In The Short Rows
Latest In The Short Rows
Remembering three who made IW a better place
Ann Gray Edwards, who died this summer, served Isle of Wight County and the town of Smithfield in a variety of capacities, always with dignity, ... Read more
5 days ago by Staff Reports.
The late Joe Stutts had a way with words
One of the greatest pleasures involved in writing The Short Rows for the past 22 years has been the help I’ve received from some wonderful ... Read more
2 weeks ago by Staff Reports.
But for the shouting, we’d find some common ground
What we say, and how we say it, matters. Unfortunately, much of what we say today, especially in the public square, is intended to be ... Read more
3 weeks ago by Staff Reports.
Tidewater has long history of luring tourists
We tend to think of tourism promotion as a product of modern times, something that states and localities do to attract the excess dollars held ... Read more
4 weeks ago by Staff Reports.
Before combines, peanut sticks were essential tool of the trade
The recent column about copperheads actually came to mind when I was thinking about writing this one. It’s about peanut poles or peanut sticks. In ... Read more
1 month ago by Staff Reports.
Polite, persistent activism gets more results than shouting
Citizen activists, angry over any number of things, are increasingly making life miserable for the members of Virginia’s School Boards. As Virginia Coalition of Government ... Read more
1 month ago by Staff Reports.
Don’t mess with a copperhead
August and well into September is the period during which farm families were most wary of copperheads. We always felt — and I still do ... Read more
2 months ago by Staff Reports.
God bless Tidewater folks who still drop the ‘r’
I regret that I haven’t made a more serious effort to document fully the dialect of our native Southeast Virginia. I’ve written about it, even ... Read more
2 months ago by Staff Reports.
The sweet sounds of yesteryear revisited
Several weeks ago, we were in the sanctuary of Benn’s United Methodist Church, sitting around chatting while waiting for the 11 o’clock service to begin, ... Read more
2 months ago by Staff Reports.
Smithfield’s peanut prominence was fading before fire
Local folk who are intrigued by such things this week are observing the “great peanut fire” of Aug. 17. There’s nothing wrong with remembering catastrophes. ... Read more