Commentary on Current Events of Interest to Columbus, and the Surrounding Counties of NC
Doodle eyed me suspiciously, then fluffed his neck feathers before announcing the pending new day. I have no idea why I was up early; it had been a fitful night. I am usually a shamelessly snoring som...
Since Jan. 1, 58 law enforcement officers have died doing their jobs in the United States. Another 64 died on duty due to other causes, mainly COVID-19, 9/11 related cancer, and heart disease. D...
Dear Papa, There are those who find it maudlin, if not morbid, to write to someone who has died; after all, the intended recipient doesn’t have a postal service, whichever direction they took. I know ...
Tuesday, April 25, 1978, was a beautiful spring day. A new department store had opened in town, and a beauty queen cut the ribbon. It was an election year, so there were rallies, speeches and pi...
Happy Wade is my new hero. To begin with, that’s a great name. I’ve never met him, but I know folks who know him. All indications are he’s a regular type of neighbor, a good fellow who is devoted to h...
Let’s get something straight — I am not a racist, nor am I a bigot. There’s a difference, and neither have traits I tolerate. I’m not going to follow the path of so many folks and try to prove my nega...
At sunrise and sunset, every day, they face off. One always keeps the sun at his back, as fighters have done for centuries. Their voices ring through the hollow, their insults and challenges echoing t...
The box, like many, still bears the marks of time, a flood, and a half-dozen moves. Faded magic marker, remnants of an organized attempt at relocating from one home to another, gives a hint...
It’s been a year now since we allowed the politicians to take us hostage with a virus. Don’t get me wrong – I do not doubt that COVID-19 is dangerous, even deadly for some folks. I am reasonably sure ...
By Katie Compton Boyd His math grades aren’t perfect. His handwriting can be sloppy and rushed at best. He’s outgrowing pants and shoes in record time. I have to remind him to brush his teeth well and...
I finally caught Hope on a day when the thermometer in the truck read 105. She was mangy, covered in ticks, scratched up and infected. She was too hot, tired and weak to struggle when I managed to cor...
For nearly a year, it lay waiting. Half-covered by rank grass, half-shaded by the scrub oaks and desperate pines, shielded from traffic by little more than a half-hearted blackberry bramble and a ditc...
It surprises, even shocks, some people when they realize the woman in the black and white swimsuit pictures is my mother. Neither photo is objectionable, especially not by modern standards. In o...
As I write these words, my ditches are overflowing, my animals are fractious, my pants are wet from the waist down and the ankles up, my shoulder hurts, I’m not sure how to pay the bills, we have an i...
Gentlemen, fix your sons. The other night, I had stopped at a gas station to feed my ancient Tahoe, Valkyria. One pump down was one of those ridiculous, repulsive squatted trucks. It was only impressi...
I‘ve driven past it dozens if not hundreds of times through the years. The post is made from wood of a kind we don’t see anymore, cured heart longleaf pine, ten inches or so across each of its worn fl...