Beyond the Brink and Fighting Back with Memories of How it Used to Be

We all remember the place where we grew up, but as writer Thomas Wolfe taught us, you can’t go home again. Albany journalist Rosemary Armao remembers an old West Albany village of Italian immigrants that no longer exists, so her podcast interview this week with friend Greg Hamilton is evocative of feelings we all have. Hamilton grew up in tiny Webbs Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. An isolated fishing and farming region 60 years ago, it is now utterly changed by some of the same forces at work changing all of America: environmental change, economic decline, racial turmoil and changes in taste and style. She and Greg went on a tour of the Eastern Shore together, and here’s a piece of their discussion.