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One Woman's Opinion
Welcome to “One Woman’s Opinion,” a long term feature of the Southside Sentinel, written by Urbanna resident Mary Wakefield Buxton. Traditionally a humorist, Mary has written a column on all subjects and sometimes in very serious vein. Along with writing a column for the Sentinel since 1984, she is also author of 15 books about life and love in Tidewater, Virginia. Click here for available books.
Urbanna’s ‘big brass’ boundary brouhaha: Part 5
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4
Part 5
The prayers of writers are sometimes answered even though they don’t necessarily attend church services. And so the very next day a terrible storm hit Nimcock County tearing across the land, uprooting trees and taking off roofs of many houses. And most conveniently helping Merrypen find a way out of the “big brass” boundary...
Urbanna’s ‘big brass’ boundary brouhaha: Part 4
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
Part 4
By now everyone in the charming town of Nimcock had taken sides. Who could not take a side? Everyone was talking...
Urbanna’s ‘big brass’ boundary brouhaha: Part 3
Part 1 • Part 2
Part 3
The lawyers had been selected, the distinguished Ronald E. Widget (who some in the county felt was totally unscrupulous) and the candy Enos F....
The ‘big brass’ boundary brouhaha continues
Part 1
Part 2
A week or two passed by with not much more interchange between the Army and the Navy much to Nimcock’s relief. No one liked blow-ups between neighbors...
The ‘big brass’ boundary brouhaha
(Editor’s note: Before passing away this month, “One Woman’s Opinion” columnist Mary Wakefield Buxton completed a special five-part series, “The Nimcock Chronicles.” The following column is the first in...
One Woman's Opinion
Educating One Woman: Four decades of writing (Part 6)
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5
URBANNA — Four decades of writing One Woman’s Opinion columns provided many lessons about both writing and life. One lesson learned almost immediately is if one wanted to write opinion, fine, but he couldn’t just choose the...
Educating One Woman: Four decades of writing (Part 5)
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4
URBANNA — Changing from writing humor to political opinion in 1988 got the attention of a few people who were highly offended at the idea that a local woman dared to write her opinion in the newspaper and...
Educating One Woman: Four decades of writing (Part 4)
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
URBANNA — In 1988 I decided to try writing opinion. I loved lampooning society as I saw it, but I felt the need for more challenge and wanted to take on controversial issues. I soon discovered writing opinion was...
Educating One Woman: Four decades of writing (Part 3)
Part 1 • Part 2
URBANNA — My first Sentinel column, “Journeys,” that began 40 years ago this July was my story of a canoe trip to Perkins Creek and the shock of finding a drowned deer half submerged in the water.
Within a week I...
Educating One Woman: Four decades of writing (Part 2)
Part 1
URBANNA — Realtor Ed Ruark was waiting for me when I arrived in Urbanna the next morning. Off we went in his car to see the little 1940s-style cottage for sale at 291 Kent St.
We pulled into the driveway, which was really a...
Educating One Woman: Four decades of writing (Part 1)
URBANNA — It was the July 4 weekend in 1984. Ronald Reagan was in the White House, the world was at peace, immigration was regulated and the borders secure. The price of groceries, gas and utility bills did not cause instant shock and college...
“A case of sea fever — the pursuit of happiness”
URBANNA — Every so often I have a knock your socks off kind of experience. A recent dinner at Hazel and David Laughton’s house on Route 227 just outside of Urbanna earns such a rating.
The couple, married 63 years, hail from Birmingham, England. At...
W.Va. summer memories: Some happy, some sad
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5
By the end of the second summer in West Virginia camp, our director was seen escorting a stranger through camp. He was interested in buying the camp. I was introduced to...
‘West Virginia Summers in paradise begin to fade’
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4
URBANNA — The emotional love poem that Peter had written and shared with me describing his feelings for his lost love introduced me to inter-gender romantic love. I was 33. In those years, human...
Though some ill-advised, camp traditions were guarded carefully a half century ago
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
A newcomer to camp, I quickly learned camp traditions were guarded more carefully than a conservative Episcopalian guards his prayer book of 1928. If one thought any camp traditions outrageous, one would be wise to keep such views...
Poetic counselor from W.Va summers recalled
Part 1 • Part 2
Getting out of Florida during the unbearably hot summers, escaping parenting duties for a few months, and being in the center of nature in all its glory in West Virginia, produced an aura in me of great happiness. It was...
Coming clean about muddy past summers in West Virginia
Now in West Virginia, far from the tropical heat of Florida, we soon fell into the mindless and carefree days of summer camp regimentation. Our days, starting at 8 a.m., were divided into meal hours, morning and afternoon activities, rest hour after lunch each...
More News
Golf carts may roll in Deltaville
Deltaville representative Randy Crittenden informed supervisors that residents on Lovers Lane and adjoining streets...
Fireball consumes truck on Route 17
A truck pulling a large camper was destroyed by fire this week near Church...
Marine industrial park eyed for Deltaville
The Middlesex County Economic Development Authority (EDA) will apply for a “GO Virginia” planning...
Cadillac strikes man on Route 17
A pedestrian struck by a vehicle on U.S. Route 17 on Monday was airlifted...
