The front page stories of the Rockbridge County News on June 6, 1946 were:

• Multiple stories about the area colleges and their end-of-term ceremonies – two for Virginia Military Institute and five for Washington and Lee, including a story about a ceremony to honor W&L men who either died or went missing in WW II.
• Two collection funds to combat cancer took place in May of that year and raised $1,670 collectively. 
• The State Department of Health Bureau of T.B. Outpatient Services x-ray clinic was successful in the City of Lexington.
• Lexington High School bestowed diplomas on 28 graduating seniors. 

Starting next month, a new class of local high school seniors will be experiencing the final stage of adolescence before they are sprung free into the world of young adulthood. Although high school experiences have evolved throughout the decades, the cycle of life continues. The photo of the Lexington High School graduating seniors, class of 1946, shows us that no matter how long it's been since you were in high school, this next generation will be reaching many of the same milestones, standing in the same places we once stood, and learning some hard lessons about growing up. Today's children are raised in a different environment than previous generations, but simply growing up is a constant process, occurring every day we are alive. Let us remember that, as a community and society, all generations are connected through the collective experiences of passing from childhood into adulthood. Congratulations to all incoming high school seniors! 

This week's flashback ends with some ads. Read through the classifieds and an Adair-Hutton ad for Father's Day gifts and outfits “for sunning and swimming.”

For this series, we'll get to hear from two young citizens every week. They'll tell us about their hobbies and goals for the future. We'll get to know what's on their minds and maybe remember what it was like to be a kid again. 

This week we have 10 year old Brigham:

What do you like most about school?

It's probably, like, recess because they're the most physical times at school and I'm a very active boy.

What is your favorite food? What about your least favorite?

It's chicken pot pie. It's basically a crust and everything and it has, like, carrots and peas and chicken inside. And it's really good.

[Least favorite] It's called black bean enchiladas.

Do you like to read? What do you like to read?

I like to read fantasy books like Percy Jackson.

Do you collect anything / play an instrument / play any sports? If not, what would you like to do?

I play a lot of sports like basketball and soccer. And I'm hoping to play trumpet when I'm in middle school because my sister plays the French horn and it's like really heavy to carry. But I play it sometimes and it's kind of fun, so I want to play trumpet because it's lighter and it's basically the same thing.

What country would you like to visit, and why?

I would like to visit Ireland. Wow, Ireland, because I want to learn their dances. 

What do you want to do when you grow up?

I would like to be a pro soccer player or pro basketball player because, like I said earlier, I'm a very active kid and I like playing sports.

Tell me a goal you have in the future?

I want to become a millionaire. I would donate some to charity. Then, like, buy a house, buy cars.

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And 12 year old Adelaide: 

What do you like most about school?

I think I probably like band the most and cross country. Like especially volleyball, some sports in our school are like all the girls play it and they're all like really sassy or something, but cross country is like one big family and band too actually. That's what I really like about it. Also, I love music.

What is your favorite food? What about your least favorite?

There's a meal that we make and it's called sausage pasta, that's my favorite. It's this tomato sauce with cream cheese and spices. It's really good. It's very creamy.

[Least favorite] Tomato basil soup. It's kind of similar actually. I don't like it nonetheless. Something about it just grosses me out.

Do you like to read? What do you like to read?

Oh, I love to read. Right now I'm having a race with my dad to finish the Lord of the Rings, all the books. I've already finished the first one. I love fantasy. I like pretty much anything, actually. I mostly like fantasy/adventure, also I like random fact books and riddle books. I like those too.

Do you collect anything / play an instrument / play any sports? If not, what would you like to do?

I play French horn in the band and I play classical piano and then I also play keyboard in the jazz band. I really like music. Cross country, just one year since I just got to middle school. I'm going into seventh grade so I did it for sixth grade, I think I'm gonna do it this year too.

What country would you like to visit, and why?

I'd really like to visit Greece sometime because I'm very interested in all the myths and things and my dad can read Greek. I kind of wish he [taught me] but also I don't because it would take so much work to learn Greek. 

What do you want to do when you grow up?

I want to be an author/illustrator. Just like I enjoy reading it, I really enjoy writing fantasy. I also enjoy writing short scary stories.

Tell me a goal you have in the future?

I would like to publish a book someday which is kind of going along with my other goal.

For this series, we'll get to hear from two young citizens every week. They'll tell us about their hobbies and goals for the future. We'll get to know what's on their minds and maybe remember what it was like to be a kid again. 

This week we have 6 year old Leo:

What do you like most about school?

Probably that I could play with my friends and play games and learn new things. That's fun.

What is your favorite food? What about your least favorite?

I don't have one. Oh, I eat cereal like every day for breakfast. It's just like, the everyday food. That's hard. I like most foods. Probably noodles with sauce. Like, I'm okay with eating it. It's just like, not the best.

Do you like to read? What do you like to read?

Sometimes. I like to eat little things because I'm not that good at reading big things.

Do you collect anything / play an instrument / play any sports? If not, what would you like to do?

Sometimes I collect some things. Sometimes I just like play the piano but not just like people directing me, just like playing what I really want to play. Cuz that's just what makes it fun. I would like to start being better at drawing. 

What country would you like to visit, and why?

I would love to visit Japan because it has a lot of fun celebrations and a lot of good things that you can buy. It’s just like my type of county. I really want to visit.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

A zookeeper so I could, like, work with a lot of animals. I would love to have a really good zoo and work with a lot of animals. That's what I would really love to do.

