Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, January 31, 2018, 9:04 a.m. The late Keith Jackson would have called it “a barn burner.” The neighboring rivals Clinton and Newberry played a boys’ basketball on Tuesday night on the Bulldogs’ home floor that was a triumph of determination for the Red Devils. The 53-51 victory locked the two at …
Tag: kids
Close Games Are Exciting, but the Occasional Blowout Is Fun for the Home Fans, too
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, January 27, 2018, 10:12 a.m. The Red Devils are rallying. Last night many former players and coaches converged on the local gym to watch Clinton swamp Mid-Carolina in both boys’ and girls’ basketball. It wasn’t unexpected. It was a good night to play under the watchful gaze of players from as …
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They Won’t Get This at the Super Bowl
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 26, 2018, 1:09 p.m. I strolled over to Clinton Middle School yesterday. I went to school there. It was Clinton High School then. I walked into the new gym of the old high school, which is now the new middle school. The middle school fields two basketball team, the Red …
Just a Few Little Things I Noticed
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, January 20, 2018, 11:10 a.m. Laurens Academy is up on a hill on Highway 49, out in the country a ways, between the highway’s intersections with Interstates 385 and 26. The basketball games began at 4 p.m. on Friday, with middle-school girls and boys, and varsity girls and boys, taking on …
Sometimes You Can’t Win Either
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, January 13, 2018, 11:07 a.m. Newberry, a rival of historic significance, won both the high school basketball games played at Clinton High School on Friday night, and I suppose the Bulldogs’ 71-68 victory in the boys’ game was a bit historic in that it ended a 12-game streak of Red Devil …
The Fog of Doom Descends
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 12, 2018, 10:37 a.m. I have started to confront the possibility that the world has passed me by. I am losing touch. When I write about high-school sports, it makes perfectly good sense that I don’t understand the kids. Their music. Their clothes. Their tastes. Hell, I remember when the …
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 …
The Glory of the Past and the Unremitting Legacy
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, November 4, 2017, 2:38 p.m. Since noon, I’ve been keeping tabs on Auburn-Texas A&M, Kansas State-Texas Tech, Syracuse-Florida State, Western Kentucky-Vanderbilt, Florida-Missouri, Massachusetts-Mississippi State, and several others that don’t occur to me now. That’s just on television. Via Twitter, I’ve been keeping tabs on Presbyterian-Monmouth, Chattanooga-Wofford, and Western Carolina-The Citadel. The …
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I’d Batten Down the Hatches if I Had Any
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, September 7, 2017, 12:15 p.m. A week ago, a large chunk of Texas, which itself is a large chunk, caught the largest amount of rain ever recorded on the continent. Now the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever is curving toward, eventually, here. How many “once-in-a-thousand-years storms” are going to have to …
Daddy Downhill
I haven't had time to write short stories recently. With a seventh novel on the way to publication, and an eighth in an ongoing state of repair, I've been excising episodes from the latter manuscript. It's hard to remove items that are amusing but unnecessary. It occurred to me that I could turn them into short …
Nightrider's Lament 