by Marry Wakefield Buxton –
URBANNA — Visiting the Urbanna Oyster Festival is the best way I know of celebrating small town America. And Urbanna, Virginia, is the most charming hometown of all!
I know something about small towns because I grew up in Vermilion, Ohio, a little town between Cleveland and Toledo on the south shore of Lake Erie. It was heart-wrenching for me to leave home at age 17 when going off to college in Virginia. Then I married a Virginian and that was the end for me of life in my beloved hometown.
After moving to my husband’s hometown in Newport News, I learned what city life was like. Traffic! Parties! The Smiths chasing after the Joneses! No thank you!
Also, as a writer I needed freedom of expression which was difficult with the family icons hovering over my shoulder. It’s hard to develop as any kind of “artiste” with one’s family nearby ever watching like hawks one’s every move.
In 1984 I fled to Urbanna and it became my new hometown. I had initially seen the town in 1968 when my husband graduated from law school and received an unsolicited credit card in the mail. Although penniless, we took our new credit card and headed for a weekend at the Tides Inn!
In those days the “Miss Ann” took guests to Urbanna on the famous “Whiskey Run.” I well remember walking up that hill on Virginia Street and seeing Urbanna for the first time. It was so like Vermilion, Ohio, and, wowed by its charm, like General MacArthur leaving the Philippines, I vowed to return.
There is nothing like a small town for a writer to ply his trade because it’s a microcosm of the world. A writer can see human nature up close and certainly every kind of character that walks this earth, (including the writer!)
The friendly atmosphere in Urbanna makes this town a perfect place to live. Urbanna has fewer than 500 permanent residents consisting of a mix of natives, “comeheres” and weekenders that have a second home here and come to enjoy time away from the city.
There is kindness here, genuine concern for one’s neighbors, and lack of class and race consciousness that hounds the cities. Everyone knows everybody and celebrates or suffers from the “daily news”: who is sick, in hospice, had a baby, lost their beloved dog, just turned 80, has a son or daughter in the military coming home for the holidays, grandchild just graduated from high school, lost a job or received a big promotion.
We are family. No one in Urbanna puts on airs or is concerned about silly things like who was your grandfather, from what country did your people originate or if you get your pronouns right or ever use a double negative.
Few people are partisan here, or if they are, they kindly keep their politics to themselves. No one pushes their religious ideas or cares what church or non-church with which one is affiliated. There is respect and tolerance for one’s fellow man, little greed, pride or envy … it’s as if we know we already own the real treasures in life … this beautiful small town… so why want for more? We have rich history too. Few American waterfront towns can say they were established in 1668!
We enjoy two majestic waterways … the Rappahannock River and Urbanna Creek in which to “mess around.” We have a sky as wide as the universe, with daily drama of clouds playing hide and seek with the sun during the day and zillions of stars winking us to sleep every night.
And you haven’t lived until you have seen the harvest moon rise up from the black horizon and sail dreamily across the ebony star-studded sky!
There are no stoplights here, skyscrapers, fast food restaurants; only one building with an elevator and, the best of all, there’s very little crime in Urbanna.
Oh, I know, we’re not perfect. Just happy. Our worst fault is we can easily get riled up over gossip should “come heres” get into a neighborly feud. We have to remind ourselves every so often to settle down and be content with our fortunate lives.
We enjoy every season up front and breathless — even the storms are thrilling to watch as they tear down river from Fredericksburg or up from the Chesapeake Bay. I have seen “Waikiki waves” rolling in during tropical storms and even experienced personal property damage from hurricanes while living on Kent Street waterfront.
Yet, I always called the expense rebuilding the land along the river “God’s Tax.” It’s fair exchange for being able to live here and witness the greatest show on earth!
© 2021.
(Note: Mary Buxton will be signing her new book, “On the Toad Again,” at the Southside Sentinel table from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days of the Urbanna Oyster Festival.)
