FAIRVIEW: Eponymous

By ANDY KEGLEY/Columnist

My great-uncle, in whose house my family now lives, once sent around a Christmas card 40-some years ago, in which he attributed his longevity and health to climbing the hills around his home. “My health comes from a twice-a-day view,” he said. 
He lived most of his 88 years in the Fairview section, that eponymous place on earth which can’t be described any better than its name. There’s a swath of real estate stretching west from Queen’s Knob which several of us know as Fairview, which has the iconic pyramid shaped Knob serving as a touchstone or moral compass or beacon—take your pick. It’s visible from the air from west of Rural Retreat, and along the Black Lick road, and my own memories of it and the Seven Sisters stretch back to my near-toddling days.
A daily viewing of the hills and knob does contribute to a healthy outlook, that I can attest to, though my jaunt up several of them is usually on a tractor lugging round bales of hay to roll down to the waiting bovines. Reaching those hill tops just at sunrise, and gazing at the horizon is an uplifting experience, for which I’m grateful to view.
This past week, though, I gave up that view one morning for a different kind of uplifting experience, one which was every bit as revealing and symbolic. I was one of several poll workers who had close encounters with the 623 voters in our district during Tuesday’s dual presidential primaries.
Each one of those 623 should be given a prize such as a break on their taxes, as they actually represented about 20 percent of the registered voters, who represent something like 60 percent of the eligible voters, which if my math is right means only 12 percent of the eligible voters turned out. The weather wasn’t terribly bad, the national media coverage couldn’t be avoided, and I can’t say Bill, Hillary, John, Mike and Barack had ever left messages on my home phone before—so it would be hard to have forgotten there was a primary vote going on, even if there wasn’t a sea of yard signs to help remind you.
What was revealing about this election was the number of times voters got to the table, and after confirming their identity, all of a sudden were confronted with a very public choice. Usually, in most elections, you pick up a ballot, and go to the booth to make your private selection. Because this was a dual election—two elections on the same day—and because voters can only vote once, and because in Virginia we do not register by political party, voters had to make a decision at that very public point in time.
For many, it wasn’t hard. They had their convictions and asked for their choice. Some had a mischievous plot—I’ve been there myself in the past—and asked for the ballot of a party to which they don’t normally identify themselves.
But for others, more than a few actually, the decision they knew they would have to make a few moments later in private—hit them as quick as our question registered. It was almost painful, watching the wheels turn, the glances around the room, to those who might know them, to a spouse perhaps. You would have thought we asked if they still beat their dog, when we had to ask a second time which primary, or which party’s ballot they wanted to use. Some took offense, but no one walked away. Of course, the next step was to take that ballot to the booth, and mark the candidate you most liked, or least detested.
I can’t say it was a particularly healthful kind of day, as the 15 hours in the gym were more exhausting than many climbs up our hills. But it was an uplifting kind of privilege to connect with those who share a hope for something better as the outcome.
Andy Kegley manages a non-profit community development agency, in addition to a non-profit family farm in the Fairview section of Wythe.