Jul 14, 2013 2 min read

This is Greene County’s month to shine.

The Jacktown Fair, known as the “nation’s oldest continuing fair,” begins tomorrow with a parade and the crowning of the 2013 Miss Jacktown Fair queen.

And nine days after the fair closes is Waynesburg’s traditional salute to weather – Rain Day.

These events, excepting the fact they are held about 20 miles apart, have a common thread. Basically, both are fairs, of sorts.

Jacktown, and we are pretty sure no one actually lives in a place called Jacktown (it once was called Jacksonville), is now Wind Ridge, and is the more traditional fair, located in a rural setting, highlighted by livestock judging, which is perhaps what makes a fair a fair.

Granted, the Jacktown Fair lasts five days and Rain Day is just that, a day. Over the years, there have been festivals that have disappeared from the county landscape.

To us, it seems that Jacktown and Rain Day survive, not just out of tradition, but because the people who organize them are committed to seeing the traditions continue.

No matter the skeptics who view Jacktown as just a small country fair and Rain Day as an event where the pageantry, entertainment and food often overshadow the bet that it will rain that day, the old country fair and the street fair always will remain part of Greene County’s heritage.