By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I had a new experience on Friday. I listened to soccer on the radio. Serious radio. I mean Sirius. XM may have been involved, too. It was rather stirring, the USA’s 2-0 victory over Australia. I listened to it breathlessly, or maybe I was breathless because I was pulling a …
Tag: travel
Something old, something new
By MONTE DUTTON A vintage car drives past a rustic BBQ joint on Route 66 at sunset. Click here. It’s Sunday, and I’ve wrapped up the photos and story on Clinton High School’s latest baseball triumph and am presently surfing back and forth between the NASCAR all-star race and the PGA golf tournament. I’m going …
Young leads Devils, 15-1
By MONTE DUTTON Coach Peyton Spangler greets Camden Finley at third base (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. Surprising no one, Clinton (21-2, 9-1 Region 3-2A) turned Eau Claire every which way but loose on Friday evening after the Red Devils honored their seniors at their valley baseball park. The region has been utterly dominated by …
A heap of sights and sounds
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Some of the cooler things I’ve ever done: No particular order. Watching part of the Rolex 24 in Daytona Beach, Fla., at midnight from a Ferris wheel. Driving the Pacific Coast Highway in a car full of scribes when we pass a restaurant on the water. Out front, a man …
A Couple More Days Till the Turkey
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, November 28, 2019, 8:11 a.m. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. This should come as no surprise. I’m fat, and there’s food. Family. Football. I must be 4-F in the Thanksgiving draft. I’m mostly a happy guy. I love baseball, too. Hot dogs, especially the ones at Whiteford’s Drive-In, the ones with …
A Weary Saturday with Ballgames on
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, November 2, 3:50 p.m. I don’t get out much. The last time I spent a night in a motel room was in March. My road trips are to places like Piedmont (twice!), Simpsonville, and Greer, where the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency resides. A commute to Greenville after four hours’ sleep is …
Adventures with Freddy, Part 4 (Final)
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 11:33 a.m. Here is the fourth and final installment of my short story. The world is changing so damned much that it’s hard to keep up. For instance, truck stops are not as crowded. It’s fairly easy to get a shower, shave, and otherwise freshen up. I never …
Really Stupid from Time to Time
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, August 15, 2019, 11:55 a.m. I’m a volatile combination: meticulous and, yet, absentminded. I’ll go through a news release and change every “8:00 PM” to “8 p.m.,” but I’ll write “it’s” when I know damn well it’s supposed to be “its.” I have to edit myself as much as the releases. …
Adventures with Freddy, Part 3
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, August 11, 2019, 2:45 p.m. In Part Three, suspicion begins to intrude on the traveling camaraderie between the driverless SUV “Freddy” and the passenger “Horace.” It felt odd to become friends with a machine, but Freddy and I were getting along famously. We traveled all the way to Oregon and back, …
Adventures with Freddy, Part 1
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, July 17 2019, 1:15 p.m. I haven't written a short story in quite a while, so I decided to work on this one in installments. This fiction takes place in the not-too-distant future. The idea grew out of my increasing hatred of air travel. For twenty years, I flew in those …
Nightrider's Lament 