For this exclusive interview series, we sat down with members of our community who have lived in this area long enough to see it grow and change. Our mission is to record local personal histories, so the knowledge and wisdom of our towns and cities' heritage isn't lost. *Disclaimer: interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
Sybil Adams, 52, was born and raised in Buena Vista. Her parents are Linda Campbell Floyd and Larry "Moose" Floyd. Her father is a Vietnam veteran. Sybil is the oldest of four children and her siblings' names are: Holly Floyd Birch, Nathan Floyd, and Camille Floyd Clark. Her husband is Mark Adams. She owns University Florist in Lexington.
Tell me about your schooling and your work history?
I started out at Kling Elementary, went to Parry McCluer Middle School and graduated from Parry McCluer High School in 91. I thought that I was a big city girl trapped in a country town and decided to go away for college. I went to Idaho for a year and discovered that I was not that! I came home with a fiancé and we never left. That wasn't our plan. Our plan was to stay here for a couple weeks, have him meet my parents, and then go back out west where he was from, and live a life.
Didn't happen. We found jobs, we found a place for him to stay until we got married, we married, and had our family and raised our kids here. Now they're raising their kids here, which is really nice.
I started working when I was 16 and worked here locally, at Roses - which is a department store that no longer exists because I'm that old. Right before Mark and I got married I worked at Shenandoah Valley Healthcare Center - which is the nursing home in BV. I worked there for a year or so and fell in love with working with older adults. Then we decided to have a family, so I stayed at home with our kids for a bit while Mark worked at a factory here in town. When the kids were old enough to be in school, I decided to go back to work full time - back to the nursing home I had started out at before and loved it. I worked there for a good many years in the activities department and got to learn a lot. Then had the opportunity to work at Kendall at Lexington for 13 years, in their social work department and worked with some really fabulous people. I loved advocating for those that couldn't advocate for themselves. I was able to work and teach classes - things like 'End of Life,' 'Dementia Care.'
In the middle of all those things I had kids that were growing up and playing ball, were active in church and friends, and all those things. Then I had the opportunity to purchase a local business and that's where I made the choice to work as my own boss which is tough sometimes.
Can you tell me about your family background?
Mom and Dad are both local as well. They grew up in the Natural Bridge area. My mom graduated from Natural Bridge High School. Dad graduated from Parry McCluer and most people know them, just because they've been here forever, but our family goes back generations. Dad's line is heavily connected with the Monacan Indians. What we've been able to figure out is the census takers kind of made decisions themselves and, I don't know if I'm correct on that, but that's what I understand and so there were lots of mistakes made with race here locally just because of contention and things like that were in the community.
When I was little I used to ask my daddy why his skin was a little browner than mine and he said: because he drank coffee. And I believed him. No, it's because his mother and his father and his grandparents were Monacan Indian and they grew up on Irish Creek. They didn't come out of the mountains often because not all of the the towns people were kind to the Indians. So, they stayed there. They grew their food and they raised their kids. My dad is a product of that and he's an amazing man. It's because he had amazing parents. I have that heritage, I have that bloodline, and I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful that I know some of their stories. His siblings have passed on; we've lost a lot of that knowledge. That's really sad that we didn't take the time to write it down or record it.
Mom, her family line is local too - farmers and hard workers. One thing that they have in common was surviving the '69 flood. I've learned about that through their experiences as kids and how those things really affected them emotionally. It refocused their attention on people and how important it was to love and serve others. I think that's one of the most important things that I've been able to learn from my mom and dad: to love others no matter what. No matter their differences, no matter their belief systems or race or or life experiences. I'm really grateful that Mom and Dad taught us all that.
I'm grateful that my youngest sister works here with me. My other younger sister works or has worked in healthcare and then now in the school systems. My brother's been a teacher for over 20 years. All of those areas of work, service is part of that. Working with people that might be different than us - I really think that's important to do.
what was the most pivotal year in your life and why
I think, because of how I saw myself in high school, when I decided for some reason that this isn't where I wanted to live my adult life or to raise my family and I decided to leave. I recognized that where I came from was really where I should be that was very pivotal for me because I recognized that I needed to come home. The best thing I ever did was leave and discover that. The second best thing I ever did was come back because it has helped me to grow as a person. I've been able to build relationships with generations of other families who've lived here too. Who my parents were friends with, then now I'm friends with their kids, and then their kids are friends with my children. That is a really special thing. I think sometimes we don't understand how important that is.
When we're gone, I miss that hometown feel of saying 'hi' to somebody in the grocery store. When I was sick with cancer, it was really difficult time and it still is. But me and my family were on prayer roles of all the churches here locally and I know that because people would tell me. They would come into the flower shop or stop me in the in the grocery store and say 'we've been praying for you, that you would be healthy.' I don't think, unless you experience that, I don't think people realize how important that is: a community to wrap their arms around people who who need that.
Do you have a family tradition that has special meaning to you?
Ever since I grew up, we always have traditions for lots of different holidays but Christmas is extra important. We always go to my mom's and dads on Christmas morning for breakfast. Back then it was cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody. As people grow up and live in different areas, those kind of things don't happen as often but that part is still so important to my family. To just set in a living room and have my kids, my parents, grandkids and their great grandkids run around and be obnoxious. Mom always fixes a traditional country breakfast with, you know, biscuits and gravy, bacon and eggs, and all those things. Just spending time together on that very special day where we celebrate the birth of our savior is really important to us. It just brings us together and it gives us a calm amongst the chaos. I think that's what I look for the most in family traditions: calm amongst the chaos.
