It also raised a question as to whether I can call myself a Roanoker, after three decades. After all, I’ve lived here longer than anywhere else — in New York, New Jersey or Maryland. One thing I learned from all the reader feedback is, the Caseys aren’t the only former outsiders who feel lucky to have landed in the Star City and/or its surroundings.
“As I read it, I felt like you wrote it about our family,” Dick Ratcliff of southwest Roanoke County responded in an email. He and his wife, Karen, moved to Roanoke in 1987 and “never looked back,” he added. “Our youngest daughter and her family moved back from Charlotte in June and won’t stop going on about how their quality of life has increased tenfold,” Ratcliff added.
“Thanks for reminding us just how lucky we are to live here!” Helen Ardan beat yours truly to Roanoke by two decades. She and her first husband moved here 50 years ago this past Aug. 3.
They both grew up in Chicago, home of Mike Royko, the greatest American newspaper columnist ever. “My (then-) husband and our two daughters aged 4 and 7 arrived in Roanoke from Dallas, Texas,” Ardan wrote. “He had been hired by ITT in the night vision section.
Those were what I think of as the boom years. GE, N&W and ITT were all hiring and bringing new people to town. .
.. the move to Roanoke was a major adjustment after living in big cities all our lives.
“The girls grew up and like yours moved away. (One returned to) Roanoke while the other is in Connecticut. I retired from Blue Ridge (Behavioral Healthcare) in 2007.
I have been back to Chicago and to Dallas which are now unrecognizable to me. My life, like yours, unfolded here. Births, deaths, events, memories are all here.
So like you, I guess I am a Roanoker and a Southerner to boot.” Mark Walsh of southwest Roanoke County and Melissa Friedman of Roanoke could identify with the column, too. “We moved to Roanoke in 1997 with kids about the same age.
Same experiences with our family and notably neither of mine are back in Roanoke,” Walsh wrote. “I have one in Pittsburgh and the other en route to Williamsburg with our only grandchild. Can’t wait for them to be closer.
Nothing has really changed in Roanoke with only minor growth and change. Thanks for bringing back the memories and keep the stories coming.” “Thank you for the trip down memory lane this morning!” Friedman wrote.
“I moved here in 1986 and raised three children in the city. I remember everything you highlighted in your column. By the way, I read it on paper.
Have a great day!” From the Florida Keys Ken Schryver and his wife, both in their 70s, are musicians from Long Island, New York. But their journey to Western Virginia came via Key Largo, Florida, where they lived for more than 30 years — including 10 on a boat. One of their daughters lives in Roanoke and the other lives in Richmond, where she’s raising a preschooler and a first-grader.
These days the Schryvers live at Smith Mountain Lake. “If you think people couldn’t believe you moved here you should see the looks I get,” Schryver wrote. “We explain by showing them my screen saver with the (Virginia) grand babies.
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Anyway, we all live in Virginia now and the changes it brings from Key Largo (and God help us South Florida).” Schryver and his wife have a band, “Sunshine” that plays monthly at Montanos during warm weather months (they remain snowbirds). You can find them on Facebook.
Today, Oregon native Mark Fryburg is an award-winning Virginia poet. But when he moved to Roanoke in 1973, right out of college, it was for a job as a reporter-anchor for WROV. Roanoke sported at least four hard-news radio stations back then, Fryburg noted.
(It also had morning and afternoon newspapers — remember the World-News?) “My colleagues called Roanoke, appropriately, ‘a big hick town,’ (no longer accurate) or ‘a good place to raise children,’ (still true). Everyone had several friends or relatives who worked for the N&W. Racial integration was still painfully new.
(My wife Laura landed her first nursing job at the mostly black Burrell Memorial Hospital.)” The Fryburgs moved back to the West Coast in 1989. “But my bride and I kept our good friends here, and watched the Valley blossom, and the Blue Ridge beckoned more with every passing year.
We are so damn happy since moving into our Daleville house. Was two years ago yesterday. Your column is one of those bright ‘new’ additions for us.
Yes, we are so relieved that today’s was not a swan song.” Dave Bittle of Roanoke was also worried the column heralded retirement. “Glad you are hanging in there.
Mortgage-free is such a good feeling,” he wrote. “Roanoke is a great town and I agree with your assessments about the quality of life and the price of living. “Prior to retirement at Carilion as a respiratory therapist for 34 years, one of my jobs was traveling regionally to respiratory therapy programs to recruit graduating students.
I used to tell them that the average commute time was 18 minutes.” Missives far too kind Many readers’ emails were so flattering, I felt a a little embarrassed and undeserving reading them. That’s owing to an odd personality quirk.
I find passionate and well-phrased criticism wonderfully entertaining. But I’m naturally suspicious of praise. Weird, huh? Kyle Noble of Independence wrote a note of thanks “for hanging in there, for making the best sense you can from local politics and the people who take part in this pursuit.
“You’ve been at it for a good while now, pursuing the news with remarkable good humor and what appears to be accurate reporting,” she wrote. “I don’t know when your birthday is, but I hope it’s a happy one. If and when you decide to retire, I hope you have a voice in choosing your successor.
You’ll be a hard act to follow.” Thanks, Kyle. I’ll be 66 before next Tuesday.
“Yeah, buddy you are a Roanoker!” wrote Stephen Hatchett. “I’m a lifelong Roanoker and proud of it and I appreciate the way you ‘celebrate’ your ‘Roanoker-ness’ by reminding us all why we live in this beautiful valley of the Star.” Johnna Elliott of Blacksburg added a heart emoji to the end of the following sentence.
“Retirement is fantastic but don’t do it,” she wrote. “You are the only reason I still take the paper — online, not dead tree.” Jami and Marty Poff of southwest Roanoke County wrote: “You’re our favorite Roanoker!” Warren Elliott , 68, lives in Grottoes, on the border of Rockingham and Augusta counties.
He works for McKee Foods, which manufactures “Little Debbie” snacks in Stuarts Draft. Elliott gets the retirement question frequently, too. “As long as I can keep walking up and down the stairs at work I’ll keep working,” he wrote.
“I do lament how newspapers have been gutted. The Washington Post keeps shrinking. The local papers here in central VA have cut back to 3 days a week and come in the mail.
Thanks for being such a good columnist and hope to see your work for many more years.” Carl Nave of Roanoke is also 68, and retired this past May. And he’s been all over the nation.
“It took me about 15 years to realize Roanoke was a special place especially for an outdoors person,” he wrote. “I have traveled all 50 states and most large cities. We are lucky to be in a beautiful part of Virginia with reasonable weather and traffic.
Thanks for the interesting stories.” Susan Schlossberg now resides in Sarasota, Florida, but used to live in the Star City. She wrote: “I’m glad you chose Roanoke.
” So did Robert Tilley of Salem. “Your writing over the past 30 years has been thought provoking, often humorous, and always interesting. Keep up the good work, and stay well,” Tilley added.
There’s not enough space to publish all the ultra-nice emails readers sent after that column. We’ll close this out with one from Phil Harris , who’s lived in Roanoke for the past six years, “after too many years in major cities.” “My wife and I retired to Roanoke ,” Harris wrote.
“The choice, as is often the case with folks our age, had to do with grandchildren, but we soon concluded that it was a good one. “Many factors, from the mountains to the climate, to the people, and to The Roanoke Times home delivery, contributed to that conclusion. The latter had everything to do with reading Dan Casey’s column.
“A couple of weeks ago, in a conversation with a friend in Blacksburg concerning that day’s column, the friend said, ‘What would we do without Dan Casey?’ What indeed! Thanks for sticking with Roanoke for 30, and beyond.” Gulp. And thank you!.
