Interview with Gennifer Chenault, History 150 Spring 2020, Conducted by Valerie Chenault, March 21, 2020.

Background:

Gennifer Chenault grew up in many different places. She went to high school in West Virginia and college at West Virginia University. She moved to Ashburn in the early 1990s and has lived there ever since. She is a mother of two and now works for a marketing telemedicine company in Reston, VA.

Ashburn was mainly farmland until around the 1990s. At that point, the community started to transition away from agriculture and began to turn into another suburb similar to the rest of Northern Virginia (NOVA). Reston was one of newest communities in NOVA, but because it was fairly expensive to live there, more and more people began to move to rural areas like Ashburn. This brought in a lot of young adults and technological jobs to Ashburn as NOVA’s technological wave spread out farther from Washington D.C.

The dramatic growth that Northern Virginia has experienced is greater than almost everywhere else in Virginia. Some places, like Loudoun County, which used to be entirely rural are now one of the fastest-growing counties in Virginia. Anther county in NOVA, Prince William County, has growth that is even touching the boundaries of an area protected against the urban lifestyle growing in the county. Both of these instances showcase the massive amount of growth NOVA has had in the last 30 years since both counties are getting to the lines between rural, suburban, and urban areas.

Resources (MLA): 

1. Gregg, Aaron. “D.C. Suburbs Becoming One of the Country’s Fastest-Growing Employment Hubs.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 19 Aug. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/dcs-suburbs-are-becoming-one-of-americas-fastest-growing-employment-hubs/2016/08/19/c14f4cc4-6626-11e6-8b27-bb8ba39497a2_story.html.
2. Livingston, Mike. Newcomers Handbook for Moving to and Living in Washington, DC: Including Northern Virginia and Suburban Maryland. First Books, 2006.
3. Olivo, Antonio. “Virginia’s Population Growth Is Most Robust in Washington Suburbs.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 25 Jan. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/virginias-growth-is-most-robust-in-washington-suburbs/2018/01/25/8de356f0-0134-11e8-93f5-53a3a47824e8_story.html.

Interview:

VC: Hi, my name is Valerie Chenault and I will be interviewing Gennifer Chenault for my interview on the social changes that came about in Ashburn, Virginia from both technological and economic changes.

So, when did you first move to Ashburn?

Gennifer Chenault: I moved to Ashburn in 1993.

VC: Okay. And what was Ashburn like? Like?

Gennifer Chenault: Ashburn was very rural. Everyone said we were moving to the boonies, we’ve been moved to Ashburn, we had been living in Reston, Virginia, which is a suburb of Washington, DC, but we couldn’t afford to live there. So, we moved out here because the housing prices were cheaper. And it was really sort of a new development and not quite established yet. So of course, you know, it was the bottom of the market at the bottom of the prices. And so, it was very rural out here. There were houses obviously, but there wasn’t a Lyle’s.

VC: Okay, um, can you describe like your first impression of Ashburn?

Gennifer Chenault: Sure, sure that’s a good because the first person we met, of course, was the person trying to sell us the house, right? So, they had a guy who set up at a model home. And he, you know, you know, was nice to us and invite us in and you know we look toward the model home as a townhome. And toward it, he was very nice. And he explained that it was a lot of new families that were moving there. People who are just starting out in their careers just starting out in their families. And it was a very active community because of the sports pavilion that had already been built, which is where we go to work out and has a pool and machines and things like that it already been built. So, they were really focused on an active young community when we moved here, so my impression was that everybody was going to be a lot like my husband and me. bike riding and hiking and going out and enjoying ourselves.

VC: Okay, um, who do you think when you first got here, who do you think the stores and restaurants were like advertising to?

Gennifer Chenault: So, there weren’t any stores in Ashburn at the time there was a little store down in Old Town Ashburn called Partlow’s that was just a little country store. And they just had a little bit of everything. But they certainly didn’t market to anyone. There was no Giant [grocery store] there was no there was no grocery stores, no retail of any kind. There were schools and there were houses and there was the Sports Pavilion. That was it. So, there were people who were trying to market us to go to Leesburg, like we would get flyers. And this is back when direct mail was much more popular before email. And we would get flyers to go into Leesburg or to Sterling for restaurants, dry cleaners, everything like that. So that’s they were marketing to people who were there’s a whole term of marketing for people who have just moved into a house they they’re typically going to spend a ton of money when they first move into a house. So, they’re called new buyers, right? So, they those kind of marketing pieces is what we were really getting because we were all new buyers to the community.

VC: And how do you think that’s changed to now? Like who do you think it’s more advertising for now?

Gennifer Chenault: I would definitely say that the advertising has changed to be toward families toward parents, especially women, moms, who are trying to get their kids into great activities, trying to get their kids ahead in school, and trying to have a nice evening out, you know, the restaurants are still advertising heavily. And you know, those kinds of things. Those are those are the businesses that I see, and their target market is definitely the mom, in the family here in Ashburn.

