The Joseph Nichols Tavern

Evidently, no one I know has been to Lynchburg, Virginia. At least, you would think if they had, they would have noticed The Joseph Nichols Tavern and told me about it as Austina McFarland did last week. She was there for a Habitat for Humanity trip and snapped a shot of the sign and emailed it to me.



Intrigued, I did a little further research. On the City of Lynchburg, VA City Facts page and on the Garland Hill Historic District site, I learned that it was built in 1815 as a tavern (although it's Federal style architecture really doesn't look very tavernish to me). Over the years it served as a hotel, a brothel, and a rooming house. Eventually, in the year of my birth, it was renovated into 4 apartments.

The 8:01 Hustle

As we rolled through the drop-off line at 8:01, things were hectic as usual. Ezra stepped out of the car, and Mrs. Streip, intending to hurry things along, greeted him with, "Ezra! Hustle!" He looked at her and gave kind of a half-smile, then stepped back into the car and said, "What does that mean?"... Heh!... I quickly defined it and he re-exited the car.

It's a funny site. One of the rules on campus is "No running." So during the "8:01 Hustle," you hear the teachers saying things like "Hurry! Hurry! Come on! Hustle!... But don't run..." So you see all these kids kind of frantically speedwalking down the sidewalk. And there is almost always one kid who looks like he didn't know the meaning of "hustle" or "hurry" and didn't stop to ask...

I'm torn. The responsible part of me want to show up at 7:50 like we used to... But it's just not nearly as interesting at that time of morning.

From the archives: Ezra's first day of school.