Kudos to the folks who put on last week’s first-ever “old-fashioned country fair” at West-Oak High School.

The Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair near Fair Play not only featured the midway rides and amusements that are commonplace at such events, but it fulfilled its pledge to be a heritage event. There were livestock exhibitions, arts and crafts demonstrations, bluegrass bands and gospel singers, pony rides and a petting zoo. The fair even featured a cowboy church service. Bravo!

The price was also “retro,” and if Mother Nature had cooperated a little more, who knows how many more folks would have joined in the crowds of enthusiastic attendees and exhibitors.

We hope the people who worked so hard to make this event a reality push on, undeterred by weather or the politics that made having the event less than easy in 2009. Perhaps next year the political stars will align more favorably and organizers will get the endorsements they need to secure liability insurance. This group of community-minded citizens deserves better treatment.

While we’re at it, however, thanks should be extended to the School District of Oconee County for stepping up and making facilities available for the Heritage Fair. They took responsibility when others would not.

Fair organizers will undoubtedly be dissecting what was good and what could be improved about this initial effort. We urge other community residents to step forward and provide their positive feedback and future energy to the event.

This Heritage Fair is about remembering a time when people came together to enjoy the simple pleasures of rural living. It is also about proving that the community values that inspired those pleasures are still viable in today’s fast-paced and frequently unfriendly society. We need to cultivate those seeds.

The Carolina Foothills Heritage Fair can be a pivotal event in our quest to rekindle “community” and introduce this generation to another aspect of family values. We’re looking forward to the 2010 rendition.