Check your blood pressure this Heart Month!
Areminder to everyone that February is Heart Month. So let’s make blood pressure control our goal. Uncontrolled high blood pressure is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke, o en showing no signs or symptoms. Which is why having your blood pressure checked regularly is important.
If you know you have high blood pressure, take these steps: Ask your doctor what your blood pressure should be. Set a goal to lower your pressure. Take your blood pressure medicine as directed and reduce sodium intake, for sodium can raise blood pressure.
BIRTHDAY WISHES
Birthday wishes go out to Frank Mo ett who blows out his candles on Tuesday, Feb. 8. Birthday wishes as well to a dear friend of mine, Pastor Phil Bailey, who will celebrate his special day on Sunday, Feb. 13.
Bryant Lee will eat cake on Thursday, Feb. 17. Birthday wishes as well go out to Bud Clatterbuck, who is celebrating on Saturday, Feb. 19; another dear friend of mine, Lillie Corbin of Sperryville, who will be celebrating on Wednesday, Feb. 23, Mary McFarland day is on Friday, Feb. 25, and Betty Grigsby, who will celebrate her special day on Monday, Feb. 28 in Heaven.
May you all have many more birthdays.
BOOK BARN REOPENING
The Book Barn will reopen for business on Saturday, Feb. 5 from 10 a.m until 2 p.m. Please stop by and take a look at the books, puzzles, CDs and DVDs that are available at great prices.
Masks and social distancing are requested.
And thanks to the Friends of the Library, computer help is now available at the library. Please call for times.
Stay warm and keep thinking about spring.
BUSINESSES IN THE TOWN
There were few businesses in the town in the 1950s. T. C. Lea operated his Lea Brothers Store in a building he had constructed on lot 27, fronting on Gay Street, in 1935. He came from a family of storekeepers, including his father J. P. Lea and two uncles W. B. Lea and L. L. Lea. T. C. Lea operated his store until his death in 1957, a er 38 years of doing mercantile business in the town. His widow continued the business until 1964 and then sold it to her son T. Carlyle Lea Jr., who was an attorney and judge for the Rappahannock County Court. On Dec. 19, 1968, an IGA food store opened in the building; the store was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Sophia. However, the enterprise was short-lived; the building housing the store and the contents of the building were sold at public auction in 1970.
The concrete block building constructed in 1955 on the southern part of lot 14 was used by the W. A. Miller-John Caskie Real Estate Firm on the south side of the building and Washington Post O ce, from April 1956 to 1981, on the north side. The Rappahannock County Health Department was also located in the building and later, Mrs. John M. Barber Jr., opened a beauty shop in the building. The Washington Cash Store was located on lot 6 and was the town’s all-purpose general merchandise store established in 1946, where you could buy anything from a pair of gum boots to a sirloin steak.
Editor’s note: This information was excerpted from Maureen I. Harris’ book, “Washington, Virginia, a History, 17352018.”