DOWN MEMORY LANE
July 21, 1999
Tom G. Taylor, 43, is the newest member of the Rappahannock National Bank Board of Directors. Taylor was elected by the board at the June 28 monthly meeting and took the oath of National Bank Director from Board Chairperson Bet Jones on July 8.
“We are delighted to have Tom. We think he is going to make a fine director,” commented Ms. Jones.
A native of the county, Taylor has an associate’s degree from Ferrum College in Virginia and a bachelor’s degree from Berea College in Kentucky. Tom and his wife Cheryl started their own business, T. G. Taylor Construction, 14 years ago.
Taylor serves on the board of Headwaters and the Rappahannock County Building Office Appeals Board. He is also a member of the Masonic Lodge in Washington and is a trustee of Amissville United Methodist Church.
“I am excited to become a member of the board, and to serve the bank and the community,” Taylor said.
Mike Leake, Vice President of the bank and secretary of the board, said that “we are extremely excited. We think he’ll offer some new ideas and suggestions” for the bank.
Since 1988, Mary’s Little Shop has been firmly ensconced in Woodville and is still going strong. The shop is located in two buildings right on Sperryville Pike, Route 522.
One of the buildings used to be an old gas station. With an interesting array of products, Mary Nicholson caters to locals and tourists as well.
These days you can stop at Mary’s for all kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables, salad dressings, barbecue sauce, apple cider, honey, hanging plants, annuals, perennials, and all types of ceramics.
The ceramics are animals mostly — pigs, cows, cats and dogs. They are used mostly for decoration, but some are piggy banks and some are pitchers and bowls.
The enterprise began when Mary was a young woman. She was attending high school in Madison County and working at her uncle’s grocery store in Haywood. It was then that she began to want a shop of her own. But before that came about, Mary married her husband, Billy Nicholson, and had three daughters.
Her sales experience comes from working at the flea market in Front Royal. There she concentrated on produce and ceramics. She wanted to sell a wider array of products, but she did not feel she could sell the jams, jellies and fruits as other vendors were already selling them.
Oct. 2, 2003
Speaking with Pam Owen, owner of the newly-opened Fly-By-Night Books, Etc., in Flint Hill, makes one see used book stores in a whole new light.
The joy in her eyes as she talks about the “treasure hunt” involved in searching for the perfect item for her store makes one feel as though they have stepped into a pirate’s den. And the books and other items that fill the room become as intriguing as heaps of gold and rubies which have been acquired through countless searches for loot.
During her searches, which Owen said is by far the highlight of this new book store near Settle’s Grocery, she has found numerous treasures including a book that had been a childhood favorite of a professor in New York, as well as a map of Shenandoah National Park in its early days. It seems these treasures fly from Owen’s hands as quickly as she comes across them, as she said the map was purchased by the owner of a nearby bed and breakfast before it was even ready to be sold.
But this does not bother Owen, as she gets just as much joy in searching for the items as their new owners do in purchasing them.
Owners of Sperryville’s new Tex-Mex restaurant, Jennifer Gore and her husband, Jamie, a cousin of former Vice President Al Gore, are among the exodus of urban dwellers who are leaving behind the pressure and pavement of the city and heading for rural America.
And their newest restaurant, which she refers to as an “everyday” sort of eatery, is quite a change from the others the others the family ran while living in the city.
His father operated the famous Jockey Club in Washington D.C. Later, Gore followed in his footsteps the Guards Restaurant, Le Jardin and Coco Loco.
Her family also had the business in their blood and owned a Tex-Mex chain.
A little over a year ago the couple moved from Old Town Alexandria to Fauquier County with their three children, a 14-year-old daughter who is a part-time waitress at the new eatery, a 13-month-old baby and a four-week-old infant.
After the couple left their D.C. restaurants behind, Jennifer got the idea to start a Tex-Max restaurant of her own, and felt their current location would be perfect.
While the Gores are aware that the building has seen a variety of owners in recent years, from a barbecue joint to the more recent Blue Moon Cafe, Gore is certain that his restaurant is here to stay.