Columns & Opinion

First and foremost: MERRY CHRISTMAS! Our office is closed this week, but we’re still cranking-out a paper. We’ll reopen next Monday, Dec. 29th. Most of this week’s edition was made-up last week, so we’ll be catching everyone up next week on the wonderful decisions confronting the Board of Supervisors. Retired Co. Administrator Ronnie Roark stepping-up to the speaker’s podium last […]

Derogatory and ineffective, too Dear Sir: Whatever happened to the Golden Rule — to treat others as you wish to be treated? Sam Mordan spews bitterness and hate. He is using the newspaper as a vessel to bully and harass others, many of whom genuinely care about this community and are trying to make it a better area to live […]

These were the scenes 15 years ago, on the night of Saturday, December 25, 2010 — when the greater Blackstone area enjoyed a White Christmas. Snow began falling that afternoon and accumulated five inches by late Christmas night. Top photo was taken in Blackstone’s Seay Park. Bottom left is Oakwood on Cottage Road just north of town, and lower right […]

Willie Wright was two-years-old and mesmorized by Christmas lights and displays in Blackstone’s Seay Park back in 1997.

The Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center (VUMAC) was all decked-out for Christmas in December 2010. The center at that time was still attracting thousands of visitors to Blackstone annually. In Feb. 2016, a new $1.1 million boiler was destroyed by fire, and the facility closed in May of that year. In June 2020, brothers Nick and Raj Patel of Kalyan […]

You want the good news or bad news first? So far this school year, student disciplinary infractions are down by 14% in Nottoway County Public Schools. Rowdy behavior by members of some governing bodies, however, has seen quite an uptick in 2025. *** On the 1964 Christmas TV show, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Yukon Cornelius proclaims, “Bumbles bounce!” So, too, […]

Let’s pay them all to leave Dear Sir: It is inconceivable that we have a certain percentage of legal “citizens,” who wish to welcome illegal aliens with open arms, to give them all types of rights and privileges, and to divert our hard-earned tax and other monies for their upkeep. Worse yet, when they break laws — besides being illegal […]

Gail Wells of Blackstone was among those competing in the December 1997 Holiday Home Decorating contest sponsored by the Blackstone Chamber of Commerce. The Courier-Record tookover the contest in later years. It was discontinued several years ago due to low participation. Is it time to bring it back? There are quite a few new homes and new residents these days. […]

It was December 1982, and Nottoway High School had just bought a computer so county students could begin to enter the computer age. Shown here using the computer — a Radio Shack TRS-80 — are members of the Gifted & Talented group at the high school, who came 45 minutes earlier than other students to learn how to use the […]