I stumbled on Shepherdstown 50 years ago this week. I’d been living for a month in a single room in a brick farmhouse across from the Fort Drive-In theater on Route 340 and working every day at Walnut Hill Orchards near Charles Town.

$1.25 an hour.

But that was when a dollar was worth more than a nickel.

I didn’t care.

I was drowning in grief, uncertain whether I could even keep going. I needed to take a step forward, somehow, no matter how small. Pruning apple trees seemed like a good place to begin again.

I worked with a group of hardscrabble, uncouth, good-hearted, chain-smoking men. Somehow my wounded soul began to heal.

I was 27 years old.

Alone.

A rolling stone with no direction home.

On one particular Saturday I set off over Halltown Pike to see where it led. It led to Shepherdstown.

My first stop was Betty’s Restaurant. I sipped a 25-cent cup of hot brown water while watching a light snowfall through the front window. It was magical. And the magic had just begun.

I walked about town through gently falling flakes. I was inside a snow globe.

I saw a main street that looked like a movie set.

I saw a small library in the middle of the road.

I saw a two-story red brick fire station on the corner of New and King Streets.

I saw an oddly modern post office and a historic, red brick meeting house across from it. As it turns out, that was the Presbyterian Church, built in 1836. The front door was unlocked. I peeked inside.

I never thought I’d be back.

By coincidence, later that morning, I met the Presbyterian minister, Edgell Pyles. We became friends.

Four months later he resigned to go into full-time counseling. On the way out the door, he told the worship committee that if they needed a “supply preacher” on Sundays they should call me.

He’s an ordained minister from California working, for some reason, in an apple orchard near Charles Town.

They called.

I agreed to fill in until they found a “real minister.”

I stayed 42 years.

It was magical.

Once when I was a stranger in a strange land, this small town took me in, tended my wounds, and opened a door on a world of grace.

I’ve been trying to repay that debt of love ever since. 

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You can order THE BIBLE REEXAMINED: Eve Is a Hero. Mary Is Not a Virgin. Jesus Is Not the Way from your local bookstore or from Four Seasons Books in Shepherdstown. Or call 304-876-3486 to reserve a copy to pick up later.

Also available in print and digital formats on Amazon.