Nelson County, Virginia
Eight years ago today we started a journey that’s been one of the most exciting and rewarding ones ever. Back on April 1, 2005 Tommy & Yvette Stafford started Nelson County Life Magazine. We’d been in the TV news business for years back in the mid-south. The idea for the magazine was to originally launch in the Arkansas Ozarks on the banks of the White River in Izard County. Yes, Izard. It’s near Mountain View, Arkansas.
We spent a lot of time there, and even bought property in Izard right above the river. We continued working in the news business based out of Memphis. As the years went by, it became obvious the Ozarks wasn’t the place to launch a year round magazine. It was pretty busy in the summer, in the winter, nothing. Meanwhile we began coming to Nelson a lot. Yvette had ties here and is originally from Virginia.
Fast forward to 2004, we sold our land in Arkansas, never built on it, and moved to Nelson County. Then there was that idea for the magazine. Mmmmmmm, we did it and here we are today!
We’ve grown to know a lot of you over the years. We celebrated birthdays, weddings, births, anniversaries, and more with many of you. And sadly, we have said good-bye to more than we should have. Funerals are never fun, but we’re glad to have known some of the finest people around while they were still with us.
The April 2013 issue is our 97th. Hard to believe in just 3 more, we hit the 100 mark! Time truly does fly by.
We want to thank each of you for trusting us, reading our magazine, and to our advertisers for taking the chance on us way back then when we honestly were pretty darn green. Lots of you have been with us since day one. That means a lot. And it’s very humbling.
While we’ve expanded and changed our name to take in more of the Virginia Blue Ridge, we are still very much Nelson. We live here, our offices are here, and we are staying here. But at the same time, it’s been exciting meeting our neighbors in nearby counties and telling their stories too. Over time we hope to know all of you as we do our friends here in Nelson. In just the first four issues, we’ve already become friends with so many more.
Thank you again to everyone, and we look forward to 8 more years and beyond!
No fooling!
