“It was a smoke and mirrors game for the last five years of making us look like an outfitted band, and eventually you’re just out of tricks to do it.”

— Daniel Trivette, band director, on finally replacing West Rowan’s 17-year-old band uniforms

“He’s truly a lawyer and a gentleman who would make Atticus Finch proud.”

— Anna Mills Wagoner, resident Superior Court judge, on John Holshouser, former judge and attorney, who received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine

“Yee-haw! Great God Almighty!”

— Dennis Powell of Salisbury, on winning $4 million lottery scratch-off (which yielded a lump sum after-tax payment of $1.7 million)

“Anthony Johnson breaks the mold. … He’s good; there’s no limit.”

— Marvin Moore, principal, Isenberg Elementary School, on the new Rowan-Salisbury Teacher of the Year