Front Porch Philosophy
Friday Nights In a Small Town
Friday night football in a small town isn’t about the scoreboard. It’s about community gathering under the lights, lifting our kids up through every win and every hard‑earned loss. […]
Places
Special Features
The Belmont Hotel: A Lost Abingdon Landmark
There are some buildings that disappear from a town and leave nothing but a bare patch of ground. And then there are others that linger long after the bricks are gone, like a ghost that […]
Special Features
The Curious Geography of Smyth County
Smyth County is a place where the land likes to surprise you, offering odd little truths that make the mountains feel wonderfully mischievous. […]
Front Porch Philosophy
Piggly Wiggly Fed Our Towns and Shaped Our People
Some names just feel like they belong to the South. They settle into our memories the way porch swings settle into old wood, steady and familiar. Piggly Wiggly is one of those names. You can […]
Special Features
Plasterco: A Small Place With a Big Story
If you drive far enough down the backroads of Southwest Virginia, past the rolling pastureland and the quiet hollers where the mountains fold in on themselves, you’ll find a place called Plasterco. It is small […]
Special Features
Remembering the Rainbow Motel and Restaurant
There are places in every small town that do more than sit on the map. They settle into the memory. In Chilhowie, one of those places has always been the Rainbow Motel and Restaurant. Long […]
Special Features
The Taste of Ray’s King Burger Still Lingers
Some memories don’t come back all at once. They drift in slow, like the smell of something cooking on a summer evening, and before you know it you’re standing right back in a moment you […]