MJPeony
SF Bay Area
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2014
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New to this post but have read back through several pages to try to catch myself up to the conversation a bit. I was living in Cville the year Morgan was killed. I had two jobs then, one was in a local bar/restaurant. I was working the night of the Metallica concert, I remember clearly all the fans coming in when the concert was over. (Crushing to think this was roughly the exact time terrible things where happening to Morgan). I was also working the night her remains where found, I remember all of us staring at the TV screens. Pretty much every other person who worked in that bar was was a local, from Cville or Nelson county, and other surrounding rural areas, some of them even working there as part of work release from prison. And one or to UVA students, including one who's friend is the guy who found the Metallica shirt on the bush near his apartment in Nov.
Cville for those who are not familiar with it is a bit of a bubble. You have a very long 29 running 2hrs north to DC and very little that's not rural in between, you have Richmond an hour east, you have mountains to your west, and Lynchburg about 2hrs south. No one really leaves the area, which is what makes it this odd little bubble. You have the UVA students who think they go to the best school ever created, you have the white wealthy locals, who have a bit of that stuck up southern charm, you have the poor white locals, the poor black locals, and you have some pseudo hippies, and some preps, the final two usually falling into the post grad, or post post grad UVA student or alumni status. But my point is it is an odd little culture sort of all stuck in the one little area of VA. And I think comprehending the culture of this town is important.
Because JLM was a LOCAL! He frequented the bar I worked at!!! He knew people I worked with. He hid in plane site! I saw him often. He's hard to miss! I even road in his cab once! He was at a Halloween party at my bar, the year Morgan vanished, I have a pictures he's in the background, at that time his dreadlocks where much shorter, only to about his forehead. It would have been only 2 weeks after the Metallica concert.
Great description of the town of C-ville, ThinkHard. I grew up there and went to UVa as well. You hit the nail on the head. And I do think it's important to understand the culture of the town in this whole case. It sheds light onto the environment in which JM grew up and later how he would have fit in (or not) to the culture later as an older, adult "townie". I take for granted my varied experiences with the different subsets there, so thanks for helping to give it color to others.
(I love your statement of "the UVA students who think they go to the best school ever created"
ETA- I've started getting off on a tangent. Sorry. Moved a post below of mine over to What do we know...