One is looking towards the buildings of the Virginia Military Institute down Main Street in Lexington. The grade used to come to the balcony doors on the buildings but it was cut down because loaded horses could not pull the steep incline. History here is a confronting wall contructed of flinty stone. Arnold Bennett said, "it is within the experience of everyone that when pleasure and pain reach a certain intensity they are indistinguishable."; and so it is with our past. VMI was founded in 1839; it has won and deserves the title of "The West Point of the South". From its inception generations of Pattons have stood the test of its requirements. George Patton among them; having started his military training as a freshman here before transferring to West Point. A man is marked by his life and sometimes his life scrathes world events. In a strange irony it may be well said that General Patton's military march began on the handmade brick walks of a quite Virginia town.