Editorials

There's a Del McCoury song called "The Streets of Baltimore" that has a few lines that came to mind last week as a train clack-clacked me north to a writing conference.
The narrator/Del sings, "She said the prettiest place on earth is Baltimore at night" and then a line later, "And I kind of like the streets of Baltimore."
After spending the better part of a week there, it seemed the later lines about being dragged through the streets of Baltimore and "...heading home on that same train that brought me here before" fit better.

I've been asked by a few folks in the past if The Graphic might consider adding the Rocky Mount City Council to its coverage. My quick answer has always been no - unless the management and leadership of Rocky Mount begins to affect people in The Graphic's coverage area - meaning water and utilities.
Nashville relies on Rocky Mount for its water. Some of the rural areas in our coverage area also rely on Rocky Mount for water, natural gas or electricity.
In the past, our coverage has usually been limited to those two things in unison with covering the Nashville Town Council and county government.
It's more than obvious that the leadership of Rocky Mount has (forgive the pun) been on somewhat rocky ground for some time now.

This photo published in The Nashville Graphic on June 27, 1968. Bill Shackleford (pictured far right) explains the process used in bulk tobacco curing to local businessmen who were invited on a tour of farming operations. The curer was owned by L.R. Joyner of Sandy Cross. Bulk barns were becoming more popular at that time in this area.