Tell me a goal you have in the future?

That's a hard one. I would really like to visit new countries, cuz I've never been out of the country. 

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8 1/2 year old Josiah:

What do you like most about school?

Art because I just like feeling, like, how papers moves or I like feeling the texture of the clay. I just like knowing how to do things when I already know how to do things. 

What is your favorite food? What about your least favorite?

I don't really know but if I was gonna pick something that I would always want to eat is definitely sushi.   Probably shrimp. I'm just kidding! I'm just kidding, I love shrimp. Probably broccoli? Oh, no. Not broccoli, celery. It's the worst. Last time I ate celery, I threw up. It's that bad. Whenever I get celery on my lunch plate, I just throw it away.

Do you like to read? What do you like to read?

Not too big of books but I'm working on this big of a book, (shows with hands) music history. I probably would like to read, like, fantasy books, a really good fantasy book. I like fantasy.  

Do you collect anything / play an instrument / play any sports? If not, what would you like to do?

Play the ukulele. I don't play any sports but I would like kickball or baseball. I don't play any sports, well I do play them but I'm not like, on a sports team. The three sports I enjoy are mini golf, baseball and kickball. I love collecting rocks. Like, rocks by the river or seashells or stuff like that. Maybe like, when I see something cool. Or, what I'm making a collection with is stuffies. I have, like, 25 different stuffies in my collection and I just got a new cow plush. My favorite animal is cows. 

What country would you like to visit, and why?

I have two countries in mind. I would like to either visit France or Japan. France, I feel like I wanna eat some French bread or just look at the Eiffel Tower at night, have an apartment at France and right out the window next to my bed is just a nice view of the Eiffel Tower. I think that would be a nice place to be. And I would like to be in Japan because it has so much good stuff and they made such good food. So I would just like to visit Japan. When it comes to going on trips, I'm more of a food person and souvenir person and collecting things person.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

I want to be an artist and a potter. I just love the feeling of doing art and I love the feeling of pottery. 

Tell me a goal you have in the future?

One of my goals is to go to France. No actually my goal is to buy a snow cone maker and its $75! Either $75 or $57. That's my second goal.

The Weekender was a free distribution paper The News-Gazette put out from 1989 to 2015. It went to every home in Rockbridge County, Buena Vista and Lexington by mail and by carriers on Saturdays. It started off being mostly feature stories but as time went on, it ended up carrying some hard news also. Rising costs and advertiser changes were why we stopped it but it was pretty popular. 

July 20, 1991:

An old photo of Downtown Lexington was on the front cover, as the city was celebrating the rededication of the Stonewall Jackson statue. There’s a story about the Historical Lexington Society’s plans and contributions to the town that takes up most of the front page. Along with the story and photo, there were two calendars. One calendar is only for immediate events and the other has key events for the next few months.

The Weekender was a small publication and had large sections dedicated to the Classifieds and TV viewing guide for the local weekend programming. Those are not included in this Flashback. 

Aside from those two sections, this publication was very casual. If The News-Gazette could be seen as the straight-forward, hard working, 9-5 person in the group, The Weekender was the friend who liked to relax and have fun when the work week was over. This issue had puzzles, short stories, trivia, and of course, horoscopes. What's your sign?

The front page stories for that issue were:

• An early big snow caused "more than 90 per cent of BARC's customers" to be without power. It also had unusual snowfall in certain areas, ranging from a few inches to over a foot in depth.
• The county received a framed certificate from the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce for getting rid of the "dread cow disease" called Brucellosis.
• Rockbridge County School Superintendent Floyd Kay faced some backlash for installing two window air conditioners in the school board offices "against their express wishes."
• An update on the plan to lower the pigeon population in downtown Lexington.

The sports section boasts a brilliant alliterative title, the Coach's Corner deserves a read, and check out The News-Gazette's Player of the Week!

 The front page stories about the storm and the brucellosis are continued on the page that also features a local man posing for a photo with his banana tree. 

Finish up this week with the section "This and That" and a map that shows the location for the new power line project that would run through Goshen Pass. 

For this series, we'll get to hear from two young citizens every week. They'll tell us about their hobbies and goals for the future. We'll get to know what's on their minds and maybe remember what it was like to be a kid again. 

This week we have 10 year old Caleb:

What do you like most about school?

I like math. I feel like I like knowing that there's only one possible right answer.

What is your favorite food? What about your least favorite?

Um, I like my mom's homemade pizza and her cinnamon rolls. I like pepperoni, pineapple. Um, I've tried Italian sausage and onion, I like that. I hate cheese. I will have it on pizza and that is it okay. I don't like the texture [by itself].

Do you like to read? What do you like to read?

Yes. Um, I like fantasy. Like, I did Harry Potter in a week. I did Lord of the Rings less than a month, and The Hobbit. I like setting goals for myself. 

Do you collect anything / play an instrument / play any sports? If not, what would you like to do?

Um, I play the piano. I kind of play the recorder. I'm gonna be doing precaution in fifth grade band. And I do swim team. I do basketball, I'm doing a basketball camp right now. 

And I collect random things, like, you can say junk. So I have little, they're like, pom-poms and then they have googly eyes attached to them and then they have, like, big foam feet that are stickers but I haven't taken the sticky part off because I don't want them to get stuck to something. And then they have little cute antenna. I have two of them, they're blue. I like them.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

I'm not sure. I was, like, [younger] I wanted to be a scientist who studied bacteria. I went through a phase where I wanted to be an actor. I'm trying to remember. Oh yeah, a professional magician.

