DOWN MEMORY LANE
Feb. 2, 1950
A decision to employ a trained assistant to help the local Board of Assessors in the re-assessment of real estate was made by the Board of Supervisors in a meeting in the courthouse yesterday.
On the suggestion of Robert L. Brown, Treasurer of Rappahannock County, the salary set for the treasurer’s office was fixed at $3,200, with $600 added for a part-time assistant. This is a savings of $500 to the county, and Treasurer Brown stated that he, as well as anyone could know, was in a position to state that the county needed to save money wherever it could.
If tales are true, Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Menefee have “laid the ghost” at “San Jacinto,” their charmingly remodeled home on the Sperryville-Washington road. It seems sad to think of the lady ghost being unable to find her way about in the changed rooms, but so the tales run, for a ghost is supposed to be forever “laid” if the house is changed.
The lady ghost of San Jacinto is supposed to be Mrs. Ambler, a tenant of years ago. She appears to have been thoroughly harmless and amused herself by creeping about and opening doors. However, colored servants and some members of the family were not as amused as the elderly lady ghost, for gossip says that Mrs. Willis, who was credited with not having been overly kind to her elderly mother, moved from San Jacinto. She followed the advice of the day which informed her that if one crossed water, a ghost could not follow; so Mrs. Willis crossed the brook about one-half mile from San Jacinto and built “Trianon,” a two story, French type chalet with gable-shaped windows.
Announcement was made this week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will continue to purchase fresh apples in February for delivery to the school lunch program. R. B. Bridgforth, chairman of the state committee for the production and marketing administration, said that the January price of $1.81 per bushel container, f.o.b. shipping point, would continue to be in effect in February. He said that purchases will be limited to quantities necessary to fill delivery orders placed with the Virginia Purchase representative.
May 12, 1983
Peggy and Arthur Smith have created the country version of the big city shopping mall. They took the “A” from antiques and the “A” from apple and combined the two in the new Sperryville Indoor Flea Market which opens this weekend.
“The apple “A” comes from the old apple packing shed on the outskirts of the village. The Smiths have spent the past month transforming the rambling old building with its leaky roof and shattered windows into exhibit space for antique dealers and craftspeople.
Over 20 exhibitors have signed up for space so far and the Smiths hope to attract a host of others.
“We’re hoping to bring the tourists back this way, the tourists who readjusted their travel routes after Interstate 66 was put through to Front Royal. Let them come and then go home,” Peggy announced.
Using priceless fabric as well as plastic bowls, antique lace as well as cardboard forms, Flint Hill seamstress Corinne DelGrosso has been putting together outlandish creations for fancy state presentations ever since the Rappahannock Players first production Pinafore, in the fall of 1980.
“One of my favorite parts of sewing is solving difficult design and construction problems,” Corinne said about the skill that takes her out of the ranks of an ordinary seamstress. “I love looking at a design and figuring out how to do it.”
DelGrosso has standard patterns that she transfers to newspapers and alters according to what is needed.
Corinne has been designing, thinking and sewing since she was a child making doll clothes. She always enjoyed it but necessity entered the picture when she became the mother of six daughters.
As part of Rappahannock’s sesquicentennial celebration, a group of local people are planning a 100 year time capsule to be opened July 4, 2083, for the county’s 250th birthday.
The time capsule committee — Rayner V. Snead, Mary Botts Quaintance, William Carrigan, Lucia Kilby, Grace Sims and Diane Bruce — propose to erect a range from homelife to sports, education to technology, polities to the environment. Letters will be reviewed by the committee members and those selected will be included with photos of the authors in the time capsule.
Dec. 11, 1996
Dr. Brooke Miller of Flint Hill has joined two other doctors in a private practice in Luray.
Dr. Miller is a native of Rappahannock and graduated from RCHS in 1978. He had worked as an emergency room doctor since he graduated from the University of Virginia Medical School and completed his residency in family practice in Richmond in 1989. His first six years were at Culpeper Hospital then one year in Montana, and back to this area to work at the hospital in Luray.
He lives in Flint Hill with his wife Ann and their two daughters and two sons.
Virginia State Trooper Wayne Summer of Rappahannock County graduated from Patrol K-9 School at the State Police headquarters in Richmond last Friday.
Trooper Summer attended the school for 12 weeks of intensive training, and once finished, returned at Rappahannock with Marko, who is a Belgian Malinois almost five years old. Five other men attended the school, and because there was one extra dog to be trained, Trooper Summer also had a Rottweiler, besides Marko, during the training. Once school was finished, he had to choose which of the two dogs he would bring home.
Trooper Summer has been employed for four years with the Virginia State Police. Prior to that he spent six years as an MP in the Marine Corps.
Many Virginia apple growers are concerned that the Food and Drug Administration may force all apple juice producers to pasteurize their products.
The government is considering the action after a recent outbreak of E Coli from unpasteurized apple juice killed a child in Colorado and sickened dozens of others in western states.
“It would put me out of the juice business,” said Bill Freeman, a Giles County apple grower and Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board member. “I can’t compete with the large producers who have big, expensive pasteurization plants set up.”
Cider is one of the only ways growers can get a return on small or blemished apples that are unsuitable for the fresh market..