Guilford County Commissioner Kay Cashion made an interesting bit of county history at the Board of Commissioners’ Thursday, April 20 meeting – but it wasn’t for something she said.

It was for what she didn’t say.

Namely, during the county commissioners’ comments section at the end of the meeting, when Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston asked her for her closing comments, Cashion said she had nothing to say.

To the long-time commissioners and county officials in the second-floor meeting room in the Old Guilford County Court House that night, it was nothing short of astounding, for one simple reason: Cashion has been a commissioner now since 2004 and, until April 20, 2023, she has always had something to say at every meeting during the commissioners’ comments section.

Usually, in fact, she’s had a whole lot to say and she is known for her quite lengthy comments.

When it was her turn to make comments and she said she was passing on the opportunity, Alston looked confused, and he looked at her for a moment like he was thinking: What have you done with the real Kay Cashion?

Many in the room broke out in laughter at the fact that Cashion was passing on her chance to make comments.

The commissioners’ comments section is a time when the commissioners report on their activities or events that they have attended since the last meeting – as well as when they call attention to upcoming events in their district, or just wish some people a happy birthday or note the passing of a prominent citizen.

Cashion, who constantly attends community events and consistently reports on the other boards and commissions she serves on, always has plenty to talk about.

When she had nothing to say, Alston said that he simply couldn’t believe it.

“I thought she was joking,” Alston said after the meeting, adding that he was stunned when he realized that she really had no comments to make that night.

He said the only thing he could think of was that perhaps it had been a rare period of time when Cashion hadn’t had much going on in the days prior to the meeting.

After the meeting Cashion solved the mystery.  She said her schedule prior to the April 20 meeting had been just as packed as ever, but she was respecting an effort by the board to move the meeting along that night.

She said that there had been some requests that the board wrap the meeting up quickly that evening and she decided she would do her part in that effort.