EASLEY — The final regional qualifying tournament for the Big League World Series was finished Sunday afternoon, so now all that remains is 11 teams from across the world gathering in Easley this week to determine the best 15-18 year-old baseball team in the world.
The host team is South Carolina District 1, hoping to win its first title since 2007, when the locals took the crown for the fourth time in five years. Gregg Powell, city of Easley athletic director, has served as the manager for each of the four title teams.

By: Elizabeth Boleman-Herring
Publisher, WeeklyHubris.com

Poet James Dickey, whose poetry student I once was, called my “Up-Country” South (among many other things) “the country of nine-fingered-men.”*
In Pickens, the county seat of Upstate South Carolina’s eponymous Pickens County, you can still see some of those men, the symmetry of their hands rearranged by close encounters with farm or mill machinery; their full beards, Confederate-flag attire and bright blue eyes harking back to the moonshiners and stubbornly isolationist Calvinists who were their (and my) forebears.

Designated by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1957, July is officially National Hot Dog Month, and today the celebration is as strong as ever. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC) is encouraging all Americans to join in celebrating this national icon by firing up the grill and enjoying one of America’s most beloved foods.
The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council is a project of the American Meat Institute and is funded by contributions from hot dog and sausage manufacturers and those who supply them with equipment, ingredients and services.
Established in 1994, the Council conducts scientific research to benefit hot dog and sausage manufacturers. The Council also serves as an information resource to consumers and media on questions related to quality, safety, nutrition and preparation of hot dogs and sausages.
For more information on National Hotdog Month or the National Hotdog and Sausage Council, visit http://www.hot-dog.org/

EASLEY – A Pickens man is facing charges of armed robbery after police say they believe he robbed a convenient store in Easley last Thursday.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. on June 14 the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office says, a male subject, wearing a mask, entered the Spinx store located 3785 Farrs Bridge Road in Easley.

I have always been an avid reader. Fostered by my mom, I fell in love with books at a very early age. I’m fairly certain that I asked my mom to read “Monkeys Are Funny That Way” so many times that she secretly (or perhaps not quite so secretly) hoped the book would disappear.

June is National Safety Month, so each June, the National Safety Council encourages organizations and communities to participate in National Safety Month — an annual observance to educate and encourage safe behaviors around leading causes of preventable injuries and deaths.

“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit. We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, ‘of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion.’ What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes?”
General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, officially established Memorial Day through proclamation of General Ordinance 11, on May 5, 1868. Originally called Decoration Day, the first observed Memorial Day was on May 30, 1868, and to commemorate this day, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

By. C. Thomas Cloer, Jr.

“Let’s go

to Thompson River; my rod and creel are already in the truck,” he said with a strain in his voice that revealed his weakened state.
“You think you can make it Dad?”
“I can make it if we go at a slow pace, and you don’t start that fast-walking like you’re going to a coon dog that’s treed.”
“We’ll take our time,” I said. “There’s no talk of thunderstorms this evening in the Jocassee Gorges. We’ll walk downhill to the river and then fish back toward the Muster Ground Road. I’ll get my stuff and we’ll get gone.”

Only recently dubbed “Mother’s Day,” the highly traditional practice of honoring of Motherhood is rooted in antiquity, and past rites typically had strong symbolic and spiritual overtones; societies tended to celebrate Goddesses and symbols rather than actual Mothers.
One of the earliest historical records of a society celebrating a Mother deity is found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs.

From Em and Ella’s notebooks last week, I received a couple of flyers indicating that during the coming week, Forest Acres would be celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week.
Seeing as one of my beats is coverage of the SDPC and board meetings, I thought this would be a great opportunity to devote our Lifestyles page to saying thank you to all of the teachers in Pickens County who help make our community a better place through the work they do with our children.