Tell me a goal you have in the future?

I want to get better at running because my dad runs a lot and I like running. I just want to get faster. I also like riding my bike.

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 10 year old Kate:

What do you like most about school?

I like typing. It's a new skill that I'm learning

What is your favorite food? What about your least favorite?

Shrimp fettuccine! I don't know. I can't think of a least favorite food. Um, pepperoni pizza. I don't love pepperoni pizza. I like pizza, I just don't like pepperoni pizza. Except for some reason I like pepperoni plain. Don't know why. On pizza, I don't like it.  

Do you like to read? What do you like to read?

Yes. I like when it has animals in it. Like, I'm really into dragons right now so I'm reading a book about dragons called “Wings of Fire.” It's really cool.

Do you collect anything / play an instrument / play any sports? If not, what would you like to do?

I do all three of those things. I collect buttons, I play the piano, and I love soccer. I started sewing and I didn't have very many buttons and so I started collecting them, like finding them on the ground. I'd find then and put them in my button jar and now it's, like, really full.

What country would you like to visit, and why?

Australia, to see the koalas.

What do you want to do when you grow up?

I want to start a business where we will watch your pets while you're on a trip, and like a doggy restaurant where it’s food that dogs can actually eat. I've actually tested some of the recipes that I've made up on dogs and they loved it. Like, there's a doggy parfait where it's just like, a little glass cup with whipped cream and then blueberries and whipped cream and then shredded carrots and then more creams. And he loved it. He just doesn't like blueberries so he didn't eat the blueberries but he ate everything else.

Tell me a goal you have in the future?

I wanna be really good at piano and also really good with animals. And I like to run so I want to be a good runner and exercise.

This week we get to talk to Philip Clayton. He was born in Birmingham, AL but came here when he was four years old. He sold his art through the same agent for 31 years, while he served in the Air Force.

What kind of art do you create?

I do pencil sketches … mostly of architectural renderings like Lexington buildings and things like that. I love ships as well. I've done that and you can probably tell my forte is detail

What inspired you to start creating?

My father had an architectural degree from Clemson but he went from there right into World War II. My mother was English and she was in the British army. They met in England; he was a fighter pilot and she was working with radar. The guy who invented radar, Sir Watson-Watts, she was his right-hand person. She was very bright and did some really neat stuff with that program. 

She always dabbled with painting and my dad was a really good architect, but he never used it because he went right into aviation and stayed in aviation, but their influence had a lot to do with me starting artwork. They gave me a few tips like, Dad showed me how to do perspective and that's one of my fortes – [focusing on] very good perspective. Then my mother was able to teach me a little bit about color combination and the color wheel and stuff like that. So that sort of got me interested in it and when I got my agent, it kind of freed me up to create art. She sold it, so it worked out very well and it all took place when I was in the reserve Air Force, which is a wee bit different than active duty.

What motivates you to keep making your art?

Oh, I love the challenge of it, to try to capture the essence of a drawing, like that ship. I've had people tell me that that elevates our spirits. The reason it does is they picture themselves standing on that deck, where the ship [is] a tilt with full sails and the waves, the wind. That drawing has had the same effect on me. 

So, it's exciting for me to produce a drawing that evokes emotion, like the old trail railroad station: that mist and the magic of time, you know? I don't know, but it seems like every time you see a horror movie or just a movie of old buildings and there's mist and that I've captured that with that train station. It kind of takes you back to an earlier time. I really love that, seeing if I can produce a work that creates emotion in people. A lot of people have told me if they're feeling down or bad, they look at that ship and it really elevates their spirits.

Are there any artists you take inspiration from?

My father was a really good pencil artist but he didn't do much of it. He would buy an old building or an old farmhouse, or something in Rockbridge County or a building in Lexington, fix it up and sell it. That's what he did for a living when he got out of the Air Force and I got to help him, so that enabled me to learn more about architecture – being able to work with it and then draw it as well. 

I'm trying to think [of what artists influenced me]. There is one that I'll think about: Ernest Watson. The three artists that influence my work are Andrew Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and Ernest Watson. 

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

I think the drawing that most answers that question is the Vietnam Memorial. I'll tell you a quick story that will define what I mean by that. First of all, I'm in that generation where a lot of us went to Vietnam. By the time I got there, the war was pretty much over but I did bring a lot of my fallen comrades back on my airplane. It was a great big airlifter and I can still remember flying back from Vietnam with a whole load of coffins with our fallen, with the American flag over them and I found that very powerful. 

The Vietnam drawing is in honor of those men and women. A sense of honor for our [fallen comrades] like when we were coming back from Vietnam. In those days we [received] no respect from the American people; it was awful. But that drawing really does. I've designed that drawing to evoke sadness and evoke “let's don't ever do this again,” which we've done it again and again and again, [which] blows my mind. But that's essentially the reason – that's why I draw.

How does it feel when someone buys your art?

A sense of “mission accomplished.” They've seen something in the artwork that appeals to them that perhaps I was trying to get them to feel, and as a result, they bought that piece of artwork. In other words, they are feeling what I wanted them to feel and the fact that they bought it, that's a success. So that's the answer to that.

