SUMMER 2018
Discover the trail less taken
The inner beauty of Miss Fauquier
PAGE 26
PAGE 45
A lifetime of memories PAGE 30
Some more s’mores PAGE 67
The stories that must be told
Discover the tales that make up the county collage SUMMER 2018
1
Whiting Road ~ Marshall
Incredibly well constructed and well maintained French Country style residence on 50 open and rolling acres (in easement) with pond and views in a premier northern Fauquier County location. Features include: geothermal heating and cooling, limestone and antique white oak flooring, 4 fireplaces, gourmet eat in kitchen w/ fireplace, guest apartment with full kitchen and bath. Located just outside of Marshall, VA
$2,100.000
Sage Hill ~ Markham VA
76 acres and a circa 1926 farmhouse. Minutes to I66, a wonderful weekender, or full time residence in a very good commuter location. GREAT VALUE, very pretty mostly open rolling land with views all around, bold stream, pond. Several lovely building sites and/or renovate the solid, liveable farmhouse. In conservation easement.
$675,000
Norwood ~ Berryville, VA - UNDER CONTRACT
“Norwood” Historic farm property. 179 open, rolling acres, circa 1814 brick manor house. In very good overall shape, in need of updated kitchen and baths, cosmetics,landscaping, etc. A lovely farm and project well worth undertaking. On National Register and in scenic easement. Extensive road frontages, lovely event site or country home. An exceptional value.
$1,450,000
Atoka Chase ~ Middleburg, VA
A sunny country house with contemporary touches on 10 ac. in Middleburg’s best location. Open,sunny, floor plan with main level master bedroom suite, 3 additional bedrooms and baths, and a private guest suite. Approx 5500 sq.ft., pool, lovely landscaping, 3 car garage. New solid cedar shake roof, Hardiplank exterior.
$1,385,000
On Offer in Bluemont 4 acres, corner lot. 4 bedroom Perc. No HOA, minutes to Route 7. Build your dream cabin. Priced way below assessed value! $75k For more information on these or any other listings in our area please contact:
2
Chris Malone 540-454-3775 SUMMER 2018 chris@theplainsrealty.com
www.theplainsrealty.com Full service brokerage and property management company
Jen Kitner 540.660.1804 jen@theplainsrealty.com
IN THE
The Stories That Must Be Told
25 PHOTO BY RANDY LITZINGER
FACES & PLACES 16 Following the long, and winding, road of county power couple Jimmy and Alison Lee
47 PHOTO BY DOUG STROUD
LIFE & STYLE 41 Greg Weakley: one of those county workers we should thank daily
21 Arash Rohanimanesh has his hands deep in a critical tech project
45 Find out how the Miss Fauquier pageants determine who’s queen of the county
23 You can count on local auctioneer Kathy Shumate
47 She’s sweet as Honey this therapy dog has a heart of gold
23 The soft touch of artist Jackie Yongue
48 Bert and Eleanor Harris say Fauquier’s for the birds. (See how that’s perfectly OK with them)
26 Tales of the trails 28 Discover the best of local waters this summer season 30 Navy veteran Emilio Frustaci takes a walk down memory lane
59 PHOTO BY CHRIS CERRONE
HOME & GARDEN 51 Love them or hate them, snakes play an important role in the local ecological balance 55 Lunch on the lawn 58 Rock gardening, 101 – it’s not so hard 59 Discover the natural deterrents to thwart those hungry, pesky mosquitoes this summer
69 COURTESY PHOTO
FOOD & WINE 64 Plan a solstice feast for the year’s longest day 67 Summer’s made for s’mores 69 Light and bright, seasonal ales and wines to please the palate 70 Four local chefs share their tips for summer fare 72 Peach season is short, but it promises a year of flavor
