Old Fashioned Trading Days was a big hit again

Old Fashioned Trading Days returned last week for the first time since 2019 following a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

To the credit of organizers, the 38th installment of this festival was every bit as good as previous versions of it.

While many area festivals returned this year, some did so in smaller than usual formats, but the same can’t be said for Old Fashioned Trading Days.

I don’t know if this year’s festival had a record number of vendors, but it was certainly the most overall vendors that I had seen in probably a decade or more.

Organizers couldn’t have gotten better weather if they had specially ordered it.

Aside from a few hand sanitizing stations and a musical act or two, which had to be replaced due to COVID-19 exposure, the festival was largely business as usual. Some school groups that usually performed on Friday morning canceled this year, and entries for the vegetable contest were down somewhat, but the antique car show had a strong showing.

The musical acts were some of the best I have heard at Old Fashioned Trading Days in many years. County Wide put on a great show as usual as the keynote act on stage two Friday night. Local artist Savanah Faith, who has performed at Old Fashioned Trading Days since she was a fairly young girl, did a great job as the opening act.

Although I only heard two or three songs by them, local band Paint Creek, which was started by brothers Eric and Alec Poore, put on a pretty impressive show Thursday night with some nice country music. This isn’t surprising as the two brothers come from a long line of good singers. Their uncle is well known Whitley County preacher and singer Gerald Mullins. If this band stays together for the long haul, I will be curious to see how far they go. The same holds true for County Wide. We have some great local musicians in this area. Please support them when they play locally.

While on the subject of supporting local music, the River Stomp Bluegrass Festival will be held Oct. 8-9 at the Whitley County Fairgrounds.

Now let me switch gears and discuss COVID-19 briefly before I conclude this column.

The Kentucky General Assembly has made the issue of masks in schools a local decision, which is sure to be quite contentious with people having strong opinions on both sides.

I hope local school districts have the courage to keep requiring masks in local schools even though it would be an unpopular position to take with many people. I will always unapologetically come down on the side of protecting the health and safety of children, which masks will do.

Wearing masks in school is also the best chance we have at keeping in-person learning in place as much as possible this school year. I would also point out that our local hospitals, nurses, doctors and so forth are at their breaking point folks. We need to do all we can to keep from making the situation worse.

Baptist Health Corbin has had to contact facilities as far away as Pittsburgh to find an available intensive care unit bed for patients, according to Baptist Health Corbin Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Worthy.

Please let that sink in and try and remember to wear your masks when out in public, and please think about getting vaccinated if you haven’t already done so.