Category Archives: Opinions
Lessons in life and other disorders
Being number nine in a family of 10 children gave me a different perspective on child rearing. I could watch my older brothers and sisters as they mismanaged their children’s upbringing.
At least that’s what I thought at the time. In retrospect, it’s apparent that I should have kept better notes.
Bring back the hickory switch! No, I do not mean to use it as a weapon on the untenable, misbehaving little munchkins. But there was always that threat that a parent could use to guide them along the path to perfect minding.
My mother, bless her soul, would always order us to go outside and select our switch of choice when we were needing a little better direction — or should I say, guidance.
There was this hickory tree, at least that was what we kids called it, just outside the back door of our home that I truly believe our Daddy planted for this purpose. It was actually
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Letters to the Editor
The wrong direction for Hagood Mill
Dear Editor,
Concerning the Hagood Mill and the termination of its director, the county council has a responsibility to ensure employees are treated fairly. That means being on the lookout for bogus write-ups aimed to frustrate an employee so they’ll quit, and when that doesn’t work, firing the employee unfairly.
The mill is in Councilman Wes Hendricks’ district. He should be investigating this, learning all the facts and stating if he agrees with the firing. If not, then sticking up for the employee publicly and arguing for his reinstatement.
Second, is there truth to the claims employees have been ordered by the administration not to talk to their elected councilman? Have
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Time is right to enjoy outdoors
Winter has finally let go and summer is taking its first steps. But nearly all of us, no matter what kind of winter we experienced, are eager to get out and about. Here are some ideas for activities to do outdoors:
Community Garden: Do you have a community garden near where you live? These are often managed by local groups such as the senior center or the town. Each person who signs up is given a small plot of dirt to plant flowers and vegetables. Sometimes fertilizers and tools are provided. All you need to do is show up and plant something, keep the weeds under control and reap the harvest at the end. If you have a community garden but don’t think you can manage a whole plot, see if you can split it with a friend. If you end up with
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Wear them at your own risk
High heels and pointed-toe shoes have a lot to answer for. They created havoc in an entire generation of women who are now limping through life with aching backs. But for many years, this deadly footwear defined fashion.
Remember when employers had dress codes in place that required professional women to dress fashionably? Even now if you turn 
on the news you will see female newscasters wearing shoes designed for mutant feet.
They stand and shift their weight from one foot to the other, trying to find a comfortable way to stand. Next time you see “CBS This Morning,” check out Gayle King’s footwear. Comfort is not to be found. Also, Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC. I enjoy their broadcasts and their interesting interviews, but deeply sympathize with their poor mistreated feet.
How many television shows have you seen in our lifetime with the following scene: A woman is walking toward her car in a dimly lit parking garage. Her car is parked in an obscure spot on the fifth level. Her high heels click rapidly upon the concrete, but her stride is hampered by her pencil skirt. She is carrying at least two heavy shopping bags.
Lurking nearby is a menacing presence, lying in wait. He, of course always a male, maybe in a dark sedan, with the engine running and the headlights off.
As the woman opens her trunk and leans over to place her shopping bags in the car trunk, the man revs the engine and mashes the
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Courier Letters to the Editor
Wishful thinking
Dear Editor,
I want to thank the Pickens County Courier for its news story on the Hagood Mill. The grist mill and its volunteers are a local treasure we all want to see preserved as is, and I look forward to reading your articles on the meeting at county council.
I was disappointed that more than 100 attended the meeting, but the county council limited the number who could speak. This was undemocratic. I rarely go to public meetings, but when I do, I usually need to get something off my chest.
Councilman Wes Hendricks’ lecture on volunteerism was interesting. He kept saying “we the volunteers.” We the volunteers need to have it in our heart. The message was “y’all need to do this without complaining to us.” He is not volunteering. County councilmen are paid handsomely, plus they are offered medical benefits.
I would have loved them to say, “we are giving up our salaries on county council, will volunteer our time and are donating the money to the Hagood Mill,” but that would have been wishful thinking.
Elizabeth Ellenburg
Six Mile
Roscoe’s raccoon hunt
Roscoe came into my life during my middle teenage years. I am not sure where he came from — perhaps from another planet? Roscoe was a true-blood black-and-tan hound dog. I had a couple of coon hunters from our community make me an offer to purchase him just from his looks alone, not knowing if he had ever seen a raccoon or not.
In retrospect, I wish I had accepted that $2 offer. Oh well, live and learn. As time moved on, me and Roscoe became friends. We roamed around the farm, played in the lake, chased imaginary animals and so forth.
But I was beginning to get a little bit worried. Roscoe would not bark as Daddy’s other dogs did. As a matter of fact, I could not get him to bark at all. When around the cows or a mule, he would make a sound that came out as if two cats were caught in the wheels of your bicycle as you were plummeting down a 100-foot-deep ravine. Or perhaps, two opera singers clearing their voices before a big presentation of “Madame Butterfly” at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
Also, Roscoe did not get along with Daddy’s other dogs. He appeared to think he was more important than they were.
