Ginny and Peter with Sara Scott, George, Jimmy and Christopher.

AFTER ALASKA, life was never the same for Peter Stanley. His life has been dominated by a tension between the demands of earning a livelihood for his family and his love for living in the country and being with his boys. Peter and Christopher had been with each other in constant companionship in Alaska, and they found it very difficult to be separated from each other, with Peter at work and Christopher at school. Peter was trained for the brokerage business, and he was good at it, but he always had the feeling he should be doing something else.

Peter says, “I prospered in the options market while chewing on tranquilizers to keep my nerves subdued. I gradually came to realize I had not only failed to cure those alcoholic patients back at Walter Reed, where I worked in the Army, but I had caught their disease (somebody coughed). I count it as no small blessing that many years have elapsed since I had my last drink.”

George, Christopher, Peter, Jimmy and Digit after the Richmond marathon.

His return to the brokerage business in Virginia brought a dramatic switch in lifestyle from Alaska—what wouldn’t?—and it didn’t fit. So Peter and Ginny moved to the Briary, their farm in Rapidan, in 1977, and Peter tried his hand at building guitars. He liked making them but didn’t want to sell the ones he had made.

For a few years, he worked as an alcoholism counselor. The work was very satisfying, but not financially rewarding, and Peter went back to the brokerage business in 1982. He tried commuting to the country, but that didn’t work, so they moved back to Richmond in 1984 and stayed until 1992, when the last of the boys had almost finished school. Then it was back to the Briary.

Kakee and Sara Scott, Richard Stanley, Jimmy, George and Christopher.

Jimmy, Sara, Christopher, George and Kakee at Clover Cottage.

There has always been a sense of adventure with Peter, and he always felt he could sustain almost anything if he had an adventure to anticipate. Trips back to Alaska. Canoeing with his family in Canada. Trekking in Nepal. Running a marathon. Climbing Mt. McKinley.

But the greatest and most satisfying experience he found was in raising his three sons, all of whom share his sense of adventure and love of music. All of the tensions in his life dissolve and his priorities become clear with a chance to join Christopher, George and Jimmy in any endeavor.

 

Peter, Ginny and the boys at the Briary.

   

COMING HOME is a collection of songs recorded by Peter Stanley and Victoria Young in the early 1980’s. At that time, Peter and Victoria were neighbors, and Peter quickly discovered Victoria’s incredible sense of harmony. For a few years they practiced and performed together, and here are a few of their songs.

Victoria Young now lives in a timber-frame in Nelson County, Virginia, with her husband Dick Harrington. Their musical partnership is a marriage of love for each other, old-time songs and fiddle tunes of the rural South. With Mark Beall and Judy Chaudet, they are the Afton Mountain String Band and their close harmonies and playing styles on the guitar and autoharp hearken back to Virginia's famous Carter Family. Their recordings include Long Journey (1993), Lover's Return (1996) and Old-Time Saturday Night (1998).