“Who did you see at the store?” That’s the question my wife often asks me when I return from Food Lion, our chain grocery store located across from the library and a short distance from Floyd’s one stoplight at the intersection of U.S. 221 and Virginia Route 8.
In a few weeks we will complete our sixth year of living small in the Blue Ridge Mountains, transplants from Seattle, or urban refugees as I like to say. Floyd is a town of 450 people; the county is home to 14,000.
In Floyd you expect to see people you know – even welcome it (most of the time) – or else you’re probably not suited for small-town life.
In the beginning, we were surprised to see friends and neighbors on trips to a store in town or farther away at places such as the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg. Now we’re surprised when we don’t.
Living small comes with a whole different set of expectations.
Neil Sagebiel 