“Oh well,” I thought. “I still have a few weeks until fox and raccoon season opens. Maybe I can get his voice cleared up by then.”
Well, before I knew it, cold weather and raccoon hunting season were upon us, and I had to prove to Daddy and some of the older raccoon hunters that Roscoe was not a one-time wonder. I had to prove to them also that he knew what a raccoon looked and smelled
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Women veterans get expanded call center
The Department of Veterans Affairs has added another way for women veterans to get information about benefits and health care. Besides calling or chatting, those with questions can now text the Women Veterans Call Center. Since opening in 2013, the center has 
received 83,000 calls.
For the half million women veterans using VA health care, the call center can provide information on available resources and eligibility, and if a veteran is in crisis (homeless or at risk for suicide), she can get help there as well.
For women-centric information on health care and the services available at the VA, go online to www.womenshealth.va.gov. In the top right corner of the page is a Chat with the Call Center button. Or scroll down the right column and look at What’s New information on reimbursement of certain adoption expenses if a service-related disability has resulted in infertility, women veteran athletes, breast cancer and more. On the left side of the screen, the Health Topics A to Z cover hundreds of medical conditions.
The number of women who are sexually assaulted in the military has either risen or the number who report it has increased. One in
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
The river from our childhood
The river in summer was a constant in our lives. The icy-cold black water of the Lumbee flowed through the farm, and the landing was conveniently located a short distance behind the house.
Uncle Walter built a river cabin with a tin roof. There was a propane gas stove and a table inside.
The pump was a hand pump with a wooden countertop.
We’d stand on it to rinse the sand off our feet before sliding on our flip-flops.
When we swam, Mama and Aunt Caroline would sit on the bank and watch us down below on the sand bar.
The bottom of the river was sandy, but could only be seen in the shallows.
The current flowed swiftly in places we weren’t supposed to venture in and slowly in places where we played.
The deeper parts of the river were black. You couldn’t see below four inches, and we knew to stay out of those areas. It would be over our heads, the current swift and cold.
It wasn’t known as Drowning Creek for nothing.
In spots where you could see the bottom, it looked golden. We thought maybe it was covered
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Daddy, dynamite and the donkey
My Daddy, George W. O’Shields, was a farmer, but he missed his calling. He should have been an explosives expert … read on.
Being raised on a farm, one often has to come up with, should I say, unique or unusual ways to solve a particular task or problem. As an example, my Daddy always kept a mule on the farm.
The mule was used mainly for plowing crops and was kept in the same pasture with our two milk cows. Wherever you found the cows, you could always find the mule. I think he may have considered himself a strangely built, hard-headed cow.
When the cows came to the barn each evening to get their sweet feed so they could be milked, the mule was always there and also would beg for a handful of sweet feed.
Well, one thing you learn when plowing with mules is that you must have one that walks the same pace as you. Otherwise you would tire out trying to match your pace to the mule’s pace. That’s one reason some farmers would sell or trade mules every year or so. When a farmer found the right mule, he would keep him for life. As was the case with this particular mule, who was getting old.
I was quite young at the time, but do recall brother Bobby telling this story. For some reason, the old mule quit showing up at the barn each evening with the cows. This caused no apparent concern until one day Daddy saw buzzards circling over the lower pasture. He knew that something had met its
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
Double-dipping no answer to state’s teacher shortage
With pay raises that aren’t high enough to convince already-frustrated teachers to stay in the classroom, and the Senate’s failure to pass any other measures that might delay their retirement, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the Senate to go along with a House plan to entice retired teachers to return to work.
It’s a terribly unfair idea: It means that teachers who haven’t retired — even some who are eligible to retire — could suddenly find 
themselves making significantly less money than the teacher in the classroom next door. And it could end up making the situation even worse, by persuading even more teachers to go ahead and retire.
So if the Senate goes along with the plan — and we’re not at all convinced it should — it must extract some significant concessions to prevent people from retiring when they’re still young enough to continue working.
At issue is a very smart state law that limits double-dipping — that is, retiring from state employment and then returning to a new job (or even the same job) while collecting a pension. The 2012 law doesn’t prohibit people from coming back to work, but it cuts off any additional pension payments in any year in which they earn $10,000 in state salary. Note that they still can collect their full salary and part of their pension, just not all of it.
Besides the problems double-dipping creates with morale among people who haven’t retired and returned, the practice helped contribute to the unsustainable unfunded liability in the state government retirement system. That deficit has already forced the Legislature to raise pension payments from state employees and state and local governments to uncomfortably high levels, and more
You must be logged in to view this content.
Subscribe Today or Login
