Washington County: It IS a great place to work, live and raise a family!

Washington County has been my home for the past (insert my age here) years. Well, give or take a few years. I was born at Washington County Hospital, raised in the Halfway area, attended Lincolnshire, E. Russell Hicks and South High. I was a Girl Scout (drive past Piper Lane park in Halfway-we dedicated a tree there) and did a brief stint as a majorette with the Blue Jays. I danced for years at Miss Judy’s School of Dance, once located on Locust Street (where Community Impact Director, Jenny Fleming, also attended). I graduated from Hagerstown Community College (when it was still a Junior College) and received my MBA from Frostburg before it lived in the ever so beautiful and technological University Plaza.

But for a brief period, I lived away from my beloved Washington County. While attending Shippensburg University I lived on and off campus, but still managed to make my way home almost every weekend to spend time with my then boyfriend. Flash forward a few years and I lived in Fairfax, VA while working in Reston, VA at a satellite communications company. Flash forward again and I am contemplating with my soon to be city-raised (Reston, VA) husband as to where we were going to live after our wedding. We decided on Germantown. It was close to where we both worked at the time, but only a year later I was trying to entice my husband, Dave, to move even closer to Washington County…Frederick! We found a great house with a little larger than a postage stamp sized lot and an open field behind us, a jackpot in terms of land! But only after a few years, the open field became more houses and the traffic on our main road, Thomas Johnson Drive, became unbearable. Time to move.

After much discussion I finally convinced Dave to move to Washington County, only this time it wasn’t the Hagerstown area, but the Boonsboro/Keedysville one. Regardless, I was back home! 2 acres, cows and horses on the farm in the back of us, friendly neighbors, fantastic schools, and most importantly, I was close to my family and friends! I had finally come “home” even though I will now cheer on the Warriors (I am a forever Rebel)!

So now I am that mom that drives past the Valley Mall and says I can remember the day it opened, or past the Prime Outlets and say I can remember that used to be a field, or the auto parts store on Virginia Avenue that used to be a Burger Chef. I can name stores at the Valley Mall that used to be there before and after the addition. I try to explain to my children what “cruising the Dual” means and I love to hear them ask about my days at Hicks and South as we drive past those schools. The list seems to be endless but you get the picture.

So as my daughter , Madeline, who dreams of attending Stanford upon high school graduation and my son , Nathaniel, Virginia Tech, I hope they too take time to explore other places, but then find themselves coming back “home” as I did. There is truly no place like it. I know they, too, will be the parents saying I can remember when…

.....Karen Sigler-Goldstein, Finance Director