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

That's a good question. There's a book that I used to look at and read and study. That's one of the artists: Ernest Watson. I looked at it when I was 10 years old and it's still out there because it's a remarkable teaching guide to be a good pencil sketcher. It teaches you little tricks; for example you can take, like, an ice pick and make little lines on the paper and then when you go over like the window panes you draw a window and you take an ice pick and draw the little window panes in and then when you shade it with a pencil it hops right out – there’s your window panes. Those little lines become the sunlight reflecting on that side, on the sun side of it's so cool. Ernest Watson taught me all those little tricks. Perspective, for example: a brick wall. You don't have to draw every brick. You just draw a few here and there and then shade the rest of it and it pops out.

Find us a good source of instruction whether it be a book, like [by] Ernest Watson, or some artist like myself teaching my grandchildren, and do take lessons because I think it gives you the basics. And then go through a period where you don't take lessons, so that you can develop your own style. If you don't, there's a good chance that [you] imitate this style.

So my advice is to, jump outside the corral, and race away on your own, [on the way] you know and that way you're going to develop your own style.

The front page stories for June 12 were:

• An intro to the Mel Greenberg issue, with a photo taken at the Rockbridge Commonwealth Attorney's office.
• A fire in the basement of the old Lexington Gazette damaged the offices of the Lexington Cable TV Company, which occupied that space.
• The county budget meeting expected many more than the few citizens who showed up, but there was still some participation from attendees.
• Arnolds Valley hoped for a new project to bring water to citizens who needed it.

The main story about Mel Greenberg is continued in the second image.

The front page stories for June 19 were:

• At a "lively budget meeting," the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors voted to lower the tax levy.
• The Lexington Fire Department was torn about selling their snorkel truck.
• Mel Greenberg made the front page again after he was arrested in Ohio.
• The City of Buena Vista's time crunch to find a new contract for their municipal use of electricity.  

The main story updating the Mel Greenberg "saga" is continued in the third image.

Also included are a couple of letters to the editor about Mel Greenberg, the ad that he put in the paper which called for people to audition for the movie he claimed he was there to film, and an old bumper sticker that was commissioned to be printed by The News-Gazette which reads: "Free Mel Greenberg."

This week we get to talk to Richard Furman. He was born in Japan, but is a true Virginian, spending the last 50 years or so right here. He describes himself as a hobbyist, but woodworking is something he's been doing since he was a kid and the pieces he creates speak for themselves. He taught woodshop for 34 years and has been with Artists in Cahoots for four years.

What kind of art do you create?

The vision or the philosophy that I use when I'm making something follows four basic principles or tenants: form, function, figure and finish. Form means whatever it is that I make; it's got to have a shape that's pleasing. Just to make something, that's one thing. But to make something, if you're going to go through all the trouble, you might as well try to make a form that's going be something that someone says, 'I like the looks of that.' 

The next one's function, it's got to have a purpose. For me to make something out of wood just to be something sitting there on the table you just look at, it doesn't really speak for itself. So, you'll find that the things that I have, they all have a purpose. Whether it's a rolling pin, a bottle opener, a charcuterie board, a coffee table, a pepper grinder or whatever, it has some function. 

Figure: you have two ways you can look at a board. Look at this piece right here, this is pretty plain Jane. The only thing that's interesting about this is maybe two or three knots that are in it and one down at the bottom, but that's about it. If you hunt, you may find a board that's got all this crazy quilting or figuring going on through it, or some inclusion that creates some crevice in here that just causes the grain to go nuts. That's what I look for. So when it comes to looking for the woods, like if I'm gonna turn a bowl, why do I want to turn a bowl out of something that just has no feature to the wood? There needs to be something there to draw you to this peace other than its shape. There needs to be something going on with the wood. So that's where the figure comes in. 

Then the finish: you can work all day long to create a nice piece but if it doesn't feel good to the touch because it's not smooth enough or when you go to examine it you see sanding marks all through it or it's got dust in the finish or something, you kill what you try to create. So the finish is important. 

What inspired you to start creating?

It started as gifts. When I retired, I said, 'I don't have the shop at my access anymore.' So I bought my lathe and figured, 'well, I'm just gonna learn how to make some small little baby bowls.' Just made little knick-knack bowls, giving them to a daughter and daughter-in-law, some friends and the wife, my sisters and all that stuff. And then some ink pens and gave them to all the guys for Christmas. So that's where it just started. 

And then I decided I wanted to start doing some craft shows. That's when I expanded. People just don't want little bowls unless they get it for a cheap price, so if I make a big 12 or 13 inch bowl that's three and a half, four inches deep and if it's got some really crazy figure in it that you just can't find anywhere else, then okay now we're talking. I know they're not going to go to any old shop somewhere and find it. You'll find little baby bowls all day long and you'll find big bowls, but find a big bowl that's got a flame coming through the bottom of it, or something like that, you're gonna hunt a long time. They're there, but you won’t find them in any old shop.

What motivates you to keep making your art?

Age, staying out of my wife's hair and I don't get to fish as much as I used to. It just gives me something to do. I don't do it for a living. I'm retired, got my own social security check, got my retirement check, so I just do this because I enjoy it. I mean, I don't want to work for nothing. 

