Category Archives: Opinions
Courier Letters to the Editor 4-17-19
Thank a lineworker
Dear Editor,
The storms that hit our area Sunday did extensive damage across the Southeast region of the United States, resulting in death and destruction. One of the first things people think about during times like this is loss of electricity, which affects far more than comfort and convenience. Loss of power can have a tremendous adverse impact on life and safety for many people.
During these times, we also should remember the tens of thousands of dedicated lineworkers across the country who work tirelessly to maintain and restore electrical power to communities nationwide, often putting themselves in harm’s way.
April 18 is designated as National Lineman Appreciation Day, a day during which we remember and honor the dedicated, hardworking lineworkers who dedicate their lives to maintaining and restoring power in our communities. Storms, long hours and working in sky-high locations to install and
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A flu shot could save your life
Some of us just don’t want to get a flu shot every year. It’s too much trouble to get an appointment, or we just don’t like 
needles — or maybe we figure that we’ll just tough it out for a week if we do get the flu. After all, it’s not going to kill us, right?
A researcher at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis has come up with a strong reason to get an annual flu shot: You could have a heart attack if you don’t.
After studying 450,000 medical records of four flu seasons, the
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Work, work and more work
And then there was work. Lots and lots of work to keep me out of trouble, and did for the most part.
Looking back, I find that work should be required of all kids. It teaches you how to sweat, how to do tasks you thought were impossible. Most importantly, work inspires you with a sense of accomplishment.
Daddy was a hard worker, and expected me to be the same.
The first job that I recall doing was to carry water to Daddy as he plowed with a mule. I must have been four or five years old. I remember it to be a long walk carrying that mason jar through the woods and across the branch.
I usually found Daddy, however, and he would stop and sit on
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Courier Letters to the Editor 4-10-19
Thanks from the Pickens Lions Club
Dear Editor,
The Pickens Lions Club would like to thank a few businesses in town for their support.
One of the very first endeavors that our club championed was helping those with vision problems. That was a need that Helen Keller challenged the Lions Clubs all across America to tackle back in 1925. Today, our club has helped many in our community with eye exams and getting new glasses. We also collect old, obsolete glasses that are not used anymore. So if you have a pair of glasses that you are not using anymore, please visit one of the businesses mentioned and drop them off in the Lions eyeglass collection box.
A very heartfelt thank you to Bentley Chiropractic, Bivens
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Might still doesn’t make right
I went to the flea market Wednesday morning to buy some jonquils. I found them, as always in the spring, in all colors and varieties at the table where a couple sells them each year. I came 
home not only with jonquils, but with the memory of a chance encounter that moved me profoundly.
I was walking down the last row not yet explored and saw a large beveled-edge mirror at in a booth manned by a young couple.
The size was right, the glass was first-quality, but the frame was not a winner.
But the price was $10. And the frame could easily be painted.
So I decided to buy it. It was very heavy, and the young man said he’d be glad to carry it to the car for me.
Since I could barely lift it, I accepted his kind offer.
We talked a little bit, and he said his wife told him he is supposed to negotiate on price. I agreed. He should have started
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O’Shields Grocery
The year 1954 was a big one for the O’Shields family. I recall Daddy, my brother, Bobby, and a couple others gathering some tools from the old garage and heading across the field toward the west side of the house.
When I asked what they were going to do, Bobby replied “we’re gonna build a store.” Then the excitement began for me. A store. I could not believe it.
All the good things Uncle Grover had in his store would be close by in our own store. I don’t recall it taking that long to build. A few hundred concrete blocks, several shelves, mostly stocked with candy, I envisioned.
And so it was … O’Shields Grocery, a northern Pickens institution. We were on the map. We even had had rabies inoculation clinics there. It was a neighborhood meeting place
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New SC child welfare chief faces big task
Gov. Henry McMaster has made a promising hire to help turn around the S.C. Department of Social Services which, like the Department of Corrections, has been operating in crisis mode for years. So it’s clear that Michael Leach of the Tennessee 
Department of Children’s Services will need plenty of help to bring to South Carolina the kind of reforms that improved his Tennessee agency and, more importantly, the lives of thousands of often abused or neglected children.
There’s much to recommend Mr. Leach. The Tennessee agency suffered from ills remarkably similar to those in South Carolina, but in a hopeful sign, it now stands out as a national model for
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Courier Letters to the Editor 4-3-19
Views not shared by community
Dear Editor,
I’m writing today with a request. Would you please consider setting a limit on the number of times a month that you publish letters from each reader?
I appreciate that you need content and that drama sells papers, but the divisive letters that you publish almost weekly from the same three writers are exhausting. More importantly, they represent a small group of very vocal people who seem to think that their intolerant views are shared by our entire community. They are not.
As shown in election after election, including the most recent
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Nailbiter in the Horse Pasture
Editor’s note: Paul O’Shields is a local native who enjoys writing about his time as a youngster growing up in Pickens County. This is his first column for the Courier.
There was a place that my best friend Joe and I frequented called the Horse Pasture. It was a beautiful wilderness area in northern Pickens and Oconee counties, and it was open to the public. I believe this is where the confluence of the Whitewater River and Green River was located. Downward it becomes the Tugaloo River. We camped, fished and hunted up there. Little did we know that when we grew up, this pristine area would be at the bottom of Lake Jocassee. It would have to be relived in our dreams.
As you enter Horse Pasture from the east off U.S. Highway 178, a small creek (Cane Creek?) runs along the side of the road after you drive a few miles. As you continue to drive, at a right-hand
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Every porch needs a possum
You may have a low opinion of possums. They won’t win any contests based on their looks.
Once, as children, we were the temporary owners of a baby possum. He had lost his mother in an automobile accident and was dropped off by a relative for us to try to raise.
He was tame and could be handled, but he escaped one day and was never seen again.
Maybe he made it on his own and maybe he didn’t. No one will ever know.
Sometimes these experiments were successful and sometimes
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