Category Archives: Opinions
Easley Chicken Wars heating up again
Well, it looks like the Easley Chicken Wars are fixin’ to heat up again.
The newest entrant into the fracas, Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, has been going great guns ever since opening a couple 
of weeks ago. Every time I’ve thought to stop by and get some of their wonderful spicy fried chicken, there’s been a line of cars winding all the way out into the highway. I keep thinking it’ll slow down once the novelty wears off, but it seems as though things are going to be jumping for a while over there.
Reminds me of the way Chick-fil-A, just down the road, has them lined
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Perfect light, perfect picture
There’s a goat house in a pasture on the roadside in an area I travel fairly often, and it’s a fascinating sight. There are a number of goats living in the area, and they all have different accommodations, but the goat house is among the 
most interesting.
That’s because it’s a two-story structure with a front deck on the second story, a set of steps and a landing and a doorway from the deck into the interior.
I’ve watched mama goats with their babies, young goats and grown goats relaxing or grazing.
Once I drove down past the goat house, turned around and parked on the other side of the road. They watched for a few minutes, but when nothing happened, lost interest.
Then, as the cycle continues, some of the goats have
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Marking National Newspaper Week
It is easy in these times of “fake news” and denigration of the media to forget the importance of your local newspaper. It is National Newspaper Week, so take time to consider what value your local newspaper brings to your community 
and your life.
Newspaper staffers work hard to cover what you need to know and what you want to know. Local journalists write stories about the people who live and work in this community.
A study just released shows local newspapers significantly
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Courier Letters to the Editor 10-9-19
Tackling a range of topics
Dear Editor,
Something is really bothering me. The Liberty High School football team is known as the Liberty Red Devils. This is definitely not the kind of role model our students should have. No wonder there is so much violence in our schools. Instead, I think a much better name would be the Liberty Patriots. Now that is the role model our students should have. Also, for many years, they have lost most of their games. I wonder why? With a
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Fond memories of fox hunters
Daddy was friends with several local fox hunters who frequented his store. Mostly they were the Hudson brothers: Clemmon, R.V. and Cooter. Although Daddy never owned a fox hound, he loved to go with them on the nights they 
hunted close to our house.
These fox hunts were held twice weekly, usually in and around the Twelve Mile River swamps adjacent to our place. I am not sure when these hunters slept, because they were out kinda late each of these nights. The wizened hunters knew whether their dogs were chasing a gray or red fox from the way the dogs ran. Grays tended to run in close circles. The reds would run in a straight line, generally.
The rather loose-knit group of hunters met occasionally at someone’s cabin up in Nine Times. Never knew who owned that cabin. It was rather stark and musty, with little more than lights and table and makeshift
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Building a bridge to the other side
You may or may not have heard about the new school in Easley, but you can bet that people all across the United States have heard of it, and many more will find out about it soon.
It’s called Lakes and Bridges Charter School, and it is one of only five free public schools in the nation for students with dyslexia.
That seems pretty out of whack to me, considering that a whopping one in five people are dyslexic. And that tuition to private schools that specialize in teaching such kids runs $25,000 a year and up.
So it’s no wonder that families have actually moved here from as far away as Massachusetts and North Dakota so their children could attend
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Courier Letters to the Editor 10-2-19
The growing problem of drug abuse
Dear Editor,
In 2016, I wrote about the growing drug problem in this newspaper. The main problem back then was 
methamphetamine. Examining the latest statistics, the rising use of opioids/fentanyl has broadened and increased the problem in our county.
Comprehensive drug misuse and abuse data is hard toacome by. For instance, if Mr. Jones has a knee operation and is given a prescription, his appropriate and legal use of the drug is recorded when the prescription is dispensed. Mr. Jones only takes half his pills and puts them in his medicine cabinet. If months later his wife twists her ankle badly and takes the rest, that misuse is not reported. Worse yet, if his daughter gets her hands on the pills, starts to take them, develops a habit and then buys heroin on the street, that drug abuse is not reported. If she ends up in prison or in a treatment center, or
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The outfitting of a 7th-grade gangster
Back during the Byzantine era, I was in the seventh grade at Pickens Junior High School. One of my classmates convinced me that I should enter the race for a seventh-grade class officer. Looking back, I do not remember what kind of grudge he held against me, but obviously in his mind I had wronged him some time in the past and this would be a great way to get even. I know of no other valid reason for getting one of your buddies involved in politics at such an early age.
I was not exactly sure what a class officer was supposed to do, but thought it might be fun as well as place a feather in my cap to enter the
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Estimated increase in Social Security
Grab your calculator. Those in the know are making an educated guess about the amount of our Social Security increase for 2020. The Senior Citizens League estimates that the increase will be 1.6 percent, below the raise we got 
last year. This will mean an average net gain of $23.40 per month for those receiving the average $1,460 per month benefit. In 2019, that benefit amount netted an increase of $40.90 per month.
The Social Security Administration will come out later
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The legacy left by Grandpa Brezeale
My mother’s father was Perry Brezeale. He lived on Concord Church Road about two miles from our house. He remained somewhat of a mystery to me for several decades after his passing.
I was speaking with one of my cousins some time back and happened to mention that I had walked into what appeared to be Grandpa Brezeale’s work shop. It was not very large, maybe 12 feet by 16 feet, with a few tools laying around. Most appeared to be ready for the trash can.
Among them I found a ball-peen hammer with a broken handle, an old hand saw with gaps where teeth used to be and formerly used nails, along with some rusty wire. I would like to mention that back in Grandpa Brezeale’s day, nothing was thrown away. Nails especially were
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