Category Archives: Lifestyles
One With the Ride
Steve Lorch/Courier
One With the Ride owner John Winchester is a former pro skater, and he and his shop are all about living in the moment.
By Steve Lorch
For The Courier
slorch@thepccourier.com
SUNSET — Lakes, rivers and mountains.
Local Biz Buzz
For most of us in the Upstate, those words mean “weekend getaway,” but for John Winchester, those words are a lifestyle.
The laid-back 41-year-old is the owner of One With the Ride, what he describes as “a ratty little real-deal island surf shop” in Sunset.
The shop rents and builds high-end paddle boards, wake surfers and river surfers right here in our own backyard.
A former pro skater for Vision Skateboards in the late ‘90s, Winchester and his shop are all
Getting to know Easley’s metal master
Steve Lorch/Courier
Terry Black, who owns and operates Terry’s Welding & Farm Service in Easley, offers mobile on-site service. Black has been welding for more than three decades.
By Steve Lorch
For The Courier
slorch@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — “I’ve been blessed,” says Terry Black.
Local Biz Buzz
The soft-spoken 49-year-old is the owner of Terry’s Welding & Farm Service.
A lifetime native of Pickens County, Black has set up shop between Easley and Dacusville.
Offering mobile on-site service, Terry’s Welding is not your ordinary welding company.
“Residential, commercial, farm — we fix and repair
The importance of Easter
Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is Christianity’s most important holiday. It has been called a moveable feast because it doesn’t fall on a set date every year, as most holidays do.
Instead, Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. Therefore, Easter is observed anywhere between
Women’s History Month
A nation celebrating the contributions of women
Growing out of a small-town school event in California, Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society. The United States has observed it annually throughout the month of March since 1987. The 2015 National Women’s History Month theme, “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives,” presents the opportunity to
‘A Living Icon’
Bobby Rettew/Courtesy Clemson Athletic Communications
A survivor of the Bataan Death March in World War II, retired U.S. Army Col. Ben Skardon is a beloved Clemson University alumnus and professor emeritus. In addition, he is the most sought-after speaker at the annual Bataan Memorial Death March in New Mexico, according to friend Cheryl Fallstead.
Bataan Death March survivor, Clemson legend Skardon to walk in annual memorial march
By Ken Scar
Clemson Media Relations
news@thepccourier.com
CLEMSON — Retired U.S. Army Col. Beverly N. (Ben) Skardon, 97, a survivor of the Bataan Death March and beloved alumnus and professor emeritus of Clemson University, will walk eight-and-a-half miles in the annual Bataan Memorial Death March on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on March 22.
This will be the eighth time Skardon has participated in the event.
More than 6,500 active-duty service members, veterans, wounded warriors and civilians will run or walk a 26.2-mile route or 14-mile route through the unforgiving terrain of the high desert
Pickens County Museum hosting Youth Arts 2015
Local artists honored at kickoff reception
COUNTY — Pickens County Youth Arts 2015 is now in full swing.
Saturday’s kickoff reception at the Pickens County Museum was attended by hundreds upon hundreds of proud parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, and, of course, the talented young artists who created the 930 works of art that are on display at the museum through March
Deep roots
Annual Reunion of Upcountry Families
set for March 12-14
CENTRAL — The public is invited to the Reunion of Upcountry Families on March 12-14.
The free event will include cemetery tours, workshops devoted to family history and a large display of photos and other items from local families of the Old Pendleton District, which became present-day Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties.
Families whose heritage goes back at least a century in the Old Pendleton District are urged to participate in the March 14 reunion display at Southern Wesleyan University by buying a table
Murder, Mayhem and Moonshine
Olivia Fowler as Adeline Ladd Redmond
‘Bad Boys’ brings local legends to life
Philip Cheney
as Manse Jolly
Murder, mayhem and moonshine will come to the stage in the play “Bad Boys of the Upcountry,” an original docudrama about the lives and families of two famous men who lived by their own laws during the brutal years of Reconstruction in Upstate South Carolina.
Considered a Robin Hood by many and a murderer by federal troops, Manse Jolly, a native of Anderson County’s Lebanon community, was a Confederate soldier who never surrendered.
A master moonshiner of the region, Lewis Redmond was said to have made the best liquor in the nation, albeit illegal. He was more famous in his time than Jesse James and had his
Celebrating Black History Month
A time to reflect, remember and celebrate
lack History Month, or National African-American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African-Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African-Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to
Twelve Years a Slave: A Life-Changing Book
By Dr. Thomas Cloer, Jr.
Special to The Courier
hen I heard that a slave narrative existed, I had to have a copy. First published in 1853, readers now can obtain a copy of Solomon Northup’s narrative “Twelve Years a Slave” from Penguin
twelve-years-a-slave
Books or your local library. Some readers of books may be familiar with the phenomenon of reading something that changes oneself forever. The narrative of Northup, a free black man kidnapped in Washington in 1841, sold into slavery and not rescued until 1853 from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana, changed me forever.
I knew of some of the horrors related to that tragic part of our history in the South, but I had never heard it firsthand from someone who had endured it, survived it and then written eloquently about it in great detail.
I have also never read a personal diary of a Cherokee living in Eastatoee, Jocassee or Keowee. It would be as precious as gold to have such a perspective. It might cause others to look at Indian fighters from a different point of view. Sequoia first invented “talking leaves” with the Cherokee syllabary in
