Some of you may remember the local Homemakers School Program. Well, this is the September 30, 1992 print edition which has tips and recipes, as well as advertisements from the program's sponsors. Do you think you'll try some of these recipes this weekend?

This week we get to talk to Tim McMahon. He is originally from Iowa and was able to create art the entire time he worked as an art teacher for 38 years. He didn't create art full-time until after he retired in 2016.

What kind of art do you create?

Primarily I'm a painter, typically of landscapes. I have family out west so I did a lot of work in the Rocky Mountain area. Then we moved here and I've started to do a lot of Virginia landscapes.

What inspired you to start creating?

Well that's a fairly difficult question. I wanted to do art when I was just a kid. I hadn't planned on majoring in art when I got to school but then I just started doing it. It just grew from there. I had some excellent instructors in college. It seems counterintuitive; I know it did for my parents that, you know, I was studying art instead of business or something like that. But I've been living all these years with art so I think it was the right thing. 

What inspired me? It was album covers. I saw the album covers when [during the] late '60s, early '70s and I was inspired by that, by what they were doing. It made me want to do something and made me want to work at it. The LPs were a large format, not like CD covers, so they were larger and they put stuff on the inside of the album covers. It just was a really interesting and very creative kind of use of color and subject matter. 

What motivates you to keep making your art?

Well, I feel like it's in me, you know, it has to come out. That's really part of it.  I just have this desire to do it, to use our materials, to mix color, to apply it. I can't really explain it but it's almost like I was meant to do this.

One thing I would like to say is that my wife has been very instrumental in encouraging me to continue to paint. She's also a painter; she's also in Artists in Cahoots. We kind of do that for each other, kind of encourage each other. We'll put a half-done piece in front of the other person and say, “Where should I go with this? How am I doing with this?” So we both have the vocabulary to be able to do that, to help the other person make the best of what they're doing. That's been really important for me, especially after I retired.

Are there any artists you take inspiration from?

Cezanne, but I'm also inspired by the abstract expressionist, particularly Willem De Kooning. He's working in non-objective work (no objects, totally abstract) but it's the brush work, it's the action of the brush that I get from him. So really it's Cezanne and De Kooning that are my inspiration.

The thing about those types of art [the Renaissance], they were concerned with form, they were experimenting with the use of oil paint, but it wasn't about expressing, you know? When I paint a landscape, I don't want to just show how it looks. I want to show the viewer how it feels. I want the emotion to come through.

What sorts of feelings or ideas do you express in your art?

Well, a lot of it is about color, color interaction. It's all about making the medium, oil paint or whatever it happens to be, making that into something concrete. Like for instance, if I'm painting a local landscape, I'm concerned with the color but I'm also concerned with the shapes, the form, the 3D forms. And the brush work is really important because it creates a sense of movement in the painting so they're not still. They kind of have some of the energy that you get when you look at a landscape. Obviously I exaggerate the colors because I'm not just concerned with painting a picture but an impression of what that feels like, what it looks like.

How does it feel when someone buys your art?

Well, it's affirming, you know? I liken it to if you're breeding dogs and you find a good home for those puppies. That's kind of how it feels to me. It's a part of me, this thing that I made, but I like it when people respond and want to have it in their house. So in a sense I feel like it'll be with them for a long time. 

Typically, I have paintings that I did 30 years ago and people still have them in their homes.  It's real affirming. It's like, I must be doing something. I do have quite a bit of inventory that hasn't sold but I think it's partly because people haven't been able to see it. In Artists in Cahoots, people come and they're attracted to one or more of the 2D artists that are on the wall. So if somebody comes in and they respond very directly to the work, it's hard to explain, you know? You said that you saw the work and were interested in it and that's it. That's what I want. I want someone to say, 'Oh yeah, I get this, I like this.'

If you read biographies of artists, you get a lot of that, how people came to it, how he was almost genetic in them, to do this thing. I can't really explain it but that's kind of how I feel. It's something that, even if I wanted to stop, I can't really do it. So there's that emotional push to create. 

The more I've gone to museums and the more art I've seen, the more interesting it becomes for me because I know I don't have to reinvent the wheel, I know it's already been done, but I feel like the work that I do is different from what other artists have done. I built on the backs of some of these giants of art but my work is completely different. It's original. I'm looking for someone to have a visceral response to the work. I wanted to speak to them, I wanted to attract them. And it doesn't always mean I sold work but it does mean that people respond in a positive way to it. 

Do you have any advice for aspiring artists, at any stage of their lives?

Yeah, they just have to do it. They just have to spend time doing it. 

What I tell people who are interested is: you have to have a place set up where you don't have to clean it up every time, where you can just walk in and do it. That's a really key thing a lot of people don't have a room, or don't think they have the room, but you need to have that space to be able to go in and work it.

And people say, 'I don't feel like I particularly have talent.' I think it's just dogged determination to do it. It's the repetitions of doing it over and over again that make it possible, and then at some point you start to have some confidence. 

The really interesting part is there's been times when I made these works and it's almost as if someone else did it. Like, when it's done, I don't recognize that I did this thing even though I know I did. It's like it comes from somewhere else, it comes from some psychological place. That's the magic of it. But the main thing I'd say is you just have to do it. Don't talk about it, just do it.

Whatever your reason is, you can count on The News-Gazette to deliver. The more we delve into the archives, the more we can physically see the dedication to reporting on what's important to our communities. From the time these papers started, to them merging into the paper we have today, we see the lives and interests of Rockbridge County reflected and supported. 

This week, we're looking back on the late 1940s. The front page stories for April 1, 1948 were:

• News from Richmond about the House of Delegates session, which ended without a resolution on the probe into Richmond Newspapers Inc.
• Bond money was unanimously approved by the town council for improvement of two Lexington City schools and a sewage disposal system.
• The Red Cross drive hadn't met it's quota and the drive chairman wrote: "Those who are called on to contribute to the Red Cross rarely realize what this organization does because they don't have need of it's services. The needy and those in distress know what the Red Cross means."
• Two other stories about fundraising drives, their causes, the goal amounts, and when they will take place.
• Bankers and professional agricultural workers from all around Virginia were going to have a meeting at the Natural Bridge Hotel to discuss "the agricultural community, its problems, and how the financial institutions and agricultural workers can work together in promoting a sound agricultural community in Virginia."

Adair-Hutton had a full page ad to advertise clothing, fabrics, a live demonstration of a Bendix automatic washing machine, and a dress-making contest. The contestants weren't allowed to be professional dress makers. They could use their own designs and patterns but had to buy materials from Adair-Hutton. The entries would be judged on tailoring, pressing, inside finish and clean finish. Entries could be sport, party, or evening dresses and they would be judged by "a committee of competent judges." Would you enter this contest?

Who remembers shopping at Rose's in Lexington? Check out one of their ads and try to solve Dr. Quiz's three questions! 

And if you saw or heard the N&W 611 steam engine earlier this week, on June 1st, take a look at the Norfolk & Western Railway ad, which lists all the jobs "not generally thought of as railroading."

In this series, we’re going to talk with the area leaders of a wide breadth of denominations, religious organizations and groups. We’ll learn about how they view their place in this area, the diversity of beliefs in our community and their opinion of how religion affects people and their community. 

This week, I spoke with Reverend Anita Mays Lucord from Trinity United Methodist Church.

How long has this church been here in Lexington and how long have you been with this church?

This location, since 1890. The current building has been here since 1926. Just this week, we celebrated the centennial of our building, which was a big celebration, but Methodism in Lexington goes back to 1794. So it's been here for a long time.

I am in my fourth year as pastor. On July 1st, I'll begin my fifth year. I am originally from Stoney Creek, Virginia, which is an hour south of Richmond and I was appointed to serve here. So I moved here summer 2022. I'm the first female pastor here. 

Why do you think there are so many churches in the area, and especially just in Lexington?

I think that when America was being settled and communities formed, church was a central part of family and community life. There were different types of churches and traditions that existed and so as people settled in these places, they brought their faith with them. Lexington, I believe, has been considered the county seat of this area, so many churches of different denominations were planted here as a place for Lexington and the surrounding communities to gather for worship.

Why do you think churches are typical elements in all cities, big or small?

I think especially in the past, churches and other religious institutions were a central part of family and community life and identity. It's a little bit different now. I think that in the midst of city life, people are still looking for meaning, purpose and an opportunity to connect with God and with one another which is especially important when bad news that is happening around the world or you know the divisive nature of politics in our own country tries to pull us apart. So it's a place where people seek connection and meaning and purpose.

What effects do you think religion has on a group of people or a community?

I think that it helps people to know that they're not alone. Again, it's about connection. Connecting people to a higher power and knowing that the one who created them is continuing to do something new in them and through them. I think that all people need some sense of community and so being able to come together and develop friendships and support one another in life's journey and in their faith journeys is an important thing that religious organizations accomplish. I would also add that it presents a way for people to give back to the community, to serve others. When a group comes together, they're able to do more together than alone and that is another reason that the churches and religious organizations are important. It helps people work together for compassion ministries and to work together for justice. 

What do you think your religious organization brings to our area?

Well, if I had to summarize Methodism with one word, it would be 'grace.' I would define grace as God's love - present and at work in, for, and through us - throughout our lives. Trinity takes pride in being a place where all are welcomed and included and where one can really experience God's grace for themselves. I would say that we don't always do that perfectly, but we strive to always be welcoming. It's a part of our Wesleyan tradition to say, 'we are moving on to perfection in love.' So we may not be perfect but we're striving to be the best that we can be in extending God's grace to the world. 

In addition to being welcoming, I would say that United Methodist churches, including Trinity, part of our identity is being accessible to all people. That goes back to our Wesleyan roots, in the 1700s in England, when John Wesley realized that there are many people who weren't able to come to the church for worship. He would go and preach in the prisons, at the coal mines, meet people where they were and enable them to still be a part of the church community even if they weren't able to be present in the buildings because of what was going on in their lives.

The other thing that I have to say is really important about Methodism, but especially here at Trinity, is we have a wonderful music program. Music is central to our identity as Methodists. Going back to Charles Wesley, who wrote thousands of hymns, we are known as a people who sing our faith and the music program here at Trinity is wonderful under the direction of Angie Rader, our music director. We have a great relationship with the different colleges. We have singers from Southern Virginia University, we've had singers from W&L, and even a few from VMI. She just does a great job having inspirational and quality music.

How would you describe your congregation’s demographics?

Well, I would say that we reflect the surrounding community, so we're predominantly white middle, upper middle class, but we are proud of the diversity that we do have. We have a range of ages from children through senior adults. We are always wanting to grow and hope to welcome even more young families. 

We do house Shenandoah preschool here in our building. They're an incredible ministry of the church and such an important part of this community and we love having the preschoolers here in our building during the week. 

I would also add that one of my favorite things about this appointment, being a pastor at this church, and my favorite thing about this community are the colleges that are nearby and getting to be in a relationship with college students at this important time in their life. It makes our church better.

How has your service attendance been over the years?

Like most mainline denominations, our attendance is smaller than it used to be decades ago. I'm encouraged by some articles that I recently read, that the New York Times published, about a resurgence of interest among young adults in church. So that gives me some hope.

