The Lemon Fair Angels
edited from An Enduring Tradition
By K.G. Beavers, Messenger Staff Writer
One of Sewanee’s enduring traditions is to get a guardian angel. When you enter the gates, tap the car roof to let your angel rest. When you leave the gates, tap your car roof to take your angel with you for protection. Gay Alvarez thought that was such a charming notion that she began to provide fun and unusual angels at her store, THE LEMON FAIR.
In the 1980s, Gay asked Christi Teasley, who was working for her at the time, to come up with some artwork for the Sewanee angel legend. And Teasley asked Rob Keele, a student at St. Andrew's-Sewanee School, to write about the Sewanee angel legend. “I do not know what would have happened to this store without the angel story,” said Alvarez.
Part of the Sewanee angel legend in the Lemon Fair store says, “Every man, woman and child living now and forever in Sewanee was assigned an angel. It is this angel’s duty to preserve the spirit of Sewanee in one’s mind.”