THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 1, 1995 TAG: 9502280080
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
If her face looks familiar, it's because the woman remodeling a house in the heart of one of Smithfield's oldest communities isn't a newcomer at all.
Loris Jones has simply been gone for a while. For 30 years, she's been living in Los Angeles.
But she's back home, and she'll tell you now that you can come home again - and you don't need a pair of ruby slippers to do it.
Jones is the eldest daughter of Charles Henry Gray, a man who made himself a legend with his cooking talents and particularly his development of the speciality ham that today bears his name and is available only through direct purchase at Smithfield Packing.
Gray worked at the packing plant for years. He worked his way up, in fact, from the loading dock to vice president. Jones remembers her dad as a very special man.
And she remembers her hometown as small, friendly, quiet. It was a nice place to grow up, but pretty unexciting.
So after she graduated from Isle of Wight Training School in 1958, Jones decided to see the world. She joined the Air Force, met her husband and, eventually, they settled in Los Angeles, where they raised two daughters and Jones worked as an office manager at General Telephone of California.
In May 1993, after 27 years with the company, she retired, all the while thinking she knew exactly what she wanted to do.
Loris Jones wanted to come home.
By then, she was divorced, and she had one daughter living in Memphis, another still in California.
``I always said, when I was 55, I was going to come back home, if Mama was still living. My mom, more than anything else, brought me here.''
If she had advice for somebody contemplating the same thing, she said it would be this: ``Don't do it until you know you're ready. If I were younger, it would be a very hard adjustment. But, you can't buy peace.''
And peace is probably what she was searching for.
Jones has nothing bad to say about Los Angeles. When her daughters were growing up, she said, it was a great place to raise children, a place with lot of parks, recreation, museums, a good educational system and all kinds of artistically interesting pastimes.
And living there meant that you might run into movie stars almost anywhere, Jones said.
But L.A. changed over the years, and Jones longed for the peace of Isle of Wight County.
She is one of a number of retirees that seem to get that longing. I wonder if county officials who ponder how to keep young people in the county realize how many of them come back once they've completed careers.
Jones seems to be a typical example. There's a nagging need for excitement in the younger years. But once middle-age hits, home starts calling.
And, with a sigh and a smile, Jones will tell you it's so nice, even though there are some things she misses about the big city.
``I am a big blues enthusiast. I'm going in June to the Blues Festival in Monterey. If I want excitement - a little different lifestyle - I'll just get in the car and go, get on the plane and fly. But, oh, I think I miss real Mexican food more than anything in the world!''
But you always have Charles Henry Gray Ham, I reminded her. Then Jones told me she has never tasted the sugar-and-spice-coated ham her father originated. The recipe is locked in the head of a retired cafeteria manager, and it's in the vault at Smithfield Foods.
``I've never tasted it,'' Jones said. ``I'd like to, but I wouldn't know where to begin. Daddy did send me chitterlings - already cooked - when he was alive.''
Jones put tasting the ham on her list of things to do, along with finishing the remodeling and redecorating of her house, attending blues festivals and continuing various volunteer and civic pursuits.
And, well, she just plans to enjoy being home. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Loris Jones, after 30 years, has come home again.
by CNB