5/10/2018 Variety Show Delayed; All Citizens Devastated

Maybe that heading was a little extreme, but it was written after hearing the news that the Ashland Musical Variety Show, which is normally held every odd year, will be postponed until March 2020 due to renovations at Randolph-Macon's Blackwell Auditorium.  While the improvements will be very welcome, it was with shock and disappointment that we read this news.  Even years?  It's like the whole town has been thrown off its axis.  What will we do this winter with no rehearsals, no costume search, and no glitter?  We will have to plan something to keep us occupied, and to support the Arts and Activities Center, as we all struggle to hold on until 2020.

I have been reading a lot of Richmond newspapers from the early part of the 1900s, and a large majority of the news from Ashland focused on baseball games.  So nothing much has changed in one hundred years.

Eyes are watching the Randolph-Macon Baseball team who is currently ranked No. 1 in the Massey Ratings.  The boys of summer will be in Lynchburg this weekend for a double-elimination tournament to determine the ODAC champion, and to see who will be moving on to the NCAA Tournament. As you can see from this 1908 article, R-MC had "invincible battery" even then.

Not to be outdone, the Randolph-Macon softball team who is now ranked 5th in the national Division III poll!  Coach Kevin Proffit and his team are in New Jersey today getting ready to face the College of Staten Island tomorrow, Friday, at 2:30 PM in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

I don't have any Ashland Little League news other than to say that I can hear the sounds of an evening ball game in my back-yard, and it is such a wonderful noise.

CSX is performing track maintenance for a few days this week, which means all the wooden pedestrian board walks have been removed.  Cross carefully!  Do you know what CSX stands for?  They originally wanted to call it "CSM" which stood for Chessie Seaboard Merger, but that was already taken on the stock exchange.  They decided to go with "CSX" and have the X symbolize the train tracks, as any train crossing sign has a large X across it.  Just a little bit of info for the COTU.

We were all lucky to have another summer here, don’t you think?  I know that life in Ashland is not perfect, but I hope that you know it is special.  This column should never comes across as being Pollyanna-ish, or ignorant of the trials of life, but I want to remind you of the small things that we sometimes overlook: the odd sign in front of the dry cleaners, decorated bike gardens, opera singer sightings, and pool towels hung on a porch railing. 

Life in this town is good NOT because of the size of your house, the kind of car you drive, or the clothes that you wear.  Life is good here because we laugh a lot at silly things.  We have an affinity for organizing events, and we love it best when our sidewalks are crowded with people.  We leave things on each other’s front porches, we stand in the middle of the road to talk, and we absolutely love to decorate. 

This is a good town, and we will always be lucky because we found our way here. The summer is really something to look forward to in the Center of the Universe. Call or email me with your Ashland news: 310-5320, ashlandnews@gmail.com.