As Pleasant Living grows, especially in the Middle Peninsula and Richmond, we realize that many of our new readers are unfamiliar with our magazine’s history—who we are and how and where we began. Northern Neckers are among the most aware, since PL took root in Lancaster County, but thousands of readers who have recently discovered us since we became a complimentary publication don’t know that we have been plying our trade for many years in the River Country.
It’s uncanny how quickly the years have evaporated, and 1989 when we launched PL seems like a dream. In the early years, we pounded out PL stories on a portable typewriter and cranked out 4-color issues of the magazine on a single-color Harris printing press. The first issues of PL emerged from the offices of HS Printing on Chesapeake Drive in the former White Stone Theatre, just across from the post office, three doors down from the pharmacy. In 1992, we moved into the theatre’s converted balcony, then to an adjacent building next to the pharmacy, and then in 2001, to a new location on the edge of town. Not long after, we opened a satellite office in Richmond. In 2006, we moved our White Stone office to Main Street, Kilmarnock.
In the beginning, our goal was for PL to celebrate and preserve rural life, to capture in our pages the rich simplicity, beauty, words, images, folklore and history of this region. We envisioned a magazine as literary artifact—a document that represented the style and voice of real people living and writing in a region that stands apart from the rest of Virginia. Since our genesis, many PL collectors have emerged—readers who have kept every issue of the magazine—confirmation that our original vision has become real. We continue to celebrate and preserve life inland and along the rivers, from the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, to Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, west to Richmond and north to Fredericksburg.
Revisiting the old issues of PL is a journey through a maze of unforgettable local characters and over a decade and a half of River Country history and culture. The River Country life that has been preserved in our pages is somehow timeless. People and businesses are born and then disappear, buildings are built and torn down, but the essence of this area is unchanged. It remains a singular place, unparalleled in its beauty and character. pl