentucky before the weekend.
Judy is a Milwaukee native who is ever exploring the country. Her favorite mode of travel is her 21-speed, blue Centurion bicycle, which she bought after high school. Judy has worked in the local media for the past 20 years. "I need to do something to support my biking habit."
Judy has an extensive history in radio news, having worked at WISN, WUWM, WTMJ, WKTY in La Crosse and WBKV in West Bend. A strong interest in sports also had Judy reporting for ESPN Radio covering the Packers, Buck, Brewers and Badgers. "One of my first Brewer games at County Stadium the security guy yelled as I walked into the locker room LADY IN THE LOCKER ROOM. Now its so commonplace. But that story makes me sound really old."
Judy is currently working at WISN-TV in Milwaukee. She is a freelance writer and her pieces have been seen in The Small Business Times and The Business Journal. Her travel journal has appeared in Minnesota Trails Magazine, The Statesman and the West Bend Daily News, to name a few.
Aside from biking, running and being active in her community, Judy is known as someone who is "very, very thrifty." "I get candles for Christmas. My friends call them my space heaters because I normally keep the heat in my house at 40 degrees during the winter. Its not that I cant afford to turn up the thermostat, I just hate paying for heat."
Judy said her "conservative attitude" plays a part in her bike tours ... not needing to pay for gas and frequently spending nights camping inside churches. "First of all, it makes me feel safe since Im traveling alone and second all youre doing is sleeping, so why pay for that. Its no wonder I cant ever get someone to travel with me."
Judy grew up in Whitefish Bay and graduated from Dominican High School and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Judy is the second oldest among seven siblings and spends a lot of her time working as a "park tester" along with her eight nieces and nephews.
