The 62nd Annual Shad Planking will be held on Wednesday, April 21, beginning at 2pm at the Wakefield Sportsman’s Club. The formal event starts at 4pm and the speaker will be former Senator and former Governor George Allen.
Tickets are $20 if purchased before April 1 and $25 thereafter.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Yay!
If readers have never attended the Shad Planking, be sure to attend. It is worth the drive and is always a very pleasant afternoon (even when it rains).
Hint: Drink the beer, skip the fish, sample the shad roe.
The Shad Planking is a unique Virginia tradition that was once restricted to just the Men, and NO speeches were allowed. It was a place where folks from all of our political parties took an afternoon off and enjoyed drinking and eating out in the woods together.
It is still a place where you can see a U.S. Senator pumping beer for gathered citizens while wannabe future office holders wander from one group to another sharing good times with everyone, without worrying about if there is a D or R after their names.
I generally volunteer to serve beer at the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ wagon. The SCV serves Virginia’s own, Legends beer. Come by and say howdy. I’ll be the one wearing a tie.
Keep in mind that the beer and other goodies are free. The admission for the Shad Planking is just a donation to the Wakefield Ruritan Club. The Ruritans put on the event each year and cook that boney, smelly shad on planks of wood, I
suspect, just to see if anyone will eat that stuff; some even claim to like it, although I suspect such claims are more evidence of inebriation than an honest assessment.