Pleasant Living Magazine

There is an activity invented by man that struck terror in anyone close to a peanut farm from the 1970s and back. My guess is it was the first duty required of Adam and Eve having been expelled from the garden. It was known around these parts as simply choppin’ peanuts. It defined our summers as youngsters. We earned Ph.D’s in “weedology” at the age of ten, having never entered the classroom. We became experts at identifying all species of native grasses and weeds; ragweed, jimsonweed, nutgrass, crabgrass, wiregrass and lambsquarter, just to name a few. Our hands became stained with the juices of fall panicum, and we slept at night dreaming of morning glories.

One of its beauties was its simplicity. Just you and that hoe. And the hoe is a quite uncomplicated piece of machinery. No motor, no oil changes, no moving parts and no grease fittings. One could find a hoe to fit most anyone’s hands, from the age of eight to fifty-eight. It seems odd, but you became quite attached to that hoe. After awhile it was like a third arm, an extension of you. It was patiently waiting for you every morning as a loyal companion throughout the day. It only slept when you slept and never complained. In addition, this job did not require a lot of math skills. You simply had to maintain the ability to count to the first digit because that is how many rows you could conquer at one time. You counted to one and then started over again. And again. And again.

In mid-February, we learned that Ruby Lee Norris, our oldest and most distinguished columnist and feature writer, has become ill.  Today, March 8th, we are saddened to hear that she has passed away.

Mother, grandmother, educator, essayist, columnist, poet, gardener, historian, civic, church and community citizen, and very special human being- Ruby Lee lived a remarkable and memorable life.  She distinguished herself in so many ways during her long life that even a lengthy catalogue of her contributions would fail to capture the kindness, goodwill, and the blessings she brought to her community and to those who knew her.

She contributed a gardening column, poetry and various essays to Pleasant Living in almost every single issue since July 1991, and readers have applauded her spirited work over the past two decades.  Writing from her home at Sandy Hook's Pine Grove, Topping, Virginia, her column captured the beauty of the seasons, the wildlife, flowers and gardens that surround her.  As a master gardener herself, she taught us the names of the most obscure flowers, ferns and grasses, how to make a garden thrive and make it beautiful, as well as how to enjoy all the beauty.  She taught us the history of trees, the history of her community, and the history of her own life, reaching back to a time when the River Country world was a very different place.  We have Ruby Lee to thank for documenting at a personal level a disappearing generation that otherwise would be a dying memory.  Rereading her work, it doesn't take long to realize that she was in touch with the natural world and with her community at a soul level, and that she was blessed with the skill and the desire to share this rich mine of knowledge and history with her readers.

Ruby Lee Norris opened a large, picture window to nature and to the past, and we have been blessed with the good fortune to look through it.

In our May/June 2012 issue, we plan to publish a tribute to Ruby Lee Norris in a way befitting her contributions to this magazine and to her community.  We invite our readers- those who knew Ruby Lee and those who didn't- to contribute their comments and memories.  Write to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or mail to Pleasant Living , 5 S. First St., Richmond, VA 23219 by April 15, 2012.

The Cross at the Falls

May 24, 1607

From May 21 to May 24, 1607, hundreds of citizens of Tsenacomoco watched along the riverbank as strangely clad oarsmen rowed a boat against the current, up the river’s meandering course, to a small island at the falls. There the visitors disembarked, accompanied by Nauirans, the man who came with them as a guide. They fashioned a cross of wood, larger than a man, and planted it in the ground. One of the members of the expedition, Gabriel Archer, recalled the event:

So upon one of the little islets at the mouth of the falls [Captain Christopher Newport] set up a cross with this inscription: "Jacobus Rex 1607," [Latin for "King James"] and his own name below. At the erecting hereof we prayed for our king and our own prosperous success in this his action, and proclaimed him king with a great shout. The King Powhatan was now gone and, as we noted, somewhat distasted with our importunity of proceeding up further, and all the savages likewise, save Nauirans, who seeing us set up a cross with such a shout began to [wonder]. But our captain told him that the two arms of the cross signified King Powhatan and [King James], the fastening of it in the middle was their united league, and the shout and the reverence he did to Powhatan, which cheered Nauirans not a little.¹

Christopher Newport told Nauirans, Powhatan’s representative, that the cross symbolized the partnership between King James and the Algonquian leader, and that the English troops were honoring Powhatan by their cheers. It was not true. He lied. The cross was planted to assert England’s sovereignty and ownership of the land against the claims of her only real competitors in the law of nations: the other potential European claimants. The cheer represented their success in that achievement. No rights or title to the land on the part of its Powhatan inhabitants were recognized then or subsequently.

Borders Closing, Community-Building and "Shop Local" Movement Give a Boost

First there were the bookstore chains, then Amazon, then digital books, all seeming to threaten the very existence of the brick-and-mortar bookstore. Yet, in the wake of the recent closing of the Borders bookstore chain, a new surge of independent booksellers is rising, seemingly against all odds.

Just before Thanksgiving, Paz & Associates, a bookstore training & consulting group, helped open Mitzi's Main Street Books, an independent bookstore in Rapid City, South Dakota. The owner, Ray Hillenbrand, opened the store as part of a new Main Street Square, which was developed to rejuvenate the area and make it more of a destination. "The opening of Mitzi's bookstore shows how entrepreneurs and developers now regard an indie bookstore as a 'must have' in rebuilding their town centers," Donna Paz Kaufman observed. "Consumer surveys consistently show that locally-owned independent bookstores are one of the most desirable businesses," she continued.

"It's not just the closing of Borders that is fueling the resurgence of independent bookstores," says Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, "but a more complex array of factors including the growing national acceptance of the "shop local" movement; an extraordinary level of innovative and creative entrepreneurship; a sophisticated use of social networking; easier access to Small Business Administration loans; a willingness to adapt to changing retail trends including selling both print and digital books online; and, most importantly, continuing to be an unmatched source of credible information about books and authors."