Summer's Start

Ahh, the lazy, hazy days of summer! Memorial Day traditionally marks the beginning of summer and this year has gotten off to a great start! Tonight, my son, daughter-in-law and I will attend the 60th annual Augusta County 4H/FFA Market Animal Show-Supper at the Towers Ruritan Hall in Mount Solon, Virginia. This area of the Shenandoah Valley remains one of the most pristine and beautiful farming areas in Virginia and I always look forward to this event. We'll fellowship with friends and business associates and see children awarded some prizes for their hard work raising cattle, pigs, and sheep. These folks are doing their best to keep the rich agricultural heritage of our area alive and may God bless their efforts. Here, among the Scots-Irish descendants of the great Shenandoah Valley, remains many of the old ways so well expressed by the words of Richard Weaver:

"The home was a school. Farm and cabin households, though bookless save for the Family Bible and The Sacred Harp, taught the girls to spin, weave, quilt, cook, sew, and mind their manners; the boys to wield gun, ax, hammer and saw, to ride, plow, sow and reap, and to be men. Nobody need ever be bored. Amusement did not have to be bought."

We'll also eat some of the best barbecue lamb east of the Mississippi! What a great Southern tradition and great way to kick off Memorial Day weekend, along with the summer season. Mama will stay home with two of my granddaughters this evening and Monday we'll take a backroad Virgina ramble and see what we can find - no particular destination in mind, just exploring "the roads less traveled" - I'm sure we'll come across some patriotic community events, chicken barbecues, and some bluegrass pickin'. Thank God for the summer season and for the rich heritage of our great republic. Remember to pray for our soldiers this Memorial Day.