Blue Ridge Country November/December 2023 - 27

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOAN VANNORSDALL
W
e'd been doing them
for years, our miniature
St. Olaf College
class of 1973 reunions.
Four of us-who'd been assigned to the
same freshman dorm corridor in the fall
of 1969 and built our friendship as we
endured homesickness, Minnesota winters
and exams-coming together once
a year for a few days of remembering
and reconnecting.
Starting in 2007, we'd met up in busy
cities (Atlanta, Washington, Memphis
and Minneapolis/St. Paul) and quiet
retreats (Wisconsin's Door County and
rural Vermont). We did our reunions on
the East Coast (Outer Banks) and the
North Woods (Duluth, Minnesota). We'd
spent time in rustic cabins and centercity
hotels. And every time, I left feeling
lucky to have stayed friends with these
women despite living 800 miles away.
Now it was early 2023-nearly 50
years since we'd graduated-and for
the first time in three years, travel wasn't
terrifying. Where would we gather this
year?
How about if you take us on a tour of your
mountains? We want to see the towns you've
visited and written about. Please?
I wondered. Could Leslie and Candy
and Marnie-all Midwestern city dwellers-handle
the steep and twisty mountain
roads? Were they ready for smalltown
restaurant meals?
And could I help them see the places
we'd go with clear eyes, hear the stories
with open ears?
Could I, in short, put together a
route for our four days that would show
them the infinite variety as well as the
strong unity of this place? The beauty
alongside the hard times that have been
lived in our mountains?
How could I not?
Getting out my maps, I decided we'd
ease into the mountains, spending the
first night in Abingdon, Virginia: part
of the Great Valley Road with history
reaching back to Daniel Boone, and
the Barter Theatre and the Martha
Washington Inn on its beautiful Main
Street. Then on to St. Paul, Virginia,
to see Frank Kilgore's Mountain Heritage
Museum and walk along the storied
Clinch River. We'd travel a half
hour north to Dante-once one of the
largest coal communities in southwest
Virginia and now home to the Coal and
Railroad Museum. Then on to eastern
Kentucky, where we'd travel the heart
of coal country and, I hoped, come to
understand what's becoming possible in
our mountains.
Jenny Wiley State Park outside of
Prestonsburg is a beautiful place, even
with low-hanging clouds obscuring
views. We'd driven across the Virginia
line into Kentucky in heavy rain, lightning
angling down the mountains in
bold streaks. We settled into our cabin
and headed into downtown Prestonsburg
to The Scoop ice cream shop,
where we celebrated Kentucky with the
biggest " small " size ice cream cones I'd
ever seen (ice cream having been an important
part of our college life).
As was music. So the next morning
we headed for the Mountain Arts Center,
home to the Kentucky Opry, a thousand-seat
auditorium hosting national
headlining artists, a commercial recording
studio, a music education/practice
area and an art gallery. It's an impressive
structure with a skilled staff, and its
draw extends well beyond the borders of
Floyd County. I watched Candy-a music
major and church organist-marvel
as Technical Director Robert Daniels
showed her the recording studio, and I
knew she was liking this place.
LEFT: St. Olaf College
classmates Leslie Smith
Milbrandt, Marilyn Irwin Catlin
and Candace Kirkpatrick
Moffitt in Abingdon, Virginia, at
the start of their Appalachian
reunion.
RIGHT: : Hazard, Kentucky, is
proud of its " Queen City of the
Mountains " title, of its murals
and of its archetypally beautiful
scenery in these mountains.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 27
Blue Ridge Country November/December 2023

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