CLASSMATE UPDATE: Jane Atanat Embry

Jane hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains

 

I always tell people that I had an idyllic childhood, and I did.  I grew up in Nassau Shores, with Peninsula Golf Course in my backyard and the Great South Bay down the street.  I have many happy memories of tooling around the bay on my friends’ boats, or getting chased by the golf course attendant for playing some game on the course.  There was always a gang of kids playing outside.  We’d ride our bicycles, chasing ice cream men, milkmen, fire trucks, and even the fogger man who allowed us to follow him, with us breathing his fog of poison breathed directly into our lungs.  We made almost daily treks to “Tony’s,” the delicatessen, to buy candy.  A quarter bought you five candy bars, and there was no tax.  I really loved my childhood.

I loved High School, too.  I had so many great friends and had so much fun.  I played all kinds of sports.  Field Hockey, Volleyball, Softball, Gymnastics and Cheerleading took up most of my time after school.  In the summer it was off to Tobay Beach.  I had a surfboard that I bought from Garrett King, and the Tasker twins and I would go surfing.  The beach was all I did in the summer.  I remember hanging out at Marjorie Post Park, too.  I spent a lot of time at the pool, the handball courts and the ice skating rink.  No wonder I loved Massapequa---there was so much to do.

One thing I remembered about High School is that girls still had to wear dresses to school.  One morning my friend Jane Bockman and I snuck to her house and put on jeans and went to school.  Our parents did not know.  We caused a bit of a stir at school, but the winds of change were blowing and soon girls could wear pants to school.  But I do remember that rebellious feeling it gave me.  We returned to Jane’s house and changed back into our skirts.  We weren’t that brave to go home on the bus still wearing jeans.

The biggest game changer in my life was when I decided to go to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia for college.  I wanted to go somewhere different from where all my friends were going.  My brother attended there, so I thought I would give it a try.  It was very intimidating to go to a large school and know no one.  It was sort of like reinventing one’s self.

I fell in love with Virginia, it was so beautiful.  Since I had never really traveled much outside of New York, I hadn’t realized how much open land there was.  I was so smitten with Virginia and my college town that I knew I would never return to New York.  Being there made me realize that I wanted to live in the country, and have a little farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

I majored in Art Education, and after graduation, I got a job teaching Art at a High School in Buchanan, Virginia.  I taught for a couple of years but I wasn’t very happy.  I left that job and moved back to Blacksburg, where I met my husband, Reed.

Reed and I dated for 7 years before we married, and we have moved many times for business opportunities.  We have lived in Winston Salem, NC; Lynchburg, VA; Charlotte, NC; Huntington, WV and Roanoke, VA, where we live now.  Moving around provided a lot of new experiences and many friends in different places.  Our daughter Sally was born in 1986 and our son Reilly was born in 1991.  Sally attended Colorado State University on a full academic scholarship, obtained 2 Master’s Degrees at Emory University in Atlanta, and a PhD in Environmental Engineering at Stanford University.  She lives in California.  Reilly attended Hargrave Military Academy and currently plays in a band.  They are both great kids.

Today my husband and I own and run a quaint little restaurant in Floyd, VA.  The Pine Tavern was first established in 1927 in a colorful little town with the only stoplight in the county.  We have a small staff, but most of them have been with us for years, so they feel like family.  We serve Blue Ridge cuisine like fried chicken, mashed potatoes and other comfort foods.  Working with my husband has been a great experience, and we both enjoy serving people good food.

We have a beautiful home on 30 acres just off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Wildlife abounds here and we often see bear, deer, turkeys and the occasional coyote.  With our spectacular views and serene lifestyle, I never want to leave home, which is good, since the nearest town is 15 miles away!   My dream of having a little farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains has been realized since I grow shitake mushrooms here and cultivate a wild chanterelle mushroom patch.  In the springtime we hunt for morels and in the summer we search for “chicken of the woods” mushrooms.  

My favorite way to spend any day is to be outdoors.  Reed and I enjoy hiking in the mountains, biking, kayaking, swimming and everything outdoors.  We love to take car rides, discovering new places we haven’t seen before.  Virginia is a wonderful place and there is still so much of it that we haven’t seen yet.  We are also both big fans of the craft beer craze, so we enjoy driving to breweries and sampling great beers. 

In just a couple of years, Reed will retire and we have lots of plans.  Traveling will top the list, and there are so many places we’d like to see right here in the USA.  I would also love to tour the English countryside, where the books by authors Jane Austen and Charles Dickens took place.  I made it a personal goal to read everything those two authors had written.  Considering the length and general difficulty of both writers, I consider it a real accomplishment. 

 Reed will golf more when he retires, but since it isn’t a passion of mine, I have other plans.  As an art major, I love creating beautiful things and have dabbled in just about every art medium, but lately have been concentrating on Stained Glass.  I might like to go into business for myself creating beautiful things to sell.  Whatever we do, I know it will be fun and I will continually be inspired by all the beauty and serenity that surrounds us here in our home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  

by Jane Atanat, edited by Carolyn Hammer