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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993                   TAG: 9309110257
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PIONEERS WHO DON'T ROUGH IT

MARSHALL Fishwick (July 31 letter to the editor, ``Blacksburg welcomes the new kings of the road'') calls the members of the Family Motor Coach Association who descended on Blacksburg recently the ``spiritual heirs'' of the American pioneers.

This is an incredible leap of analogy. The pioneers of the 1800s risked their lives and suffered terrible hardships to settle the West and improve their lots. They walked beside their wagons across this rugged country and slept on the ground.

In stark contrast, the average FMCA member is one-half of an affluent elderly couple driving a 45-foot vehicle that gets seven miles per gallon (gasoline) or 13 mpg (diesel fuel).

These wheeled houses, which cost $50,000 to $600,000, have more than all the comforts of most homes: bedroom, living room, kitchen, bath, air conditioning (powered 24 hours a day by fuel-burning generators), and television. (Each vehicle sprouts an antenna; some have mini-satellite dishes.) Eighty

Shireen Parsons

Riner

please see microfilm for the rest of the letter.

by CNB