Obviously, all churches were hit hard during covid when we were all worshiping from home. On the other side of that, attendance was slow to return but since I've been here, in the past 4 years, I've seen a slow and steady growth in numbers. So we average around 100 people in worship. 

Have you seen any changes, shifts, or evolution of the area?

It's hard because I've only been here four years. I'm not a lifelong person to have seen what's happened through decades. I think, since I came not long after covid, I've seen a renewed enthusiasm about community, being together, doing things together. So that's been nice to see. I don't know if this is new, because I've only been here for a few years, but one of the real strengths of the religious community in this area is that we work together. It's kind of unique to see this but I know, by name, most of the pastors that are here. We meet monthly, we support each other, we think about how we can work together to address issues in the community, we plan special worship services together. It s really neat to see how we come together. We don't see each other as competition but as partners in ministry in this place. 

I know that one of the needs in this community is childcare. That's something that I've seen and I know that the community is trying come up with different ways to be able to meet that need. Also, we're aware that, maybe not so much in Lexington but in the surrounding areas, affordable housing and other issues that affect the poor are issues. Churches and community organizations are coming together to think of ways that we can address some of those issues and meet some of those needs. 

How do you see the future of this area?

There's a lot of pride in this area. The people who grew up here, many of them have stayed here because they love it and they're committed to working for good in this place. There's many others that come back here to retire because they love it. I think that the love for this city and for the surrounding area and the commitment that people have to, not only making this community a better place but to really having it have a positive impact in the world, means that positive things are ahead for this community. 

As a faith leader, I believe that God is present, working in and through our churches and other religious organizations for good. To make it a more loving and generous place. I would also say that the colleges that are here in Lexington, Washington and Lee and VMI, as well as schools in the surrounding areas such as SVU and local community colleges, are really such an asset to this area and will continue to draw people here for years to come.

The front page stories of The News-Gazette on July 10, 1985 were:

• Rockbridge County needed to look for another insurance provider for polution liability because it's current provider was going to drop it's umbrella policy on certain liabilities.
• Lexington City schools were getting a new superintendant.
• Glasgow needed to upgrade it's sewage treatment systems but the cost necessitated two possible plans of action.
• A story about a student from France getting stranded in Lexington and how the community came together to aid in his unfortunate situation. 

Since this newsletter has recently been featuring an interview series with local religious leaders, we'll take a look at the "Our Churches" segment of this issue. In this particular segment, there is a story about a guest evangelist who gives, what we calls, a "clown sermon." 

We'll also look at some classifieds and Out of The Past. Can you spot the mistake in Out of The Past? 

In this series, we’re going to talk with the area leaders of a wide breadth of denominations, religious organizations and groups. We’ll learn about how they view their place in this area, the diversity of beliefs in our community and their opinion of how religion affects people and their community. 

This week, I spoke with Tuck Bowerfind from Grace Episcopal Church.

How long has this church been here in Lexington and how long have you been with this church?

Since 1840, but at that time it was just a couple of founding members. The first building was in 1844. And then the building next door was built in 1883, that would replace the original building. I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio. I was at a church in Alexandria, Virginia for 16 years and then accepted an Invitation to come here in December 2019.

Why do you think there are so many churches in the area, and especially just in Lexington?

I don't think there's an unusual number. I think you'd find it's not an extraordinary amount but one of the reasons is because the churches divided denominationally. So, originally Lexington was primarily Presbyterian and didn't have many churches. When this church began in 1840, there were only three or four Episcopalians here. What brought the Episcopalians was VMI because a lot of the members of VMI came from Tidewater, Virginia. When VMI was established here, a number of the leaders of VMI and students came from the Tidewater area which was largely Episcopal. So that sort of brought the Episcopalians in here. Then, different denominations arrived in the area at different times and each denomination began to establish its own congregation. 

Another reason there are a few more than you might normally find is because there's a white Baptist congregation and a black Baptist congregation. There is a white Methodist congregation, there's the integrated black Methodist congregation. The Episcopal Church has this church, but then Saint Paul's is an Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, that denominator split off from the Episcopal Church when we ordained women. So, part of the reason there are all these different buildings is because the church can't get along with itself.  It's not the way the church was supposed to be. Church was supposed to be where people love each other. But the church got co-opted by, or embraced, the attitudes of empires and when it did that, it began operating according to the rules of exclusion not the rules of inclusion. As we operate according to the rules of exclusion, we started dividing up into more and more groups. Now we're trying to find our way back. 

Why do you think churches are typical elements in all cities, big or small?

Churches, synagogues, mosques, religious groups and organizations - human beings have always had an intuition of the divine and the long history of revelation. Trying to pay attention to that intuition, as well as to the revelation of the divine to us, resulted in some sort of set of rituals and practices in every place where people gather. 

In some countries, the government has established certain religious practices and they're nationalized. In our founding history here, here's always been a multiplicity of religious groups because a lot of people seeking freedom to practice religion came here when there weren't any specific laws limiting it. There were already religious practices going on here through the natives that lived here. Some colonists were more sensitive to that than others. Some of them embraced an imperial attitude that led them to embrace the idea that they were justified in driving out people who were different from them, believe differently. 

They're not that different. We make a big deal out of little things so we can fight with each other. We all want to be the winner so we have to define narrow ways to compete. The problem is that at a certain point, we turn away from the thing that we're fighting over and we start fighting over each other. That's Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus. That's very human. So one of the things religion is here for is to help us remember: we can try to imitate God. And if we have a true vision of God who is love, we try to compete in love. Competing in love is trying to give to others, not to take. If we can take a breath and remember who God is and what the truth is, then maybe we can return to giving as the thing we're competing over. Be the best givers. You get a little bit less caught up in fighting over getting more for yourself. And if you can do that, we can live a little bit more in peace and justice with each other. That's the sort of the goal. That's what the message of Christ, of the Buddha, or God in the Old Testament, God in Islam is - that we need to be loving, not abusing each other. 

What effects do you think religion has on a group of people or a community?

The goal of most of our religions is to draw our attention back to God, who's The Giver and who is so far above us that we can't try to be God. But we can try to do the works of God. The works of God are to be generous, to establish justice with equity, meaning there's no preferential option either for the rich or the poor. But those who have, have a greater responsibility because regardless what the law says, the reason that we're entrusted with wealth is not so we can get more wealth. The reason we're entrusted with wealth is so that we can help those who are suffering. So religion is, I think, trying to help us find that way of living in love and charity with one another. 

Sometimes, different religious messages proclaim that has to do with judgment and condemnation and exclusion. See, I don't. From my perspective, I don't think those are the messages of God. That's the lie that we sometimes promulgate about God - that God is judging and excluding and condemning. But the truth about God is always that God is liberating. God has a deep care and concern for the inclusion of all people, for us to love all people and for us to take care especially of those who are in any kind of need, sickness, or trouble.

What do you think your religious organization brings to our area?

The Episcopal church brings a long history of a democratically, and I mean this in a nonpartisan way, organized form of conducting our religious life. And one of the impacts of that is that we respect rigorous debate. We respect the role of reason in revelation. I think largely because of some of these characteristics, Episcopal has been a leader in ordaining women, and then ordaining and opening the doors to LGBTQ people, and in confronting (not always effectively) at least the sin of racism. I'm not saying that the other denominations don't do that, because they also have. Many of them have long histories of very democratic processes and are in a very similar place, but there are some denominations that have kind of shut off that rigorous democratic form of debate and have prioritized certain principles or articles of faith. 

Changing our name back to Grace, which was the original church name, was emblematic of an attempt, not to say anything about Robert E Lee, but to try to say that we are not aligned with the white supremacy that the Confederacy, for which Lee fought, was deeply aligned. and that the church can't be the church in truth unless it can figure out how to be Inclusive, welcoming, inviting the people of all sorts and conditions, races and genders, because God loves us all. We gotta be reflective of that, in some way. 

And so that remains to be challenge, in part because of these deep historical divisions and in part because each congregation develops a style of worship. We trend to use classical music, traditional hymnity, and we have a traditional liturgy that may not necessarily feel welcoming to everybody, but we are. If people were to come to us, I think they would discover that. But we are peculiar, you know? We're peculiarly traditional in certain ways but that's the nature of every congregation. We have our own peculiarity. I think it's very important for all of us to try to be critical of ourselves and try to address those things that may be keeping some people from feeling like they're welcome and included in our congregations. 

How would you describe your congregation’s demographics?

We're about 99 percent white. Average age is probably over 60. When we went through the name change, we lost a lot of our younger families because, I think, probably they didn't want to be in the middle of a congregation fighting over its name. We have a few younger families. A lot of our members are retirees. We have a few members who are younger college professors and their families.

How has your service attendance been over the years?

We're back to about our pre-COVID numbers. It depends on what time frame you want to look at. This church's attendance began declining before COVID. We're not back up to the numbers of people that we had attending, say 20 years ago, but we are back up to the numbers that we're attending 2018-2019.

Have you seen any changes, shifts, or evolution of the area?

When I think about during COVID, we lost our last teacher of color in the public schools and our last black owned business in Lexington. There has been an intentional effort by the NAACP, Stephanie Wilkinson, and others in the community to try to rebuild black owned businesses in the community, as well as to recruit and retain teachers of color into our schools.

Our faith demands that we treat every person with dignity and respect, and that we work to make the law just, not just to enforce the law as it happens to be. I've seen that, within Lexington, this desire to be critical of the way the law is and to make sure that we're trying to continue to do things that support the dignity of people of color, of black lives in our community where you have people of all sorts and conditions. In this last year, there's been a great coalescing of groups in our community around the issue of housing and security. And so a lot of us are beginning to work together to try to make sure that there are both effective ways of keeping people in their housing, and effective ways of rapidly rehousing them if they lose housing. Also, addressing some of the causes of housing instability, including lack of affordable housing, where the vulnerability of certain people to the economy or to violence are. Trying to figure out how to help people stay in or return to permanent, secure, decent housing is essential for the well-being of our entire community. We've seen that here and that's been great. 

So, efforts of people to ensure that we try to support new black owned businesses and recruit and retain teachers of color, because every child in the school system benefits when they have teachers who reflect diverse backgrounds because that's the world they're going to be living in and because just having diverse perspectives is part of education, especially in a democracy, and then there's this effort to make sure people have access to secure, decent housing - I think those are great things going on right now.

How do you see the future of this area?

I'm very optimistic about the future of this area but I do have to say, there's another component to the future of this area that we have to be really, deeply sensitive to and aware of: the agricultural community that surrounds us. We have wonderful agricultural resources in this area, the farmers market is a great example, but in general we need to really support initiatives that support healthy soil, nutritious food systems, access to food for Campus Kitchen and other groups that are trying to make healthy food available throughout our county. Also, support local farmers in raising healthy food for all of us. If we can work together on that, I think the better our future is going to be. 

I'll share one other thing that I think Grace, in particular, is sort of interested in and that is a more human justice system, especially a more human system of incarceration and punishment. We would deeply support diversion of people who have drug or alcohol problems into drug or alcohol rehab, rather than to incarceration. We have a program where we try to help returning citizens adapt to life outside of prison and be able to find healthy lives here in the community. We support any other ways that we can of trying to help people avoid incarceration and get the help and treatment they need, through other systems rather than through using the prison or jail system to warehouse people or simply to punish them instead of helping them to address the problems.

