Tomorrow, June 6th, 2009, will be the 25th anniversary of the start of Crayne Day. It is only a shadow of the original Crayne Days that were held until the year 2000. After the tornado that hit Crayne on January 3rd, nothing was ever the same. It destroyed much of the community and also damaged people's homes, spirits and lives. Not they didn't whole heartily try to come back, rebuild and repair they homes and lives, it was just a hard time.
Now in 2009, James Robert Dorroh, one of the few original remaining Crayne citizens, tries to keep Crayne Day going, it is a hard task. Most all of the first families that helped those first few years are gone. The older residents passed away, and even one of the original creators, Peggy Malcom, has passed away. The homes that held these Crayne families may be empty or have new families in them, that really don't care about the neighborhood like those in the past.
In the first years of Crayne Day, it was just the most wonderful times, the yard sales and vendors would begin as you started down Crayne hill and continue all through the community until you left the other side of Crayne. Old Crayne residents would even plan their trips around this time so they could attend this event. Vendors from surrounding states had heard of the crowds and wanted to come and be a part of the day. Ruby Poindexter Franz became a special attraction each year with her home made fried apple pies. Everything imaginable was avaliable on Crayne Day.
In May of 2007, the Press ran an interview articles with Roseann Bebout, one of the original creators. It tells the history of Crayne Day.
Starting out as a small idea in 1984, it soon ballooned into something more that seemed to bring the life back into a once dying community.
Roseann Bebout, the postmaster at Crayne Post Office, was the one who formulated the plan and mentioned it to a good friend and neighbor of hers, Peggy Malcom. "I had heard James Robert Dorroh mention that Crayne was a dying community, and I wanted to fix it." Bebout said. "So I cam up with an idea that would bring all the neighbors together and just put life back into our community. Of course, when I mentioned the idea to Peggy Malcom, my good friend and neighbor, it was a hit and we started to work on it."
The plan was to just have a neighbor day with yard sales and cooking so life could be restored to the little town. With the plan in their heads, Malcom and Bebout went to setting it in motion. Malcom started moving the idea to other residents of Crayne by word of mouth and Bebout put a poster up at the post office.
It wasn't long before they began to get volunteers and neighbors who were offering their yards so that booths could be set up. Dorroh was one of the neighbors who volunteered to help.
What started out as just an idea for a day for neighbors to get together and have fun, soon grew into a large event and became a yearly celebration for Crayne, which was quickly dubbed Crayne Day.
With visitors coming to Crayne Day, local bands, volunteering to sing and more neighbors participating, Crayne Day had become a huge success.
Now these past times are just a wonderful memory that some of us that participated in the first Crayne Days are lucky to have.
Crayne Day 25th Anniversary, June 6th, 2009.