Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992                   TAG: 9203270468
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TRANSPLANT TO ATLANTA LONGS FOR VALLEY LIFE

A native Virginian, I had lived my entire 49 years in the Lynchburg-Roanoke area. I had no idea what to expect from life in the big city 450 miles down the road. Roanoke had been home for 32 years and I loved the area.

The comfortable lifestyle of Western Virginia doesn't exist in Atlanta. Life here is more frantic, hurried.

Valley politicians have bickered for years over consolidation, boundaries, services and other issues. While these things are important, it's a shame that one of the most important assets of the Roanoke Valley sometimes gets overshadowed. The quality of life in the valley is superb - it's a great place to live and raise a family.

Metro Atlanta is at least 10 times bigger than the Roanoke Valley and suffers 10 times the problems: megatraffic, long commutes to work, higher cost of living, a high crime rate and many corrupt politicians and public officials. Bigger is not always better.

Five years ago I thought that after an adjustment period, Atlanta might begin to feel like home. I doubt it will ever happen. I think about that easygoing lifestyle of the Roanoke Valley as much today as ever.

I'd like to borrow, with a slight change in wording, a Thomas Jefferson quote: "I am as happy nowhere else and in no other society, and all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, back home in Virginia." RAY D. DICKERSON ATLANTA