Festival begins next weekend

By JAINE TREADWELL

Features Editor

Oct. 14, 2000 10 PM

Once again, it’s Peanut Butter Festival time!

Well, maybe not exactly since the Festival is being held a week early, Saturday, Oct. 21, but it’s still not too early to pay tribute to area farmers and the farming community and the foodstuff -peanut butter – that sustained the Brundidge community during the Great Depression and gave a boost to the local economy for more than three decades.

Each October, Brundidge hosts a harvest and heritage celebration and hangs out the welcome sign and says, "Y’all Come!"

There is no admission charge to the Festival which is an opportunity to take a day and step back in time to the way it used to be.

Friends, neighbors and visitors are invited to sit a spell and enjoy the fun and fellowship of an old time Saturday gathering and not be in a hurry to leave.

The Peanut Butter Festival starts when the rooster crows with Grandma’s Smokehouse Breakfast at the Peanut Butter Barn on South Main Street from 6 to 9 a.m.

Just across the road, at Green’s Antiques, runners are stretching out getting ready for the 5K Peanut Butter Run which will take them along the town’s historic route and right through the middle of town where the Peanut Butter Festival is getting underway.

The Peanut Butter Festival begins its non-stop entertainment at 8:30 and visitors to the Festival can relax and enjoy the entertainment or browse through the many arts and crafts booths on the grounds.

Demonstrations of old-time crafts and "doings" will be a highlight of the Festival and visitors can try their hand at picking peanuts, shucking corn, shelling peas or grinding peanut butter.

And there will be samplings of everything from cane juice to peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.

There will be games and contests for kids and adults and the barnyard is hog heaven for kids who like to play on haystacks, walk on stilts and swing on tires.

At 10 a.m. cooks should have their peanut butter recipes registered at the Bass House because judging will begin shortly.

Also at 10 the Peanut Butter Kids Contest will get underway followed by the Peanut Butter Festival Queen Contest.

Construction of the South’s Largest Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich will start at 11 and, once it’s completed and measured, it will be sliced and served free to peanut butter lovers.

The Nutter Butter Parade, a parade of the nuttiest things around, will come marching down Main Street at 1 p.m. and no one will want to miss the fun of this one-of-its-kind parade.

There will be plenty to see and do at the 10th Annual Peanut Butter Festival and there is still time to get a booth and be on the flip side of the festival. Arts and crafts, food, and activity booths are available by calling 735-3608, 566-1780 or 735-3675.

Arts and crafts include any homemade items, including holiday items, and farmer’s market items and plants are welcomed.

The Nutter Butter Parade is sponsored by the Brundidge Rotary Club and any fun entry qualifies. The parade is a perfect time for political candidates to show their community spirit. Schools, churches, clubs, organizations, businesses and individuals are encouraged to enter the parade and be a part of this wonderful community event.

To place an entry in the parade, contact Dixie at 735-2331.