|
|
||
From bears to marriage proposals, trips to the Blue Ridge Mountains by Fredericksburg-area folks have been memorable. By Gwen Woolf Date published: 11/19/2005
By Gwen Woolf
M ANY FREDERICKSBURG-AREA residents take advantage of the proximity of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Skyline Drive for multiple visits that bring back fond memories. Donna M. Harbaugh of Colonial Beach grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and spent summers working at her grandparents' farm, which was on the parkway. "The beauty was breathtaking," she says. "It was hard work, but the air was fresh and clean and life was good," she says. As a child, Harbaugh's favorite place was Mabry Mill, especially in the fall when there would be big black kettles of apple butter or applesauce bubbling over an outdoor fire. "They would let you take turns stirring the pot," she remembers. Harbaugh still calls herself a "mountain girl" and loves going back for visits. "You have to experience the Blue Ridge Mountains yourself and then you will understand the magic it has," she says. Denise Chandler Wood, who lived in Stafford County from 1963 to 1971, says her family's entertainment in those days was not television or movies but monthly trips to the Blue Ridge mountains. She recalls: "My parents would 'dress up' all four of us girls and then themselves and load us into the 1963 Plymouth Chrysler with fried chicken, potato salad and sweet tea in the wicker picnic basket, and, of course Daddy's 35 mm camera for our ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway." Wood remembers they would always stop at the roadside stands for apple butter, honey, boiled peanuts, quilts, chenille bedspreads and even velvet paintings of Elvis. They'd pick up a basket of apples to give out on Halloween, and, in the winter, her father would bring out the projector to show slides of their wonderful trips in the mountains. Elizabeth Swecker-Timmons of Stafford County, who grew up in Charleston, W.Va., has warm memories of adventures on the parkway when she was a child visiting relatives.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
||||||||||||
