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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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Visitors to the Woolwine Covered Bridge Festival get a ride through the Bob White bridge Saturday in a horse-drawn wagon. The bridge was built in 1921. (Contributed photos by Ray Reynolds) |
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Monday, June 22, 2009
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
It wasn’t just the bridges that drew Perry Frye to the Woolwine Covered Bridge Festival on Saturday.
The “music and the socializing” were factors as well, he said.
Frye, of Lawsonville, N.C., was among visitors to the fifth annual festival, which took place under partly cloudy skies and a cool breeze that provided relief from high temperatures.
“This has turned out to be a real pleasant day,” Frye said.
Music was performed at two locations during the festival, which is designed to highlight the Jacks Creek and Bob White covered bridges. The structures sit within a couple miles of each other off Route 8.
Jack’s Creek was built in 1914, and Bob White followed in 1921. They are two of only eight covered bridges left in Virginia.
Al Brammer recalled fond memories of his younger days in the area as he enjoyed the festival.
“It used to be a big rock there,” he said, pointing to an area that now sits under a newer bridge built to replace Jack’s Creek Covered Bridge.
The area used to be a popular local swimming hole, Brammer recalled.
“I learned to swim right over there,” he said, adding the festival gives him the opportunity to revisit old memories and make a few new ones.
Marie and Lamont Bryant of Stuart said they have attended the festival for each of the five years it has been held.
“This is an annual event for us. We like to support” the organizations that host and work the event, Lamont Bryant said of the Woolwine Ruritan Club, Woolwine Volunteer Fire Department and Smith River Rescue Squad.
He enjoys the food, and “I like the cars too,” he said. Antique cars and other interesting vehicles were displayed during a Cruise-In, the first one held during the festival.
The Shriners brought Antique Model-Ts to display and also offered rides between the two bridges for a small fee.
Although the cars were plentiful, Marie Bryant said she was drawn to the festival by the arts and crafts displayed under dozens of vendor tents.
A booth manned by Bertha Conner of Woolwine featured an array of intricately designed, full-size and baby quilts.
While business was “slow, we’ve had a lot of lookers,” Conner said. “And that helps.”
Eddie Griffin, also of Woolwine, said he had sold a “couple of things this morning” from among his inventory of hand-made wooden quilt stands and drink racks, which are similar to wine racks but hold two-liter bottles.
Regardless of sales, Griffin said he was “having a good time and seeing a lot of friends.” He plans to return next year.
Traipsing around in a pair of wading boots, Barry Morrison of Woolwine worked to find a solution to the complex problem of catching rubber ducks that were part of a race down a portion of the Smith River, near Jacks Creek Covered Bridge.
“I’m just a concerned volunteer trying to help the Woolwine area” by helping promote the bridges, Morrison said.
Brenda Howell, her daughter Kimberly Curry and friend Donny Shelton, all of the Stuart and Claudville areas, attended Saturday’s festival for the first time.
“It’s great,” Howell said. “I didn’t even know we had it.”
Curry said she learned about the event while working as an intern with the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce.
Shelton also said he enjoyed the festival.
“It’s nice, and it ain’t rained yet,” he said, looking up at the cloudy skies.
Howell enjoyed the opportunity to socialize and to “see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time” so much that she’s already looking forward to next year’s festival.
“It is a nice festival,” she said. |
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