College – Where to Go and What to Do

Most colleges require applications for admission by the first of the year.  If you’re going for early decision, you need to get your application  packet in by November 1st.  So, now is as good a time as any to start thinking about where you want to apply.  Whether you’re just finishing high school or if you’re a member of the AARP, continuing your education is a good thing to do.

Why?  When is it ever bad to expand your knowledge base?  When is it ever bad to learn how to do something better than you did it before?  When is it bad to learn how to think more critically, to express yourself more succinctly, or to interact with like-minded people in a nurturing environment?  Pretty much never.  Plus, even with the woeful economic times we’ve had, it is still true that your earning potential increases with some sort of post-high school degree.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2008 annual earnings varied as much as $22,000 per year between someone with a high school diploma and someone with a bachelor’s degree.  It might not be that much now, but it might be even more of a difference soon.  As employers get more choosy about who they hire, you need any edge you can get to beat out the competition.

Deciding where you want to go to college and what you want to study is the first step.  We were recently contacted by a website called UniXL – they’re an “education and career information portal.”  I checked Richmond, VA and while the results didn’t give you every little detail on the first pass, I do think that this site is a great way to start searching for programs.  Don’t forget to apply for any scholarships and grants you might get, and make sure you fill out all those FAFSA forms properly!

In case you don’t want to go to school in Richmond (what, are you crazy?) here are links to this portal’s page for each state.  Happy hunting!

• Schools in Alabama
• Schools in Alaska
• Schools in Arizona
• Schools in Arkansas
• Schools in California
• Schools in Colorado
• Schools in Connecticut
• Schools in Delaware
• Schools in Florida
• Schools in Georgia
• Schools in Hawaii
• Schools in Idaho
• Schools in Illinois
• Schools in Indiana
• Schools in Iowa
• Schools in Kansas
• Schools in Kentucky
• Schools in Louisiana
• Schools in Maine
• Schools in Maryland
• Schools in Massachusetts
• Schools in Michigan
• Schools in Minnesota
• Schools in Mississippi
• Schools in Missouri
• Schools in Montana
• Schools in Nebraska
• Schools in Nevada
• Schools in New Hampshire
• Schools in New Jersey
• Schools in New Mexico
• Schools in New York
• Schools in North Carolina
• Schools in North Dakota
• Schools in Ohio
• Schools in Oklahoma
• Schools in Oregon
• Schools in Pennsylvania
• Schools in Rhode Island
• Schools in South Carolina
• Schools in South Dakota
• Schools in Tennessee
• Schools in Texas
• Schools in Utah
• Schools in Vermont
• Schools in Virginia
• Schools in Washington
• Schools in West Virginia
• Schools in Wisconsin
• Schools in Wyoming

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Haunted Richmond – A Handful of Richmond Ghosts, Part 2

Continued, because Richmond has so many cool ghost stories that we just can’t stop.  We told you about the Executive Mansion ghost, and about the ghosts at The Old Stone House, but we left out some of the most famous Richmond ghosts of all.  Not to deprive you, here you go.

The Church Hill Tunnel

In the early 1870′s, the C & O Railway decided to build a tunnel underneath Church Hill.  Makes sense, getting from one end of the Hill to the other, without having to go around, but the tunnel was wrought with troubles from the beginning.  Building the tunnel proved easier said than done.  See, Church Hill was not situated on top of bedrock, like most of the other hills that C & O built tunnels through.  Instead, our hills are filled with blue marl clay.  This made construction a nightmare, and about ten workers died trying to build the tunnel.

The tunnel always had seepage problems, but in 1925 the railroad wanted to utilize it, so they decided to go in and repair and reinforce the tunnel.  On October 2, 1925 the tunnel collapsed on a work train and killed at least two, if not more workers.

When the collapse happened, the men were in total darkness, with debris falling all around them.  They screamed and cried out, but some never found their way out.  The tunnel was sealed in 1926, burying the work train and whatever bodies that went undiscovered.

