They eventually become year-round homes as their owners retire, Knight said. Everyone talks to you here. You can be in the post office for an hour. You can't buy milk without getting into a long conversation. For now, the increasing popularity of the Northern Neck seems more a source of pride for locals than an aggravation.
Stoplights are rare.
Chain businesses are nearly non-existent. Wages, however, are low, and unemployment is at 9.7 percent - 7 percent higher than the rest of the state. Many of the locals who are not new retirees have two or three jobs. The local Baptist minister also delivers the Douglases' newspaper. The pace of life runs at a conversational speed.