The front page stories of the May 26, 1927 issue of The Rockbridge County News were:

• The very first illumination of Natural Bridge. The article contains details of the ceremony, how President Coolidge ceremoniously flipped the switch, and how it was all arranged.
• The schedule of commencement exercises for Virginia Military Institute.
• The local Red Cross chapter donated over $2,000 to the Mississippi flood effort.
• The seven-year locusts were emerging.
• News in a Nutshell.

During this time, it was very common for our local paper to be filled with write-ins and submissions from other sources, such as national newspapers and magazines. This issue had a lot of small stories. 

There were also longer stories that were often part of a series. This issue's long read is titled "Nancy's Successful Failure." It's about a young woman's small business and whether she has what it takes to keep it afloat.

We'll finish up this week with some vintage ads!

In this series, we’re going to talk with the area leaders of a wide breadth of denominations, religious organizations, and groups. We’ll learn about how they view their place in this area, the diversity of beliefs in our community, and their opinion of how religion affects people and their community. 

*Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. 

This week, I spoke with Skylar Daniel, pastor of Manly Memorial Baptist Church

How long has this church been here in Lexington and how long have you been with this church?

Since 1841. I've been here since 2022.

Why do you think there are so many churches in the area, and especially just in Lexington?

I think that, historically, you went to church where you could walk, within your denominational profile. So you couldn't have just one Presbyterian Church in the city or in the county, especially as theological denominations divide and things like that. Most churches in the good old days, let's say the ‘60s, they were still just running maybe 100 - 200 people on a Sunday. More people went to church before everything was open on Sundays and people had to work. I think the city actually demanded that many churches. In fact, I think it still would if people wanted to go to church as much as they used to, or could go to church as much as they used to. So I think we have, in a certain way, the right amount of churches but we don't have the right amount of people going to church.

Why do you think churches are typical elements in all cities, big or small?

One of my favorite quotes is by a guy named David Dark. He says, "Life's too short to pretend you're not religious." So there is a religious impulse within every human being on planet Earth, I believe, even if you are atheist or something like that. This is true of anywhere you go. I mean, any old ancient city you dig up, you will discover the exact same human impulse. So there is something fundamental to human survival and flourishing about faith. That's why there's so many churches in this town.

What effects do you think religion has on a group of people or a community?

I think that the effect of religion can go one of two ways, and maybe both at the same time. The first way religion can affect your life is it can help you make sense of the world around you and help you feel like there's some sense of control and order in this world. Another, different, way that religion affects you is that it can help you look deeper within and challenge yourself to change and become something better, different, more life-giving, and more loving for the world. In certain ways, those two things can coexist. 

I think that a lot of religion tends to focus on the first option because it demands less of you as an individual. It demands less courage. It demands less vulnerability. So to the extent that our churches and our religions are really focused on control and making sense and understanding, it can lend itself towards greater judgment, greater hierarchy, things like that. But this more inward path, that I think the best of faith and religion can generate, I think that's where religion shines the most. I think that when you look at the Saints or the world changers of history, they were all honed in on that second effect of religion - which was 'how can my ego die and I can surrender to the love of God for the world?' 

As a pastor, I really try to push our congregation to come to church to worship God, to work on ourselves, and to offer belonging to one another because oftentimes people come to church to work on one another. That's really unhealthy. That is a very common effect of religion; that 'this is a way for me to work on other people who are different from me people.' This kind of hierarchy is a ladder, it's a contest. As a pastor, I'm really trying to always get us to look inward. We're here to work on ourselves.

What do you think your religious organization brings to our area?

For starters, I think there's about 200 people in this congregation. I believe that to the extent that they engage in this church, some people only occasionally show up and some people are here three times a week, those people are more emotionally grounded. They are more grounded, more peaceful, more compassionate. They are better citizens due to their involvement in this church, than they would be if they weren't in church. They may still be kind of jerks, we all are kind of jerks to some degree, but they are less so because they are here. They are better neighbors to you, to anyone who doesn't go to church here, because they are involved in this church. That's the number one thing and that is huge. 

There are people who may have taken their own life if they did not have their faith, their church, and the hope and love that they find in this place. I can testify to the testimonies that have been given to me of people who, because of this place, that their life was changed for the better and that made them better family members, better neighbors, better employees, better all the things. 

Beyond that, our church is always very involved in this community and serving this community. We donate tens of thousands of dollars to non-profits. We collect truckloads of school supplies for the children of our local schools every year. We help Habitat for Humanity, we help RARA, we help Unity 4 Kids. Young Life, we let them use our building. They have a free office here. We have support groups that meet in our building for free. The Historic Lexington Foundation meets here for free. We are very much in service to this community, pretty much every day, regardless of where or if you go to church.

How would you describe your congregation’s demographics?

I really enjoy the socioeconomic diversity of our congregation. We do have everything from millionaires to extremely poor people. People who live on poverty wages, who live in slums. In our congregation we have people with PhDs and people who barely squeaked out of high school. Our congregation leans kind of blue collar, working class, so a lot of people in our church don't have a bachelor's degree or at best have a bachelor's degree. We have farmers. That's something I really enjoy about this place. It's very difficult to keep a farmer and a W&L professor in the same congregation but it's beautiful when you can pull it off. 

How has your service attendance been over the years?

This church was declining until after the pandemic. During the pandemic, it was horrible. Then, as I think churches were all kind of reshuffling and rebuilding after the pandemic, ours is in a better place than it was in the last, probably, 10 or 15 years. We probably run about 120 on a Sunday. 

Have you seen any changes, shifts, or evolution of the area?

I just can't positively say I've witnessed it, coming in here in '22. I've been able to lead a lot of positive change for this church that my predecessor just couldn't swing. I honestly think it was because he had different battles he had to fight, that he got done before I got here. 

I grew up in a county almost precisely the same as this county - very small, same amount of people, totally agriculture. The only difference is it only had one college instead of three. So that town had so much more of a locked-down, close-minded, us-vs.-them, us-vs.-the-world, and all that kind of stuff. Whereas this town, I just think that the churn of the universities - the contact the people have with newcomers, it wears that down a little bit. But I've heard people say, this within our own church, 'in this church, I was still considered a new person after being here 10 years.' It's like, 'No, you're good now.' 

How do you see the future of this area?

I just don't know. The future, I think, depends on what the community decides to do about housing. I mean, there's nowhere to live, there's nowhere to move into. If we wanted to, we could grow the population of this county a lot and that would change so much if it did. But honestly, probably the easier thing is not to do that. In certain ways, at least in the short term, is to not develop more housing and things like that. Because if more people move in, that's more newcomers, that's more racial diversity, more diversity, all of that shapes everything. 

I mean, what do I really know? I don't have a crystal ball. I'm just a preacher. I just intuitively sense that when I talk to my people and their struggles with housing, their struggles with recruiting professionals for their various things, people can't move here. I don't know what it'll look like. I think that it largely depends on what happens in the housing industry. 

In this series, we’re going to talk with the area leaders of a wide breadth of denominations, religious organizations, and groups. We’ll learn about how they view their place in this area, the diversity of beliefs in our community, and their opinion of how religion affects people and their community. 

*Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. 

This week, I spoke with Ray Higgins of Rockbridge Faith Works.

How long has this church been here in Lexington and how long have you been with this church?

We started last November. Brand new. The first churches to get involved were Grace Episcopal church and the pastor of Manly Memorial Baptist Church. So those are the two key pastors that started the organization with me.

We're a faith-based non-profit organization, we're working towards our non-profit status, and so we're not a church per se, congregations make up the organization.  We help congregations.

Why do you think there are so many churches in the area, and especially just in Lexington?

Well there's a lot of faith traditions here, especially the Presbyterians and others that go way, way back. The Catholic church is over 100 years old, maybe even more than that. 

Why do you think churches are typical elements in all cities, big or small?

From my perspective, all these churches have a common set of values regarding "the least of these among us" from Matthew's gospel. They want to do something, they want to affect the issue of poverty. What holds them together is the desire to see, sort of, the kingdom that Jesus taught so much about in all the gospels.

So there's these churches, whether they're Catholic, Protestant, a Jewish congregation, or Muslim, or wherever they come from, they have a set of values they want to be able to sort of act upon.

What effects do you think religion has on a group of people or a community?

Well, we're going to demonstrate that it can bring about a significant social change; that it can bring hope to the hopeless, you know? There's this Homeless Connection we're working on right now. People are living in trailers, campers, their cars, tents. They're not on the street corners but they're hidden out in hollers, they're living on couches, and people can't afford to rent in Rockbridge County. They are a hidden group and so all these churches sort of share that and that's how they're going to become active in the community. We're hoping to bring together a couple hundred people to sort of bring to light this homelessness issue. We're going to invite the mayor, the county supervisors, everyone to come together to make a commitment to doing something about it.

What do you think your religious organization brings to our area?

We're part of what's called The Homeless Connection here in the area that's been meeting to look at issues of homelessness affecting people in the community. It's all the churches coming together. The first issue may be a warming shelter. There's no shelter of any kind for the homeless in Rockbridge County. So that's probably gonna be the most tangible thing that we're working on.

I teach them a model of how to do that by building relationships, doing what we call one-on-one interviews. What makes community organizing a little different than say some non-profits is we don't just tackle one issue and we don't just do charitable services. We really don't do any charity. We work for systemic change. So it's a very civic organization, sort of taking the gospels into the town center.

How would you describe your congregation’s demographics?

We've got about 12 congregations that make up the organization, that run the spectrum: from Rockbridge Church which is about 400 members, to Grace Episcopal Church with about 150, to Manly Memorial Baptist Church which has about 120 active on Sundays. We have some churches out in the county: Collierstown Presbyterian Church, Collierstown United Methodist Church, New Monmouth Presbyterian church. All these churches have come together to work on social problems like homelessness.

It's a mix of mostly middle class folks. We're reaching out to congregations right now that are more blue collar, so that's sort of the class makeup. There's mostly white people in Rockbridge County so it's mostly a white organization. First Baptist church, with McKinley Williams, was part of starting the organization so Marquita Dunn is another key African-American leader in our organization. 

Mostly Protestant, we only have one Catholic church. Father Maxwell is supportive of what we're doing. We are primarily a Christian organization but we're open to all congregations of faith.

How has your service attendance been over the years?

We're just starting out at our monthly meetings. We have 15 to 20 individuals that come to our monthly meeting: pastors, lay people, a collection of people I've met with over the first four months of the organization. So that's our monthly gathering.

Have you seen any changes, shifts, or evolution of the area?

Lexington, as a city, when I grew up there was a Roses on Main Street. It was more of a blue collar town than, you know, right now the upper-middle class sort of Main Street. So that's changed. I remember there used to be a Grand's Piano down here, Sears up the road. Most of my relatives don't even come to Main Street because they don't have any shopping to do here, it's all boutiques. They go to Walmart. 

I have seen it change, and a lot of ways change for the good. There's a real openness about Lexington, as far as political beliefs, cultural beliefs, the universities are a great influence. It really is a little melting pot for Rockbridge County. I enjoy that, living here. I think we, as an organization, have benefited from that as well, sort of that little more of a cosmopolitan flavor to little old Lexington.

