Editor’s Note: This column marks the last regular weekly installment of “Here and There” by Lon Leatherland. The columnist will continue to contribute works on occasion for publication.

You’re reading the 44th “Here and There” column.

The first appeared nearly a year ago and gave you a word-sketch of this new contributor to The Alleghany News.

Those early columns were fillers of a sort, written to get the ball rolling until more interesting subjects could be pulled together. Some folks probably skipped that part of the page after reading the first few stories. Others seem to have continued on a regular basis, if only to see what was coming next.

You and I have wandered through old cemeteries, visited schools no longer there, and learned about people who settled this land long before those whose family names still remain. Moonshiners and Mosa, the Indian girl, have come and gone, but the Lintons continue serving as missionaries.

We’ve walked Basin Cove in the rain, followed the Blue Ridge Parkway from start to finish, and imagined Worth Folger’s Aerial Tramway cars swinging for the last time from Scott Ridge to Mahogany Rock and onto a flatbed truck headed westward.

We waded the New River through its lengthy and twisting course to Scenic River status. Sparta’s DOT facility stepped back to its past years as a prison, then quickly returned without scratching a single yellow truck. The Battle of Caudill Hill came and went, with only the last line truly astonishing.

Ed Johnson, violinist, music teacher, pastor and distinguished gentlemen touched many, many lives. His passing left an emptiness here and delivered rich blessings to heaven.

Now it’s time for this weekly column to be replaced by an occasional one born of moods and moments, not weeks beginning with nothing to write and a fast-approaching deadline.

Thanks for sharing part of your day with “Here and There,” and for the encouragement along the way. I hope at least one story remains in your heart.

Two were very special for me. The first was of a particular farmhouse Christmas and a gift twice-given. The other connected two sisters-in-law who’d been strangers all their lives. Such memories linger long!

We’ve learned things together in our wanderings through Alleghany and its past. I hope you’ve found the trips worth taking.