Following up on the discussion of the Sentara affiliation with Rockingham Memorial Hospital on this board, I’ve launched a new poll (upper right, this page). Do you think this will be good, bad or neutral for our community? Vote, and then post your remarks here.

Does anyone remember when the BC Eagle’s colors were plain old red and yellow? Same for Bridgewater High School Eagles.

Remember when the men’s dorms on Dinkle and 3rd Street were single story cinderblock buildings?

Remember when they had years and years of losing football seasons. They may have had the longest losing streak in the nation at one time (?).

When they rang the big bell in Founders Hall after each football win. Didn’t hear in much in the fifties.

Remember when the north side of Dinkle Avenue was the college farm.

Anyone remember the old gym which is now a maintenance building? It is located by the College Street parking lot, which used to be tennis courts.

Why can I remember these things but not yesterday?

OK, let’s say we totally buy the idea that Rockingham Memorial Hospital will get a lot of good management expertise from its new partner Sentara. Shouldn’t it have gotten that expertise before spending hundreds of million on a new building? Surely Sentara knows more about building a hospital than the locals, right?

With football training camps open, it’s time for the annual Bridgewater Buzz football poll. Vote at the upper right of Bridgewater Buzz’s main page. The question is which of our favorite football teams will have the highest winning percentage (Washington Redskins, Virginia Tech Hokies, Virginia Cavaliers, JMU Dukes or Bridgewater College Eagles). Last year’s poll favorite was the Hokies, receiving 46 percent of Buzz respondents’ votes. The actual winner on the field was also the Hokies, with 77 percent victories (10-3 record). Here’s how the other teams fared:

• Bridgewater College Eagles: 70 percent victories (7-3 record), 19 percent in Buzz poll
• JMU Dukes: 55 percent victories (6-5 record), 33 percent in Buzz poll
• Washington Redskins: 50 percent victories (8-8 record), 2 percent in Buzz poll
• Virginia Cavaliers: 25 percent victories (3-9 record), 0 percent in Buzz poll

This from the developers of the new store: “Larry and Pam French would like to announce that the Bridgewater Family Dollar store will open on August 12th. This 9,180 square foot store will be operated by Family Dollar and is located at 602 North Main Street beside the Martin Center. Family Dollar is a publicly-traded company that started in 1959. Family Dollar has over 6,700 stores in the United States.” The building contractor was Parkway Contractors from Chuckey, Tennessee.

Let’s say you’re in traffic signaling a left turn. A friendly driver who has the right of way waves you through. If you take the wave-through but there’s some miscommunication and a property damage accident results, you will be charged with failure to yield the right of way. The local judge may be sympathetic but the charges will not be dropped. The best you can hope for is a reduced charge of “improper driving,” and that will mean a fine and court costs and, depending on your age and driving record, increased insurance costs. This did not happen to me but I have it on good authority. At the risk of seeming unfriendly, it seems best simply to refuse the wave-through.

so great seeing everyone at lawn party and getting an annual fix of funnel cake. is that a new machine that pours the funnel cake mix. tastes just as good as ever.

Anybody out there hot? What are you doing about it?

Time for a fun poll at www.bridgewaterva.com/newbuzz. What do you like best about the Bridgewater Lawn Party? Is it the food, the rides, seeing friends, the Firefighters’ Parade or something else? Cast your vote and post a comment if you like. That poll again is at the upper right, at www.bridgewaterva.com/newbuzz

While we’re at it with the hot dogs and fireworks, I hope we’ll all stop and consider this: Our nation was founded on the idea that the people are sovereign. We may delegate that sovereignty to the government to do things on our behalf. If we ever fully buy into this idea that the government is our master and not our servant, we are doomed. How do we show government who’s boss? By voting for people who will serve the people, and voting them out if they don’t.