How do you see the future of this area?

Well, I think we could be doing more for the poor and the disadvantaged and the marginalized. 

When I saw that, in some areas of the county, poverty is as high as 40 percent, this is according to [the executive director of Rockbridge Area Relief Association] Lindsey Perez's study that she sent me. You know, that statistic stands out, that statistic is what inspired me to start organizing. Poverty in the county, in Buena Vista, Glasgow, Collierstown, Goshen. These are places with great need, much of it is hidden. My job is to get out there and do one-on-one visits and interviews, and get people active through their churches. In each one of those interviews, I ask for referrals, then those lists are how we build a grassroots organization.

*Comments and clarifications from Lindsey Perez, Executive Director, Rockbridge Area Relief Association:

1. The name of the coalition is the Rockbridge Homeless Connection (RHC), which Rockbridge Faith Works is a member of. Rockbridge Faith Works does not speak for RHC (and any future media requests can come to me as the Chair). RHC is made up of nonprofits, local government representatives, law enforcement, and school staff in addition to churches.
2. Rockbridge Faith Works is bringing people together through a faith-based perspective to address homelessness and poverty with the mayor and county supervisors separately from RHC.
3. One of several possibilities RHC is exploring is a cold weather (warming) shelter, but we are currently focusing on coordinating resources and collecting better data on local homelessness. Rockbridge Faith Works is considering advocating for a warming shelter though.
4. The 40% poverty in Rockbridge County stat came from the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission's Regional Housing Study, not from me.

I have been attending Rockbridge Faith Works meetings as RARA, so there is some overlap.

The News-Gazette office has bound archives of The Rockbridge County News and The News-Gazette, but we don't have any physical archives of The Lexington Gazette. Continuing our foray into the Lexington Library's microfilm collection, this week we have The Lexington Gazette, May 20, 1959. Now, please remember that these are scans of microfilm. The quality is only as good as when it was first photographed. We've done our best with the editing. 

Some of the front page stories are:

• Mental Health Drive lead by Reverend Douglas C. Chase with the Rockbridge Chamber Mental Health Association.
• The Rockbridge Concert Series opens for the season with ballet dancers from the New York City Opera Company.
• Lexington City budget is proposed, with no tax increases.
• Students at Lexington High School showcase their work in home economics and workshop classes. 

An editorial about getting used to inflation was placed with "Old News Taken From Our Files" which is also known as "Out of The Past." This issue gives snippets of news from 100 years prior, 75, 50, and 25 years as well. 

The local Girl Scout troop received merit badges at their final Court of Awards, with some gaining the highest rank in intermediate girl scouting. The segment "This and That..." has little tidbits of local news, and the department store Adair-Hutton was having a Fair Weather Fair sale. 

In this series, we’re going to talk with the area leaders of a wide breadth of denominations, religious organizations, and groups. We’ll learn about how they view their place in this area, the diversity of beliefs in our community, and their opinion of how religion affects people and their community. 

*Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. 

This week, I spoke with Drew Ditzel from Lexington Presbyterian.

How long has this church been here in Lexington and how long have you been with this church?

1789, it was founded, no building at first, and this is the second iteration of the building.  

[I’ve been here] coming up on four years now.

Why do you think there are so many churches in the area, and especially just in Lexington?

That is a great question. I think that some of it has to do with people having been here for so long and a desire to have a church. When we speak of, like, the differing Presbyterian churches, they wanted their local spot that they were able to get to, pre-cars and things of that sort. We have lots of country churches, or Parish churches as I would call it. Then, I think, out of that, as new ideas and new divisions came about you already had lots of little churches and then people getting upset, wanting to do new things, or being drawn to new ways of doing church. So I think that then created new churches along the way.

Why do you think churches are typical elements in all cities, big or small?

I think people desire to have a place where they're known and where they can get to know people, a place where they're a part of a story that's bigger than themselves. Those are few and far between, I think even now, but there's something about faith in general that draws you and feels like community is more of a necessity. 

Even people who maybe don't have faith or aren't as strong still desire those values and I think, at its best, the church provides that. I think at its worst the church hinders that. For a long time people thought a church was a necessity to be a community, striving and engaging in whole living. I think it's still important but some might disagree more now than they have in the past.

What affects do you think religion has on a group of people or a community?

At its best, religion helps people understand their place and grounds them in a place. It allows them to see their neighbor, not as 'someone who is useful or not useful,' 'in the way or not in the way', but for lack of a better term: as a child of God - as someone, as an opportunity to love, to learn, to care, and to lean into who they were created to be. I think at its best, a church cares about and engages the common good. It desires that people have their basic needs met and have the opportunity to thrive. At its best, a church wants to be merciful and to seek justice. 

And then at its worst, the effects of a church are increased division, increased fear, and things of that sort. I truly believe that the church has the opportunity to impact people and communities in unbelievable ways that very few other institutions can, but with that comes the ability to harm as well. 

What do you think your religious organization brings to our area?

I think that Lexington Presbyterian certainly ties the community in the faith history of this place because it's been around so long. It sort of connects us, in a lot of ways, to our past. As a central geographic place, here in Lexington, I think it certainly stands out. It's pretty tall and so people are going to notice it. 

There's many locally famous Lexingtonians that have worshiped here and so I think that those ties to the past are real and important. And in that way, I think it really tells a story of Lexington - some of the best of who Lexington has been and some of the worst, in the sense that Lexington Presbyterian can tell the history of discrimination and slavery as well as any institution can here. It can also speak to the ways in which we have grown and turned away from those things. 

This community has always prided and really desired to use its resources to care about the local community, with time, with talents, and also financially, and in the same ways, you know, this church itself. 

In the early 2000s the sanctuary burned and that helps tell the story of who this community is too, in the ways in which the whole community rallied and supported this place. I wasn't here but it just shows the kind of people that make up Lexington and how we care far beyond our little circles. But I would hope, whether it's small or big, that Lex Pres both lives what it believes and encourages others to live in a similar way of loving your neighbor, and caring about others, and desiring for them to thrive.

How would you describe your congregation’s demographics?

Our congregation's demographics: super majority is white, but within that there is a good bit of diversity in terms of people's political affiliations, people's understanding of faith and God. Certainly no one is in lockstep in terms of what they think about God, how they think faith impacts and engages the world. I'd say that we lean, in terms of population, older but we are diverse in the sense of most age demographics are represented. We have people from the county and people from the city. Plenty of 90 year olds, people coming from Kendal, plenty of college kids, and then lots of little ones running around. I think it's great. I think the church is at its best when it can be diverse, have these different perspectives, and really seek what we think is the truth with a capital T, but understanding no one individual has it and so having various perspectives helps us see and get the full picture of that truth.

How has your service attendance been over the years?

Since I've been here, and this is somewhat coming out of Covid, its increased from when I first got here. I think people were still returning. This community had been in a transition after Bill Klein, wonderful pastor, had been here for so many years. They had an interim for a couple of years, and Covid and all that. So it's been great to see how people have returned or new people have come. 

It's certainly not the same as it was, you know, when organized religion was in its heyday and VMI Cadets were required to attend. As many churches as we have, there were a lot back then, but they were less options, less flavors. So if you're required to go to church, and most people expected you to go to church, it certainly would fill the pews more. We are a far cry from the heyday but it's just opportunity to fill the pews. 

It's been great to see so many people coming and worshiping together. I'm a big believer in the power of habits and it's hard to go to church, especially if you're making the decision every Sunday whether to go or not and you're out of that habit. It is hard to return. I don't mean that as an excuse or as a judgment, it's just sort of like working out. It's hard to work out and it's even harder if you haven't done it in a long time. If you're not used to it, if you don't have a time that you're used to doing it, and I think Covid got a lot of people out of the habit. It’s a hard thing to return and then it just feels harder and harder the longer it's been. But it's always great when somebody returns and it's sort of like exercise: 'Oh, why don't I do this more often? This was actually quite enjoyable.'

Have you seen any changes, shifts, or evolution of the area?

I've only been here four years so I can't say I have seen many changes or shifts. You know broadly speaking, I can see one of the things that I do love about being in Lexington: 

I came from Atlanta and there are a lot of churches in Atlanta. I have really enjoyed becoming colleagues and friends with the various pastors. It's much more doing-your-own-thing in Atlanta. Maybe not competitive between pastors but certainly a competitive in general feeling of what you're trying to do. That's just not here and it's such a gift to be able to see: if a church is doing well in Lexington, that's good for all churches. We very much feel like we're on the same team and we enjoy each other and it's just a cool thing to have grown into. 

I would say that, I've talked to McKinley, that maybe pre-Covid it wasn't quite as collegial. A lot of ministers came either right when I did, or a little bit before, and it's just a real gift to be able to root each other on, support each other, and enjoy each other's companies.

How do you see the future of this area?

I'm not one to predict the future but where I would hope to see it... I think Lexington is a rare opportunity where you have this mixture of diversity in terms of thought. You have colleges, amazing vocational work at the high schools, various paths in life you can go, understanding different religions, but you can really get to know your neighbor. I would love, in the time of great division in a sense that people have been building up with fear, that we could be a place that bucks the trend. We have the opportunity to really get to know our neighbor, and listen to our neighbor, and enjoy our neighbor, and work together. 

I love the idea that we could, in some ways, learn from our past and be people who seek reconciliation, a desire to truly be a whole community together. It's easy anywhere to kind of just go in your own lane and be with your own people. In a larger city, it's almost impossible to get out of your own lane. Here, it's actually quite easy to do that. It's hard work but it's easy to start because you go to school with them, you see them at Walmart, you can see them at the grocery store, and you might even worship alongside them. There are all kinds of events where the whole community comes together. There are real important issues that need work, like affordable housing and things like that, that we could come together and say, 'our community would be better if people could afford places to live.' You see it. You see people come together and work. It's amazing. So, to me, continuing to lean into that would be a great thing because this is a special place.

This week, we're taking a bigger step into the past than usual and looking at The Rockbridge County News in September 1914.

The word of the day on September 3, 1914 was: Prohibition. Half of the front page of this broadsheet issue was advertisements, but the other half included:

• A letter, from one William A. Anderson of Lexington, VA, that took up two and half columns.
• A report of VMI being ready if the war department needed soldiers to fight, and a request for $60,000 worth of artillery.
• Some personal mentions about locals and farming in the area.
• News in a Nutshell. 

Prohibition was also mentioned on the second page of the issue:

• Frustration about prohibition applying to hard liquors and not beer.
• An appeal that legalizing prohibition would lower crime and thus the amount allocated for crime-related local government spending.
• A large ad with names of "thinking men" who oppose state-wide prohibition. 

These early newspapers only had four pages, so to end this flashback, let's look at some ads and the train schedules for Lexington and Buena Vista.

Graduating from high school is a momentous step between worlds. It's when we step out of childhood and solidly into adulthood. The graduation tab helps preserve that moment. It gets immortalized in print and keeps that moment locked in time. Every school has yearbooks, where we have our school picture and our classmates can sign 'Have a nice summer!' but the graduation tab is unique. It's a special memento that can be kept for years, as proof that says, "I was there! This was me when I graduated high school!"

