Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 16, 1993 TAG: 9308170071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Ten years later, with a communications degree, a husband-to-be and two more states under her belt, she's ready to come home.
Problem is, she can't.
The Roanoke Valley holds little opportunity for someone in the telecommunications field, Goode said. It held even less for her fiance, an accountant from New Jersey.
So two months ago, they stopped looking for jobs here and followed a path trodden by an increasing number of the region's young adults. They headed for a bigger city.
"We decided to come to Atlanta because we thought the opportunities would be better," Goode said.
Others went to Charlotte, to Northern Virginia, to Richmond. Some headed as far west as California and Arizona. A few landed in Florida.
Of the 248 members of Northside's 1983 graduating class tracked down by a reunion committee, 70 no longer live in this area. Another 68 classmates could not be located.
Young people have also been disappearing from the census data. Beginning in the 1970s but particularly during the 1980s, the number of young adults in the Roanoke and New River valleys shrank. The census shows how much - from 1980 to 1990 the number of people in their early 20s dropped by 15 percent - but it doesn't show why.
"It was jobs," said Thomas Foster, a state trooper who recently transferred back to the area when an opening surfaced in Franklin County.
"I think everybody wants to come back here," he said. "It's just the market's not there."
That doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't find jobs 10 years ago, though. Many who left the area, like Goode, wanted to see another part of the country or meet people with a different perspective on life. Some went off in search of spouses. Some married college classmates and followed them to other states.
But many have tried - unsuccessfully - to return.
Like Ben Hansel.
Hansel, now a park ranger, had no idea what he wanted to do after high school. He first joined the Air Force, then came home to attend a community college. During a summer job at Claytor Lake he discovered he wanted to be a park ranger. Then he discovered he would have to leave the area to do so.
"I'd like to work on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but there just aren't jobs there," said Hansel, who has applied twice for ranger jobs in this area. He now works at the Canaveral National Seashore in Florida.
"You have to go where the job takes you," he said. "You've got to, if you want to survive."
Survival took Jason Nye, a geophysicist, to California, then Texas.
It took accountant Don Lorton to Richmond.
History teacher Don Rice followed the job trail to Philadelphia.
They'd all prefer to live here.
They miss the mountains, their families and the low cost of living, they say. They miss the quality of life in the valley.
"I don't think I really appreciated it until I moved away," said Goode, who still hopes to settle in the valley when she begins to raise a family.
"It's a great place to grow up."
Ginny Conner thinks so, too. She stayed in the area and wants to raise her family here, also. But that presents another valleywide problem - finding a spouse.
"It's hard to live here and be single," she said. "It's not impossible, but it's not easy."
Ronnie Stultz gets around the problem by getting involved in long distance relationships. He stayed in the valley because a computer maintenance business he started after high school took off.
But he'd leave today if he could take the business with him.
"If I was married or had a steady girlfriend, I wouldn't mind staying," he said. "This area really isn't good for single people my age."
There's a link to the economy even in dating, said Lorton, who moved to Richmond to find work. Young people leave to find jobs. Hence, there are fewer of them left to date.
"It's a self-perpetuating situation," he said.
His classmate and friend, Jay Martin, finds the Roanoke singles scene one reason not to return. He had a chance to come back once, to work in the auditing department at Virginia Tech.
But it's not just the lack of possible mates that kept him away, said Martin, who also works in Richmond. He worried about the stability of this region's job market. Suppose Tech cut back? It would just mean another move.
Besides, he said, "the pay is much, much better in Richmond."
But the draw of family and community ties can be stronger.
Ask Conner, who searched for eight months to find a full-time job as a dental hygienist. She didn't look for opportunities elsewhere because she wanted to be near her family, which owns and operates Boomer's Deli on Williamson Road.
"I could've worked as a hygienist anywhere," she said. "But they're here and they need my help also."
Her loyalty did not go unrewarded. Conner finally got the job she wanted when the hygienist working in her family dentist's office left and asked if she wanted to replace her.
"I've always wanted to work for that dentist," she said. "Since I was nine years old."
by CNB