There is a gentle change afoot as a new editor/publisher assumes the exciting challenge of carrying on the vision of Blue Ridge Traditions. The founder and original editor/publisher, Peggy Ann Sloan, will continue to share her "View From the Porch Swing" from her column that moves to the end of the magazine with this issue. And I, her successor, will create a new introductory column from the heart of historic, downtown Rocky Mount where I live. Living in an ante-bellum home with its share of traditions, ghosts, outbuildings, and vistas, I will call my column "Whispers from the Smokehouse," for I am sure that this once-essential brick structure saw its share of tales.

My vision for BRT is to assemble articles, columns, advertising, and photography that inform, inspire, and intrigue the reader, whether that reader is a long-time resident of the area, a newcomer from another region or land, a student, or a visitor passing through.

I hope this publication continues to build bridges between the old and newer cultures around us here, drawing interested readers into the past as they savor the present and anticipate the future of the Blue Ridge region. I bring my love of language, as a poet, my feel for design, as a painter, and my sense of civic responsibility, as a long-time civic volunteer. I bring a love of history. I bring a vision.

Welcome to the next stage of this publication. "Traditions" in "transition": both are words from Latin with the sense of "carrying over." The transition will be smooth. We carry on with renewed vigor to preserve and to celebrate, in word and picture, the culture of the Blue Ridge region.

 - Ibby Greer

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