This week, we'll be looking at the Special Graduation Issue from May 1979, which features a graduate from The News-Gazette! Can you spot the teenage version of one of our staff members?

The front page stories for May 16, 1979 were:

• Water extension lines were placed to give water to Arnolds Valley families.
• Trouble with City of Lexington's budget could mean trimming for school system.
• A new air traffic control tower was being constructed.
• W&L gets an endowed professorship from alum Robert G. Brown. 

The front cover of the graduation tab for 1979 had a photo of two students and a camel. Each school had a interoduction to their section and the pages were full of graduating seniors and well wishes from local businesses.

The graduation tab is truly a wonderful keepsake for graduating seniors to look back on for years to come! If you want to see your graduation tab in a Flashback Friday, just message our Digital Media Specialist at bthorman@thenews-gazette.com. If you want to congratulate a senior at any of the local high schools in the graduation tab, contact April Mikels at amikels@thenews-gazette.com or (540)463-3113. The deadline is 4 PM today! 

Congrats Grads!

In this series, we’re going to talk with the area leaders of a wide breadth of denominations, religious organizations, and groups. We’ll learn about how they view their place in this area, the diversity of beliefs in our community, and their opinion of how religion affects people and their community. 

*Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. 

This week, I spoke with Jared Huntsman and Bill Braddy from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lexington. 

How long has this church been here in Lexington and how long have you been with this church?

Huntsman: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had an influence starting in 1840. There were missionaries that had come to this area and started to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1883, there was a small group of individuals that had joined the church in the Collierstown area, and that was the first official organization of members in the area. 

Braddy: Two families came together, the Irvine family and the Potter family. One family donated the plot of land (The Potters) and the Irvines donated timber off of their farm. It was milled to build this beautiful little white, mountain church. That chapel existed from about 1890/1900 until just a few years ago. It was taken down and is being archived for historical purposes. That little branch was really the start of a Rockbridge County congregation. 

Huntsman: Then in Lexington specifically, it was in 2006 that the church building, at 1340 Thornhill Road, was dedicated. The presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been here since the early 1800s. I moved here in 2009 and have greatly enjoyed living in this area. For me and my family, this is like a piece of Heaven. I think that this area is predominantly an area of God-fearing people who truly love the Lord, and are striving to live Christian lives.

Braddy: My wife Elizabeth and I moved here in January of 2011. She came later that summer and I came in January '11 and started employment with Southern Virginia University.

Why do you think there are so many churches in the area, and especially just in Lexington?

Braddy: I believe it's because people, and families in this area, were brought up with wonderful values. Based on their faith in believing in God and seeking to know and to do his will, regardless of their faith, so many Christians believe and trust in a loving God and their Savior Jesus Christ and they were brought up with that faith. Ingrained in them are high character and values and that's one of the reasons we love living in this area.

Huntsman: We believe that religion should be protected and that people have the right to be able to worship the almighty God according to the dictates of their own heart, you know? We love the commonality of worshiping Jesus Christ as our Lord and our savior, and I think that's what brings us together.

Why do you think churches are typical elements in all cities, big or small?

Huntsman: You know, I think you'll see a lot of churches in the center of the city because they believe that Christ should be at the center of their heart. I think it’s a symbol. A lot of times you'll see churches downtown, whether they're big or small. I think it's a reflection of how we should have God in our life: he should be in the center of our life. That's another reason why I love Lexington. You walk downtown Lexington and you see so many different churches. It's a constant reminder that 'my belief should be centered in the Lord Jesus Christ and my life should reflect those beliefs.'

Braddy: Exactly what I was going to say. Throughout Europe, cities and villes from 300-400 plus years ago, the churches and cathedrals were placed in the city for exactly what President Huntsman just said. I believe that because much of our heritage has come from Europe, and other parts of the world but specifically Europe, we follow that pattern. Churches are at the center because Christ should be at the center of our lives.

What do you think your religious organization brings to our area?

Huntsman: There are many things I think the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brings to this area. I think it brings a people who are rooted in a relationship with the Savior. I think it brings faith, I think it brings hope, I think it brings happiness.

Braddy: I think it gives us, our congregations, the opportunity to love one another, to serve one another, and to worship together, united in our faith. As far as the benefit of that in the community, we invite all who are interested in worshiping their savior Jesus Christ to join us. Whether you're a member of our church or not, visitors are always welcome. We invite individuals that have a common interest of living a good, clean life, with virtues and values centered around the Savior Jesus Christ to worship with us. If not, then come serve with us. Come help us lift the community, as families and individuals, and make the lives of everyone around us better.

How would you describe your congregation’s demographics?

Huntsman: Currently we have six different family congregations in Rockbridge County and a Spanish group. Then there are also an additional six young single adult congregations in Rockbridge County.

Braddy: Specifically in our area, just in the six family congregations, plus the Spanish group, we represent individuals that are in their 90s approaching 100 years old, down to new infants. We have young marrieds that don't have children yet and young families with 1-7 children. Then we have empty-nesters, like President Huntsman and myself, that have raised our families and now enjoying grandchildren, and then we have other individuals that are single and/or maybe widowed. So we're very diverse in each congregation. 

We have many people that are multi-generational; their roots go back a hundred years in Rockbridge County. We call them our heritage members. They're the foundation of what's happening here. Then we have transplants like, Jared came from out west and I came from North Carolina. Very diverse congregations which, in my opinion, adds to the joy of meeting together because we're always learning from other people that have different backgrounds, different cultures, different experiences.

Huntsman: Currently we have about 2050 members on record in Rockbridge County, plus an additional thousand, I would guess, from the young single adult congregations. The approximate population of Rockbridge County is about 37,000 people. We're roughly around eight percent of people of faith in this area.

How has your service attendance been over the years?

Huntsman: This area continues to grow. So within the last 100 years, it's been amazing to see the growth of the church in this small area. 

Braddy: I'll add: specifically in the last 30 years. From that one congregation, to the 12 that are here, has all happened in the last 30 years. So, it's been in this area for over a hundred years, but in the last 25 or 30 years we've seen that growth. And these are not congregations of 30 or 40. These are congregations of a couple of hundred plus, and still growing. 

Although we've grown a lot, the numbers and the growth is not what really matters. What really matters at the end of the day is the personal one-on-one relationship that each person has with their Savior Jesus Christ. 

Have you seen any changes, shifts, or evolution of the area?

Braddy: It seems like over the last 15 or 16 years, I've noticed an increase of people seeking a good area like this to come and move to. They're seeking a beautiful, safe area, a good community where they can bring their family, where they could retire. I think people are noticing or seeking out this type of community, Rockbridge County. There's been growth all over the community - in the business arena, all three higher education institutions, and in other areas.

Huntsman: You know, I think one of the things that I've enjoyed recently is being welcomed at the Rockbridge Ministerial Alliance. We're religious leaders, coming together from all faiths, we share a common belief in the Savior Jesus Christ, and look for opportunities and ways to bless the community. I'm very grateful for the graciousness of other church leaders who are willing to open their arms to all people of faith and they say, "Let’s come together for the benefit of the community." 

How do you see the future of this area?

Huntsman: I am very much an optimist. I like to see the good in everyone. I think that the direction of the world is going to continue to be unstable, you know, to have problems. But I love that we can come together and there will be strength as Christians in this community. As we lock arms, serve and strive to bless one another regardless of denomination, the more that we can become united, we will continue to grow in strength. 

Braddy: I'm also an optimist, but also a realist and I agree with President Huntsman that there are probably some interesting times that lie ahead for the country and the world. Here's what I believe: when we, as a community here, stay centered in our hearts on God the Father and his son Jesus Christ, we are blessed. Love one another, serve one another, first serve our God - we're going to be great. Now, will there be some interesting times around us, probably.  I believe in our community, we're going to be fine. The future is very, very bright.

In this series, we’re going to talk with the area leaders of a wide breadth of denominations, religious organizations, and groups. We’ll learn about how they view their place in this area, the diversity of beliefs in our community, and their opinion of how religion affects people and their community. 

*Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. 

This week, I spoke with McKinley Anthony Williams of First Baptist Church on N. Main St.

How long has this church been here in Lexington and how long have you been with this church?

Since 1867, so 159 years. I have been the pastor since 2017.

Why do you think there are so many churches in the area, and especially just in Lexington?

Well, I would say that each church has its own focus or emphasis. So, you got people who want to follow that particular leadership, in that particular parish or congregation. You couldn't find two people in Lexington who think alike. But you've got a variety and diversity of churches and I guess that would satisfy their religious needs.

Why do you think churches are typical elements in all cities, big or small?

Well, I think we need, as humans, to have a sense of moral authority. Religion binds together. We need something that helps us to, kind of, grasp the things of life that we don't understand. Religion helps us by faith - it helps us to wrestle with the things that are mysterious to us as humans that our minds can't grapple upon. We, the religious community, believe we have a God that answers all, understands all, and can do all and that nothing is impossible through the power of God.

What affects do you think religion has on a group of people or a community?

I think on, a positive note, it can be very, very beneficial because you have a people who are together in terms of  their views. Whatever is transpiring, if it's negative, then it's not the end, and if it's positive then it is through and only by the help and the power of God.

What do you think your religious organization brings to our area?

First Baptist Church in Lexington brings a sense of hope to a people who are oppressed. It brings a sense of unity, a sense of oneness. They may have been oppressed and rejected in the wider society, there is a sense of "somebody-ness" in this particular church, you know, we're counted. Even though the society may say one thing, that doesn't count because ultimately God has counted us. So this church is a constant reminder of the struggles that took place to get the people to where they are. 

There's another church they broke off from, 160 years ago roughly. They decided: 'we don't have to deal with this. We can band and have our own. We can celebrate the freedom of Christ through our own way, we can worship, and we can serve in the manner we see fit and we don't have to apologize for it.

How would you describe your congregation’s demographics?

We're mostly older, middle age to older - the older ones who have a sense of their history. There's a lot of legacy here, a lot of family ties. We get some of the college students who, you know, they're searching. They can embrace the church worship style. I think it's mostly older because Lexington is almost a retirement center, so you get old, and older.

How has your service attendance been over the years?

It was very, very good, considering we're predominantly African-American and you only have 499 African Americans here. You get a few others but they're in and out. And then, this is a transient community - a college community too. Even if you get them, you're going to wind up with them two or three years, and then they're off to life. And Lexington is limited in job offers and expansion. 

The pandemic hit, but we were open during the pandemic. We stayed open every Sunday. While other churches, some of those closed for two years. First Baptist was open and what we did was stream live, and the community appreciated the fact that we were having worship because it was the only worship service they had. But I think, hit or miss, we're doing okay, considering.

Have you seen any changes, shifts, or evolution of the area?

Yes. It's more diverse since I've been here. It's seemingly a little more welcoming. When I first got here, it seemed like it was a little polarized. Now it seems like, people may not understand or they may not agree, however they do give you the space and they do respect whatever it is that you represent.

How do you see the future of this area?

Well, I think as long as people have the spirit of cooperation, to work together, I think this area can always make it. I think that you would have to, I would say, take the bitter with the sweet. Some people are going to be hard-lined and they're not going to get involved, but there are people in Lexington who seem like they don't mind change. They're open to new things and that's always good for the future: having newness, having youth taking chances, seeing where you can make it, and what you can't see physically but you can see it with a spiritual eye.