49 Trouble sleeping? Meet the team who can rock your nights.
35 On the straight and narrow with archery expert Ryan Merry 36 Born to it: Step into the principal’s office with Bruce McDaniel 26 Kaleb Leigh shares his thoughts on cancer, courage
ON THE COVER
EXTRAS
n County tidbits ..................8 n Then and now ................11 n Side by side ...................32 n The Last Word ................74
32
Photographers Randy Litzinger, Doug Stroud, Chris Cerrone and Betsy Burke Parker provide the backdrop for the summer issue’s cover collage. Made up of all the photos used in this issue – plus the ones that didn’t make print, page designer Taylor Dabney says the photos are tribute to the mosaic of the county. Taylor hand-designed the Fauquier County collage, creating it in InDesign. She’d found a design program on the internet that would automatically build a digital mosaic, but the irregular shape of the county – and her attention to detail – made it easier, she says, to go with a custom cutout. The highlighted pullout images provide a guide to what’s inside, further bolstering this notion that Fauquier County is comprised of hundreds and thousands of life stories that together create the regional narrative. Pull out a magnifying glass to see who, what and where we are. SUMMER 2018
3
Editor’s query – Find out little-known facts about the storytelling team Published quarterly by Piedmont Media Address 41 Culpeper Street Warrenton, VA 20186 Phone: 540-347-4222 Fax: 540-349-8676 Publisher: Catherine M. Nelson cnelson@fauquier.com Editor: Betsy Burke Parker betsyburkeparker@fauquier.com Editor-in-chief: Chris Six csix@fauquier.com Advertising director: Kathy Mills Godfrey, 540-351-1162 kgodfrey@fauquier.com Consultants: Marie Rossi mrossi@fauquier.com Liliana Ruiz lruiz@fauquier.com Heather Sutphin hstuphin@fauquier.com Patti Engle pengle@fauquier.com Renee Ellis rellis@fauquier.com Tony Ford tford@fauquier.com Christa Tingen ctingen@fauquier.com Design Page designer: Taylor Dabney tdabney@fauquier.com Ad designers: Cindy Goff cgoff@fauquier.com Taylor Dabney tdabney@fauquier.com Annamaria Ward award@fauquier.com Sawyer Guinn sguinn@fauquier.com
Mary Ann Dancisin is a wine industry consultant with over 30 years in the trade. Specializing in Virginia wines since 2006, she was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association. Little-known fact: She admits she sometimes puts ice in white wine. Interior decorator and home cook Janie Ledyard has spent a year working with her chef husband to “develop healthier versions of beloved family recipes.” Little -known fact: Her favorite way to eat a fresh peach is washed, fuzzy skin on, as if it were an apple. A physics grad of the University of Chicago, Norm Schulze spent his career at NASA. Since retirement, he's been working on family history and genealogy. Little-known fact: the aerial shoot he did a few months ago of the old Marshall High School was Norm’s “first trip in a small aircraft since I first flew out of a small airport in Fairfax County around 1950 where the Lohman’s Plaza now is located.” He’s logged almost a million in commercial aircraft. A Fauquier native since 1994, Anita Sherman has been a journalist more than 20 years. Little-known fact: On a trip to Sri Lanka, she was encouraged not to brush off a praying mantis that landed on her knee, the advice coming from science fiction writer Arthur Clarke, author of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Seventh-grader Roxie Beebe-Center is 12. Little -known fact: “I used to live in a house that was once a church, and once a synagogue.” Warrenton-based writer Laura Lyster Mench is also a radio podcaster. Little-known fact: Laura has a monkey bite scar on her leg. Fauquier native Paula Combs studied journalism and communications at the University of Colorado. She’s senior editor at Piedmont Environmental Council and on the Experience Old Town Warrenton, Warrenton Farmers Market and Remington Community Gardens boards. Little-known fact: “I have dessert before dinner sometimes.” Stephanie Slewka is a writer, editor and awardwinning documentary filmmaker who lives in Rappahannock. Little-known fact: She once crossed Africa north to south by herself with a backpack
