| Seeking
the Soul of A Town |
| Mary Chapin Carpenter sings a song called "I Am A Town,"
which I probably have played on my car's CD player a thousand
times while driving from here to there. Here are a couple
of versus: |
| "I'm a town in Carolina, I'm a detour on a ride |
| For a phone call and a soda, I'm a blur from the driver's
side. |
| I'm the last gas for an hour if you're going twenty-five. |
| I am Texaco and tobacco, I am dust you leave behind. |
|
| "I am peaches in September, and corn from a roadside
stall. |
| I'm the language of the natives, I'm a cadence and a
drawl. |
| I'm the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath
their shade, where the boys have left their beer cans, |
| I am weeds between the graves." |
| |
| We could all write our own lyrics about our own town, whether
it be about where we live today, where we grew up, or where
we visit grandma and grandpa. Pity the poor people today who
have not had the chance to live in a real town, or a small
city, or even a village or a township. |
| There seems today to be a move toward living nowhere: not
in a town, a city, a village or even a wide spot in the road.
Reston is not a town, but some would like to make it one.
Reston calls itself a "place," as in the slogan, "A Place
Called Reston." |
| Reston is a very large homeowner's association with many
layers of government, from county supervisors, cluster committees,
and elected Reston Association representatives. |
| Sterling¤old Sterling¤never was a town and today is an area
of about 12,000 homes and 29,000 residents. Once it had a
homeowner's association, which long ago vanished, leaving
Sterling residents without a town, an association, or even
a place. Many people like it that way. |
| Floris isn't a town. Neither is Oakton. McLean also isn't
a town, and neither is Chantilly, Centreville or Oak Hill. |
| Most of the neighborhoods around the Town of Herndon, and
even some within the Town, are controlled by homeowner's associations,
which some call "The Secret Governments of America." Reports
today indicate that the American town is rapidly vanishing
as new suburban residential areas spring up around the country.
Towns, some say, are only a throwback to the past, where they
should stay. |
| Del. Thomas Rust, who was mayor of Herndon for 19 years,
was quoted in The Washington Post this week as saying that
towns have provided a sense of community. |
| "A new community in Loudoun County or Fairfax County may
not have the same sense of identity." |
| The former mayor also said that the more practical advantage
of a town is that it "...provides a much more intimate, close,
accessible government." |
| Catherine M. Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill), a Fairfax County supervisor
who represents Reston, was quoted in the same story as saying,
"I have learned that government doesn't make the spirit of
a town." |
| Reston long has struggled with the notion of becoming a
town, but has never found the backing for the move. |
| I doubt, however, that Mary Chapin Carpenter could ever
write lyrics about a homeowner's association, or about a "place,"
or even about a "wide spot in the road." And I'm not sure
I would have ever written a column titled "Our Homeowner's
Association." |
| Going back to the thought about writing lyrics, or poetry,
or a narrative about the towns we grew up in, or knew well,
and loved, and even hated, would be a wonderful trip back
into our history, into the affairs that made us what we are
today. |
| Those of us who grew up in towns, or had the chance to spend
some time in one, or live in one today, are indeed fortunate. |
| And if some readers of this column would like to write a
couple of versus of lyrics or narratives about their special
town, I'd love to see it and consider it for publication in
this space. Just send it to Our Town, The Observer, P.O. Box
109, Herndon, Va. 20172. |
| And that's Our Town this week. |
