1998

Retirees love civic work>Fcows being ~ilked. ~r~~c as it seem By HANK HARMS Fair Times reporter ---- which is a lar ge sunburst surrounding a face against a black background - the official banner for the French exhibit," Vickers said. there ts a parallel between the Neshoba County Fair and the palac ofVersailles,., Vickers :said

Because of their teachmg back ground, the Vickerses see man) pea- pie each year at the fair that the. have worked with or taught in ill past. Vickers sees this as an opportunii to explain the significance of the Versailles banner. He believe~ exhibits are an important pan M1ssiss1ppi's cultural grO\'-'th. ~we're proud of what Mi!'-.i-,tppt doing with these exhibits to prom international friendship, cui ~xchange, and intere ·t in the Therefore, we decided it would appropriate to hang the official flag the Splendors of Versailleo.: eihi from the porch of our Fair ca Vickers said. "We are both history bufi\ a.c therefore we are interested m exhibit and we ha\e both tau France and visited Versaille-. on , eral occasions," Vicker said Vickers said that althou~ he ·seen Versailles fir -t hand Neshoba County Fair offer... ~ mu entertainment as foreign I Vickers came to Misl'issippt m 1 and began teaching at Ea~ Community College in ~ecatur .. after his arrival he was mtrod the fair by his studen -:. "I have been a fair enthu,l since " Vickers said.

If you happened to pass by cabin 33 D during last year's Fair you saw the banner from the Palaces of St. Petersburg exhibit that hung from the porch. The banner was brough t to the i\tckers/Farrish/Smith cabin by Ovid and Carol Vickers who volunteer ed for me Palaces of St. Petersburg exhibit wh1ch was open in Jackson fr om .1arch through August of 1996. The !rolden image on the deep wine colored banner was a griffm, the symbol of the !Ru"tan royal family. ''We are both retired and do a lot of :volunteer work because we've always been bu.. y. Just because one retires is no reason to go home and shut the door and cease to be involved in civic, political and cultural affairs," Ovid Vickers said. The exhibit contained furniture, statuary, silverware and other objects that had belonged to Czar Nicholas the II. When it was announced that this year the MissiSsippi Arts Pavilion in Jackson would host The Splendors of Versailles exhibit, the Vickerses volun– teered once again. "This year we will display a banner

The face surrounded by the sun– burst which Vickers described is the symbol for France's Sun King, Louis the :x:.Iv. This year's exhibit of objects from the Palace ofVersailles, which for several hundred years was the royal residence of the French kings, display:; such items as royal portraits, hu,!e tapestries, silver serving pie-:.... clocks, and furniture. A larger-thEm– life statue of Louis XIV mounted on a horse is on display and will remain in Jackson after the exhibit closes. Vickers said a comparison might be made between the Neshoba County Fair and one aspect of Versailles, which is located 14 miles outside Paris.

"The Neshoba County Fair began as a place for farmers to gather and exhibit their produce and livestock. Marie Antoinette was interested, although she was a Queen who enjoyed all the luxuries of royalty, in rural or country things. So she had a country village constructed on the grounds of Versailles where she could go feed the chickens and watch the See Vickers, page 15 almost as much as Fai r

The Splendors of Ve:-rulle, opened in Apnl and will run August 31.

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