So why am I doing it? Because I enjoy doing it. I just, you know, I haven't gotten tired of it yet. When I get tired of it, then I'll be done with it. I've been fishing all my life, since I was five/six years old and really fishing hard. Local rivers and so forth, that's where I've always enjoyed [fishing] but my goal when I was in my 20s was to be able to catch the citation, small amount. Once I finally reached that goal and I said, 'well, let's see if we can find a year where I can catch two.'  As time went along I finally got to the point I knew I'd go out here and catch me a citation if I really worked hard and I had some years where I had 10 and 12 of them in one season. So, what's happened is because I've been there and done that, I'm still driven to fish when I get my chance but I'm more driven now to [do] this woodworking than I am to fishing because I'm still learning, still experimenting and I haven't said I've been there and done that. So at this stage of my life, it's a good thing because, you know, I'm 75 years old. When you get old, you got to stay active. You get to where you don't do anything and you become a couch potato, your life is really going to shorten up. So you gotta keep your brain running, try to use your hands as much as you can, try to just be active and this provides a way for me to do that.

Are there any artists you take inspiration from?

I take inspiration from all the ones here, without a doubt. They're all very different; all have different techniques so to speak. I mean what they do, even the people that have the wall art, you'll notice there's no two artists we have on the wall that have the same style. I get inspiration from all them because I'm not afraid to approach them with things. We know each other well enough now. They know they can speak to me honestly. I say, 'don't worry about hurting my feelings; just tell me exactly what you think.' And they do, so that helps. 

The rolling pin that I brought in here today, they got this July 4th thing starting this weekend. The gallery decided that they wanted to find some way to celebrate America 250. This year, they wanted July to feature things that we collectively have created strictly to celebrate America 250. So I got to looking around and saw that rolling pins were something that the colonists wanted here, other than toys. I got to digging around, trying to find out what a 250-year-old rolling pin looked like. That was a struggle. I got on the internet and took me about a couple weeks. Got to dig around looking for vintage historic English rolling pins, 18th century, and boom I got this hit. It was in some Museum Association over there [in England] and had a date on it, 1760, told what it was made from and all this stuff. I'm going, 'that's what I'm gonna do.' 

So that's what I created but to get the inspiration for it was just conversation with the people here in the gallery. And then inspiration also comes from snooping around on the net, see what's out there. You get to looking around at Etsy, just woodworking, you get to see what other people are doing and wow, you can get a lot of really neat ideas [out] of all kinds of stuff.

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

I've got a little thing out there on display; it's a phrase that sits in the back of my head: if the wood speaks to you, then find a way to enjoy and embrace it, and listen to the message and story it tries to send and share it. I laminated it because I felt it was, in a way, a mission statement of how I look at it. So that would probably be it. Look at the piece of wood and see if it talks to you. If you look at it and say, 'I see, I can probably make this out of it or it would be good for this.'

The figure, so to speak, it's all in the grain. The tree is just a natural thing obviously but a tree has several choices as it's growing, you know? If it doesn't get damaged, nothing happens to it then the grain in that log is not really going to be anything exceptional. It's going to go straight up. But you take a tree that's been growing on the side of ridge top around here, where the wind's gotten to it and snow and ice and stuff, it gets damaged. When that tree repairs itself, all those characteristics of grain each species has is really what makes the wood look good. Those are the pieces I try to find personally.

There are some people [who] actually are going the extra mile to find some unique pieces of wood to use in their turnings or whatever. I figured that's what I need to do because that's what separates them from everybody else. I go find a piece of wood somewhere; if I see one while I'm just running around and be like, 'oh, I have to have that.' You can take five woodworkers and have them all make a pepper grinder, for example. When it's all said and done, there's only two things, really three things, that'll make one type of grinder stand [out]. One is going to be its shape; the other one's gonna be the figure and lastly it's going to be the finish. So if all of them can do a good job on a finish, all are gonna do a good job on shape, even though they all may be different, what's going to separate the leader from the guy in the back? It's going to be the figure in the piece of the wood.

How does it feel when someone buys your art?

It feels great! It really does. This is gonna sound crazy. The excitement that I get when someone buys one of my pieces, it's like a gift. It's a gift to me in that they took the time to see it and appreciate it for what I felt I saw in that piece of wood or what that function or that finish was on it. It's also a way in that, you know, it's not necessarily a legacy. We all end up on this planet and we'll all sooner or later gonna die, that's just the way it is. You hope that your children and your grandchildren and whatever will remember who you were, what you were, what you did, but as time goes along, as generations pass, what you did in your lifetime as far as a parent will start to diminish. 

I've traced my ancestors back all the way up in New York, all the way back [to the] late 1600s. That's where the Furman family actually came from, but I don't know any of them. So my point is that the pieces I make, hopefully, are gonna last more than a generation. If I make a really really nice bowl, if someone takes care of that bowl and don't burn it up or drop it from the Empire State building and bust it in three pieces, it's going to end up in somebody's hands sooner or later. They'll pass [it] on [to] their kid, or let’s assume there is no kid to pass [it to]; it might end up in an estate sale somewhere, who knows? But it's going to have my initials wood-burned in the back and that's where I feel where I'll leave my mark, so to speak, on this planet, other than my teaching career and everything. 

So that's why I consider it a gift [from] me that when they buy it, that's my gift to that person – I'm giving you a piece of me, but your gift to me is that you've bought and you appreciated [it] enough to where I know now that's going to end up in somebody else's hands. So, like I say, it sounds kind of crazy. 