VC: Okay, and what types of jobs were available when you first moved here? And then what types of jobs are now available now?

Gennifer Chenault: So, I’ve been able to see a really huge evolution in that kind of thing. So, when we move to Ashburn, there were no businesses is in Ashburn, it’s very unlike Reston, and when they moved when they built Reston, and they built businesses and houses all at the same time. Not a lot of them, but they were definitely that was definitely what they were going for. When Ashburn they really just built houses and the retail came later. And the businesses, businesses, people that you can go and work for, came along to, but the biggest places to work were AOL, which was called American Online, which was an internet service provider, and Verizon, which was something else before that, but it was a phone and internet company. So those two big employers were the ones that you know that I got to see and start growing here. And obviously, the evolution has into the technology field has grown significantly for Ashburn.

 VC: And did you kind of take part in the technology field, the jobs that were available when you first moved here, like AOL and stuff?

Gennifer Chenault: So, I was working for a publishing company, and I tried to get on to American online to work but I never could get hired on there, which was a shame because I would love to have worked there. And, and I didn’t really have the telecommunications background to work at Verizon, so I didn’t but I had plenty of friends who did, who worked there and plenty of friends who worked at American online as well.

VC: Okay, um, and so how did you see the society like within Ashburn before you had kids, and then how did you see it after you had kids?

Gennifer Chenault: You know, I think that’s a really interesting question. Because when you’re first starting out in life, you know, you’re gonna hang out with people who are just starting out in life. We didn’t hang out with people who had kids, you know, not. Yeah, I can’t think of very many people at all that we hung out with had children already. But when we had children, all of a sudden, that’s who we were going to be hanging out with. So, I would say that when we first moved here, we definitely thought the community was just like us, right? Just like two people, dual incomes, no kids, lots of free time on the weekends, lots of time to go out and enjoy the enjoy nature, biking, hiking, all that kind of stuff using our sports pavilion. My husband and I were both on the master swim team at the sports pavilion before we had children. And so we thought people were all like us, and even, you know, there was a, there was a committee that you could be on about the sports pavilion that we joined because we want to make sure that they stayed true to be the very active outdoor-focused community. And that’s funny to me now because then as soon as we had children, we started to see the community completely different. We saw those people that had children and we played with them in the park. And then we, you know, went to school with there and met them at the bus stops or the you know, we walked to school, but you know, we outside of school to pick up the children. That’s how we that’s how I got most of my friends here in Ashburn. But really, I mean, I’m hardly I don’t think I’m friends with anybody I was friends with when I first moved to Ashburn because they didn’t have kids, right? And so, I think that’s just how normal I think that’s how people sort of evolve is once they have children, they sort of, you know, hang out with people who have kids too. It just makes it a lot easier. They can socialize, the kids can socialize. It’s just sort of a nice, easy way to be part of the community.

VC: And let me think, how did you feel like raising your kids in a fast-paced community? A lot of action going on around, how did you feel?

Gennifer Chenault: So, there’s, there’s good points and bad points. Sometimes I was very overwhelmed because it is so fast-paced. Everybody here is very focused on their children succeeding and excelling, really not just succeeding, but excelling. And, you know, there, we, I think, specialized way too early in sports, you know, and with football and baseball and those kinds of things and play year-round, and it just seemed to be too much. I know a lot of people, a lot of women that I hung out with that had children, were very concerned that we were over-scheduling our children to death, you know, and they were really, really way too focused on grades at the elementary level, or, you know, the SOL test that you all had to take. And, you know, there were a lot of women like me, who pulled back from a lot of that and just told my kids to relax and not worry about, you know, certain things. But it’s hard to tell your kids to relax when every other kid is focused on that sort of, you know, really high performing, you know status of person and, and that’s tough to raise children in that environment. I, myself, was raised by parents who were very much, you know, laissez-faire, like let us go out and play all day I didn’t know where we were, we came back for dinner or lunch. And you know, they didn’t really worry about us. And I think that the worry culture is what’s changed in my lifetime raising children. With my childhood, my parents didn’t worry about us until they couldn’t find us after dark. And then they would worry a little bit, but they didn’t worry worried. And then you know, now we have an internet that you know, is out there all the time telling us about all the horrible things that can happen to us. I think we have a worry culture, and I think it’s damaging our children in a lot of ways. I’m glad I didn’t really do that with my children, but I see it a lot of other women and it’s and men. It’s just it’s hard, you know, to deal with.

VC: Do you think back when your children were growing up that the parenting was different than it is like right now and Ashburn.

