Patricia Temples Photography

Coincidences of Life

I have been thinking about my Dairy Farm Adventure.  Forty years ago this month I started my first full-time job as a teacher at Albemarle High School at the intersection of Hydraulic Road and Lambs Road in Charlottesville.  A year later I transferred to Jack Jouett Middle School, located immediately behind the high school, to become a school counselor there, which was my dream job and the goal of my educational experiences.  Jouett Middle School has an address on Lambs Road.  I learned on Monday that Lambs Road was named for the man who started the dairy farm (in 1953) that I am now photographing.

On the Dairy Farm there is a pre-Civil War home, once used as a tavern.  It’s a small, abandoned house in an area of the county once called Burtonsville.  Dr. May Burton once lived in that area and had a medical practice on that land.  My maiden name is Burton.  I have no idea whether my Burton ancestors were related to Dr.May Burton, but it’s worth investigating.  Some day soon I’ll visit the Greene County Historical Society.

Coincidences in life are amazing and spine-chilling to me.  I feel that I have come full circle in forty years.  What drew me to the farm?  Who knows? But, as my nephew Jared says, there is a reason for everything.