When I was just an infant, sitting in my highchair, I somehow got ahold of my bowl of plum baby food and proceeded to smear its contents all over the wall. My father walked in on me, laughed, and yelled…

On October 7, 1954, I received a ‘Brownie’ box camera for my 11th birthday. I became hooked on taking pictures right then and there, long before digital cameras, I-phones, and I-photos were even dreamed of. It has been an obsession ever…

By offering free, confidential, individualized, private, successful tutoring and literacy support for students and adults in Horry County, this non-profit has been a vital resource for the community since 1976. The mission of the Horry County Literacy Council (HCLC) is…

Dating back to the 6th Century B.C., Ancient Greeks were the first to present dramatic presentations that we know today as theater. For centuries since, people have enjoyed art forms such as drama, comedy, music, dance, and other forms of…

The botanical name of the “writing seed” eludes me, but it was sown deep into the soil of my soul. Mrs. Phenow, my third-grade teacher at Johnson Elementary School, planted the seed in September 1955. It began with the dreaded…

With any significant life change comes what I like to call the cleanout phase. The cleanout mechanism is like an instinctual behavior we perform to survive the ‘new’, to adapt to our present environment, to cope with change. And this…

When I was a kid, my mom, sister, and I would meet up at my grandma’s house with my aunts and cousins and we’d all go caroling around grandma’s neighborhood. Sometimes, it was so cold I swore my nose would…

I wouldn’t say my mother is my muse; but her opinions, outsize personality, and lifestyle are an endless source of creative content. She is so larger than life, in fact, that one of my colleagues used an article I wrote…

Waccamaw High School Concert Choir has been selected to represent the state of South Carolina at the Pearl Harbor Memorial Celebration and Parade in December 2023, in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Choir is noted for their superior vocals in various state…

It’s really amazing how a scent can send you into another world and another time and place. Popcorn, for instance, can take me back a few decades to the movie, Bambi, where I begged my mom for a bag of…

No one really knows how this tradition started in my family, but somewhere in her later years, my mother began serving porcupine meatballs as Christmas Eve supper. It was your basic Campbell’s tomato soup recipe from the 1950s, or earlier.…