Merry Christmas, 2002, Y’all !
Last year’s letter recounted remarkable changes in lives close to ours, what with several joyous weddings and the much more sobering events following September 11th, but this year we have news of our own: Our search for the promised land has come to a most satisfactory conclusion.
We send our holiday greetings this year from the “The South’s Prettiest Small Town.”
That’s what the residents of historic
Edenton, NC (pop:5000) say about this place, and they might well be right. It
also must be one of the most cordial—almost everybody who comes through here
falls in love with it. Including us. We moved in September from Spartanburg to
our new hometown on the northwest shore of the Albemarle Sound. It wasn’t easy
to bid goodbye to dear South Carolina friends, but the serene watery view from
the new back porch was persuasive. Our house is the low, gray one at the left
of this picture.
Each year we have issued a sincere invitation for you to come visit and this year the location -- not just our own sparkling personalities -- will actually justify the trip. We’re delighted to note that despite many unpacked boxes, we’ve already had almost as many visitors in our three months here as we accumulated in the previous decade.
A little historical backround is in order: This was the first colonial capital of North Carolina and for a time, the busiest port in British America south of Boston. The prosperity of those days and the poverty that followed the loss of the shipping trade, produced and preserved a remarkable collection of colonial-era buildings, which no one could afford to replace before they became treasured in their own right. Much of the architecture is over 200 years old, and our church just celebrated its 300th year. Why the place fell on hard times depends on who you believe. Some say it was the Dismal Swamp Canal that rerouted the maritime traffic, others blame it on a hurricane that silted in the harbor, still others point to changes in ship design. Anyway, it led to a blessed case of arrested development, sort of an earlier and miniature Charleston, with the civic pride to go with it. This is the place the reconstructed Colonial Williamsburg was patterned after. Isolation has probably helped maintain not only Edenton’s charm, but a healthy downtown. Thirty miles of cotton fields lie between us and the nearest WalMart. It’s a lovely hour and a half’s drive through the Great Dismal Swamp to the commercial airport in Norfolk, Virginia. Edenton’s own little airport is just ten minutes from our driveway, though, and provides a fine home for AirReiheld’s flagship.
So as not to be “just another
retired geezer” with which this place is already well supplied, Rob has taken a
full-time job working the local hospital’s emergency room, which affords lots
of time off between 24-hour-long shifts.
Mimi’s still doing some freelance writing, just slightly longer-distance
than before, and a bit of watercolor. We’ve been spending most of our time
wondering where we stashed important stuff, 
and
whittling away at a long list of domestic projects to make this 30-year-old
house ours.
We have a view of the water and fringe of cypress trees from every room in the house, and every sunrise brings its own lovely surprise. Herons, river otters, kingfishers, treefrogs, cormorants, and an amazing variety of other critters share our backyard with us, even though we’re less than a ten-minute stroll from the center of town. It’s non-tidal fresh water, but monster bluecrabs and big striped bass lurk right off our seawall.
Bert and Emily and their significant others are fine… Em continues to shuttle back and forth between Philadelphia and Paris with her luxury French villa rentals, becoming quite the office currency-trading guru by the way. Farhang is on the home stretch for his PhD, with his dissertation well underway, teaching part time for another Catholic college, and attending various philosophical convocations. We celebrated his American citizenship on September 11. Bert has taken another fling at academia. He remains unimpressed with undergraduate work, but hopes to stick with it long enough to become the 8th grade history teacher every kid dreads. This may take a while as he’ll have to work often enough to pay the rent, as well. Alison’s the real academic barnburner in that relationship. She’s got a heavy teaching load, and is also working on her dissertation. It’s grand to have such bright people to surround ourselves with. Makes for amazing conversations around holiday dinner tables!
We hope all is well with you and yours, and that you’ll make note of our new address, let us hear what’s happening in your life, and make plans to come for a visit. We have plenty of room for guests, and we’d be overjoyed to see familiar faces.
Best wishes for a perfectly wonderful Christmas, and may 2003 be even better.
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Rob and Mimi Reiheld
207 Queen Anne Drive
Edenton, NC 27932
(252)482-0624