The front page stories for April 24, 1963 were:

• The Natural Bridge fire details, continued on page7 (third image).
• Story about how the Natural Bridge Hotel manager is handling the aftermath.
• Another fire took place that week, with one fatality.
• A little background on the numerous owners of the Natural Bridge.
• A mobile x-ray unit was in Rockbridge County. During the first five days, 4,321 free x-rays were taken. 

All of the photos of the fire and the complete story are included below. The second page with the photos of the Natural Bridge Hotel fire also has the movie ads for that weekend. The story is continued on the third picture, along with the continued story from the front page about a car accident fatality, and a large Kroger ad. 

Rounding out this week's flashback are a couple of photos: a class from Lexington High School visited The News-Gazette and learned about the typesetting machine, and four young trumpet players participated in the country band workshop. 

That's at the top of the April 7, 1971 issue of The News-Gazette. It was only 15 cents per copy and all the photos were in black and white. Our newspapers have color photos now and articles can be read online, but we're still serving Rockbridge County, the City of Lexington, and now the City of Buena Vista. We're approaching 225 years of service and we're proud to provide local news and events to our communities!

The front page stories for April 7, 1971:

• The budget for Rockbridge County schools, which includes a few items on the budget.
• Lexington adopts a new zoning ordinance for apartments.
• The budget for Lexington schools is proposed and also contains a few key points of the budget.
• The Historic Lexington Foundation gets it's first historic preservation award.
• The 1971 Miss Rockbridge is named: Carol Ann Dixon. Pictured with her is 1970 Miss Rockbridge, Pandora Olivia Dixon. 

A staple of newspapers, until the mid 20th century, was the society section. It's called 'Personal Mentions' in The News-Gazette, and it functioned as a way for communities to stay connected on a more personal level. Basically, it was social media before the internet.  You could read about your neighbor going on vacation, who had family in town, and in large, affluent areas there were details about prominent families and local debutants. In this issue's Personal Mentions, you find out that Mrs. Francis P. Gains visited her family in Tucson, Arizona. Mrs. Lyle D. Harlow was in D.C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival and stayed with Mrs. Elmer Guilford. Mrs. Christian Holland and her three daughters spent Easter weekend with Mr. and Mrs. M. W. Paxton Jr. 

This issue also included an installment of a column titled, "Lexington Days Well Remembered." It's a reminiscence of Louise Kelly, former managing editor of The Rockbridge County News. 

The SPCA Poster Event winners were selected and pictured with their posters, plus a big ad for The Aristocats was featured along with other movie showtimes.

This week, I spoke with Dr. Michelle Schenley from Animal Clinic of Rockbridge.

What services does this location provide?

We are a veterinary hospital.

Does this location have a high volume of animals?

We're a two-doctor practice, so I would say a moderate amount.

How does this location handle the volume of animals?

We see appointments every half an hour from 8:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon, with a break at lunch. We have two doctors here most every day, a whole amount of staff, and we have five licensed veterinary technicians 

What do you like most about working with animals?

I think it's the challenge and it's never the same thing. It's always something new. You always get to learn. You see something different and see a variety of different species and wounds and things.

What is a major challenge for animal care in our area?

I think the biggest problem in our area is the lack of large animal veterinarians. This location only [handles] small animals.

What is the most common animal seen at this location?

Cats and dogs, that's all we do here.

What was the most unusual animal seen at this location?

We just do cats and dogs. I mean, in my career I have seen other animals but now we just do small animals.

What advice would you give to new animal owners in this area?

Do your homework. Be selective about what you choose to get, whether it's the breed of dog, or a cat, or whatever. Be prepared for the cost of veterinary medicine, it's very expensive. It's a responsibility, you can't get an animal and then not be able to take care of it. So, if you're not financially prepared to do that, you know, there's pet insurance and everything else but you need to be prepared to take care of it for 12 to 20 years.

This week, I spoke with Charissa Morris who is a licensed veterinary technician at Edgewater Animal Hospital in Buena Vista, Va.

What services does this location provide?

We provide veterinary services for small animals, mostly dogs and cats. We offer preventative care: vaccines, wellness exams, supplements, preventative medications. We also do a wide range of surgeries, dental procedures, cleaning, and senior wellness care as well.

Does this location have a high volume of animals?

I would say yes, just based on what we see on a daily basis. I would say, probably, we average about 20 to 30 appointments per day. Right now, we only have one veterinarian working so we stay very busy. We do see new patients, if not daily, definitely weekly.

How does this location handle the volume of animals?

We just try to see as many as we possibly can in the span of a day. We do only have one veterinarian but we have three licensed veterinary technicians and two assistants. They're able to jump in and help get things started, do as much as they can for the veterinarian to support her, and take care of the pets that we see daily. 

A licensed veterinary technician, in the state of Virginia, is essentially kind of like a human nurse: we're licensed to take care of pets in the capacity of working under a veterinarian. So, we are able to do almost everything the veterinarian can do. The only things that we are not licensed to do is perform surgery, prescribe medication, or provide a diagnosis. Other than that, we can assist in surgery, we can provide treatments under the direction of a veterinarian, we can do vaccines, draw blood, give medications and treatments as needed.

A lot of the times we do require that some of our clients drop their pets off, so that they are there for the majority of the day. That just gives us time to see them, evaluate them, run diagnostics, and provide treatment. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer than usual, but we're able to get more done that way.

What do you like most about working with animals?

It's just something I've always enjoyed. I don't know exactly how to describe it. It's just something that makes me happy, just being able to help them, you know? They can't tell us exactly what is wrong with them, or what's going on, so it's always kind of a learning process to investigate and figure it out. Part of the fun is doing the science, the work, figuring it out, and then being able to provide the treatments that they need and make them feel better. They're always thankful and happy and loyal. They can't really complain too much, so that's always a nice thing too. I just grew up loving them and just always wanted to work with them. So I just followed that dream and it's worked out for me.

What is a major challenge for animal care in our area?

I would say the biggest challenge, obviously with most things, is going to be cost. Veterinary care is becoming more expensive, along with everything else. Just the cost of having a pet in general is expensive, even if you don't have any emergencies or don't have any medical issues come up. Just the preventative care and maintenance - vaccines, flea and tick prevention, keeping them feeling as good as they can. Their food is even expensive, especially living in this rural area that we live in. You don't have a high salary in our area, you know? It's hard for people to afford just general care. So that's our biggest hurdle that we cross basically every day. Just trying to provide the best care that we can, at the lowest cost, that still gives us the ability to be open every day and have the medications on hand that need to be given. 

What is the most common animal seen at this location?

More dogs than cats in general. We have probably a bigger cat population in our area, but we don't see a lot of them. Mostly because they are feral or owners just have them as outside pets that they aren't able to bring for their illnesses. Dogs probably are bigger, probably about 60 to 40 ratio. It's not a big difference but we see more dogs than cats on a daily basis.

What was the most unusual animal seen at this location?

We did have somebody bring in a fawn once, that their dog unfortunately had attacked. We aren't able to provide care for wildlife, technically. We can provide emergency critical care when needed. What we did was just put the fawn on some oxygen and waited for somebody to be able to pick it up and take it to the Wildlife Center. 

Other than that, we really don't see many cool pets. We just don't do exotics. There's just a lot more information that other places can provide and help with the exotics. It's just a lot for us to undertake. We'll do nail trims on guinea pigs, we've done some bird nail trims and wing clippings before, but it's very rare. We haven't done that in a while.

What advice would you give to new animal owners in this area?

Probably the biggest advice that we give to most of our new pet owners is: look into getting pet insurance. It's becoming more popular and we have seen it help our clients tremendously. Mostly unexpected calls or, you know, illnesses and injury, but it can help with other aspects as well. Just like human insurance, you don't usually need it everyday but when you need major help. Pet insurance, especially with a new pet that's going to live for 10+ years, it's becoming a bigger thing and something everybody should be thinking about when they're looking to get a new pet. 

In celebrating Encourage a Young Writer Day, we're featuring a article by one of The News-Gazette's past interns:

Back in 2018, The News-Gazette had an intern named Mattie Marsh who was working on her master's degree in English at JMU. She went on to become a full-fledged member of the News-Gazette staff and won an award in 2020 for Best Breaking News Story. 

The News-Gazette has nurtured many young writers in it's long history. Mattie Marsh was one such writer and she grew to be beloved at the paper, not just for her writing skills but her sunny disposition as well. She's Mattie Montgomery now and works as the assistant editor of the Communications Team for the VMI Alumni Association.

The ability to write is a fundamental skill that wasn't always available to everyone. We now live in a society that promotes education for all, and encouraging and nurturing young people to write is paramount. Whether they're small children, teens, or even young adults, being encouraged to write can lead to a love of the written word. It may not become a career, like it did for Mattie, but we should all do our part to encourage the young writers in our lives. 

The front page stories for October 17, 2018 were:

• Governor Northam went on a tour of downtown Lexington to see all the recent new businesses.
• The lawsuit of Senator Deeds regarding the death of his son was settled out of court.
• There was opposition about a new cell tower at a public hearing of the Rockbridge County Planning Commission.
• The final installment of the News-Gazette series on domestic violence called "Eternally Hopeful."

This issue of the paper is a bit unique in that it shows the introduction of a few community features that we see and use in our lives today. First, there's the story that Mattie Marsh wrote about the Buena Vista Food Lion remodel. People who don't shop at that location can still walk downtown and see the new business that opened in 2018. The timber frame reading area is standing strong at the Lexington library and there have been more timber framed structures assembled in our area. The painted life-size horses can be seen around the community, from Buena Vista to Fairfield, and we always look forward to the Mountain Day festival in October! 

The News-Gazette is proud to report on the lives and events in our community, whether they happened 8 years ago or 85 years ago. 

The issue of the Rockbridge County News we're looking at this week is very old and thus very brown in color: April 6, 1933.

The front page had stories about:

• The death of a certain prominent woman named Elizabeth Preston Randolph Allan. She was so well known and revered that her death is announced on the front page four times.
• The naval airship, Akron, crashed into the ocean during an electrical storm. The story includes a first-hand account of a survivor of the crash. 
• From the section 'In Neighboring Counties' - "Miss Francoise E. May, brunette daughter of the Belgian ambassador, will be queen of the tenth annual Shenandoah Apple Blossom festival"
• And in the section 'News in a Nutshell' - High schoolers in Chicago were on strike in deference to their teachers, who were not being paid.

Included this week are many articles about budgets, which puts our current budget projections into perspective. There are also some Easter ads and a story titled "The Fable of the Monarch of Western Hemisphere." It tells of a man named Mr. Jelby who gets really upset at trends and fads. 

Sources: 

This week, I spoke with Anna Cohen. She is the manager of the Blue Ridge Animal Clinic in Lexington. 

What services does this location provide?

We provide both large and small animal services. Small animal services: cats, dogs, we see the odd chicken or two, couple of ferrets but not recently. Primarily cats and dogs. As far as large animals go, we do sheep, goats, pigs, llamas, horses, bovine - dairy and beef.

Does this location have a high volume of animals?

