On Tuesday, October 5, the Halifax County Fair will open with five days of special events celebrating its 100th Anniversary. This year’s event will showcase a retrospective of an annual tradition that began on lower Main Street in South Boston VA and has grown to be a cornerstone fall event that continues to unite the community through agriculture, rides, food and music.

The Fair's new website (http://www.halifaxcountyfair.com) has just been launched, along with the schedule for performers who have been booked so far.  This year's entertainment will include the flamboyant Marty Stuart, the Second Annual Bluegrass Festival, and the Annual 4-H Talent Show that has been so popular over the years.

When Mr. Dix decided to retire and close the Exchange Store in Halifax, people were brokenhearted because the store had been such a big part of the town for so long.  Tom Shepherd and Ginny Bogart, owners of TAG Promotions and Peddlers Market in South Boston, stepped in and reopened the store, carrying on the traditions that have been in place since the Exchange Store originally opened - in the same location - in 1922.

Traditional exchange stores, carrying hardware, housewares, and groceries, are like walking back in time and many people have never even seen one other than on old TV shows.  Peddlers Market Exchange Store follows this model and seeks to offer hard-to-find items in addition to items that we might need every day.

Sometimes we native Virginians are so used to our rich history that we forget that everyone else isn't familiar with all aspects; my son & daughter were born in Florida and were teens and tweens when we moved here, and many times I find myself mistakenly taking for granted that they know certain things about my native state - recent case in point, traditional Christmas decorations. 

Last week Erin and I drove past John Fulton's B&B and she remarked about how pretty the Christmas decorations incorporating fruit were; it hit me that she didn't realize the place in our history that these decorations have, and that she had never seen Williamsburg  - much less decorated for Christmas.  I realized that when she returns to Los Angeles she may never get the chance to visit Williamsburg at Christmas, so a couple of days later we took a spontaneous day trip over to enjoy the decorations and share a little of our state and country's history.