In my line of work it’s not uncommon to cover events on a weekend. It’s gotten to the point where Saturday and Sunday are nothing special…just two additional days to my workweek.

This past weekend was exceptionally busy for the folks who cover the news here at the News-Herald.

For starters, let me offer my congratulations to those who orchestrate Ahoskie Heritage Day. I’ve said this publicly before and I’ll say it again…if Heritage Day didn’t make it this year, I really doubted if it would catch on at all.

Well, let me be the first to say that Heritage Day 2008 stepped to the plate and smashed a homerun out of the park. Congratulations to all involved in this effort, especially Ahoskie Mayor Linda Blackburn. She has nurtured Heritage Day since its birth five years ago and it appears those efforts have finally reaped dividends.

While staffing situations here at the News-Herald prevented me from attending the major Heritage Day events (those reasons will come to life a little further down in this column), I was told by numerous individuals that the event finally earned its proverbial stripes this year. The music, the food, the rides and, most importantly, the great weather all had a hand in its success.

I did venture out to the rides on Thursday evening and clicked off a couple of shots of people enjoying this new addition to Heritage Day.

On Friday night, I was off covering high school football (at the Gates County vs. Roanoke game), so I missed the Band of Oz and the thousand or so folks who turned out to enjoy Beach Music.

On Saturday, I photographed the Heritage Day Parade and then snapped off some shots at the Art Show and Indian Summer Days/R-C Hospital Health Expo. From there it was off to the North Carolina High School Rodeo (held on the Heritage Day grounds) for their 12 noon show. Judging by the number of vehicles parked near the event grounds, I knew there was a crowd over at Heritage Day.

From the rodeo, it was off to Murfreesboro for Chowan University’s 2008 home football opener (after two games, both losses, on the road). There, I was covering for my Sports Editor Thadd White who was off this weekend because he moved from Windsor to the big city of Askewville. (That’s the reason I missed so much of Heritage Day.)

I left the Chowan game at the end of the third quarter (and missed the Hawks rallying for two, fourth quarter TD’s to win their first game of the season, 23-20, over Brevard College) in order to rush back home, shower, change clothes and rush back to Murfreesboro for Chowan’s Hall of Fame banquet. I’m a member of the Hall of Fame selection committee so I’m required to attend the banquet. Plus I wanted to be there for the special presentation made to Coach Jim Garrison for his 50 years of service to Chowan. I never played for the coach, but I’ve been around him for most of my adult life. Other than my own father, there are not a lot of men that rank as high on my list of male mentors than Coach Garrison. Congratulations my friend on a great honor.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch my breath this week and spend some time at home. But alas, there’s plenty of work to catch-up on there as well.

(Cal Bryant is Editor of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald and Gates County Index. He can be reached at 252-332-7207 or cal.bryant@r-cnews.com.)