Down Memory Lane

Oct. 1, 1992

Two local businesses are happy to meet the challenge and make their contribution to the youth of the community.

For decades the all-American pastime and business have had a close relationship. Youth baseball shirts all over the nation have Tony’s Pizza or Fred’s Garage on the back. Business sponsorship of baseball teams is one of the ways youth baseball leagues finance this sport. In Rappahannock County we have a unique problem in the fact that we do not have a lot of businesses and most are small.

To help raise much needed funds, the Rappahannock Athletic Association (RAA) would like to challenge for the month of October all businesses in the business community to send a check for $25 to the RAA to help keep this league growing and thriving.

Jeff Foster, son of Randolph and Lilo Foster of Washington, has been playing the banjo ever since he was a child. Last week, a long passion paid off in a major way when the 32 year old engineer now living in Bristol, as part of a unique band called Special Delivery, won the Pizza Hut International Bluegrass Showdown in Owensboro, Ky.

The four-piece band had placed first in the MidAtlantic regional finals this summer and competed against five other bluegrass bands in the contest.

Foster, who grew up in Rappahannock, graduated from Rappahannock High School and Virginia Tech with a degree in mechanical engineering. He has only been with the band four months.

Mrs. Flinchum’s first grade class celebrated Grandparent’s Day last week. Grandparents were invited to join the class for a snack, made by the students, and then could share stories about their school days. The students prepared for their students by making chocolate and vanilla pudding and learning proper manners about being polite and serving guests first.

Nineteen first graders sat spellbound while listening to stories ranging from Nathan Corbin’s grandmother getting into trouble for laughing at another student’s antics to Bobbie Jo Brown’s grandmother reminiscing about when Mrs. Flinchum’s mother (Mrs. Lazvinia Barron) caught her children acting up.

Hope Jacob’s grandmother and grandfather also explained how they drank water from a dipper.

It was a heartwarming day, which made Room 9’s school family much closer.

Aug. 14, 2002

Micah Solomon has both created and discovered an oasis. Originally the oasis was Solomon’s business, begun in 1987 in College Park, Md., because he needed a company to do what wasn’t being done. As a musician, composer and recording engineer, he had been disappointed by the quality of his work when it came back to him from the duplication process.

He knew he could do better, so he did. Solomon named his new business Oasis.

From his recording studio in Maryland and a staff of one (himself) he produced records and cassettes and a reputation for quality and innovation. Oasis expanded with the industry to CDs, adjusting its name to Oasis CD Manufacturing.

He now employs a full time staff of 28. Along the way, he gained a partner, his wife Vandy. In 1997, with the help of Jean Lillard, the Solomons bought the beautiful Frances Bradford house on Route 522 in Flint Hill. Jay Monroe, a local architect living in Huntly, turned the house into a workable headquarters for Oasis CD.

With the business growing at 14 percent a year, they outgrew the limited space at their headquarters in Flint Hill. From the moment Mr. Solomon first saw the Faith Mountain building near the Rappahannock Co-op on U.S. 211, he fell in love with it and wanted it.

Oasis CD moved into its dream home on June 10 and got the phones and all things technical working by June 11, thanks to the technical wizardry of Martin

Henze. Solomon says that everything feels right.