Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 5 · column 4 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
over the hill at Ben Venue, and the sight would just about take your breath away. Like a painting, sort of. And you’d just cruise along by yourself, lost in your thoughts, and you wouldn’t have to watch the traffic closely — ’cause there wasn’t any, way back then.
But then they Fairfaxed the place. They didn’t know they were Fairfaxmg it, and they didn’t really mean to Fairfax it.
Naw, it just started out with a little bending of the rules. They called ’em zoning variances, or special exceptions, or something.
You know, a little variance here, a little special exception there, and pretty soon you’ve Fairfaxed the place. Sort of like a creeping disease. Once it’s in the blood, it infects everything.
Oh, there I go again, dwelling on the past. Just like an old man, isn’t it son? But I like remembering how it used to be in Rappahannock. You run along son, I think I’ll just close my eyes and dream me up some cattle, and try to remember how the wind in the pines used to sound.
James P Gannon is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and a land owner in Rappahannock County, where he plans to retire, if it hasn’t been Fairfaxed to death by then.
91.0%