she still uses. Former newspaper reporter and editor and government spokesperson Pat Reilly has an impressive little-known fact: “I was on a Homeland Security team that deported two of the last Nazi war criminals from the U.S.” New York native editor and author Steve Price is also an avid mandolin player in a bluegrass band. Little-known fact: “If I had it to do all over again, I’d be a neurologist. Understanding the brain and how it works is the last frontier.” Master Gardener Sally Harmon Semple took an early retirement from her career as a Clean Air Act engineer and enforcement policy consultant. Little-known fact: Sally's head was recently grazed by a blue-footed booby. Vineeta Ribeiro teaches math and computer science, has six children (ages 13-28), and a husband of 31.5 years. Little-known fact: Vineeta's family just adopted a dog from the SPCA. Chewy looks just like a dingo. Little-known fact about photographer Chris Cerrone: His childhood nickname was Chipper, after Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones. “I played third, plus I used Chipper’s batting stance. I was number 10 like him. Of course he was much better. He was just inducted in the Hall of Fame.” Connie Lyons showed Irish setters for 60 years. Betsy Burke Parker has worked for Piedmont Media and its predecessors for 30 years. She also operates a horse and livestock farm in Flint Hill. Little-known fact: She cries at sad commercials on television. “Happy ones, too.” Native Virginian Pam Owen is a writer, editor, photographer and passionate nature conservationist. Little-known fact: She once licked a large banana slug on a dare from a park ranger at Mount Rainier National Park to test the numbing effect its slime is supposed to have. (“Yes, it does,” she reports.) Alissa Jones leads writers’ groups, is a published author and in leadership at her church. She has two grown children, two grandchildren and another arriving in August. Little-known fact: A
bullfighter in Portugal tossed his hat to her from the ring dedicating the fight to her; she was 16. Hill School teacher John Daum says he’s “spent many years as apprentice of the great beer bars and breweries of Europe soaking in all the culture and history I can from the Old World masters.” Little-known, but unsurprising fact: John thinks “the historic pub craw along the Thames is one of the greatest walks in the world.” Local writer Nora Rice retired to Culpeper after serving as a federal government scientist, and operates Melissae Herbs and Honey's as proprietor and herbalist. Little-known fact: As a child, Nora explored Panamanian jungle streams to watch amphibians morph from eggs to adults. Freelance photographer Randy Litzinger triple majored in drawing-painting, photography and film-video at Penn State. He has had more than 50 photos in Sports Illustrated, photos on over 150 football cards, and 42 magazine covers, including two SI covers. Little-known fact: He used to dress up as Spider-man and throw his grandma's hairnets at people. Randy did not mention at what age he did this. Danica Low is a Warrenton-based writer who operates a PR agency, Higher Power. Writer Janet Heisrath-Evans, mother of three, lives in Warrenton with her husband Scott. Little-known fact: “I bagged my first Munro (what the Scots call climbing a Scottish mountain over 3,000 feet), Ben Lomond, in 2016; only 281 Munros to go.” After honing her writing and editing skills at a weekly newspaper chain in New York, Robin Earl moved to Virginia in 1994 as managing editor of the Fauquier Times-Democrat. Little-known fact: Robin has exactly one page of her someday-to-be famous murder mystery book written. “Only 329 pages to go.” Designer Taylor Dabney recently moved from New Baltimore to Washington. She will be reverse commuting to Piedmont Media, where she has worked since the fall of 2016. Little-known fact: she’s lived in 10 different states, and now also the District of Columbia.
Celebrate with Experience & Taste
Farm to Kitchen to Table Fresh locally-inspired meals are just the beginning. From business receptions and weddings to intimate parties around town, À la Carte orchestrates your perfect event, personalized down to the last creative detail.
AlaCarteCaters.com 703.754.2714
Corporate n Weddings n Social n Picnics n Party 2 Go
4
SPRING 8 In 201 Fauquier 9.5” w x 5.87” h
June 2018 issue
Flooring Specialists and More
Early’s Carpet, Inc.
+
Your Hometown Store So Much Under One Roof! The Largest In-Stock Inventory of Carpet, Area Rugs, Orientals, Vinyl, Hardwood, Laminate, Ceramic & Remnants!
