One of the very first questions Linda and I get from local folks upon learning of our move here is, “Why Lexington?” Not that people who live here are not fond of it, quite the contrary. I think it is more a matter of people wondering what appealed to us about moving here. At any rate, the usual suspects of history and architecture are prevalent here, as is a vibrant downtown with its thriving main street mixture of retail and residential (as pictured above from our corner window).
And the presence of not one but two prestigious universities nestled here in a quaint town centrally located in the scenic Shenandoah Valley, where I originally hail from, helped to seal the deal for us. So it was with special interest that I learned the other day that according to the 2020 U.S. Census, with a median age of a mere 22 years old, Lexington is the YOUNGEST locale in all of America.
More than half of Lexington’s 8,000 citizens are students and more than half our circa 1890 apartment building’s residents are Washington & Lee (W&L) law school students. While we’ve yet to locate the proverbial fountain of youth here, living in the midst of so many bright young people helps to keep us young at heart. As I write this I am happily ensconced in the W&L library, which I have practically all to myself since the students are gone for holiday break.
Maya Angelou is quoted as saying, “You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home so it’s all right.” As Virginia was the one state I had lived but Linda had not, I wanted to share my home state with her and we are thoroughly enjoying our exploration of it on the weekends. So to close with another insightful quote, it was T.S. Eliot who wrote, “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”