ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200015
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BETH MACY
SOURCE: BETH MACY
She likes the Roanoke City Market.
She doesn't frequent the Roanoke bar scene.
She loves Smith Mountain Lake and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, but thinks the Roanoke Valley could benefit from a few more good shops, such as Laura Ashley.
She is Anne Metcalfe, a 23-year-old recent graduate of Bernau University near Atlanta. A Roanoke native.
And, according to some, a Roanoke basher.
``Roanoke Valley is a cultural wasteland,'' blared the headline in the July 21 letter to the editor in which Metcalfe bemoaned Roanoke's lack of shopping and culture, comparing it - unfavorably - to Charlottesville.
Chamber of Commerce-types winced.
Star City devotees got their neon in a bunch.
Several recent transplants to the area retorted with letters of their own:
``I realize Metcalfe is quite young,'' wrote Kelli Jennings. ``However, young people everywhere usually chant the same song: `There is nothing to do.'
``Just wait until she is married and becomes a mother. Like me, she won't have time to be bored.''
Letter-writer Sandy Jackson of Roanoke called Metcalfe a ``Valley Girl'' with too much time on her hands. ``It's obvious that the University of Virginia made her read T.S. Eliot's poem,'' Jackson wrote of the ``The Waste Land'' reference and Metcalfe's fascination with Charlottesville - the town, it's said, where even the street people have doctoral degrees.
Jackson and other offended parties may be glad to know that Metcalfe has since moved from the valley's town, city and county limits. To the happenin' megalopolis of Washington, D.C.
Republicans may even be glad to know that Metcalfe is putting her in-your-face brand of tact to work for ... the Clinton-Gore campaign for re-election.
In a recent phone interview, Metcalfe said her letter was inspired by her own sheer boredom - and the availability of her parents' computer.
``I was sitting here one weekend, playing on the computer, messing with Internet. And I thought, there must be some other things I could do with it. I decided to write a letter, for people my age, who aren't married.
``From what I've heard, Roanoke is a really nice place if you're married and have children. But it's just hard for someone my age to find things to do.''
A group of friends, for instance, went to Wyoming this summer because they didn't want to spend time in Roanoke. Others stayed in their respective college towns for the same reason.
Meanwhile, Metcalfe spent her summer working as an intern with Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, which she enjoyed - and striking out on the finding-fun-things-to-do front, which she did not.
She's glad her letter sparked a reaction, even if it was negative. ``I thought the letters were funny. I clipped them out and saved them.''
Her father, Jay Metcalfe, didn't find the public correspondence quite so hilarious. An agent with Waldrop Realty in Salem, Jay spends his days boosting - rather than bashing - the valley and its amenities.
``Thank God we always call her Kelly,'' instead of Anne, he joked, referring to her nickname. For his friends and associates who did realize the diatribe was his daughter's, Jay spent the next day faxing out an essay written by fellow real-estate agent Elaine Bell, which begins:
My children, who are not really children but young adults, frequently tell me that they can't wait to live someplace other than Roanoke. My daughter, the college student, says that there's ``nothing to do here,'' which loosely translated means: It's not easy to party, drink and live by her own schedule for most of the year when she's away at school, and then come home to Roanoke and live by her parents' rules and schedules.
Since she can't exactly say that to us, she blames it on being in Roanoke, where the constant lament is, ``There's nothing to do.''
While Jay Metcalfe doesn't agree with his daughter, he was quick to add that he stands behind her right to express her opinion.
Apparently, when word reached Anne and her mother, Rebecca, that Dad had called to express his own two cents in this column, ``The house was a hotbed of discontent,'' as Jay put it the next day.
``I think it's good she stirred an interest,'' he added. ``She's a quiet person most of the time, and I'm glad to see that she's not gonna be pushed around.''
She'll be missed
The newspaper has received several calls and notes of sympathy about the sudden death last week of former Roanoke Times columnist Kathleen Wilson.
One reader from Christiansburg said she'd only met Kathy once, but still wanted it known that she would miss her.
Another reader, a Blacksburg woman, e-mailed me this: "I remember her entertaining columns and I always wanted to end up at a party she attended."
She closed her offer of sympathy with a quote from Robert Fulghum: "It is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."
Sometimes Kathy and I held hands and sometimes we didn't. But I always knew her hand was a phone call away. We will miss her creative energy and generous spirit.
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