I have good news for parents: You do not need more than a few tools in your disciplinary tool-bag. One especially valuable tool, one that belongs in every modern home, is the “Doctor.”

“What do you do when your baby cries?” I asked the 20-something new mom who was already feeling overwhelmed and beginning to slip into post-partum depression. Her mother-in-law had suggested she talk to someone and recommended yours truly.

20 Years Ago | 1999

The first rotation of the 200 Years of Food Preservation at the South Boston-Halifax County Museum of Fine Arts and History kicked off last week with samples of “Joe Froggers” cookies and orange pudding.

Destination Downtown South Boston’s third annual cruz-in will be on from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday. There will be no charge for admission for visitors or vehicle owners. All antique and classic cars and trucks, motorcycles and special interest vehicles are welcome to participate.

QUESTION: We held off giving our oldest daughter a smartphone until she was 15, the age at which we allowed her older brother to have one. We read your column weekly in our hometown newspaper and know you disapprove, but we had no issues with our son and thought, wrongly, that things would g…

Some 90 classmates from the Halifax County High School class of 1969 attended the 50th year reunion over the weekend with a meet and greet session Friday evening at Sunnyview Inn and Events Center in Cluster Springs and a dinner Saturday evening on the lawn of Carol and Alan Gravitt’s home. …

Five ladies from Grace Baptist Church traveled to Ecuador in June to serve with the organization “For His Children-Ecuador.”

Every Tuesday and Thursday from the spring until the winter, Maxine Jones and George Perez open the doors to Tri-County Community Action Agency’s cannery at 7:30 a.m.

20 Years Ago | 1999

As my regular readers know, I am a certified heretic in my field: child and family psychology. To the point, I am convinced that psychological parenting theory, which began to inform American child rearing in the late 1960s, has caused more problems than psychologists know how to solve.

20 Years Ago — 1999

Back for the second year, the Hay Bale Decorating Contest will take place at the Halifax County Fair that gets underway Oct. 1-5.

Red Bank Revival is embarking on a fall tour for the first time ever, including a performance at the South Boston Harvest Festival on Sept. 28 at the Charles St. Stage from 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Q: My first marriage dissolved when our son – who’s very sweet and happy – was just shy of 3. He hasn’t seen his father since and never asks about him. The child support checks abruptly stopped a couple of months ago, and I subsequently learned he committed suicide. I suppose I should tell m…

A weekly feature looking back at top headlines and photos of yesteryear.

The public is invited to come and join the Dan River Basin Association's 4-mile paddle along the Mayo Lake shoreline on Oct. 5, guided by staff from Mayo Park, 1013 Neal's Store Road, Roxboro, North Carolina (GPS 36.479996, -78.876064).

“It was one of our best ones,” said Bert Martin, Clover Volunteer Fire Department president, speaking of the 2019 Clover Fall Festival that brought in $22,850.

Civil Air Patrol cadets (teenagers) from Halifax County, Danville, Pittsylvania County and all over Virginia just returned from living at Ft. Pickett for a week as a result of volunteering for “Encampment”, a week of military-style activities that challenged them mentally and physically.

The Tinkers Car Club will hold its annual fall cruz-in from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, in the Halifax Square Shopping Center parking lot located on Highway 501 North, South Boston.

A New York writer named Jonathan Daniel Stern, writing in the Aug. 7 issue of the e-zine “Fatherly,” laments that co-sleeping has destroyed his marriage.

Fall is right around the corner, and to celebrate, the public is invited to the 30th annual fall festival at Clover Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday.

20 Years Ago | 1999

Proving, once again, that fact is stranger by far than fiction, a grandmother recently asked me what she should do about her daughter-in-law who, despite her husband’s increasingly meek objections, is determined to do everything possible to turn the first grandchild, a 3-year-old girl, into …

A weekly feature looking back at top headlines and photos of yesteryear.

South Boston native John Greer will present a solo, two-month art exhibit during September and October at The Prizery. The exhibit opens Sunday, Sept. 8 with a reception sponsored by Parsons-Bruce Art Association in the Robert F. Cage Gallery from 2 to 4 p.m.

Robert Wimbish, Halifax County native and current director of programming for HGTV, found himself in the middle of a project a child of the 70’s could only dream of, renovation of the house used for exterior shots for The Brady Bunch television series.

The sounds of shouting, stomping, singing and the Spanish guitar filled the room as the Flamenco show began.

Tractor Supply Company in South Boston​ has dedicated the entire month of August to showing its appreciation for animals by hosting a variety of animal-centric happenings and deals as part of Out Here With Animals, its month-long event for animals of all kinds and the people who care for the…

For someone who wants to work in fluid dynamics or orbital mechanics if he goes that high — literally — 16-year-old Blake D’Amato of Halifax is well on his way.

I’ve always promised myself that this column would never get “academic,” but I see no choice with respect to the issue at hand, so here goes…as simple as I can make it.

GriefShare is an international grief recovery support group, frequently led by people who have lost a spouse, a child, a relative or friend. Founded in 1998, the lay-led program has changed the lives of those dealing with loss.

The North Halifax Volunteer Fire Department will host its annual marathon on Saturday, Sept. 7, at the fire station located on Leda Grove Road in Nathalie.

The Halifax County Cancer Association (HCCA) Walk for Hope is fast approaching.

A weekly feature looking back at top headlines and photos of yesteryear

In June of 2016, a “one in a thousand year event” dumped more than 9 inches of rainfall in less than 12 hours on Greenbrier County, West Virginia.

Q: A Christian (but very liberal) adoption agency recently turned down our application because they disapprove of our parenting approach, which is your parenting approach. We told them we subscribe to your philosophy and do things like sending the kids to bed early due to whining and tantrum…

A weekly feature looking back at top headlines and photos of yesteryear

South Boston native John Greer will present a solo, two-month art exhibit during September and October at The Prizery.

Short questions I’ve been asked of late (mostly by journalists) and proportionately short answers: