My maternal grandfather, Rudy Lange (a.k.a. “Opa”), was an entrepreneur. He completed 10th grade at St. Mary’s High School in Fredericksburg before starting his employment at various locations in Fredericksburg. In the spring of 1939, he became co-owner of Red and White (a grocery store) with partne...

HOUSE Amost pivotal change in culture happened in our lifetimes. Yet I would bet most of you haven’t recognized it. This simple conversion changed at a base level how we view and interact in the world. No part of society is untouched by it. Yet in a way we can’t even see it because it is so pervasiv...

Jill Elliot opened Haberdashey Boutique on a chilly March day of 2001. She was three months pregnant when her retail space came to life in the 450-square foot back room of her father’s Main Street music store. That first day, she said, she sold one two-piece set. “It was yellow,” Elliot said. “A yel...

HOUSE “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The ...

Irecently drove a donated vehicle from London to Lviv, Ukraine, with my English friend Peter in order to give it to the Ukrainian military, despite (U...

HOUSE Grammar Grouch If I had to learn to read today, I would be illiterate. Like most of you, I learned to read and write a lifetime ago. I’ve been a...