To the side of the old Robert E. Lee Hotel on Main St. in Lexington, Virginia a daily lower court is held on the corner with Nelson. What is decided there by the attendees, between the street's stained parking and the magnificent red nandina goes unnoticed and unknown to most passers by; but there will be business left for a new docket tomorrow.

Change still comes more slowly in the Virginia mountains.The common family names still endure on school rolls and in local phone books here. Benches were once common in front of the shops on Main Street; and earlier courts were held there too, when horse dung had not given way to the oily leakage from automobiles.

Giclee prints available; http://www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/t