Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, August 8, 2018, 11:38 a.m. It seems there’s always a hill. It might be a plateau above a practice field, with a town’s young men busily preparing to represent their school and town in battles for football supremacy, scattered a week apart throughout the fall. It might be a manmade hill, …
Tag: football
A Man Must Carry On
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, 9:49 a.m. How the mighty have fallen. Okay. I was never that mighty. And I haven’t fallen. The last time I fell was on the sideline of the Clinton High School spring football game in 2017. On Tuesday, I merely wilted. On the practice fields, a half mile …
The Charm of Sports this Spring
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, May 10, 2018, 10:40 a.m. Spring sports are winding down. Here in town, and throughout this end of Laurens County, all we have left are some girls competing in the state track meet and boys playing for the state tennis championship. Even football, for which the town is known, rises and …
Don’t Ask; I’m About to Tell
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, March 24, 2018, 4:46 p.m. Surprise, surprise. I awakened this morning to discover that a close friend’s edit of my next novel, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, had arrived via email. Last night I arrived home from a free-lance assignment to discover that my stock car racing novel, Lightning in a Bottle, …
A Mere Thirty-Two Years Ago
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, February 15, 2018, 12:54 p.m. I'm watching the Independence Bowl of December 21, 1985, on YouTube. Why, you ask? Rickey Foggie, who will be inducted next month into the Laurens County Athletic Hall of Fame, was the game's MVP. He quarterbacked Minnesota to a 20-13 victory over Clemson. I'm waiting on …
Love Among the Ruins
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 3:30 p.m. One characteristic of most ivory towers is that they are imaginary. Last night, I was on the top floor of an ornate Greenville building, nibbling away at finger foods and hobnobbing with former football players and coaches who served at the foot of the inimitable Cally …
Some Games Are Monsters; Some Are Dogs
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, December 16, 2017, 11:28 a.m. A writer has to write, and, sometimes, be trite. When he accepts an assignment, it must be completed, even if the circumstances aren’t the best. I had a rather sheepish project to complete on Friday night. Ware Shoals, a Class A school, hadn’t much of a …
Two Trains after the Last Football Game
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, November 20, 2017, 12:45 p.m. On Saturday night, something occurred that I had never seen before in my hometown. Maybe it’s because I’m not often out driving on Saturday nights. I had been at Presbyterian College all day. I brought a pot of chili to the tailgate party before PC ended …
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 …
Up with Furman
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, November 12, 2017, 10:29 a.m. It’s not often I feel the joy I felt Saturday. Waylon Jennings once sang that, down in Alabama, “they call me the man of joy.” He wasn’t singing about me. Writing breeds satisfaction, not joy. Life is a struggle as I write and write and write, …
Nightrider's Lament 