The history of Floyd.
I have another week booked. Tonight I went into town to grab some dinner and something happened: the town quadrupled in size. Every spot was filled so I parked a few blocks away to see what was happening. I skipped a food truck thinking I'd get food down the hill. So glad I ended up there at the end of the night, the tangy sauce rocks. This is supposedly a foodie town, and everything I've had so far has been really great, completely unexpected deliciousness. There was this mango chicken dish at The Oddfellows that really knocked my socks off. I considered, briefly, going back to the kitchen to tell the chef he'd made something incredible. I should do that, you know, when the impulse strikes. People certainly don't mind being told that what they're doing ROCKS. I don't always tell people, and I should.
There was a bluegrass jam in the park, right next to the main square. The whole downtown is maybe... four blocks of shops and restaurants, but they're all amazing. A dog walked through the bar behind me next to its owner, and I thought, "ah, yes, home! if they're not running around kicking a dog out of a bar/restaurant, this is my kind of place." There were tons of dogs, and tons of people. I wish I'd have gotten a photograph of all the people there, because there were definitely more than the whole town's population. Here to see some bluegrass. NICE!
I sat down at the bar facing the park. There were a few dudes to my left, a lady alone to my right. I had a beer and asked her if she lived in Floyd, because I really want to meet everyone in town. She said she lives in Chapel Hill, NC but that Floyd is her favorite place. She comes here for beekeeping workshops. There's a farm here that apparently has a very old form of farming, and they're great at bees. I don't know what that means exactly, but eventually I'll find out. Anyone who nerds out on anything like beekeeping is probably cool.
I told her I was moving here and that I hope not too many people catch on and raise the rents. Because it's comparatively cheap, next to other communities with all of this. She said not to worry, there's no way they'll ever get fast enough roads in, because of the geography and such, to make it really boom here. Colorado's boomed. Hard. I'd have loved to have moved there 20 years ago, but today it's just full, and a lot of them are transplants to the place, but not in a great way. Wealthy Californians getting out, and I don't want to talk shit on Californians, but by and large they're a wealthy and materialistic group, a generalized pain in the ass. I could be wrong... the last time I was in Boulder I met great people, so I really shouldn't generalize. But maybe it's just that I don't want to move to Colorado anymore. It just feels... so full... and everywhere you go you're on an interstate. I like that the only roads into this place are two lane. I like that it has its own pace.
I've been looking for "home" for years. I even did a whole project on it in grad school. I always felt this feeling like I hadn't yet found it, and though home isn't a geographic place, there's a feeling you get when you're there... and I'm feelin' it.
I talked with a guy today who told me Floyd's history, how it came to be this little random hippie-berg in a county and a state that were founded more by farmers than hippies....
This place was Jacksonville, when founded, for President Jackson. In 1896, it became Floyd, because of Virginia's governer (Floyd!). Fast forward to the 1960s and a bunch of hippies were traveling the country (I picture them in a VW bus) and they were looking for mystical, magical energy. They said they'd stop and start their commune wherever this magical energy existed. They broke down just north of Floyd and rather than fight the breakdown, they declared this their destination. So a whole bunch of them moved in, and as legend has it, hippies married farmers and farmers married hippies and everyone was just kinda happy being together.
I don't know if you remember from one of my first blog posts, when I first left Nebraska, but that was EXACTLY what I was looking for, good, solid hardworking ethical farmer types blended with us bleeding hearts, but everyone gets along and is better together. I was so struck by the story, how relevant it was to what I'd asked for, that it confirmed even more that this is the place I've been looking for. Blending solid, practical people with wild, silly types, as it turns out, is an unbeatable combination. You remember that, if you ever meet someone whose politics or otherwise you don't agree. Sometimes it's not fire and water; it's just... a magical combination.
Now if all of us could come together, imagine how strong we'd be, as a team! Just imagine us all working together for the greater good. The idea of it really touches me. Because there are many conservative people who are just THE BEST and there are many liberal people who are just THE BEST; the people we argue with are so far to the right or left they may as well be given a permanent tinfoil hat. Remember that! Don't hate people on either side just because they identify with one or the other; it's only the radicals that keep us all from agreeing, because... ugh, there are people who are still like, "Take those immigrant babies away from their nursing mothers; we don't give a shit!" But are there really people like that? If you consider that within the communities where people who say shit like that may even like those people on a certain personal level, they still recognize that those people are batshit freakin' crazy. So don't worry. The loudest voices are always the dumbest. Because who argues on the internet anymore?
