Back to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

My wife, Marilyn, got a call from her sister a few weeks ago, asking us to join her and her husband for a long Labor Day weekend in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. While we looked forward to spending time with them, it wouldn’t have been one of the places we would have chosen to go.
When we lived in western South Carolina, and later when we moved to the Cincinnati area, neighboring Gatlinburg was one of the places people went to on holidays. Marilyn labeled it a “tourist trap,” and I can’t say I found a lot there to recommend it. For the twenty-five years we have lived in eastern North Carolina, we haven’t been back.
The first pleasant surprise was the length of the trip. The map services said about seven hours, and we made it easily in that length of time. Most of it is on I-40, and without any slowdowns or backups, it was a pleasant drive.
I can’t say that Gatlinburg has changed a lot, at least in the type of stores that are there. What has changed, and I would say in a really good way, is nearby Pigeon Forge.
There was not a lot to Pigeon Forge thirty years ago. Except for the charm of the hotels on the Pigeon River in Gatlinburg, for my money, Pigeon Forge has a lot more going for it.
With new land for development in Pigeon Forge, unlike Gatlinburg, what has really taken off has been live entertainment. There are literally dozens of showplaces. Many are country music shows, but there were also several playhouses, magic shows, a mystery dinner theatre, and even a Broadway style production on the life of Christ. Dick Clark has opened an American Bandstand themed show this year with headliners of old performing. Chubby Checker was there this past weekend.
If you like big country breakfasts, there are plenty of places to enjoy one in Pigeon Forge, particularly pancakes. Our host and hostess particularly like Cracker Barrel, so two mornings we ate there. There’s even a breakfast show at one of the theatres.
I’ve never been accused of being a big fan of going shopping, but if your ladies want to get in some shopping, Pigeon Forge has plenty to offer. I think there are no less than five outlet malls, plus lots of individual stores along the main drag through the area.
It looked as if rates went up some over the holiday, but when we got there Wednesday, there were some $30 rooms in Pigeon Forge. Again, Pigeon Forge isn’t as scenic, but with a great number of motels being built there, there is a lot of pressure to keep room rates down.
The in-laws were celebrating their anniversary, and they had been given a three-bedroom cabin in the mountains between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge by their children for the week. The kids had also given them a night out at one of the nice restaurants. Some of the choices about where to go had already been made.
They had been up there many times in recent years, and had been to some of the shows and they weren’t interested in going back on this trip, so we did not go, though I would have liked to.
I had mentioned to a friend a couple of weeks ago we were going to the area, and she said she and her husband enjoyed the Old Mill Restaurant in Pigeon Forge. As the in-laws had been there and also enjoyed it, that was one of our choices. As recommended, we went early, and on a weeknight, as the in-laws had recalled waiting two hours to eat. We can heartily recommend the pot roast and the shrimp, and with family style fixings and huge portions, plus dessert included in the $20/head price, you won’t leave hungry. I couldn’t finish the leftovers at lunch the next day.
If you want dinner without a show, there are plenty of other places, many very nice, some modest, and many chain restaurants.
We had been to Cade’s Cove thirty years ago, and enjoyed that glimpse into the Appalachian past, and we returned. We stopped at one of the old churches in this part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but mostly went to enjoy the natural beauty of the area and to look for wildlife. We weren’t disappointed as we saw a number of deer and caught a glimpse of a mama black bear and her cub.
It’s still a healthy drive from here, but if you have a few days, you might want to consider what Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge have to offer for your next holiday.

Tats, piercings and more, oh my!