Gennifer Chenault: That’s a good question. I don’t know. You think that and then you know, but I don’t talk to a lot of people have little kids now. I do know that when you were little, we were always outside playing. And now, we were always out there because we’re a culture right mom, dad, we’re always out there, but we were always outside. And the neighborhood, just our little street has changed dramatically because I don’t see that as much as I did when you guys were little, I see some of our neighbors whose kids stay inside pretty much 90% of the time. And I think that’s changed and I think that’s a problem.

VC: Okay, um, this is related to that. Are there any changes you wish didn’t happen in Ashburn?

Gennifer Chenault: That’s a good question. I I feel like we, you know, everybody’s gonna feel like this in the suburbs that, you know, they don’t want any more building after they have their house right. So, everybody that has a house, they’re like, okay, no more building because I don’t want to get any bigger. And I am guilty of that, too. I don’t want it to get any bigger. I feel like that we have a little too much retail in Ashburn. Absolutely. There’s way too many things that are all the same, you know, 72 yogurt stores we don’t need, you know, you don’t need so many gas stations, so many cleaners so many. You know, it’s just there’s a lot. I mean, there’s five, six grocery stores I can go to in a mile. I think that’s over, overdeveloped. So uh, yes, I do regret that it’s been overdeveloped. But I do like is that Loudoun County is a huge county and the eastern part where we are very developed very on top of each other, but they’ve really tried to maintain the western part of Loudon as definitely more farmland, more spread out, less dense development. And I think that’s a good thing because a lot of the cool places we like to go are in western Loudon. A lot of the breweries and the wineries and the hikes that we like to go to, I wouldn’t want to see those overdeveloped

VC: Okay, I’m in other suburbs surrounding Washington, they’re becoming more urban than suburban. Do you think this is happening with Ashburn and/or Loudoun County, why or why not?

Gennifer Chenault: So, I don’t think this is happening as much, and here’s here’s why. In Reston, for example, they really built in the commercial part, you know, the business part of Reston. They haven’t really built any new housing interested in for a while, but except for the places around the new Metro, but they’ve done a huge amount of businesses buildings really good building. And they haven’t really done that in Ashburn, what we’re getting in Ashburn instead is data centers. So, all that land that would be for high rises and businesses, which would be a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, I’m not saying it’s either. It’s it’s definitely dedicated to data centers. The good news about that is they don’t take up a lot of services, right? They don’t bring in a lot of people. They’re, they’re, you know, very technology-oriented, but they’re not people-oriented. So, six or seven people can run a whole huge place. So that’s probably one of the reasons that we haven’t seen the urbanization of of Ashburn is because we have those data centers, which is sort of taking that place. It’s, you know, it’s building us, it’s giving us good tax income, you know, from those businesses, but they’re not really relying on our services and our schools, like, a lot of the other places would be, that would be a much more urban and I think places like Arlington, Alexandria, and even Reston now.

VC: Okay, um, last question. So, do you think that like, the technological change, and like economic change of Ashburn, like really changed the social, like, changed it socially, or maybe like not as much? Do you think it had a bigger effect than we might think?

Gennifer Chenault: I think the biggest effect that it had when we first moved here, everybody sort of looked like me and Rob, right. We’re Caucasian, and then as Ashburn grew and these technology businesses came in like American Online and Verizon and then now the data centers and and then there’s this is a bedroom community as it’s called for a lot of technology and Reston and even Sterling, we got way more diverse, right? We got way more diverse as a population. And I think that is a really good thing. And that’s what I see is a very positive change in Ashburn. When we lived on the other side of Ashburn in front of one of the elementary schools in a townhouse, there were no minorities on our block, not, you know, that I remember. And then when we moved over to this side of the community into a single-family home by that time, the whole street is like the United Nations, right that like we have neighbors from all over the world, and we have people of all different faiths, and I love that about Ashburn. So, I think Ashburn really did that well and not just stayed the same. Right? I’ve seen a lot of other communities further closer to the beltway who have definitely tried to stay the same, and you just have to open up the open up the you know, the really great awesome neighborhoods like this to everyone. And I think that’s been the hugest change from the technology change has brought in all those people with great technology skills from all over the world.

VC: Okay, thank you.

Overview:

This interview was conducted in person from a quiet room in her house. I didn’t have to edit too much, it was mainly things the transcription device I used messed up. There are a lot of words or phrases she repeats while talking, but I left that in there to be more accurate to how she talks. The only obstacle was when she or I was struggling to find the right words to say for the question or response.

The interview went really well, I got a lot of good information from it. I also think it was fun to talk about a place that I have grown up in and hear a different perspective from my own on what Ashburn is and was like. I went off script once or twice, but I think both times went well and my question got her talking more. I think it could have flowed a little better, and it didn’t always go in the direction I thought it would, but it usually led to something new I hadn’t really thought of. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to have a few better questions, and maybe have had a few more questions prepared so I could have learned more.