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

Oh my gosh. You gotta realize you're getting this from a guy who creates sawdust, but yeah. You just keep trying. I'm going to approach this from the woodworking angle. With all the kids I had when I was teaching shop, I learned this a long time ago, you can't grade a kid's bird house on it being exactly to spec because everybody's gonna make mistakes, adults included. You have to learn how to work around your mistakes because there is no such thing as a perfect project. Maybe an artist can create a piece on canvas that they finally get to where they feel they got it perfect. I'll just let it dry and I'll just go back and paint over it, fix it. Well, in woodwork, you don't get that choice. So you keep trying. You keep trying because you're going to make mistakes, you're going to have some failures but here's the neat thing: if something fails to some degree, don't give up and trash it unless you have to. You can always find a way to still bring it to life, usually. It may not be what you envisioned when you first started but you can still find a way to make use of it. 

So that's the thing I was trying to get to all my kids when I was teaching. There's always going to be goofs. There's always going to be mistakes. When you have experiences like that and you have some goofs, then that's good because now you can anticipate that when you go on to do the next piece, which is experience

This week, we'll take a look at the bicentennial celebration in Rockbridge County, 1976. 

The front page stories on July 7, 1976 were:

• New school board members were appointed.
• Buena Vista elected a new mayor and vice mayor.
• An article introducing all of the activities celebrated in the community for the bicentennial was written by N-G Staff Members.
• A Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors member, John Miley Whitesell, made firm decisions about his position. 

The entire issue contained photos of the festivities: Street fairs, parades all over Rockbridge County, homemade ice cream and a cow milking contest. 

If you remember being there, let us know by reaching out to our Digital Media Specialist! 

This week isn't a far look into the past, but we hope you'll enjoy the vibrancy of summer in 2012, after our newspaper went to full color photos throughout.

The front page stories for June 6, 2012 are:

• A storm brought rain and strong winds, resulting in downed trees and flooding.
• The renovation and consolidation for Maury River Middle School had a viable bid for construction.
• An 89 year old man died while driving just west of Arnolds Valley Road. His truck ran off the road and crashed into a house, he was not wearing a seat belt.
• Groundbreaking ceremonies for the "water loop" took place. The project would produce and wholesale water to both the City of Lexington and Rockbridge County. 

Let's see how far The News-Gazette has traveled with our subscribers! In this issue, our paper traveled in the US from Hawaii to Florida, then as far as Rome, Italy and Western Caribbean. If you take a copy of The News-Gazette on vacation with you, send us a photo! Message us on Facebook or send the info to our digital media specialist, because we love seeing subscribers bringing our local news all over the world! 

Having all color in our paper allows us to see the news and events the way we usually see them, and that is definitely true for the SPCA ad for 'Adopt a Cat Month.' Just look at their sweet kitty faces! 

To finish up this week, we get to hear from the Happy Cook! Send us a message or email if you try any of the recipes from the Happy Cook! 

This week we get to talk to Corey Egbert. He's from California and had his first illustration job in 2001 and has been doing full freelance illustration since 2020.

What kind of art do you create?

Mostly illustrations for graphic novels. I've written books and I also do mixed media art. 

What inspired you to start creating?

I was a nerdy kid that liked to read books and watch cartoons. My favorite books growing up were 'Where the Wild Things Are' and the Narnia series. I loved watching Cartoon Network shows. 

I've always liked to draw. My mom kept my early scribbles and stuff. She said, from a young age I didn't do crazy scribbles, I would draw neat little things. I majored in art at Snow College, then I came here to Southern Virginia University and then I did the graduate program at Syracuse University.

What motivates you to keep making your art?

Fear. (laughs) No, that's a good question. There's a lot of crazy psychology there probably. I don't know, it's always kind of felt like part of my identity, kind of how I express myself. I like to think it's fun; sometimes it's fun. You know, I try to get to the place where it's fun and enjoyable and I'm doing it for myself but it is also my job, so there's kind of the commercial aspect of it and so paying the bills is part of it. 

But I also get excited by new ideas that I have. I want to try those out. It's kind of how I work out my thoughts and feelings sometimes too. 

Are there any artists you take inspiration from?

Well like I said, Maurice Sendak, the author of 'Where the Wild Things Are' – big inspiration to me. Other visual artists, I mean, there's a lot. Hayao Miyazaki is a big inspiration for me. Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. And then fine artists like Matisse and Picasso.

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

Well, with my illustration work, you know I'm expressing the feelings of characters in stories and stuff. In my graphic novel, 'Visitations,' it's a memoir so I'm literally expressing my own feelings and kind of working out issues with my past and my mom and stuff. This stuff that's on the wall, I'm kind of thinking about the passage of time, death, religion and stuff. So, spirituality. Birds are, like, a symbol I've gravitated towards, like human-bird hybrids and stuff. 

How does it feel when someone buys your art?

Um, good? (laughs) No, it's great. I do Mountain Day and Rockbridge Festival and stuff like that. People will come and look at my art, sometimes they'll talk to me about it or I just overhear them talking to their friends and families and say, 'oh, this is cool.' So yeah, that feels good. I especially love [when] people are like, 'oh, this really speaks to me.' Even if they don't buy anything, that means more to me than just buying something. Hearing that somebody resonates with my artwork is a really cool feeling because I think art is kind of a way to connect, especially for me who's kind of like a quiet person. I'm not extroverted at all. Hearing that somebody relates or connects with my art feels really good. It makes you feel like I'm not just a loner weirdo. Because sometimes, you know, what you have to express is non-verbal. So if somebody can understand what that thing is you're doing, it's cool. 

