Priscilla Richardson

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"People love it here."

This is the way Jeanie Drummond summed up life in Oriskany.

Unless you go to church there, have friends there or travel to Craig County by way of Virginia 615, you probably don't know this section of Botetourt.

So the residents are giving you a good reason to visit them all day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 29, for their Oriskany Family Fall Festival. They're raising money for a new parsonage for their community's church, but you can get a full day of entertainment even if you don't spend a penny.

Of course there will be things to buy, such as candles, birdhouses, Christmas ornaments, toys, consignment clothing, benches and yard ornaments.

Drummond, an Oriskany resident retired from having been the postmaster in Iron Gate, will sell homemade jams and jellies.

"I'm having tomato preserves, watermelon rind preserves, pumpkin butter -- my own little recipe, too -- made from items fresh this year, grown on the property, not from China," she said.

The name on all her creations is Olde Surber Station, a whistle-stop on the railroad from passenger days.

One of the big draws that day will be a performance by the Oriskany Strings, starting about 11 a.m. These folks play acoustic music, and their blend of traditional and mountain music with some new material has endeared them to folks in this area.

One couple in the band, Oriskany residents Rita and Dick Parady, came here to live 17 years ago.

He plays banjo, she the autoharp, after having taught herself to play it.

Dick Parady, retired from the Air Force, got here via Omaha, Neb., Tucson, Ariz., and short overseas deployments, too.

"We knew another couple I was stationed with in Hampton; he owned the property adjoining ours," he said. "We each wanted to build a log home. So we began and finished his house and then property became available, so we built our house."

Dick Parady grew up in California as so much of an outdoors person that his college degree is in forestry. He loves the West, he said, but "the gentle beauty of the East grows on you. And this whole area has everything I'm looking for: a university town and plenty of cultural activities nearby."

The others in the group include Carol and Jack Lewis. Carol Lewis plays the four-string banjo and violin, and her husband the washtub bass. Yes, that's a genuine washtub turned upside down. Gene Guilliams sings, his wife, Elsie, acts as the manager, and James Christian, of Craig County Boys fame, plays the guitar.

These folks aren't in this to make their fortune. "If it became a job we'd quit," Parady said. "We just want to have fun."

Four other bands and singers will also entertain from opening until the start of the auctions at 1 p.m. Yes, you read that right, auctions, plural. The first will offer items donated to the church fund, such as a truckload of firewood and used furniture and appliances.

The second will feature stock from Oriskany resident Lisa Hopkins' antiques shop, Devereaux House Antiques.

"This will be a partial liquidation of my inventory so we can restock," she said.

The items include Oriental rugs, oil paintings from the 1950s as well as contemporary landscapes, 19th-century English furniture, some American primitive pieces such as a pie safe and schoolmaster's desk, Chinese painted chests on stands and some porcelain and painted tin.

Hopkins lives with her husband in Oriskany, "right behind the church," she said. She and I have two big things in common: love of Botetourt; and former residence in Memphis, Tenn., where she ran an art gallery for many years. "Art and antiques have been my primary businesses."

Now all you need are directions. Take U.S. 220 North, past Fincastle and past the turnoff to Eagle Rock. Then just before Eagle Rock Elementary School, you'll see Virginia 615, Craigs Creek Road, on your left. Take that to Oriskany. And find out why people love it there.