Yes, you can go home again

Hope A. Smith
Published: February 29, 2008

This week's column starts by apologizing for my error last week!

I had a brain-cramp (what do they call "senior moments" when you're 37-) and stated that the male emperor penguin "hibernates" the eggs. What I should have stated (and I know better!) was that the male penguin "incubates" the eggs. Thank you to those folks who pointed out my accidental error in my accidental education!

Today's subject is Culpeper and its tremendous growth! When our family first moved to Orange, I started working as a service rep at Manpower Temporary Services. While at Manpower, my "partner in crime" was an incredible person named Cindy, who grew to be a lifelong friend of mine.     

Considering this was 10 years ago, we'd often daydream about restaurants and stores we'd love to see in Culpeper. During the slow times, we actually came up with a wish list (we called this "prospecting" -those people would need some employees, right-) On our wish list were restaurants like TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesday and an incredible place called Schlotzsky's Deli at which we'd both eaten various times in our lives.

Being that Wal-Mart and Dominion Square were the two main shopping areas, we were relatively limited. We thought  a mall would be really cool; however, that brought me back to my native land of Loudoun County.

When I was growing up, as I've said before, Ashburn didn't even have a stoplight. Sterling seemed like a metropolis. But to go to a "real mall," we'd have to drive to Tysons, because Fair Oaks didn't open until 1981.

After my parents moved to Orange in 1988, I stuck around northern Virginia because this country gal wanted to experience the big boom of growth! Ten years later, we had mad shopping choices in Sterling, and Ashburn was hot on its heels. We grew tired of the traffic and crowds, and joined the more relaxed living that Orange could afford us.

Loudoun County has that mall now. It's called Dulles Town Center, and I've been there once. Why just once- I found it to be ostentatious and overpriced. The malls of my youth were fun, and they were a safe place to hang out. They had great clearance sales and cool stores. Tysons used to have an ice cream joint called Farrel's. My ninth birthday party was held there.

My friend, Cindy, has since moved away, but we keep in touch. I told her I've checked off some of the places on our wish list. We have our Ruby Tuesday's and various shopping choices. She was beyond excitement when I told her about Target, and we even talked about the rumors of Outback and Applebee's coming to town.

Although the retail and restaurant options are incredibly convenient, I often worry about the traffic hassles that drove me away from my beloved Loudoun County. Some of you may remember the bumper stickers back in the mid-1980s that read, "Don't Fairfax Loudoun."

After Loudoun County was "Fairfaxed," we saw "Don't Loudoun Clarke." Then Clarke was "Loudouned."

Loudoun County used to be the ideal, away-from-the-city place to live. It was mostly country, with a lot of farms and an occasional subdivision. I was a senior in high school when construction on Ashburn Farms subdivision started. Ashburn Farms was built on my friend Kelly Lucas's parents land.

How embarrassing is it to go back to your hometown and get lost- Ask no further - I've been there. I had to venture up to Ashburn for a meeting with a customer not too long ago. My Mapquest directions were printed out, because the address was too new for my navigation - it was as if it didn't exist!

Dutifully, I followed the Mapquest directions, and vaguely familiar places would be noticed less and less. I reached my destination, and nothing looked familiar. For crying out loud, a town that could only boast a general store 20 years before had four Starbucks locations now!

As I looked around from where I stood, there it was -my high school alma mater, Broad Run High School, home of the Spartans. I was home, but home was far different than I left it 10 years earlier.

Hope A. Smith is an
independent columnist and
resident of Orange County.
Her column appears on Friday.
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