Photo by Pam Dudding
Pam Dudding
Contributing writer
With vendors aligning Main Street and vintage cars and trucks along the side streets, the Annual Fall Festival in Craig County offered a day of fun on Saturday.
The event was organized by the Craig County Historical Society.
Participants could start their day off at the Old Hotel with breakfast and a tour of the building, as relics were in every room as well as members making rugs and spinning.
Throughout the day, a different music group took the stage at almost every hour and on the other end of the festival, Tim Leftwich provided music with his equipment.
Laughter seemed to permeate the air as people shook hands and hugged. Some were so happy to see high school classmates after over 30 years.
Big smiles seemed to be a natural response from most everyone.
Vendors were happy to serve the ones who visited their booths.
Some served food, while other had raffle tickets and their items to sell.
A newcomer this year was Nathan Menefee, with his Grinnin’ Possum Fishing Lures.
Menefee shared that he drove a tractor trailer for years and when people asked how he was doing, he would respond, “I’m grinnin’ like a possum!”
“They were always wondering what I was up to,” he said with a possum grin.
However, Menefee hurt his arm a while back and had to go on disability.
He had been making lures for himself and his sons to use to fish and decided to start making more and sell them.
“That is how I ended up doing this as I got time to do stuff now,” he said. “I have five grandkids, four boys and another boy I helped to raise. He keeps me on the creek all the time now.”
There were many vendors who had lots of sweets to eat, and other foods including homemade jellies and breads. There were even free back massages given.
This year, the little league Cougar football team had a booth to raise funds to help buy the needed uniform equipment to protect the players. They sold barbeque with sides, cupcakes and hot cocoa. They sold out, which pleased the parents and players.
Raffle tickets to win a kayak, guns, flowers, jewelry, TVs, food and more were sold. Many of the local first responders depend on this opportunity to raise funds to be able to purchase their needed equipment to serve our community.
Midday, there were two dancing contests, a flat-footing and jitterbug.
As people danced, the judges looked upon everyone to see how they were doing. Again, smiles and laughter were of abundance.
Winners of the flatfooting were, Charles Swain who took first, second was Teresa Fisher and third was Tammy Alls. Everyone who danced seemed to enjoy their time.
It was the first year for the jitterbug contest. No adults got up to dance. However, the toddlers and small kids decided not to waste good music and danced the entire dance.
The society decided to make them winners and gave them a medallion. Their grins were priceless.
The Future Farmers of America group had many options for the kids to enjoy including animals to feed and pet, bull roping, a sac race and a raffle.
They also had face painting and Jullian Dooley had his face painted like a skeleton.
The Marshall Reynolds Memorial Car Show seemed to be a big hit as there were so many entries that they ran out of room. “We love seeing all these people bring their vehicles!” Jackie Reynolds Taylor shared.
There were vintage vehicles that had more clearcoat than could be imagined, antique sports cars that brought back memories for many who enjoyed sharing their personal stories with the owners and the huge mud trucks that the kids wanted their pictures taken with.
To end the day at 4 p.m., the vendors lined up to the winners of the many drawings and raffles.
Though the day ended, there were people gathered in little groups chatting and smiling.
As all ended, the street was quickly cleaned up.