There was a bluegrass jam in the park, right next to the main square. The whole downtown is maybe... four blocks of shops and restaurants, but they're all amazing. A dog walked through the bar behind me next to its owner, and I thought, "ah, yes, home! if they're not running around kicking a dog out of a bar/restaurant, this is my kind of place." There were tons of dogs, and tons of people. I wish I'd have gotten a photograph of all the people there, because there were definitely more than the whole town's population. Here to see some bluegrass. NICE!
I sat down at the bar facing the park. There were a few dudes to my left, a lady alone to my right. I had a beer and asked her if she lived in Floyd, because I really want to meet everyone in town. She said she lives in Chapel Hill, NC but that Floyd is her favorite place. She comes here for beekeeping workshops. There's a farm here that apparently has a very old form of farming, and they're great at bees. I don't know what that means exactly, but eventually I'll find out. Anyone who nerds out on anything like beekeeping is probably cool.
I told her I was moving here and that I hope not too many people catch on and raise the rents. Because it's comparatively cheap, next to other communities with all of this. She said not to worry, there's no way they'll ever get fast enough roads in, because of the geography and such, to make it really boom here. Colorado's boomed. Hard. I'd have loved to have moved there 20 years ago, but today it's just full, and a lot of them are transplants to the place, but not in a great way. Wealthy Californians getting out, and I don't want to talk shit on Californians, but by and large they're a wealthy and materialistic group, a generalized pain in the ass. I could be wrong... the last time I was in Boulder I met great people, so I really shouldn't generalize. But maybe it's just that I don't want to move to Colorado anymore. It just feels... so full... and everywhere you go you're on an interstate. I like that the only roads into this place are two lane. I like that it has its own pace.
I've been looking for "home" for years. I even did a whole project on it in grad school. I always felt this feeling like I hadn't yet found it, and though home isn't a geographic place, there's a feeling you get when you're there... and I'm feelin' it.
I talked with a guy today who told me Floyd's history, how it came to be this little random hippie-berg in a county and a state that were founded more by farmers than hippies....
This place was Jacksonville, when founded, for President Jackson. In 1896, it became Floyd, because of Virginia's governer (Floyd!). Fast forward to the 1960s and a bunch of hippies were traveling the country (I picture them in a VW bus) and they were looking for mystical, magical energy. They said they'd stop and start their commune wherever this magical energy existed. They broke down just north of Floyd and rather than fight the breakdown, they declared this their destination. So a whole bunch of them moved in, and as legend has it, hippies married farmers and farmers married hippies and everyone was just kinda happy being together.
I don't know if you remember from one of my first blog posts, when I first left Nebraska, but that was EXACTLY what I was looking for, good, solid hardworking ethical farmer types blended with us bleeding hearts, but everyone gets along and is better together. I was so struck by the story, how relevant it was to what I'd asked for, that it confirmed even more that this is the place I've been looking for. Blending solid, practical people with wild, silly types, as it turns out, is an unbeatable combination. You remember that, if you ever meet someone whose politics or otherwise you don't agree. Sometimes it's not fire and water; it's just... a magical combination.
Now if all of us could come together, imagine how strong we'd be, as a team! Just imagine us all working together for the greater good. The idea of it really touches me. Because there are many conservative people who are just THE BEST and there are many liberal people who are just THE BEST; the people we argue with are so far to the right or left they may as well be given a permanent tinfoil hat. Remember that! Don't hate people on either side just because they identify with one or the other; it's only the radicals that keep us all from agreeing, because... ugh, there are people who are still like, "Take those immigrant babies away from their nursing mothers; we don't give a shit!" But are there really people like that? If you consider that within the communities where people who say shit like that may even like those people on a certain personal level, they still recognize that those people are batshit freakin' crazy. So don't worry. The loudest voices are always the dumbest. Because who argues on the internet anymore?
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