ABSTRACT
Homogeneity was cultivated and demanded in Luray, which was isolated from the rest of the world by the Blue Ridge and Massanutten Mountains. Townspeople often shared stories about their lives—memories of the past, descriptions of present events, and dreams of the future. Illness and health issues always stimulated a lively conversation. Friends and acquaintances compared illness sites, doctors’ orders, prescriptions, and home remedies. Few people that the author knew in Luray read newspapers, other than the weekly Page News and Courier, a local paper distributed for a nickel on the street corner near the town’s red light every Wednesday, and the Daily News Record, a paper delivered by mail from nearby Harrisonburg. Though her family got both papers, usually her mother was the only one to read them and she concentrated on the obituaries and traffic citations.
