The greatest thing about family is they’ve known you longer than you’ve known yourself. That’s where some of your earliest memories begin, because they’re not really your memories.

You think you remember these things, but actually you’ve heard the stories so many times they have become embedded in your memory bank.

Every time my family gets together we hear the stories. And the stories all begin the same way — “Do you remember the time?” And it goes from there.

I don’t remember the time my brother threw a toy truck at me and split my lip.

It was a typical afternoon in June. A sunny day, hot, but shady and cool on the porch, or cool enough to stretch out on the porch swing with a book.

The plan was to read and sip ice water, but after a pretty rigorous morning of yardwork, the book lay open atop the reader, unread. The reader dozed in the half-awake, half-asleep state of the twilight zone.

The family who live on the hill across the road are excellent neighbors, kind and helpful. On this particular afternoon, the father was out in the yard cutting up a felled tree with the chainsaw. The sound of the chainsaw was almost hypnotic and didn’t bother the swing dozer in the least.

His companions in work were the dog, Molly, and Oswald, the goat. Yes, the goat. Some time back, the family acquired a baby pygmy goat as a pet. He is now an adult, an unneutered Billy,

One of the questions of the tragic killing of Rev. Clementa Pinckney and eight of his church members at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is why him? And why now?

Maybe, just maybe, the answer is the date — June 17. It was on this date that Dylann Roof opened fire. It was also on this date, 193 years earlier, that Denmark Vesey, a founder of Emanuel, planned to launch a slave rebellion in Charleston.

We don’t know what is in the twisted mind of Roof, but we do know the history and significance

Gillespie continues

Dear Editor,

There are several funds or budgets within the school district. These funds can’t be intermixed. The two largest are operations and capital improvements.

The goal of the administration is to raise taxes for operations. The school board presently has three members who won’t vote to raise taxes. That leaves two strategies for the liberals in Pickens County: pick out one board member and smear him till he resigns or add a liberal spender to the board.

When Danny Merck said in his newspaper interview that taxes hadn’t been

Hardly a week goes by now without the surfacing of a cellphone video of police abuse, often of minorities.

These private camera videos are providing the best and often only record of police confrontations, such as the shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, or the more recent incident at a pool party in Texas.

South Carolina just passed a law requiring police to wear body cameras, and while they may do some internal good, don’t expect to see the

Thanks for Doodle Trail

Dear Editor,

I would like to give a special thank you to Pickens mayor David Owens and everyone who made the Doodle Trail a success. I have been riding a bicycle for more than 50 years. The roads were getting too dangerous to ride on. The Doodle Trail is

Last Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day, and at 3 o’clock I joined friends in Pickens to ride the Doodle Trail. It was pretty exciting, because the trail had just opened on Saturday and who knew what lay ahead? There were a lot of other folks with the same idea, and as we rode along on our bikes we came across hikers and other bikers, joggers and strollers enjoying the day.

We even passed two wounded warriors in motorized wheelchairs with American flags, one a double amputee, who took advantage of a safe route on a perfect afternoon to enjoy

We hear a lot of talk about our education system, testing and teacher evaluation and how to fix problems.

Here’s a suggestion. Instead of listening to so-called experts who haven’t set foot in a classroom in years, go to the horse’s mouth. Ask teachers why they leave.

According to national data on the subject, about 50 percent of teachers leave the profession after five years.

Well, here’s what some of them have to say. Low pay is not first

In response to Saitta

Dear Editor,

I want to respond to the hundreds of letters written by Pickens County School Board member Alex Saitta attacking teachers, public education and the School District of Pickens County.

In just his last letter published in the Pickens County Courier, Saitta is trying to convince the good people of Pickens County

Sarah Darlene Clark

Easley — Mrs. Sarah Darlene Norris Clark, 62, wife of the late David Wayne Clark Sr., passed away Monday, May 18, 2015, at her home.

Mrs. Clark was born in Laurens County, a daughter of the late John Henry and Sarah Elizabeth Pearson Norris. Mrs. Clark graduated from the University of South Carolina and was a