ENCW 205: Art & Identity in New Orleans

Things I Like About my Hometown & Some History
• It’s my hometown. I’m not going to lie and say that none of it has become invisible to me and faded into the background of my daily life, or that I love everything about it, because I don’t. However, it is still my hometown. It is the only place I’ve lived since I was old enough to form long-term memories, and despite having lived in 5 different houses none of them were more than 30 minutes from the first. It is where I met all of my close friends before college. It is where I learned how to ride horses, something I still love a decade later. It’s where I learned how to read and simply never stopped. It was when my grandmother was visiting us out here that she taught me to crochet for the first time. In fact it’s where I learned how to do most of the important things in my life so far. That’s a natural consequence of living in the same area for more than 17 years, but still, to me it means that my hometown is an important part of my life and my memories.
• Something that I find amusing but tend to generally forget about is the interesting overlap in local cities and counties. Technically my homes are both in Stafford County and that was the school district I was enrolled in, but when people ask where I’m from I say Fredericksburg and that’s what you would write on the postage to mail something home. Technically City of Fredericksburg is within the neighboring county Spotsylvania, though it is administratively separate. When talking about my hometown and the places I care about I am most of the time talking about the whole range of Stafford, Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania.
• The History. Sure, some of the most obvious historical things in my area are civil war related, which I don’t much care for, but the history of my area goes far beyond the civil war. For one, Fredericksburg long predates the civil war in fact the start of the city predates the founding of the country. The city of Fredericksburg was founded in 1727 and named after King George’s father Prince Frederick. Fredericksburg is also home to Ferry Farm which was George Washington’s childhood home. I know I said I don’t care much for the civil war history(true), but I will mention that because we are about right in the middle of Richmond and D.C. the city was heavily fought over and switched hands multiple times over the course of the war. There is also plenty of history outside of what is important on a national scale. There is history dating back to the founding and more recent history. My Favorites all being in downtown Fredericksburg, which contains a wide variety of buildings and businesses from brand new to civil war Era. One of the more entertaining “historical” sites is Carl’s Frozen Custard, which is a local Favorite. Carl’s is an Ice cream shop that opened in 1947 that still uses the same Electro-Freeze machines today. The building is registered as a Virginia Historic Landmark.

• Downtown Fredericksburg is a part of my hometown that I really enjoy. The downtown area is a mix of restaurants, cafes, shops, galleries, and churches. Which establishments my family or I frequent have changed over the years, but downtown has always been a part of our lives. From when my mom used to buy meat and milk from the Olde Towne Butcher to an amazing brunch place we were regulars at for years before it closed down. Many of my brother and I’s birthday restaurants are located downtown. Since getting my license my best friend and I frequently visit downtown just to get drinks from one of the many cafes and walk around for hours checking out all the neat little shops. Some have been there for decades while others are recent additions. A staple for two Book worms is Riverby Books, a secondhand bookshop that we stop by frequently since learning of its existence. We are both running out of space for books on our shelves with a long list we haven’t read, and despite that without fail we will walk into Riverby’s and make away across the creaking floors and up the stairs to see if there’s any new inventory that we simply must have. Sometimes we stumble upon one of the newly opened shops like the time we found a little plant shop that we’d never seen before. The stairs outside were covered with a splattering of painted designs, I can’t even remember what exactly they were now, maybe hearts. Either way they drew us in, and upon stepping inside the front room was awash in green and filled with all manner of house plants. Upon closer inspection there was far more than just green, from the yellow, red, or purple present in some of the plants to the more unique ones that were almost entirely black. Each plant also had a care label that included not only information on necessary light levels and watering schedules, but also a funny little quip. It is exactly the kind of little shop that fits right in among the collection of unique places downtown.
• Another thing I love about my hometown is the art. I already mentioned that there are galleries in downtown, and there are, but there are also many other little shops that sell art in various forms from jewelry, to glass, to woodworking, to canvas paintings, there’s a lot of art to find downtown. Even the walls downtown have art on them as there are a wide variety of murals. The art downtown doesn’t stop at material art either there are performing arts and music as well. Outside of downtown, Ferry Farm hosts an annual gingerbread contest and some of the submissions for that competition are beyond what you would ever expect.

Overall, I just really love my hometown. It may not seem that exciting from the outside, and my favorite parts may seem kind of boring, but they are special to me. This is where I grew up and where I became who I am today.

References: Fredericksburg | Historic Town, Civil War, Battle | Britannica, Historic District | Fredericksburg, VA – Official Website (fredericksburgva.gov), History of Fredericksburg | Fredericksburg, VA – Official Website (fredericksburgva.gov), Our Story – Carl’s Frozen Custard (carlsfrozencustard.com), Arts & Culture – FXBG, National Register of Historic Places listings in Fredericksburg, Virginia – Wikipedia