I heard a fellow relate the other day that when he noticed that his wife had decided, unbeknownst to him, to add a piercing in the top of her ear, he offered to get a couple of dogs to stay under the house. “If we’re going to be like trailer trash, let’s do it big time.”
I felt his reaction was a bit extreme. I don’t find those extra ear piercings to be that disturbing. As he’s maybe ten years younger than I, I was more surprised that he wasn’t more mellow about it.
I was in a restaurant Saturday night and the fellow waiting on us had an earring. I guess you could say that he was tastefully about it.
Another related that his daughter had recently applied for a very good job near the college she is attending. She was politely told that if she was accepted, it would be on the condition that she lost the nose stud she was now wearing. Tasteful or not, some are not accepting.
I heard another man, who is rather conservative, relate how his son had had his tongue pierced. I was surprised and I asked him how he and his wife responded. He said he didn’t say too much, and pretty soon the swelling and discomfort took care of it, as he has taken it out and it has healed over.
Another conservative noted that her daughter had a belly button piercing. Rather modest, doesn’t show. I don’t think it was her mother’s choice. In fact, from her comments, I’m sure she wasn’t consulted.
I couldn’t help but notice that one of my newspaper brothers on the sideline on a recent steamy football evening had shorts on that revealed a tattoo on his leg. I guess I was a little disappointed, but I didn’t think a lot about it.
Another related his daughter had a tattoo or two somewhere on her body. He didn’t relate where. I’m not sure he knows. They apparently had discussed the topic, and he had stressed to her how it would be important to keep it in a place where it was not normally visible.
While I expect they are fairly conservative, he related that he didn’t say a lot.
I wish I could say that if I was twenty something I wouldn’t be so stupid as to get a tat or a piercing. Of course, when I was twenty something, I was pretty stupid. At least until I was 22.
I fully believe that tats and piercings are forms of protest, mild or maybe a little more radical. Most of us go through that.
I also heard recently about some “wild kids” who have turned out to be pretty decent people. Some have some prejudices about them based upon who they used to be, and they have to overcome that. If and when people get past that, they find some good things, at least sometimes.
A friend was relating how prejudiced he was about tattoos, about how his whole attitude can change about someone, and he’s voiced that to friends only to find that they have a tattoo.
I guess we need to teach our kids about how we and others react to such things, and not overreact when it hits too close to home.
Some of my best friends have tats, piercings and more!

I rather expected to get an earful on the column that I wrote last week on the school board. Frankly, I was a bit concerned that it might go too far, and uncharacteristically asked a friend to look at it. He liked it.
I haven’t gotten any negative feedback on that one, but what I did get an earful on were the two letters to the editor that we published. I think they merit comment.
No, I didn’t write them. And no, I don’t agree with them. Either one of them.
One of the prejudices that we face in the news business is we don’t publish stories we don’t like, or opinions we don’t like. Yes, the newspaper to a great extent reflects what we think is important, but I hope we are open to other views.
I am a supporter of our President. My friend, Mr. Woodring, is not.
I think Trudi Rast has done a fine job with the volleyball program at Princeton, and her winning percentage speaks volumes about her ability to attract quality players and improve them. Obviously Mrs. Williamson disagrees.
It’s easy to say we don’t deserve criticism. The truth isn’t blunted by differing opinions. And whose truth is it?

Coffeemakers new, improved?

