By MONTE DUTTON Fenway Park, Boston (Pixabay photo) When Clinton High nailed down the Class 3A state baseball championship on May 23, I wrote the 5-4 victory over Hanahan was played in front of the largest crowd I’d ever seen for a high-school baseball game, at least in Clinton. This was on my mind for …
Tag: Clinton
A Quiet Man of Radio
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, January 30, 2020, 2:06 p.m. Bill Hogan had the same approach to broadcasting that I applied to scoring baseball games. I always tried to play it straight and be fair to both teams, not just the home one. Because I saw that team every night, I figured I would be slightly …
It’s the Week of the Big Ballgame
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, August 30, 2019, 12:02 p.m. Thursday evening was a matter of logistics. The Clinton High School cross country team left Wilder Stadium with the “game ball” for Friday’s rivalry at Laurens. They passed it to the Laurens harriers about halfway up U.S. 76; then they boarded the bus that had been …
At Least There Was No Big One
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, December 22, 2018, 2:10 p.m. If law enforcement used yellow flags, they would have been waving on Spartanburg Highway, Musgrove Street Extension, or South Carolina 56 North, depending on which way one wants to identify the thoroughfare. Two crashes, neither involving serious injuries, occurred within two hours of each other, about …
Run Along, Nothing to See Here: Just Random Thoughts
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, March 16, 2018, 4:15 p.m. Trial and error. Risk and reward. Deadlines and commitments. Random meetings. A few nights ago, I bumped into a man I grew up with at Dollar General. I bought some soap and a box of Raisin Bran. Even though I live in a small town, and …
Continue reading Run Along, Nothing to See Here: Just Random Thoughts
Say It Ain’t So, Hose
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, November 13, 2017, 11:12 a.m. And you know the sun's settin' fast And just like they say nothing good ever lasts Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover 'Cause your heart's bound to die Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to …
Oh, a New Novel … Jerry Lewis … a Total Eclipse … Just Another Week
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, August 20, 2017, 5:40 p.m. What a week. My new novel, Life Gets Complicated, is out, weeks ahead of expectations. The 2016 western, Cowboys Come Home, joins Lightning in a Bottle in audio production, meaning that you will soon be able to listen to those two novels while driving your car, …
Continue reading Oh, a New Novel … Jerry Lewis … a Total Eclipse … Just Another Week
The Crazy World Is Just Getting Older
It's a lovely Saturday morning, not that I have so much as cracked a door to sniff the chill wind. My confidence relies on the sunlight flickering through the blinds behind me. The outside world flickers, also, affected by the various blinds of the programming I happen to be using. I read Sarah Palin's Facebook …
One of My Daddy’s Days
This was a Daddy Day, which is not to say I am one. It is a subset of what my late father called “one of them Dutton deals.” To me, a Daddy’s Day is one in which very little gets done. My father, who died nearly 22 years ago, could waste a day as …
One of the Books I Wrote
Why did I write The Intangibles? The first motivation was that I wanted to communicate what it was really like in the South when schools were integrated. In the midst of problems we face as a society today, I wanted to provide some perspective into the times that molded the parents – and even the …
Nightrider's Lament 