editor’s letter
are only a few hours from our homes.” That is still true today—nearly a hundred years later. The cover of this issue is reproduced from a 1929 travel guide that celebrated the newfound freedom of navigable roads. (We’ve also reproduced this as a frameable print and it is for sale at wvlivingcollection. com .) I purchased a scrapbook on Ebay that chronicled Helen Lazor’s 1956 trip toThe Greenbrier with a group of women called the National Association of Railway Business Women. What a hoot! You’ll see snippets from that trip on page 68. The mission of this magazine, like Know Your Own State a hundred years ago, is to inform and inspire our readers to intimately
We did a thing! Our New South Media publications are community builders, and it is our mission to help champion our small businesses not just through words, but also through action. In an effort to help our local small restaurants survive the social distancing requirements and keep our main streets thriving, my husband, Michael Mills, principal of the architecture firm Mills Group, and I spearheaded a community effort to organize, design, and fabricate dining parklets for High Street. After meeting with city officials, the West Virginia Department of Highways, Morgantown Parking Authority, and area restaurants, and getting the necessary approvals, we created a master plan for transforming parking spaces in front of restaurants into outside dining parklets that follow the state’s mandated restaurant seating guidelines. Using our social media following, we promoted the idea, generating and gauging interest. Community change happens when people come together to find a solution to a problem and then create an action plan to make it happen. And that’s what we did. Our hope is that this sets a precedent for more communities. A special thanks to Central Supply Company, which donated the concrete walls that serve as a protective barrier for our pilot location in front of Tin 202 on High Street. And a huge shoutout to all our supporters around the state that joined in on the conversation! Your voice helped make this happen!
If I had collected a dime for every time my father yelled, “Don’t make me pull over!” I would have paid for my college five times over. And yet, what I wouldn’t do to go back to those simpler times—when piling in the car meant setting out on an adventure, picnicking on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at rest stops, and inhaling mile-high stacks of pancakes at roadside diners. We counted license plates and played I Spy and Rock, Paper, Scissors. We swam in lakes and rivers. We roasted marshmallows and weiners on an open fire and played horseshoes outside until our legs were chewed up with mosquito and chigger bites. Life seemed simple. Easy. Then life somehow got complicated, right? Travel became more of an ordeal. It became commonplace to say “I need a vacation frommy vacation.” Now as we navigate a new post-pandemic normal, many of us yearn for those simple summer memories. This issue, dedicated to the all-American road trip, answers that call. Sometimes to go forward, we need to appreciate the past. And that’s what we are doing. We’ve scoured vintage travel guides going back 100 years to revisit those authentic adventures that are still around every curve in the road. And boy has it been fun! I’ve loved reading these old publications, and I’m excited to share with you the stories we’ve crafted from them. One of the oldest I stumbled across is called Know Your Own State , published in 1925. It says, “It is proverbial that the neighbor’s field always looks greener, a distant state more romantic, a foreign country more picturesque, but it is equally true that the very place we live in looks just that way to a stranger. People come long distances to gaze at our historic buildings, to admire our picturesque scenery, to study our geology and botany, to explore our caverns, to relax and recuperate in our health resorts. But very often we, who live here, know little or nothing of the interesting things and places which Don’t make me pull over!
knowWest Virginia. And in order to do that, you have to make the effort to truly experience it. Through our pages, we introduce you to places you’ve never been. Stop saying, “Someday, I want to visit …” and instead make plans to turn that “someday” into today. Pack a picnic. Venture somewhere new. Travel a country road not knowing where it ends. Sit in a field filled with fireflies. It’s the perfect season to love where you live. Here are some parting lessons I’ve gleaned while working on this issue: 1. Traveling in your own state is an inexpensive option and is an aid to good citizenship. 2. Don’t stick to the main roads on your trips. 3. Don’t limit your touring to July and August. A closed car makes all weather good weather. All-year-’round drivers are a healthy bunch. Freedom from colds and sickness, freedom from blues and worries, is their reward for the little extra work it takes to keep the car going all the year ’round. 4. You ought to know beforehand all about the historic and scenic landmarks you will pass. With the motor purring quietly and steadily, it is so easy to slip past some historic place before you know it. So read up about the trip beforehand. (Which means subscribe to WV Living magazine!) 5. Be sure the car is in good shape. Fill up your tank. Drain, flush, and fill your crankcase before embarking on a road trip. Love where you live,
NIKKI BOWMAN MILLS, Editor
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8 wvl • summer 2020
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