Category Archives: Big Stone Gap

Retirement – Bah, Humbug – –

Posted on by
Reply

Jack gets over the line in time again – –

There’s an old saying that you die three times – if you’re interested you can search on-line.

It’s the same with retirement!

I retired from my college job in Scotland when I was sixty in 2002, but not really as I was immediately head-hunted as a training consultant by three different organizations and continued to do that until I moved here to the US.

For a couple of years I really did retire, but then we moved to Big Stone Gap and opened a bookstore. While Wendy was out establishing her health support non-profit and fighting the dragons of the US for-profit health industry, I worked the bookstore. It was a big old building, so I had a fair amount of maintenance to handle, but I had also been invited to start a weekly Celtic music radio show by the local NPR station. Because we lived in the bookstore building we ran regular evening events and had a café run by a friend. So not much retirement – –

We moved to Wytheville five years ago to a house that’s even older and has had many ‘interesting’ additions over the years and has a much bigger backyard. Meanwhile Wendy is at least five years away from retirement and still busy with at least three different jobs!

So I may actually be retired now but I’m still producing and presenting my radio show, still trying to keep the house maintained, still organizing small group tours of Scotland and finding my feet as a house-husband.

As I often say to friends who say they’re looking forward to retiring – “there ain’t no such thing – it don’t exist – it’s all a hoax!

I better bring the washing in from the line now – – –

A House or a Home – –

Posted on by
2

Jack fails again to get his Wednesday post up in time –

Wendy and I have moved house six times so far and it’s always taken us a while to get each one organized to our liking.

Our current abode/house/home

We started out in a small ground floor apartment in Rosyth in Fife and there wasn’t much choice there, with just a sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and guest room. Then we moved to the wee village of New Gilston at the other end of the county and into what had been the schoolhouse. We were there for five years and it took almost all of that time before we finally decided which rooms suited which purpose!

After that to Padiham in Lancashire, England and a gatehouse built in 1790. It had been extended over the years and with lots of nooks and crannies. Once again we had two small spare rooms and once again it took almost until we left before we finalized which room was a home office and which was the guest room.

From there to White Springs in Florida and although the house had an obvious sitting room/dining room/kitchen, there were two bedrooms and again it took us a long time to decide which was which and which could also be a home office.

Continuing to Big Stone Gap Virginia and our bookstore, where we lived for fourteen years. The house was enormous and we started out living in the top story but over time that became part of the bookstore and our sitting room there became the ‘2nd Story Café’. I eventually converted our very dark and dingy basement into our bright and cozy apartment.

Finally here we are in Wytheville Virginia and in a lovely, well cared for, old house again. The lady we bought it from left a great bed and dresser in the main bedroom upstairs (mainly because probably she couldn’t get them out). So for the first couple of years we left things pretty much ‘as is’, including the well cared for back yard. In other words we continued to live in someone else’s house!

But now we’re beginning to make it our home and doing all kinds of changes that the poor previous owner would probably not approve of, although she might like the extended vegetable garden.

I suppose the message for today is that a house can become a home, but it can sometimes take quite a while!