Who Do We Think We Are, Anyway?

Who Do We Think We Are, Anyway?

By Eric Postman

What is it that they say? “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”  I established this blog in 2009 with the intention of posting regularly.  I’ll admit I didn’t even attempt to post regularly, but when I did, it rarely got finished.  As a recovering English major (37 years literate) and retired teacher, I let my need for perfection get in the way of sharing what I had to say.  So, excuse me Clayton Lewis*, but I’m going to plow straight ahead.

From the Beginning

We are PoLo.  No, we don’t play games on horseback.  The “Po” is for Postman and the “Lo” is for Loquasto.  Deb and Mike Loquasto were Diane’s and my next door neighbors in Yorktown, VA.  We met in 2001, the year our families moved into your houses.  We were an unlikely group.  Mike was a full colonel in the army, Deb a homemaker.  Diane and I were school teachers.  They were/are Republicans.  We were/are Democrats.  Deb was a rabid Yankee fan; as a Met fan since childhood, I despised the Yankees.  And on and on, but somehow we forged a strong friendship.

Sometime around 2006 Diane began having health problems, and for about a year and a half she could not consume alcohol.  Through countless trips to doctors, many who specialized in futility, she couldn't find out what was wrong.   Finally, one doctor -- who did NOT specialize in futility -- told her she had suffered esophageal damage from an anti-inflammatory drug.  He told her to stay away from beer and hard liquor.  Wine was her only option.

None of us were wine drinkers, but we didn’t want to appear unsupportive.  So, the four of us attended a wine festival in Williamsburg, VA.  We learned many things that day.

1.      Wine was good.

2.      We preferred sweet wine.  (That would change.)

3.      Virginia was an up and comer in the wine industry.

4.      We didn’t like wine snobs.

5.      Wine was fun.

One of us came up with the idea of spending a weekend in the Charlottesville area visiting wineries.  We didn’t have much of a plan, but our main goal was to visit Horton Vineyards, maker of our favorite fruit wines.  We learned many things that weekend.

1.      Wine was really good.

2.      Dry wine could be good.

3.      There were about 185 wineries in Virginia.  The VA wine map said so.

4.      We still didn’t like wine snobs.

5.      Wine was really fun.

We had such a good time that weekend, laughing and tasting, tasting and laughing.  You never really know if you’re traveling-compatible with another couple until you go on a trip together.  We certainly were. 

One of us came up with another idea.  This one was more ambitious: visit every winery in the state.

And so our journey began.  The number of wineries in Virginia has grown from 185 to 250ish, but it’s a moving target.  Every year we eagerly await the publication of the wine map.  That’s when we discover which wineries have closed, which ones have changed hands, and which ones are new. 

In 2009, the Loquastos moved to State College, PA, and we thought we’d never reach our goal. 

But, one of us had an idea.  We could meet halfway and do “wine weekends” in Northern Virginia.  With only 25 wineries under our belt, we were naïve but fearless.  The dream would not die.

At first we strove for quantity.  On one early trip, we visited nine wineries in one day (big mistake).  Then, we went beyond Northern Virginia, and explored other regions of the state.  We let #50 pass unnoticed, but when #100 was within reach, we carefully chose a winery we thought we’d all like (Gray Ghost) and had a grand celebration.  We made our own t-shirts, started a journal, met dozens of interesting people, developed more sophisticated palates, and grew a little older.  It took us about six years to hit #200. 

When we planned our most recent trip, we didn’t even realize that the four new wineries we’d on our itinerary were the same four new wineries we DID visit on the previous trip.  Instead we mostly made revisits, returning to standout wineries we liked or those we couldn’t remember.  We went to only one new one, Honah Lee (think “Puff the Magic Dragon” who frolicked . . .).  That was #221.

Now you know the back story of PoLo.  Many things have changed since 2008.  Our four boys have all grown up to be men.  When the “Lo”s moved, Mike retired from the army.  Diane left preschool and became an elementary science teacher.  I had already left the classroom to be a technology specialist, but I moved to another school district.  Then, Diane retired and started her own business (Training Wheels Consulting - http://www.trainingwheelsconsulting.com/)  Mike has been working at Penn State and just graduated with his second Masters just yesterday.  This was a bucket list item from his youth.  I just retired from teaching/technology at the end of this past school year.  Deb and Diane lost their mothers.  I lost my father.

As our journey continues, I will try not to let perfect be the enemy of the good.