Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Union Leveled

My paternal grandfather attended school in a nearby township through most of his formative years. The spot was and is still "Union Level" in Virginia. They eventually built a high school, which became the neighboring building to what I can imagine was a packed schoolhouse.

He's long gone, as are most of the kids who came and went, probably. In fact, the school appears to now be a used car dealership...or old man's meeting haus--who knows. More significantly though is gone the little town that sat alongside the same set of asphalt (probably dirt in his time) as the school--Union Level. My father gave me a tour of the town when I was recently home for vacation. The tour lasted under 45 seconds. Seriously. Small, dead, crippled, almost dust...wrapped in what's left of country in southern Virginia.

I did a google search for Union Level. Below is a list of what I found. I deleted the url's. It's our bit of irony for the day:

Local School Finder - Union Level, VA - Find Schools in Union ...Find Schools in Union Level Virginia VA either public or private. Local Virginia VA School Finder and Directory.

Apartments for Rent in Union Level, Virginia - VA Apartment FinderApartments for Rent in Union Level Virginia. Free Apartment Finder for Union Level VA.

Used Cars in Union Level, Virginia Looking for a used car, used truck or used SUV in Union Level, Virginia? ... Need to find a used vehicle in Virginia or the greater Union Level metropolitan.

Union Level, Virginia Neighborhood Lawyer Virginia, Union Level Neighborhood Lawyer. ... Medical Malpractice Union Level Medical Malpractice Lawyer: Free Legal Services in Virginia (VA).

Need a school, apartment, car or lawyer? You'll only find a used car in Union Level. Pick from one of the above featured in the "schoolhouse-turned-used-car-lot" photo.

One guy did manage to write a bit about the town.

And there's no mention of it's history anywhere on the web, with the slight exception to an online site for the "Ogburn" family in Virginia. Even I'm a descendant from this family line, so I know that they lived around Union Level...or in the woods somewhere round those parts.

Tiny little blips on the map, these pint-sized towns are. And their history seems to be just as insignificant, it seems. My history-loving father, of course, did manage to hand down a story told to him by his dad along the way. Apparently, when my grandfather was 10, his father gave him and his brother the mighty chore of "walking" a cow to the Clarksville railroad station--which was a good 15 mile trip. I guess it taught him a lesson to get the hell out of Mecklenberg, Virginia as soon as he was grown. He took my grandmother with him, too...on the back of his motorcycle.

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