Category Archives: Opinions
Wishing Wilson well
Sometime back in the early- to mid-1980s when I was doing a lot of guitar teaching, I had a father and son taking lessons together from me, which was a pretty interesting arrangement.
As I recall they both had the same name: Gerald Wilson.
The younger Gerald Wilson, who must have been 10 or 12 at the time, grew up to be the Pickens County administrator!
Now, I can’t claim much credit for grooming him for this high office, but I knew he had potential even then. For one thing, to be willing to take guitar lessons with your daddy — that’s pretty rare. And he was always very polite and attentive, and smart. Just the nicest little guy in the world.
And he’s still one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet — although not so little anymore.
He came over to me at a county council meeting about five years ago when I started covering Pickens County for the daily newspaper from which I recently retired and told me who he was. Of course, I never would have recognized him, but he knew me. He was heading up the public works department then, I believe.
“If I can ever do anything for you, let me know,” he said.
He still says that every time I see him — and I guess he probably says it to everybody. But you know, I believe he means it.
Maybe that’s why, at the tender age of 48 (but with 31 years in the state retirement system) he has decided to retire. He’s just too nice
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Making of the coffee
One of the most important rituals observed on Fowler Farm is the making of the morning coffee. It may sound unimportant to those who don’t share the need for this very important beverage, but they are all wrong. It is of the utmost importance.
Without coffee, there is no morning. The sun won’t come up. The news won’t come on. And although the birds may sing, we will 
know nothing about it.
There’s only one person in this house who can make good coffee, and it isn’t me. Even though there have been multiple attempts at carrying out this task, none have been considered successful.
Foolishly I thought that if I measured the coffee water with a measuring cup, there would some consistency in the brew. This isn’t true.
As Fowler will tell you, that is not the correct method. The coffee law according to
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The diaper boogie
In the dimming shadows of the depths of my mind, I recall Aunt Ollie Little. She was a very pleasant and proper lady of color, who on occasion served as our nanny and often looked after us younger children while Momma worked in the fields.
She and her husband, Sam, lived in our house before we moved into it. Her, Sam and their family lived about a mile distant from our 
house. I don’t recall any money ever changing hands between my Momma and Aunt Ollie. She worked for scraps of cloth (to make quilt tops), old clothes and an occasional visit to our garden or can house.
We had eight fireplaces in our house, which we used for heat. Aunt Ollie often used them for cooking when not trying to keep us kids from throwing things into or falling into the fire.
I do not remember my exact age, but I was still in diapers. As little kids often do, I had
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Courier Letters to the Editor 7-10-19
Suggestion to help with landing theft
Dear Editor,
Recently, the boat launch at Fall Creek on Lake Keowee has had three tow vehicles broken into and their contents stolen in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon.
With digital cameras available from Amazon for a mere $65, I would love to see Duke Energy invest in these at all their boat ramp parking lots.
Just one rear-facing camera at each entrance would record the license plates of all vehicles entering the lots and if someone gets
Keeping up is hard to do
The first thing to get straight after waking is to determine what day this is. They have all seemed to run together lately.
Checking the calendar can bring surprises. Oh! It’s not Tuesday, it’s Wednesday.
The hummingbird feeder needs to be filled again, even though it seems as though I just finished doing it.
Overnight, the grass has grown three inches.
Weeds have dared to grow among the flowers.
And the dogs have been somewhere they shouldn’t have been. It appears they have been wallowing in the pond, and once thoroughly wet, have rolled diligently in dirt and sand until the color of their hair can barely be seen.
They smell. A bath is essential. After coffee, breakfast, filling the washer, folding clothes and feeding the Chihuahua and deleting emails, the time has come.
The last time Boomer had a bath ended in the washer becoming as wet as the washee.
Sebastian was an exception, as at his age he’s had many a bath and has grown much more accustomed.
Fortunately, with experience and age and hopefully, wisdom, Boomer has learned
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A boy’s first paying job
At the beginning of my sixth-grade year at Twelve Mile Elementary School, the school bus route changed. It came by my house two times. I would often catch it the first time around and either ride the complete route or occasionally depart at the school. When I arrived early, I would often be the first person there. As the school year progressed and the weather got colder, I would build a fire in each of the three heaters in the classrooms, thus having the rooms warmed when the bell donged at eight o’clock. Previous to my contract with the principal, each teacher had to build their own fire.
These old heaters burned coal, but required wood to heat up the coal to get it to burn. On extremely cold days, I recall some of the girls sitting up close to the heater studying while wearing their overcoats. They looked like some of the gold-digging immigrants to Alaska in the 1800s.
Well, the principal, Mrs. Annie Durham, came to me one day and made me a deal. She would pay me 10 cents per day to build fires in each classroom. I jumped at this deal and
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Courier Letters to the Editor
The Red, White and Blue family
Dear Editor,
This 4th of July, I have this to say to one and all of you.
Of those outside our nation that may hate us and would like to see us destroyed, just remember this. We have our problems from within, but we are all family, no matter the political beliefs nor the color of our skin. Religion or none, we are all still standing together as one. We’re the family of the Red, White and Blue!
The colors of that grand old flag we carry proudly into battle. To the death her honor we’ll defend.
However we would rather extend the hand of peace to you, though if you want a war, then that’s what we’ll give to you. We’re the
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There’s a time to speak and a time for silence
According to current census calculations, the population of our planet is rapidly approaching 8 billion people.
Along with this massive number, we know there has never been a time in history when this many individuals occupied the Earth at 
the same time, but we can also agree that we have more philosophies, opinions and worldviews than ever before. This, in turn, brings us to a point in time where our arguments and conflicts have created a more difficult atmosphere to acknowledge what we believe without being mocked, ridiculed and even persecuted.
With the creation and advancement of communication technology within the last 50 years, we are witnessing a social media grid that is capable of connecting the entire world together in an instant. It’s true, this is an amazing way of uniting us, but unfortunately, it also presents a vehicle that increases the volume of chaos and controversy.
I am not against having the opportunity to relay our thoughts, but for the Christian, we can clearly see that our Biblical perspectives are becoming an increasing target of hostility from those who oppose. We know the basic fundamentals of the Christian faith have always been an
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Nuclear fallout
I don’t spend a lot of time brooding about such things as nuclear holocaust.
But when I found out last week that the federal government is looking to put South Carolina in the business of manufacturing plutonium pits — essentially doomsday triggers — it pushed my hot buttons.
This is a bad idea on many levels.
First, a little background.
About 20 years ago, the Russians agreed with us to get rid of some of the excess plutonium the two superpowers had built up over the years by foolishly racing to see who could make the most bombs. The plan was to convert the stuff into a form that could be used in nuclear power plants, a process called mixed-oxide fuel fabrication (MOX).
We would build our MOX plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken County, where
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Courier Letters to the Editor
Every litter bit hurts
Dear Editor,
Everyone needs to do what they can to stop littering.
Instead of throwing trash out your window, you can keep a bag in your car to put your trash in. You can surely throw it out at the nearest convenience store.
You should also keep trash picked up in your yard and neighborhood.
County employees go out occasionally and do their part to pick up trash on our roads. Prisoners can go out and pick it up, too.
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