Yes, most definitely. We are right smack dab in the middle of this rural shortage area. Rural shortage areas are established by the federal government. We have over 620 large animal clients. That doesn't mean that we see them all the time but as far as active clients across all counties, it's quite a lot.

How does this location handle the volume of animals?

We just have an amazing group of receptionists. There are three of them. One has been here over 30 years, one for 20 years, and then one that is relatively newer but they steer the ship. I mean, they take the calls, they triage things, they know how to schedule so that the travel time is right and the doctors are going in the right directions at the right times. It's not easy to do. A lot of times, what they can't fit in the schedule themselves, they will leave a message for the large animal doctor saying, 'I put it in here, I got it in there' and then they pop it in the schedule. So it's really a team effort. The receptionists really hold the boat together, I'd say. They're great ladies.

What do you like most about working with animals?

I myself don't directly work with them because I'm the business manager. I fell into this position because I have a background in farming and animals. I would say, speaking generally for everybody, I think they're in this profession because they love animals, they care about animals, care about food animal producers, and people who try to make a living through farming, and the people that own these animals. It's amazing what people do for their pets; they're really like their children.

What is a major challenge for animal care in our area?

I would say the shortage of veterinarians and licensed veterinary technicians. It's been challenging to find a strictly small animal veterinarian. I don't know if it's because our practice is unique in that we're truly a mixed animal location. I mean it's really about 50/50 or 60/40. There's equal division between the large and the small animal. There's a shortage of veterinarians out there and then there's also a shortage of licensed veterinary technicians. So, I think finding people to fill those positions is not always easy. 

We're up against corporate owned practices, so being a private practice and having been around for over 40 years now, it's hard to compete with corporate supported practices. They will offer a whole lot of money and signing bonuses and things like that. We don't have the corporate manpower behind recruitment and all the stuff that they do. 

Also to make sure that it's the right cultural fit as well because, I think for us particularly, it's important. We've been part of the community for such a long time, so we're not concerned with shuffle in and shuffle out. I think we pride ourselves on being part of the community, knowing our clients, and developing relationships with them and their pets. So, you're not just in and out.

What is the most common animal seen at this location?

Either canines or bovines. It’s probably pretty close. If you count when you do a herd visit: the large animal doctors will go out, and if they're going to preg check 150 cows, that's 150 cows in a day versus however many small animals we see. So it's hard to actually answer that question and have it be like, apples to apples, because it's not. 

What was the most unusual animal seen at this location?

Since I've been here, probably the most unusual is either the baby kangaroo or the penguin, but that was when we had a staff member that also worked at the Safari park. She was, like, the assistant curator over there, so she would sometimes bring unwell pets. But since she's not here anymore, we haven't really had any strange ones like that.  We have a parrot that comes in every once in a while to get his beak and his toes trimmed. Nothing super strange, I would say.

What advice would you give to new animal owners in this area?

Enjoy your pet, time goes by fast. Never hesitate to call if you feel like something's wrong. Your pets will let you know when something's wrong. Socialize your pet. I've had pets my whole life and farm animals most of my adult life. You can't know the amount of love you get back from a dog or a cat. It's hard to quantify. Just be there for your pet and look for signals. Enjoy them. Mess with their feet a lot. 

This week, I was fortunate to sit down with the executive director of the Rockbridge County SPCA, Tara Rodi. 

What services does this location provide?

We serve as the municipal shelter for the area: Rockbridge County, Lexington, and Buena Vista. We are an animal shelter and an SPCA, so we take in homeless, abandoned, and unwanted animals.

Does this location have a high volume of animals?

It does, yes. Right now, we're full with dogs and we have just a couple of cats, but cat season's coming around so we'll probably be seeing a lot more cats come in the near future. But we do have easily over 500 animals here a year.

How does this location handle the volume of animals?

We care for them. When they first come in, they're here for a hold time which depends on if they are a stray or if they look like they belong to somebody. It's seven days if it's a stray. It's 12 days if it looks like they belong to somebody and that could be because they have a collar on, they have a microchip, they're well groomed, or we can tell that they're neutered. After their hold time is up, if no one has come for them, then we put them over to the adoption side of the SPCA and we put them up for adoption. We hang on to the animals for as long as we can, as long as they don't get sick, or injured, or bite somebody. So some animals we've had here for a couple of years. 

We serve as the pound, essentially, for the localities. If we were only a pound, after the hold time was up it would probably be euthanasia for those animals. But since we were also an SPCA, we then take the animals into the SPCA side of our shelter, where we care for them for as long as we can. That's why we rely on a lot of donations and community support grants to help us do all that.

What do you like most about working with animals?

Being around animals is great, but it's even better when we see them go home with somebody and see the adoption and watch them drive out of the driveway. It's very touching for the staff, especially when they've been taking care of them for so long. Just to see that they got a home. Then, we love hearing back from people two or three, maybe even sometimes seven years later, telling us about the dog or cat they adopted and sending us pictures. So, knowing that these animals get a great forever home and are in good hands is always good.

What is a major challenge for animal care in our area?

Funding, of course, for getting them spayed and neutered. We're required, since we are a municipal shelter, that all animals leaving here have to be spayed and neutered by Virginia law. It's hard sometimes when somebody wants to adopt a dog or cat and that hasn't been done yet, because then it puts that on them to pay for it and do it. So we are super excited because in May we are opening our own spay neuter clinic just up our driveway. So we will have the ability to spay and neuter every animal that comes in the shelter and have that part of the adoption process already done. So that's one of our biggest challenges. 

Of course, we have a lot of cats in this area. People have issues with cats multiplying and living in their neighborhoods and on their streets. Again, our spay and neuter clinic is going to be a great way for people to be able to manage cat colonies and make sure that the cats are not reproducing. A cat shouldn't have to be having kittens over and over. A [female] cat can come into heat anytime it's around a male and, you know, that's a hard wear and tear on a mother cat. So getting them spayed and neutered is always good. 

Also, for the feral cats, we will be ear tipping them. We'll recut the tip of the ear straight across and that'll signify to people that this cat has been spayed or neutered and is vaccinated. So people will know, if they see that cat, 'that's the one we want to leave here, this one we want to catch and make sure it gets spayed or neutered.'

What is the most common animal seen at this location?

We are a pit bull and hound shelter. Lots of pit bulls and hounds.

What was the most unusual animal seen at this location?

We got a really big lizard. It was a huge, Argentine Tegu lizard. We've gotten a chinchilla in before. We've had some snakes, but I wasn't here for the snakes. There's different, like, pocket pets or domestic pets, that sometimes we get. Your typical rabbits and birds and stuff like that. But this huge Argentine Tegu lizard, that was a big guy. We drove him all the way to Norfolk to a lizard rescue. He was found just walking the streets. Definitely not an indigenous type animal for our area, but somebody found and picked him up. No one claimed it. He wouldn't have survived, obviously, in this climate, so he ended up at a rescue in Norfolk.

What advice would you give to new animal owners in this area?

Just make sure that you have the means to take care of your animal. There's going to be food costs, expenses every once in a while. Make sure you have a safe environment for your pet. If it's a cat, please keep it indoors so it'll be safe, you know, it won't run away and be another lost cat. Make sure you microchip all your animals. We microchip every animal that leaves here but if you didn't get a pet from us, getting it the microchip is always helpful because it helps us find the owner. Then just consider the yard and where you're living, you know? If you live in an apartment, a pit bull or hound is not an animal for you. As much as some people don't like to hear us say that, we have to explain to them, that that's just not going to work.

So just consider where you're living, your financial means, and being able to take care of the pet for the life of the pet. It's not a temporary thing, when you adopt, it's for the life of that pet.

The Rockbridge County SPCA is located at 10 Animal Place, Lexington, VA 24450 and can be reached at (540) 463-5123

Ah, the 90's! The trends, the fashion, the slang! For many, it doesn't feel like the 90's were that long ago, but 1995 was 31 years ago. A lot has changed, but there is something very important that has stayed the same: The News-Gazette is still reporting on the lives and events in our community! 

The front page stories for March 22, 1995 were:

• A story about who will be on the local ballot in the fall elections, which would include the school board and sheriff's office.
• Two school board stories - One for the budget of Rockbridge County Schools, and another for the 'year-round' calendar of Buena Vista schools.
• A rural development specialist helps local officials plan for the future of economic development in our area
• An update on the Justice Department's suit against VMI in 1990 to "formulate, adopt, and fully and timely implement a plan to remedy fully their discriminatory policies."

The Lifestyle section features stories about a spring concert, the Blue Ridge Garden Club's historic homes and gardens tour, the Happy Cook offers a couple of spring recipes, and we get to see which movies were showing that weekend. Check out the "Tightwad Tuesdays" special price for Valley Cinemas in Buena Vista!

Next, you get to see what the typical 90's bride looked like in the Marriages section. 

We finish up this blast from the past with the School Scene to look back on some school fashion and who made the honor roll! 

This week I sat down with the publisher of the paper: Matt Paxton. Having familial ties to the paper, it's no surprise that he's been working here the longest, 46 years. Although he is the son of the previous publisher and editor, he didn't start out at the top of the organization. His various jobs within the paper, as well as his educational background, gave him the skills needed to handle the complicated and weighty position as publisher. Not only does he devote himself to the well-being of the paper, but he also creates a thriving work environment where employees enjoy the work they do; as evidence by the previous interviews in this series. 

Why did you come to work at The News-Gazette?

That's kind of an interesting story because I didn't really think about coming back to work for the paper when I was growing up. My dad was the editor and publisher. He never put any kind of pressure on me or even brought it up as a possibility that I can remember. I think he wanted me, if I was interested in it, to come to that decision myself. But it was his non-family member partner who got me to come back. We were having lunch one day. I was working in Lynchburg at a bank. He asked me one day, did I ever consider coming back to work for the paper? And I said, 'well, I didn't really enjoy writing.' He said, 'well son, there's a lot more to do with the newspaper than the writing part.' So I came back on the business side. I started off as an ad salesperson and then became the ad director. Then, when that non-family member partner was ready to retire, I took over his job as the business manager.

What made you stay here instead of looking for another job?

I like what I do. I've always enjoyed doing this and I love living where I grew up. It's a wonderful place to live and raise a family. I just never thought about moving anyplace else. And I like being my own boss.

What kind of education or work background do you have that helps you do your job?

Oh, that's an interesting question because I didn't go to journalism school. I was an economics major in college. I think my liberal arts education was probably the best preparation, aside from one course that I did take in college. That was accounting, basic accounting, which has been extremely helpful. Beyond that, the broad spectrum of knowledge and the promotion of curiosity that a liberal arts education affords, I think is probably the best background I could have gotten.

What are three things you love about working at The News-Gazette?

Number one is the people that I get to work with and have gotten to work with over the years. We've had some fantastic folks, and lot of people that I stay in touch with, who've worked here and have moved on to other things. 

The second thing is that every day is something new. That's one of the perks of working in the news business. Every day you're covering things that are new, things that are right on the cutting edge of what's happening in our community. 

I guess the third thing is the ability it's afforded me to stay here in the place I really love.

Do you have a favorite funny story from working here?