For years, at the beginning of October, residents and visitors swore they could hear a ghostly train whistle coming from the sealed up tunnel.  Other times, people have heard the cries coming from the men who were trapped, faint and muffled cries of men who died long ago.

Hollywood Cemetery

The Richmond Vampire

One spooky aspect of Hollywood Cemetery is closely tied to the Church Hill Tunnel collapse.  Rescue teams reported coming upon a man who was hunched over one of the tunnel victims.  He was not dressed like a railway worker.  When he stood up, the people said that he had blood around his mouth, and that two fangs protruded from his mouth.  The legend says that the man fled, with people chasing after him.  He reportedly fled all the way to Hollywood Cemetery (that’s a looong way) and disappeared into a tomb marked W.W. Poole.  The door was locked, and the people who chased the bloody-mouthed man couldn’t get the door open.  They asked the cemetery caretaker to open the doors, but he refused.  From this came the legend of the Richmond Vampire.

The legend of the Richmond vampire, of course, is oral history, and three is, of course, a rational, and non-vampire explanation, but that’s no fun, is it?  We’ll save that for a different post.

The Ghost Dog

I’ll report this story as I heard it from an ancient Oregon Hill resident back in 1994.  This woman told me that the cast iron dog stood outside of the drugstore and soda shop on the corner of Laurel and Main.  Other reports said that it stood out front of a store on Broad Street.  Either way, a little neighborhood girl would come to the store and pet the statue and talk to it just as if it were a real dog.

There was a flu epidemic in 1892 and the little girl’s body was interred at Hollywood Cemetery.  The owners of the store where the statue of the dog had stood donated the dog to look over the little girl’s grave.  People have said that the dog emanates a menacing air when someone steps too close to the girl’s grave, and that at night, you can hear the sound of a dog running around the cemetery, panting.

Ellen Glasgow

Ellen Glasgow was a Richmond native, and a novelist who wrote twenty novels and won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1942.  She died in November of 1945, and one of the instructions in her will was that her two beloved dogs who had died several years before be dug up from her back yard and buried with her.  Her wishes were fulfilled, and nighttime visitors to the cemetery swear they can hear small dogs roaming around the cemetery at night.  Are they hearing Ellen Glasgow’s dogs, or the dog that protects the little girl?

Civil War Ghosts

Over 18,000 Civil War veterans are interred at Hollywood Cemetery.  11,000 are unknown soldiers, fallen in the battle of Gettysburg.  Legend has it that during a full moon one can hear moans coming from the pyramid – moans from soldiers who will never find rest because their deaths went unrecorded.  Others will tell you that it’s possible to hear such sounds in broad daylight, and that even in the bright summer sun a chill can run down your spine that will, for that moment, make you believe in ghosts.

Read Part one of Richmond Ghosts

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El Paso Chicken Nachos – A Love Story

I first met you over three years ago.  It feels like yesterday.  Gosh, my MOM introduced us!  Who knew that we would hit it off so well?  That I could love you so much, even after all this time?  It’s all because of you – your consistent nature, your unfailing beauty, your sheer deliciousness.

I’ve tried to stay away.  I’ve told myself that there are other nachos out there.  Ones who might treat me better.  Ones who don’t live so far away.  But I always come back to you.  Nobody has the right amount of cheese, the exact crispness of outside chips, the savory chunks of roast chicken.  The slivers of pickled jalapeno.

Even though I just saw you yesterday, I can’t stop thinking about you.  I hung out with your frenemy, the 7-11 Taquito, and all I could do was remember your smell, the way you look, the way you taste on my lips.

I know I’m not going to be able to stay away from you for long.  You’re bad for me, even though you don’t mean to be, and I have to try to stay away.  But I know before long I’ll be back in an overstuffed booth, shoving sugar packets under the table leg, not eating the free chips because I’m saving myself for you.  Only you.  I love you.

El Paso Mexican Restaurant – 3417 Cox Road Richmond, VA 804-346-8889

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• Mexican Food Just North of the Border (eatinginrichmond.com)
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• Where Kids Eat for Free (richmondforkids.com) – not at El Paso, but it’s totally worth it to pay for chicken nachos

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