Marcie Horne of Stuart bills herself as a "girl sanger" and the girl can "sang" as she proved Friday night during an impromptu performance at Cafe del Sol.
Horne hosts a country radio show in Stuart and her rendition of "You Say Nothing at All" at the Cafe left the audience demanding more. Such surprises are part of what make Friday nights at Floyd so special.
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A young man out for a night on the town with grandpa. Captured at the Floyd Country Store during the Friday Night Jamboree.2
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The crowd for Friday Night in Floyd turned out in force for the weekly Jamboree with a packed dance floor of enthusiastic revelers (above and left) and the usual appreciative audience for the street musicians outside (below).
With the new Hotel Floyd booked to capacity and a jam-packed weekend that includes the annual Arts and Crafts Festival at the High School, the Jamboree kicked off a busy time.
I chatted for a while with Mike and Ann Myers, a couple from the Atlanta area, in town to look at property so they can relocate from the urban rat race. They have already checked out Abingdon and Beford and felt Floyd offered more of what they wanted. Check out Ann’s Great Pet Net cat site and blog. Mike is a software developer who feels Floyd has the right mix of country living and high-tech availability.
Like others who jammed the streets on Friday night, the Myers’ came for music and a good time and that’s exactly what they found.
Two fluke accidents on the road this week hit close to home.
I didn’t know Robert Alan Pauley but several of his relatives were friends in high school. The 45-year-old Floyd man died in a motorcycle accident near Riner. One report said he crashed after his Harley hit a deer on Meadow Brook Road in Montgomery County.
A close friend broke her leg and totaled her pickup truck Thursday after she hydroplaned off the road. She’s home recovering with the help of her significant other who’s had his share of drama in his life this year.
Both incidents remind us of the fragility of life — even here in the country.
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Floyd County High School volleyballers wait for the serve from Radford Tuesday night during a district game.
Continue reading …Up until I moved to Illinois in 1969, I had never lived in any place longer than five years. Life started in Florida in 1947 but my father died in an industrial accident before I was old enough to remember him and my mother moved us back to her home in Floyd County when I was five.
Three years later, we would move to Farmville when she remarried. We would return to Floyd County five years later after Prince Edward County closed the public schools in defiance of a federal order to integrate.
True to form, five years later, I left Floyd County for Roanoke, working for The Roanoke Times while attending college. Didn’t make it five years in Roanoke, leaving four years later for a job in Illinois.
Alton, Illinois, became a period of relative stability. I stayed there nearly 12 years. Amy and I married in 1979 and we moved to Arlington in 1981, where we remained for 23 years before moving to Floyd in 2004.
Alton was my first long-term home and I keep up with what’s happening there with regular visits to the web site of The Alton Telegraph, the newspaper I wrote and photographed for during that stay. Amy grew up in nearby Belleville, Illinois, and we keep on top of news there through the web site of The Belleville News-Democrat.
Since leaving Arlington, we stay on top of news there through the metro section of The Washington Post and The Arlington Connection but find that blogs in Arlington provide a better source of news According to Backfence.Com there are 102 blogs in Arlington County. One of my favorites is CSI: Arlington County which crusades against the gestapo-like tactics of the parking enforcement laws of the county.
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Billy Miller and Chris Luster perform for the brunch crowd at Oddfellas Cantina on Sunday afternoon.
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