One of the funniest stories happened years and years ago. One of our long-time employees, Gay Lea Goodbar, her mother worked here. She was a terrific cook and baker and she would always bake cakes for people for their birthdays. We had this one employee who was a bit of a curmudgeon and he didn't want his birthday remembered. He kept saying 'I don't want a cake, don't make me a cake.' So after hearing this, year after year, Ella Gay Potter brought in a cake for his birthday. It was this pretty sheet cake, chocolate cake, with candles on it. He blew out the candles, she gave him a knife, and he proceeded to try and cut the cake. He couldn't cut it because she had iced a box. But then she went around the corner and brought back a real cake. He actually did laugh. We got a laugh out of him. 

How do you feel about newspapers and journalism?

I think they're essential. I think that we must have in our communities some trusted source that can provide information about what's happening in the community, what's happening with our local governments, with local business, what's happening in our schools, what our people are doing - their special accomplishments. I think somebody needs to be there to recognize and applaud people who do great things. 

I think that a community that doesn't have some sort of a local news and information source, and one that has people that have some training to be able to determine what's important and how to organize a news story so that it's understandable  to readers is really very important. There are studies that show that communities that don't have a local newspaper or local news organization pay higher interest rates on their municipal bonds. There are greater instances of corruption locally. There's lower civic participation in terms of voting and there's also more polarization. So, I think that all of these are pretty good reasons to keep your local newspaper around and healthy.

The newspapers we're accustomed to seeing have at least one large picture on the front page, and often have a few smaller ones. This makes it easy for us to see which stories hold the most importance, according to the editor. Conversely, newspapers during the 1940s had front pages that were dominated by text and generally only featured one moderately sized picture. This issue has two small photos on the front page, one of a singer named Frances Sims and the other was the newly appointed acting attorney for Rockbridge County - Dan W. McNeil. 

Here are just a few of the many stories on the front page of the March 19, 1942 edition:

• A few stories about a town-wide blackout that was planned for Lexington: the preparations and people in charge, the duties put on the wardens to aid police in clearing the streets, and first aid stations in case of emergencies during the blackout.
• Virginia's supply of gasoline had decreased by 20%, which was believed to be a precursor to the possible implementation of gas rationing.
• A Bazaar was being arranged as a fundraiser for Bundles for America. It was going to include a narcissus show, a pet show for children, a fortune teller, and vendors selling supplies for victory gardens.
• Plus, the added feature that the Rockbridge County News had on every front page - News in a Nutshell. This was often national and global news.

Next is a segment, which is still featured in our current newspaper, called 'Out of the Past' and shows what happened in Rockbridge County 25 years prior and 50 years prior. Along with that is an excerpt about summer work for boys, a jab at The Groundhog for the weather (I think we're all feeling that right now), and an amusing graphic titled "The New Tenant." It's supposed to illustrate the season of spring, personified, coming into a new domicile after winter leaves the place cluttered and undesirable. Is that winter leaving through the window?

Then there is a story about how nutritious soy beans are, an announcement about welding and auto mechanic jobs for women, aged 18-25, in Manassas, and VMI to receive a portrait of Gen. George C. Marshall. 

Finally, there are some large ads featured in this issue. Most of them are for the spring fashion trends, particularly to look your best for Easter. 

This week I sat down with Ed Smith, who has been working at the paper since May of 1994. Ed is the assistant editor, so when the editor isn't in the office, Ed handles his responsibilities. On a regular basis, he's in charge of covering local government news for Buena Vista and Rockbridge County. He also writes editorials. For the sports section, he does processing, adds copy, and writes headlines.

Why did you come to work at The News-Gazette?

Well, I was at Radford University. I graduated in 1982 and so I followed my wife to this area. Neither one of us is from here but we both met in college. I was a journalism major at Radford and Becca was an education major. She got a job teaching at a school in Buena Vista. She's a year older than me so she came up here in 1981 and I followed her in 1982, and I got a job with the paper in Buena Vista in '83. I worked for that news organization for, like, eleven and a half years and then came here.

What made you stay here instead of looking for another job?

I just sort of enjoy our life here, small town life. We've raised a family and it's just all worked out. I never really planned out my life. Just circumstances led me here, you know? And you might say I'm resistant to change so if I'm comfortable in a situation, I just stick with it.

What kind of education or work background do you have that helps you do your job?

Like I said, I majored in journalism at Radford University. I didn't really have any long range aspirations for doing that. I was interested in photography when I was younger so that was the main thing that drew me to journalism, but over time I've transitioned more to being a writer and reporter than a photographer. So, you know, like I said: life circumstances just kind of pushed me in this direction. There was no great plan to end up here. It worked out and, you know, I stayed employed in this business for a long time.

What are three things you love about working at The News-Gazette?

Okay, well it's a family owned and operated business. We all seem to get along real well. You know, a lot of papers haven't survived in recent years with the internet and different other news sources. It’s nice that Matt [Paxton] has kept the paper going and it’s still around after all these years. I'm comfortable in the situation and I enjoy it. 

Do you have a favorite funny story from working here?

I'm not sure but I know with the other paper [in Buena Vista], we had an issue one time where, let's just say, a prominent individual had died. There was a story about some person being in concert or something. The picture of that deceased prominent individual appeared in the space where this person was supposed to be in concert. That was kind of a bad mistake.

But I mean, it's a reflection on the different way that we did things in those days. When the pages were laid out, they just had blanks where the pictures went. Then you had, like, an envelope full of pictures with numbers on the back of them. If the paper was printed elsewhere, they were just supposed to match up the pictures with the numbers and they got them wrong. I forget exactly who was at fault but the wrong picture got in the wrong hole. Another thing that happened at that paper one time: We had a tractor trailer accident and the picture was placed in the hole upside down. But again, those happened to another paper. I'm sure we've had some things here too.

How do you feel about newspapers and journalism?

I'm worried, with the changes that have happened over the years. I guess because of the rise of social media and the internet, there's just a lot of false information out there. I worry that people can't distinguish between what's real news and what's fake news. The credibility of all of us that are in this business is sort of at stake here. I think it extends to newspapers in general just because people don't know how to distinguish between what's real and what's not a lot of times. I mean, I'd like to think most people do, but there are a lot of people that don't.

The newspapers we published in 2000 had so many sections, because we could only print color on the front and back of a section. There was a table of contents on the front page. There was a business section, agriculture section, and even a section for equestrian news. My favorite is the education section, which has news about the local K-12 schools. The News-Gazette still covers education news, just not in a dedicated section. We cover our local school board meetings, personnel changes, the honor rolls of the school systems, stories on local student accomplishments, and coverage of our local colleges, but there is always more to report on.  Just this week, three of The News-Gazette’s front page stories dealt with education. 

The front page stories of the March 15, 2000 issue of The News-Gazette were:

• A story about where to build a county/city court complex
• Three stories about budgets for the local school systems
• David F. Partlett is named the new dean of Washington & Lee Law School

In the Education Section there was a top story about the contestants for the title of Miss PMHS. The honor roll list for area schools was in this edition, and it was extensive. Do you recognize any of the names? Buena Vista Women’s Club announced the winners of its art contest in this edition, and the school lunch menu was printed there as well. What kinds of foods to you miss from school lunches?

Finally, I’ve included a few other features that have appeared  in The News-Gazette in the past. There used to be a dining guide and a recipe by The Happy Cook. This issue has a special recipe for St. Patrick's Day! The last feature this week is from a special section called The Spring Home Improvement Guide. Two of the articles from that guide have been included below, which are particularly helpful as spring is approaching.  

If you would like to see these kinds of sections or features in our current editions, let us know on our Facebook page or contact us!

The 1962 Christmas issue was full of Christmas greetings from local businesses. The front page had stories about:

• The annual Christmas Basket program
• How the snow that season affected the area's traffic and community activities. The story cites 10 inches of snow from a recent storm.
• A proposed sales tax of 3 percent, with two-thirds of the revenue going to the localities on a 'per capita' basis.
• And the photo in the bottom left corner of the front page is a nurse, at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, holding the smallest baby to be born and survive at that hospital. Her name was Tamara Kay Mays and she weighed 1 lb. 12 oz. on her birthdate in October of '61. In the photo, she weighed 4 lbs. 6 oz.

The New Year's issue for 1963 had front page stories about:

• Three men getting arrested on suspicion of burglary and possessing burglary tools.
• The price of certain kinds of mail for the US Postal Service was due to increase.
• A questionnaire was distributed to high school dropouts in the area as a way to understand why they dropped out. The results would be used to find out what could be done to help them with vocational training and to keep current and future students in school.
• And of course, the first baby of the year born in Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital is pictured in the bottom left corner.

The rest of the paper was mostly taken up with The News-Gazette's usual 'Year in Review' but we're going to look at the classified section and some New Years greetings. 

This week I sat down with Stephanie Blevins. Her official job title is the layout designer but over her 38 years at the paper, she has acquired many skills and jobs. Currently she is also a photographer, does photo processing, and has other responsibilities relating to layout and photography.  

Why did you come to work at The News-Gazette?

Well, I graduated from high school in '84. I graduated on Friday night, I believe it was, and went to work Monday morning at the Buena Vista paper which was the News and County Press. I worked there for four years and then on a Tuesday night, deadline night, they called us in and said 'we're having to change things up. We're not going to be a weekly anymore. We're going to just be a freebie.' So they were cutting their staff. Wednesday was my day off. On Thursday I went to the employment office. They sent me here on Friday.  Jim Dedrick called me on Sunday to come to work Monday. So I've never been unemployed!

What made you stay here instead of looking for another job?

I just really like what I do. It’s fun, it's different all the time, and the Paxtons have always been very, what's the word, family friendly. If you needed to be off for any reason, with your kids, or bring your kids in for a little bit. It just worked well for me.

What kind of education or work background do you have that helps you do your job?

I did not go to college but in high school I took four years of communications, which was an introduction to electricity, to drafting, printing, and photography. I think I got that right. I really liked it, especially the printing and the photography end of it. So then I worked on the yearbook staff while I was there, too, and I just  enjoyed it.

What are three things you love about working at The News-Gazette?

I like the flexibility, with time, on most days. Some days you know you have to be here. I like that it's family friendly, you know, as far as our kids - if our kids are sick, we can be off. I don't have [young] kids now but I did. I like getting to go games. I like that there's always something to do, on the photo end, and somewhere to go. 

Do you have a favorite funny story from working here?

Okay, one time: we used to cut and paste everything, so we had our obituary page which had an 'Obituary' heading on it and we had the opinion page which had 'Opinion.' One of the ladies that worked here was just rushing around through it and put the 'Opinion' heading over the obituaries. So it was kind of like 'it is our opinion that these people have passed on.' I thought that was pretty funny. It was embarrassing at the time but now it's funny.

How do you feel about newspapers and journalism?

I think local newspapers especially are very important. Local news channels, like Roanoke (Channel 7 Channel 10), they'll cover a little bit of the local but they're not here all the time. 

We're going to give you your news every week: what's going on in the courts and what's going on with your councils. It's also a great place to see your kids when they're playing basketball and football. You have radio, which will cover games, but you can't clip that out and save it, you know? So if you like to scrapbook, you can still get that story, get that picture, and save it for your kids. So that's where I think it's very important - to keep up with the local end of everything.