King George family featured on ‘Wife Swap’

When the sun goes down, members of the Padovan-Hickman family burn candles, flick on kerosene-powered lamps or don coal-miner lamps to see in their King George County log cabin.

That's because they don't have electricity.

They also don't have a TV, computer or any other technical amenities - which some consider necessities - except for the mini DVD player they bought themselves at Christmas (and charge by car cigarette lighter).

They've watched three movies on it since then.

No wonder ABC considered these "modern pioneers" ideal candidates for its "Wife Swap" show, which has the wives of two contradictory families exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) for two weeks.

In February, sweet-natured, unpretentious DeLaura Padovan-Hickman was packed off to an upscale New Jersey suburb, where she was promptly handed a leopard-print shirt and spiked heels, the typical uniform of Shannon Nicole Burroughs, her wifely opposite.

"If you remember Alice Cooper from the'70s, it's like he came back," Padovan-Hickman said. "I had to put on makeup. As the days went by, my hair got bigger and bigger. I went to the hairdresser and also got my nails done. I had to have a consultation for breast enhancement. I was living her life."

Burroughs, said Padovan-Hickman, didn't exactly warm to the rustic Virginia lifestyle or to the family's 57 acres, which, on the 2 that are cleared, include chickens and goats and crops that they grow for themselves and for the Community-Supported Agriculture group.

"Her whole world revolves around how she looks, so she couldn't find enough negative things to say [about our life]," Padovan-Hickman said of Burroughs. "She got on my husband for not shaving his beard, my kids for not knowing their shoe size. She didn't do home schooling with them or read them bedtime stories, which is the fabric of our lives."

Given the absence of television access in the Padovan-Hickman home, it's no surprise that DeLaura, 46, husband Steve, 60, and daughters Tara, 11, and Maren, 8, had never heard of "Wife Swap."

DeLaura, who teaches music and is a square-dance caller and community dance leader, learned in August that the show was looking for a folk-dancing family through an e-mail (which she checks at the local library) to her national dance callers group.

The Padovan-Hickmans talked it over and decided that participating in the show would be an "adventure," so they applied for it.

After months of tests - including psychological and blood - were conducted, filming of the episode took place in mid-February.

Padovan-Hickman likens the experience to being in a foreign-exchange program. She said that the only time Burroughs' husband, Shannon Michael, lost his temper with her was when she told him that the American dream he was busy chasing was really the American nightmare.

"I hope that I was able to leave that family looking at things a little differently and showing them that their lifestyle is excessively wasteful. None of us out here is standing on soapboxes telling people they should live this way or that way, but if we all simplified our lives, we could help the whole globe," Padovan-Hickman said.

While she's diplomatic about what she ultimately gleaned from "Wife Swap" - "It's been a learning opportunity, and if nothing else, we came away with a deeper appreciation for the lifestyle that we do live" - Padovan-Hickman does plan to assemble with her family and friends tonight to watch the edited version of her experiences on the small screen.

The King George Citizens Center has been donated for a community viewing and, true to the Padovan-Hickmans' roots, they're turning the evening into a selfless event: Admission is a food donation for the King George Food Bank.

Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or .