Shown are some of my most recent articles and blog postings.
Writing about the dark and bloody ground known as Kentucky
Western Kentucky author Lee Cole’s debut novel Groundskeeping details a love-hate relationship with his home state.
Coletta Shouse
Coletta Shouse was a fighter all the way to the end, even when her final breath passed from her lips on Jan. 7, 2023, in a Henderson hospital room surrounded by her loved ones. She was 81 years old.
History’s music man
Zach Lemhouse is not only a talented musician, but he’s also a teacher of history, who’s bringing alive stories of SC’s past through music.
Preacher man preachin’
Everybody talkin’. Preacher man preachin’. Let’s talk ekphrasis, a written response to a work of art, and my take on Romare Bearden’s “Carolina Shout.”
‘Someone saved my life tonight’ at an Elton John concert
Elton John’s songs, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” and “Daniel” hold special meaning for two.
Brenda Robinson
Nov. 7, 1949-March 12, 2022 MORGANFIELD, Ky. — In Cat Alley, when the flood waters recede and the sun comes again, a bouquet of daisies and lilies erupt from the black soil – fertile ground tended by the river bottom farmers and their families. It was in that dark dirt where Brenda Diane Babbs Robinson…
Healer of bodies, minds and souls
John Glenn Creel is a family doctor that runs his own practice, Walterboro Adult & Pediatric Medicine, and is chief of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of SC and pastor of his own church, Little Rock Holiness Church. “I try to use my time wisely. When I’m sitting, I just can’t sit.”
The blank page and Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda writes like he’s running out of time and I’m staring at a blank page.
South Carolina’s model for fans of model trains
The Model Trains Station in South Carolina’s Upstate is regarded as one of the best in the Southeast. What makes it so?
South Carolina’s top dog? It’s Cliff Daley and his tasty treats
He’s the King of Corn Dogs and his dogs are known at festivals throughout the Southeast.
Preacher man since he was a boy
He preached his first sermon when he was 9 years old. Now, some 60 years later, he’s still at the pulpit of his home church in West Columbia, SC.
Where do we go from here, Major Tom?
A tiny love story from a night when the rain fell in Charlotte, NC, on a late June night in 2014.
Sharing the story
Read of one woman’s push to chart a path for those wishing to discover their heritage in South Carolina.
I dreamed of you and your biscuits
Seeing Carl was not unusual. Hearing from Carl was quite unusual.
Why, how and when do I write? Now you know
Best writing advice? Well, there is a Hemingway quote that hangs on my wall: “Write drunk. Edit sober.”
Obsessed with RC Cola and baseball, and how it all went wrong
It was the summer of 1978 and I discovered RC Cola and baseball. My daddy? Well, he found Billy Beer.
The Call of the Crow
What do you see when presented with Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield With Crows”? I thought of a man’s impending death.
High school principal by day, Walmart stocker at night
We all could learn a little something from Henry Darby. He spends his days as the principal of a high school in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. At night, he stocks shelves at an area Walmart. His pay goes to help needy students and families.
A heart-shaped box of chocolates on Dyer hill
What could possibly become of a cold winter’s day, one impossibly large hill and a frozen box of chocolates?
My love of grass
Fat Tuesday has me hungry for fine fescue Most just shake their head and walk away. “No, no, no.”In fact, they are so adverse they’ll suddenly stop and turn, telling me their disdain is so great “I pay $50 every two weeks just so I don’t have to do it.” They cannot comprehend my love…
Beanee Weenees in the parking lot
They’ve met for a year in the vacant parking lot. He’s always brought Beanee Weenees. She’s so tired of Beanee Weenees.
Tripping with death high above the Barren River
Ride along on a trip to the “locks” with a pocketful of ‘shrooms.
William Sutcliffe Heaton, Jr. (1925-2018)
CLARKSDALE, MS – The man who had a hand in forming the first public cotton ginning operation in the Mississippi Delta and literally planted the idea for a farming enterprise that would become known nationwide passed away peacefully Saturday, July 7, 2018, at the age of 92. And while Bill Heaton may be known for…
Fred M. Hite (1943-2016)
MORGANFIELD, Ky. – In a life that took him from the streets of Uniontown, Ky., to the jungles of Vietnam to towering construction projects along the Ohio River, and retirement days spent on the golf courses across the Southeastern United States, Fred Hite was as solid a man as the massive power plants he helped…
H. Shane Jones (1944-2020)
DENVER, NC – Born on the side of a West Virginia mountain on a cold November day just before the end of World War II, Shane Jones spent the next 75 years overcoming obstacles. He did this through an overwhelming desire to succeed in all he did – exemplified by a loving family that eventually…
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