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

I guess I would say, and it's something that I'm still trying to learn myself, is just do the work, just keep making it. I can be a perfectionist, you know? Sometimes I get so caught up in making something great or something that other people will like or be impressed by, and that's actually paralyzing. So being in that mode, don't know like, …  

There's a story. It's like, this pottery teacher divided his class into two parts. One half, he told them, 'You will be graded on the amount of work that you do.' To the other half he said, 'You only need to make one piece, then you will be graded on the quality of that one piece.’ According to this story, the people on the side who made lots of stuff actually made better pieces than the ones who were only graded on one piece. So I guess my advice is just make a lot of stuff. The more you do it, the better stuff you'll make. And yeah, you'll make some crappy stuff but that's all part of the process, you know? And that's advice for me too. I need to get out of my head and just make stuff, you know? 

This week we get to talk to Rebecca Worth-Warner. She grew up in Lexington and graduated from Lexington High School. Her mother started the business and she joined her when she was 25. 

What kind of art do you create?

In a nutshell, jewelry and pottery. I will say, my background in college is cultural anthropology and so our little slogan is 'not the what, but the why,' so we do a lot of symbolic jewelry and our products have a lot of symbolism. 

What inspired you to start creating?

Well, absolutely my mother did. She was teaching child psychology in Buena Vista. Before Southern Virginia, there was a women's college there. It was called a junior college – a two-year program for women that would go there and then usually transfer into a four-year program. She taught child psychology. She had gotten her doctorate from UVa and when the school started to go through the transition, becoming Southern Virginia, she became the academic dean. During that time there was a pottery studio at the school. With the academic dean thing, there was kind of a lot on her plate. She went from teaching, to like hiring and firing the people she had worked with. I think it was a lot of stress, so she started making pottery. 

At that time, there was a man who was a painter in Lexington, his name is George Makinson, and he didn't want to sit in a shop all day long to sell his work because he wanted time in the studio. So he gathered together a handful of artists that would share the time to sit in the shop and my mother was one of those people. That was the gallery Artist in Cahoots, that's how that got started. I was watching this all unfold as a teenager when I was growing up. My senior year of high school, I had an independent study where I worked with my mother as part of my high school degree. 

High school is when I started and I went to Hampshire College. I studied how the identity of the Pueblo Americans changed with their pottery because of tourism – they started to make pottery to appeal to Americans that were moving out west and how that changed the culture of their artwork. That was my senior thesis. It was just interesting to apply that to what I had grown up with at my home, with my mother being a potter.

What motivates you to keep making your art?

I was going to get my masters but I started working with my mother, who meanwhile had taken a sabbatical from Southern Virginia to focus on pottery for a year and to have a change. She loved it so much that she never went back. The two of us started working together on the pottery and the jewelry. At that time we started, the Japanese invented a type of material called precious metal clay, where they powdered silver and gold and mixed it with a synthetic binder so that you could make pieces just like you would with clay but when you fired in your pottery kiln, the ending result was the metal would just melt together in exactly the form you'd left it in. It enabled us to make metal pieces. So all of our jewelry had been hand sculpted pottery clay and our pottery was pottery. 

I grew up on Jackson Avenue and the Lexington bricks are right outside on our sidewalk. My mother, she took the back of a Bic pen and a toothpick and just made the circles and put the hashtags around it and did that in that precious metal clay. Doing that brick design sent us on the trajectory of learning about those bricks, the design, the history of them and why they're significant in America. They're a big part of my inspiration.

From the 90s, every law student that would see our brick jewelry would say, 'have you trademarked this?' and I would say no. I didn't understand what a trademark was and a copyright but finally I did understand and we did trademark the brick. So we have five trademarks with that brick design. I'm trying to brand our pieces but I also really want to save the integrity of this design. The Lexington people are very passionate about this brick design; it's been in our history. I'm not claiming I made the bricks and that I made that design. What I'm claiming is for the brick jewelry and the pottery that we make -- that these are the products that I'm doing. I've protected other artists with this trademark, mostly in Artists in Cahoots, but also Cabell Gallery had some artists. I've never charged anybody for the use of that. I don't think people understand that I understand as much about the history of the brick. I don't take it lightly. I certainly need to learn more and research more about it, but I'm in a tight space in Lexington where I want to honor the artists who use that design. I don't own the history of that design but I do want to preserve it and celebrate it. 

Are there any artists you take inspiration from?

I was in Sally Mann's book ‘At Twelve.’ I was one of the 12-year-olds that she photographed and so of course I love Sally's work. I feel like I've gotten to be a fly on the wall of her career as a 12-year-old, and then following what I would read. I did have a chance to chat with her. So I'm seeing her be, like, an average normal person (we babysat her kids and she was just our neighbor) and seeing her go to this sort of crazy stardom. When you look at the onion layers and just see her as a really creative, thoughtful person that was moving in that space, it kind of gives you inspiration. She's worldwide famous now and to look at the small steps that became big steps, that became who she is as an artist has been an inspiration for me. 

But my mother, as far as seeing her go from professor and working with schools, and then taking that leap of faith, 'I'm not going to take the six figure job anymore, I'm gonna do art downtown' and to ‘follow her bliss’ kind of thing. It's been an inspiration.

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

Well, I've told you that Lexington brick, that design, growing up with that and kind of celebrating it as a true American symbol that kind of got paved over and is re-emerging.

