Did you know that today is the start of Happiness Happens Month? It’s a whole month to celebrate things that make you happy. Because happiness is unlimited and contagious, sharing your happiness is a way to bring joy to others. One of our customers is doing just that by giving away his antique beer bottle collection! The 3000 bottles that date from the 1870’s to the 1950’s and are. As they are now in 140 boxes, the lucky person who adopts the collection may need to have a considerable amount of space. Please let Bob know if you are interested, so that he can share your contact info with the current owner. The Collection is FREE!!

One of the things that makes us happy is the Bluemont Fair, which will be held this year on September 17-18 with the theme of Bluemont’s Draft Horse Farming Era. The winning poster for this year’s fair, shown below, features the barn at Glenmeade, the farm owned by the Plaster family for 200+ years. The last resident, Henry Plaster, who was sometimes called the Mayor of Bluemont, passed in March at the age of 93. His obituary mentions that he served in the Navy during the Korean War earning a battle star in 1953. In 1954, he went to work for the CIA. During his 43 years there, he was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit in 1971 and the CIA Career Intelligence Medal. Shown below with his grandfather’s Civil War cavalry pistol, he’ll definitely be missed in Bluemont, though his legacy lives on at the Plaster Museum of Bluemont Heritage, which currently has a special exhibit on Agriculture in Bluemont that can be seen during the fair or on Sundays between 11 and 3 in conjunction with the weekly Farmers’ Market

We hope you’re having a great summer—and enjoying the things that make you happy this month.       Bob & Lynne McCann