14574 Lee Highway, Amissville, VA 20106 540-937-5500 M-F 9am to 5 pm ~ Sat 10am to 4pm EMERGENCY SERVICES Day, Night & Weekends Available
You already know we are your hometown carpet and vinyl experts. But did you know…
Visit Us Online: www.earlyscarpet.com SUMMER 2018
5
Observation:
Personal tales connect people. Hypothesis: Everybody has a story. Proof: Ask. Listen. Learn. Thesis: It’s our responsibility to tell.
My grandma introduced me to storytelling. We’d visit my mom’s parents in Birmingham when I was a girl, and every night she’d tell us four granddaughters – my younger sister, me and two cousins – some amusing anecdote from her childhood. She’d been part of the ’40s war effort, driving a military limo. She recalled the very real possibility of having to raise her two young children as a war widow when my grandpa was shot down over Germany. She shared the icy fear that gripped her when a telegram arrived with the appalling news of his disappearance, and recalled the tears of relief when an officer reported his escape and recovery some months later. I remember saying at one point, “Mom Curry, you have great stories. You should write them down.” She’d laugh and promise “someday,” then we’d turn our attention to the snack cakes she’d famously proffer. She passed along the storytelling gene: My mom was section editor at a Nashville daily, and later authored three books; my own writing career starting at my elementary school newsletter and continuing to today.
“
sights
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
6
SUMMER 2018
– Maya Angelou
True to her word, years later Mom Curry finally got around to writing about her life. She insisted on literally writing her memoir, by hand, hundreds of pages of loopy script in four matching memory books, taking advantage of neither her vintage daisywheel Smith-Corona nor the Kinko’s down the road. “Everybody has a story to tell,” she inscribed in my book. “Here’s mine.” It’s one heck of a narrative. She wasn’t a trained journalist, but the tale easily passes the J-school “so what?” test. Mom Curry had a natural aptitude for feature formula: What it used to be like, what happened, and what it’s like now. The roaring ’20s gave way to the Depression, then to the tense times of the Manchurian invasion, Pearl Harbor, and, eventually, her beloved husband hiding in a sheepfold in the French countryside to evade enemy fire. She captured the essence of an era, a time capsule opening with her own childhood, and stories of her parents, and closing with fond memories of shared vacations on the Gulf Coast and fishing for flounder off the pier. Her snappy period piece resurrected the cinematic black-and-white world of the Greatest Generation. My grandma’s long gone, but the book of memories is a treasured part of her legacy, and mine.
It’s an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. (We’ve got that.)
Around every corner is a story waiting to be told. And people are longing to hear it. Nothing is so warm and inviting, yet so challenging and poignant, as a powerful narrative, told well. When this hypothesis was presented to the inFauquier writing team, ideas flowed. We didn’t want to retell stories of local luminaries – their stories are well known. We wanted to dig deep, to discover the rich – hidden – tapestry of the county. Inside, hear the lost tale of an Italian immigrant and veteran by Anita Sherman, and discover the untold story of a county worker who performs a critical yet virtually unknown, and underappreciated, civic duty as told by Alissa Jones. Get to know a conservation power couple via Nora Rice, and meet an amazingly resilient teen, as introduced by Danica Low. Stories are written to be shared — not only for our own sake, but for the benefit of others. They shape entire cultures, connecting humanity and creating a ripple effect.
Time is Precious, Use it Wisely! “ Every positive adjective applies to Carmen. She is simply THE BEST.” -Lesiie Dove
“She made our concerns, her main concerns and she demonstrated this all the way through the transaction... She is our Go To Realtor and always will be.”
“ She is professional, friendly, responsive, high energy, and knows the business. ” -Carla Scott
-Joe Ausley
CARMEN GILL
Spring Market is Here! List with Carmen.
New Millennium CARMEN GILL, REALTOR Century 21 New Millennium 8078 Crescent Park Drive, Suite 205 Gainesville, Virginia 20155 Additional Offices in Warrenton, Culpeper, Alexandria, Ashburn, Centreville, McLean, Woodbridge and Fredericksburg, VA. You can reach Carmen directly: 540-878-6158 Phone: 703-753-7910 agreatagent4u@gmail.com Additional Client Testimonies at www.zillow.com/profile/Carmen-Gill/
SUMMER 2018
7