The other piece that I'm very excited about and proud of is the dyslexia symbol. My son is very dyslexic and, as a parent, I had to really dig in deep to not only help him in academics but his emotional side – when you're neuro-diverse and you're approaching everything from a different space. So I was part of a grassroots movement, Decoding Dyslexia, which was a parent-led grassroots movement. A lot of my friends went on to get degrees and certifications to train dyslexics how to read and my piece with that was, 'I want to create a symbol.' Just like the Lexington brick, or we've worked with other groups like National Cherry Blossom Festival or Martin Luther King Foundation, different groups to brand the message and advocate for something. So the dyslexia symbol is four circles which are the letters p, q, b and d and all the sticks of the letters would be in the center, and they're surrounded in a circle that's kind of like the circle of life, holding them all in. That symbol has been a major part of the last 15 years for me, helping my son and helping other families, to understand dyslexia. That symbolism, advocating and helping other people, and caring as meetings, that's inspires me a lot. 

How does it feel when someone buys your art?

You know, one of the big things that we started, before we got into the metals when we were still doing the clay, was we made hand-sculpted flowers with pottery clay. We did a lot of weddings and, I know this sounds crazy to some people, we also did funeral jewelry. We did some burial pieces, like necklaces for women that they would be buried in. 

So those are super intense examples, like celebrations of mile markers but even now, our jewelry, it's because it's bigger, sculpted and its hand painted, it's colorful – it’s gone through the cycle of 'everything's popular again.' It's coming back around and some of the shows I've done recently, the younger women in their late 20s and early 30s were buying my big colorful flowers and it was making me really happy to see the younger women coming back to it.

I'm always touched when someone buys artwork because to me jewelry is such a personal thing, especially like a wedding piece. The thing that you wear your head when you walk down the aisle, that's kind of major. The dress is major too but anything you're putting on your body. And then the funeral jewelry, that's like, the last thing people are gonna see.

So those, yeah, but it doesn't have to always be such a huge piece. Like, I'll do an art show and the people are like, 'oh, don't you hate when people can't make up their minds?' and I'm like, 'no, I love to see them tormented over which flower and which color, which size because I know they're really thinking it through and they care.'  So that always makes me happy.

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

There are so many places to go with that. There's such a business side of it, as far as making it work. I feel very blessed to be able to say that it's my full-time job and I take a great amount of pride in self-employment. When you check those boxes, who your employer is, and I can write 'self,' I just feel immense pride with that and job security.

No doubt it was my mother and I's partnership, but when I had my children, she told me, 'this is gonna be the hardest thing you've ever done' and I'm like 'ah, I'll do it in the evenings. I'll make earrings.' And I was, like, flat on my back asleep in the evenings. So she helped me through with that. Now she's 83 and she can't always do what she wants to do with it and I'm like, 'I got you mom. You had that for me.' We both go to these art shows, work our asses off and divide the money at the end of the night. Sometimes it wouldn't be that much and then she'd go buy my kids all their clothes for school, or something. It sort of seemed like it was almost the same pocketbook. It's so hard to make a living as an artist when you're all by yourself and you don't have another income. If you have a spouse that has an income and they can pay the bills, that helps. It's just hard and I don't want to tell people, 'just follow your bliss and start doing macramé.' I mean, you can't pay the bills. You kind of have to make it a side hustle until it's the main hustle, but I felt blessed where I was doing it with my mom.

I guess I would be like, you really do have to find your village. You have to find your tribe and for me it was with my mother but it was also with Artists in Cahoots. I love the little community. It's a really great group right now. It's about 12 of us and we all kind of have each other's back. We run that shop together so nobody has to sit and work retail day in and day out, which is pretty miserable. We just do a couple times a month and we're on the show together. So, I think it would be to find your tribe, find your people.

This would be another big piece of advice: you cannot wear all the hats in a small business. If you want to make your jewelry and pottery, or your paint your paintings, or take your pictures you might also be a terrible bookkeeper, or you might be a terrible resourcer – to buy your raw materials, or you might hate sitting retail and everybody wants to meet the artist so you have to sit in retail. So hire that out. Don't do it all. Get someone else to help you with it. For my mom and I, it worked really well. We have very different personalities and we were able to divide and conquer, but if you don't have your mom working with you or you don't have a partner, then hire that out. I've watched, with dyslexics, they're so good at some things and so bad at other things. You just simply have to cut bait on the things you don't like to do. It's not even not being good at it. If you don't like it, you're not gonna do it.

These days, the ads we see online are often for large, national or even international companies like car brands or clothing sites. Although these companies may provide important goods and services, and some are even tailored to a person's personal preferences, they are not a representation of our local commerce. 

It's great to look into our past and read about the news and events, but the ads also give us insight - a different side of the human experience. This week, along with the front page, some marriage announcements and Lexington's new rescue vehicle, there are some ads for goods and events.

The front page of the Rockbridge County News on Thursday, June 16, 1960 had these stories:

• A man was fatally stabbed during an argument with another man. The attacker fled the scene but later admitted to the crime after being found close by.
• The area Little League was going to start, with 17 teams in various leagues and 4 teams in the junior girls' league.
• A lawsuit was settled, far below the original filling, for injuries sustained in a car accident.
• Two positions at different Virginia colleges were filled - the dean of college at W&L, and the dean of admissions at the University of Virginia. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.