Do you have a favorite family recipe that you feel should be preserved?
We always try to eat things, like, Mom's banana pudding is the best ever. You know I've learned to make it and my siblings have learned to make it. It's not that it's hard or a big secret, it's just my mom's, you know? Those smells and tastes of things really bring back memories from childhood. Mom always was a baker and she made things for us. We would come home to fresh baked cookies and things like that. Um I know that that was hard for her sometimes because she juggled so much with all of us at home but she always made our home a place where we want to be. When Mark and I got married and had a family, that was our goal too.
So, okay all it is is banana pudding - instant pudding because I'm not going to take the time to cook it. That's just too much. I think what makes hers a little bit different than others that I've had is in the putting itself she adds sour cream and Cool Whip. So that the taste of a little bit tartness and the little sweetness just really blend well together. You just layer it with the wafers, the bananas, and then the pudding. And that's it, it's super simple. It takes five minutes. She doesn't measure, she's that kind of cook. Which is difficult for me cuz I have to have a recipe or I can't cook anything. "Just add a little bit of this and a little bit of that" and I'm not that kind of cook! She thinks it's silly that I can't figure it out but I can't figure it out!
Is there a family heirloom that is precious to you?
Gosh, I have so many, for different reasons. There's a lamp that my dad has, it belonged to his mother. My grandparents died before my mom and dad got married and so I never knew them but this lamp belonged to my grandmother. It sat in our living room as kids and we knew: you do not get near the lamp! You don't touch the lamp, you don't throw balls in the house, and when we did because we didn't always listen, we'd get in trouble. But that lamp has survived generations of our children and grandchildren and now my parents great-grandchildren. We're very thankful for that because my grandparents lost everything the flood. So there weren't a whole lot of of heirlooms in their family to pass down. Also, she wore a cross - she was a very faithful woman. Most of us girls have worn her cross when we got married. That was really special.
On my mom's side, I was blessed enough to know my great-grandmother and my grandmother and sat in my great-grandmother's kitchen and watched her need bread on this Hoosier cabinet and things like that. We have furniture pieces that belong to her. I have a piece, a buffet, that belonged to her great grandmother. So it was my great, great, great, grandmother's piece of furniture. And it's old and it needs repairs, it needs love and restoration, but I don't want to change it. It's seen so many kitchens and dining rooms. So when my grandmother was dying, I made sure that she knew I wanted that piece. She knew that for a long, long time, even before she was ever sick. When I was in my 20s, I would say, “Granny, that belongs to me.” She would just laugh.
One of the things she gave me before she died was called a book of remembrance. It was all of her genealogy and it's in her handwriting. It has stories about her life. Things that of course I didn't know about because it just didn't come up in typical conversation. She gave me that before she passed. After she died, mom and I, and some family members were helping clean out our house. We found this book that my mom had given her years before, that we didn't know she had filled out. It was was a book of prompts and it would say, "tell me a story about your first date" or "tell me a story about your mom and recipes." Things like that. She actually wrote in it! So we found that after she passed and I have it at the house. I look at it and read it and it just shows her growth, her trust in the Lord, her testimony, her love of family, really hard things that she dealt with in her life. Those things are priceless to me.
Do you have any advice to give to people who want to live a long and happy life
Oh my goodness! Well, I think it just comes down to just being a good person. And recognizing your value as a human being. and Recognizing that the value that you have, others have that same value. That you, as a person, can do so much good in whatever community that you live in and whatever circumstances that you're in. I think that can bring a lot of joy and peace within a community. I think just being kind to everybody is really important. Trying to live by that Golden Rule. Recognizing and following up with those feelings of you 'maybe somebody can use a little bit of light today' and you being that light. Because I think as times change as we grow older and as our community grows that those simple things - being kind to another person - is really what's going to keep our community strong and alive and thriving.
Serve the community more because that's important to me. My parents did that and they taught me that. I've tried to do that even before I bought the flower shop. When I bought the flower shop it was super important for me to do a little bit more. Whether it be a bride, a birthday bouquet, or something like that. Really give everything that I have to making it beautiful and heartfelt because each piece, for me, is really a heartfelt expression. Whether it's a sympathy arrangement or any other arrangement. It really is someone's ability to express love. They choose us to help them with that and that's a blessing, an opportunity that other people give us.
The communities have to grow and the growth is good but you just can't lose the foundation that you've grown to have. I would never want to see Lexington, Buena Vista, Natural Bridge, Glasgow, and all these beautiful little places in the county ever lose their history. You don't want to ever lose that part of of the community because that's what built our community. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, so when folks move here and I hear them say 'I love this town! I love being here,' they get it. They see what we, as locals, have seen for so long. I don't want that to ever be lost. You know, whatever your story is, wherever it began or ended, your story is amazing and so we need to share it.
Mom’s Banana Pudding
- 5-6 bananas
- 1 box of instant vanilla pudding- make as directed
- 10oz of sour cream
- 1 small container of cool whip
- Bills wafers
Fold the sour cream and cool whip into the made vanilla pudding then layer wafers, banana slices and pudding mixture. You should be able to have 3-4 layers. Make sure the last layer is the pudding mixture. Crumble a few wafers and sprinkle them on top of the pudding mixture. Put in fridge for 30 minutes then enjoy.
