Flashback: Tracking NRV history

Librarian Karen McCloud helps Steven Whitson of Blacksburg at the Library for Social Change in Blacksburg. The library is associated with the New River Free Press and contains materials not found in other area libraries. | The Roanoke Times file 1988

1987 – 88
(25 years ago)
-  “Three gifts to Virginia Tech totaling $4.1 million will be used to support a broad range of academic and research programs in several colleges and to establish a major endowed scholarship, university officials have announced.”
-  “Old Dominion ran down the shot clock Wednesday night at Cassell Coliseum. Virginia Tech ran down the floor. And shot. Quickly. And usually scored.”
-  “The Library for Social Change, located over a Main Street store front [in Blacksburg], is probably the most resourceful resource center around.”
-  “The sound of Radford’s shots was soft at the beginning and grew louder throughout Monday night’s game against James Madison. Clank.”

1962 – 63
(50 years ago)
-  “Radford City Council Monday afternoon set Thursday, Jan. 17, as the date for a public hearing on a proposed subdivision ordinance.”
-  “Children in Floyd and Botetourt counties will go back to school today after enjoying a one-day extension on their Christmas vacations…because of icy roads in the two counties.”
-  “Virginia Tech, all visions of a top ten ranking melted with the snows of Christmas, seeks to salve the sting of three straight lickings here Friday night.”
- “Blacksburg, Dublin and Narrows continued their three-way jam at the top of the New River District standings Friday night.”
-  “Virginia Tech found the proper medicine for the Christmas blues Friday night – near perfect foul shooting and a friendly home court.” Tech beat UVa 71-63.

1937 – 38
(75 years ago)
-  “Work on various forest protects was resumed Tuesday by Company 5447, CCC camp at Pembroke.”
-  “Pulaski will observe New Year’s Eve with the usual parties and celebrations climaxed by a noisy welcome for 1938.”
-  “The hunting season ended today with only a few nimrods in the field due to the scarcity of game. Very few hunters reported bagging the season limit of birds and pheasants.”
-  “Thirty-three students won places on the scholarship list of the fall quarter at Radford State Teachers’ college…”
-  “A total of 386 marriage licenses have been issued in the [Giles] county clerk’s office this year, an increase of 69 over last year.”
-  “Pulaski gave 1937 a noisy farewell at midnight with church bells, factory and train whistles, firecrackers, auto horns and shouts blending into the din.”
-  “A new major rock break in the vicinity of Pulaski, believed an addition to the rupture, known as the ‘Pulaski fault,’ extending from eastern Tennessee northeastward to the Shenandoah valley, was reported to the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America at Washington.”

1912 – 13
(100 years ago)
-  “Christmas week at this place [Whitethorne] was quietly observed. While there were no public Christmas trees, the majority of our people had trees in their homes.”
-  “At Hogue’s Chapel on last Tuesday afternoon a very attractive Christmas tree was prepared for the benefit of the Sunday school, and others. Many nice presents were given.”
-  “The committees of citizens from Pulaski, Galax and Fries, who came to Roanoke to confer with [Norfolk and Western] General Manager Needles in regard to a new train on the North Carolina division had their request granted.”
-  “The young people of our town [Elliston] are going to the Xmas tree at Lafayette on Tuesday evening.”
-  “Two flocks of wild geese passed over Pulaski yesterday afternoon following each other closely. They were headed South…”
- “On Wednesday night the society set of Pulaski celebrated the arrival of the New Year, by giving a delightful dance at Maple Shade Inn.”

– -Compiled by Roanoke Times librarian Belinda Harris

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