We’ve got a new coffeemaker. Frankly I was hoping my wife would make me a cup of coffee with it this morning, but I heard the ding of the microwave, so I know I got the “old stuff.”
The “old stuff” is really some new stuff, and it’s not all that bad. Let me explain.
Marilyn and I are not really coffee connoisseurs. We do very much like our first cup in the morning, and we usually enjoy a second cup. And usually that does it for both of us.
I could easily be one of those compulsive people who drinks coffee all day long, but my nervous system won’t take it. I got my lesson on that thirty years ago.
I’m naturally a moving target, and like to get out and about most of the time, but I was promoted to a management job, complete with a secretary and a nice office. Being the thoughtful person she was, my new secretary bought me a Mr. Coffee for my promotion and new office, and being compulsive and in the office all the time, I sat around drinking coffee much of the day.
When night time came, I rolled around much of the night, unable to fall asleep. I realized that two pots of Mr. Coffee was too much of a good thing.
So for Barry, no coffee after noon. Even a lot of Cola or tea at night, and I am subject to have a hard time drifting off. Typically it’s hard to catch me awake after 10:30, and I like getting to sleep about then.
For many years we have been Maxwell House or Folger’s drinkers. We have a Mr. Coffee, but we don’t usually drink a pot of coffee, and some mornings one of us will only have one cup for whatever reason, so we make individual cups of instant in the microwave.
A year or so ago, Marilyn asked that we stay with Folger’s. I really think it has to do with the aroma when you open the jar more than anything else.
Marilyn is not a cream user. My Dad always liked cream in his coffee, so I grew up sipping his and would tend to do things like my dad did, but early on I decided I would do without most of the time. He always used half a teaspoon of sugar, and similar to him I use half a package of Sweet N Low.
I’m not one why buys a lot of drinks in convenience stores, and Starbucks is not on many corners where I hang out, so the many varieties of coffee and creamers have not been a significant temptation. Still, there have been a few times when I have grabbed a cup and have particularly tried the Irish Cream or Hazelnut creamers. I have to admit that Hazelnut has an attraction for me. I occasionally will buy Coffee Mate with Hazelnut, and I will do French Vanilla, but it’s certainly not something I obsess over.
Some convenience stores have started stocking seemingly 30 different flavors of coffee. I tried to make a cup one day, and what I ended up with was disgusting. I guess I was mixing flavored coffee with a different flavored cream. Whatever I did, I don’t want to do again. I’m afraid to try.
While on vacation, we stopped in a Starbucks, mainly to use their free Wi-Fi, which now you have to pay for. My daughters knew exactly what they wanted, and I got something which sounded safe, but all I know is it costs a whole lot more than what I am used to paying for coffee and it certainly wasn’t worth the difference. Particularly with no free Wi-Fi.
One thing we did discover, or re-discovered, on the vacation was Taster’s Choice. It had been a number of years since we had had any. My memory was that Mom, who we were staying with, used Taster’s Choice, but unbeknownst to me, she has had to give up coffee. We bought a jar of Taster’s Choice to bring with us so we wouldn’t drink up all of her coffee while we were staying with her, but she packed it up for us to take back home.
Well, lately that has been our coffee of choice. It is a bit stronger than the instant we are used to, so we don’t use as much, but Marilyn likes it. It’s our “new stuff”, so it’s not really the “old stuff.”
What she really likes however, and was a bit obsessed over, was a coffeemaker we both “discovered.” We recently went to different conventions at about the same time, and both were held at centers with a Hilton attached. I usually stay at something more akin to Motel 6 when I have to pay for a room, but the Hilton made more sense for the conventions we were attending.
Coffeemakers in the room are no big thing, even for a Motel 6, but Hiltons now have an individual cup drip coffeemaker that she particularly liked. You can make two cups at one time.
When she got back, Marilyn exhausted the Internet searching for one of those coffeemakers, or something similar. She finally settled on a Hamilton Beach Three-in One Beverage Center at Target for about $30. It makes one cup at a time, and it uses the individual coffee “pods,” filter wrapped grounds for one or two small cups. It also takes tea bags and heats water for hot cereals. It's not what she wanted, but the real thing is a Hilton exclusive by Cuisinart and not available on their “like our rooms, buy the contents here” website.
I was not 100% pleased with my first cup the other day, but I’m not sure I put the filter in the right place. She bought medium roast and French vanilla flavored pods. I’m not surprised she didn’t like the French vanilla since she has not cared for the flavored brands before. So she says she will use it when she wants a special cup. I’m not sure if we found the perfect cup or not. The jury is still out.
I’ll let you know.

The assertions of Donna White

I haven’t covered the Johnston County School Board in our paper for some time. I had heard that the partisan bickering had gotten bad. Last Tuesday I saw it first hand. It was embarrassing.
Mrs. Donna White of Clayton, who serves on the school board, naturally felt compelled to assert the case of her neighbors who were opposed to the three-tier bussing plan that had been proposed for the Clayton area schools. Moving a start and ending time of school up or back 15 minutes is clearly an inconvenience, particularly with school set to start in just a few weeks.
In this society many people believe if they don’t like something, if they will complain long enough and hard enough, it will change. Mrs. White apparently believed that she could change this. While she got the TV cameras to the school board meeting, and got a few parents there, the designated parent to speak for the group didn’t make it. That may have been an omen.
Mrs. White asserted that the school board was violating their rules to push through this change. The board’s attorney assured her they could legally do this.
Mrs. White asserted this change was being put into effect without being thought through. The administration assured her they were only doing this in response to their budget being recently cut, and if the budget had not been cut, they would not be doing this.
Mrs. White asserted that the Clayton area was being unfairly singled out. The administration responded that they felt they could successfully implement the change in the Clayton area in the short time before school started, but lacked the time to make the change in other areas of the county. They plan to make similar changes next year in other areas.
Two other board members tried to offer alternatives to implementing the plan. Larry Strickland asked the board to consider borrowing the money from their own reserves, and Butler Holt asked the board to “borrow” busses from the state. The administration answered both of those suggestions would not effectively cut their spending and give the schools a balanced budget.
The three voted against implementing the changes in Clayton, and while I disagreed with their votes, I don’t have a problem with their voicing the complaints of those parents and even voting against in protest. I have a big problem with Mr. Strickland and Mrs. White not stopping there.
Mr. Strickland, who changed his party registration some time back from Democrat to Republican, is clearly staking his territory as a Republican on this non-partisan board. He consistently defends the Republican-controlled county commissioners as his friends, and condemns the school board and the administration as the enemies of the taxpayers.
Mrs. White goes even further. To make her points, she many times attacked the administration. She said the superintendent of schools lied to her. As they responded to her accusations and points, she would ignore their points as if they were not true. Seemingly she continued to insist, don’t confuse me with facts, my mind’s made up.
There is a natural tension between the school board and the county commissioners. The schools should be pushing for everything they believe they can justify in advocating for education in the county. The county commissioners are charged with keeping the interests of the schools in balance with the other needs of the county. There will often be disagreements.
Mr. Strickland is neglecting his responsibilities to education by consistently attacking the school board and administration. His job is not to make the county commissioners’ case every time there is a controversial issue before the school board. He’s more interested in feathering his own bed than doing the best for the students and staff in Johnston County Schools.
Perhaps this is a bit idealistic, but I would hope that every school board member is proud of the administration and staff of our schools and working to make them better. That doesn’t happen when you consistently attack them. I know that there are many fine people who work in Johnston County Schools, and I believe we have significantly raised the level of excellence in education in the 25 years I have been here. I am proud of our schools.
If Mrs. White is not proud of our schools and administration, and she has substantive reasons for not feeling that way, she needs to bring charges. Anyone who has a suggestion if convinced it might improve the schools should bring it forth. If Mrs. White or anyone else has substantive proof that the superintendent of schools is a liar, or there is a school employee not representing the schools well, they should try to run them out of office. I’ll certainly back her if there is more to it than just the superintendent not agreeing with her.
If her tactics are to make false accusations and to destroy the integrity of the leaders of our schools to justify her own purposes, she ought to be ashamed.
She accused the schools of unfairly singling out her area for a punitive system of bussing. I categorically deny that, based upon what I saw and heard at the school board meeting. Still, if I had been sitting on that board with her flagrant disregard for the integrity of the school system and her irresponsible representation of those parents, I would have been tempted. I’d have a hard time listening to her in the future.
She may be staking her ground as a parent not to be tangled with, but she didn’t win any friends outside Clayton or anyone who is truly concerned about education in the county. She needs to change her ways or get out.

Thanks, Rosie

Ten years ago a rather assertive lady walked through the door of the News Leader. She was bold and confident and being astute, I put her in charge. Frankly, I didn’t have much choice, for she is a take charge kind of gal.
Rosie Colvin has run things since then in our Fremont office, and she has run things her way.
We’ve had many good people manage our Fremont office over the years. The job responsibilities have changed and no one before her was expected to do the things that Rosie has been doing. Still, nobody did it like Rosie, either.
This is a better paper today because Rosie came our way.
A few months ago, Rosie announced that she and her husband, Bob, would be traveling back to Illinois and would likely be gone for at least a month. She added that there were some other events on the horizon for them, and she wasn’t sure if or when she would be back, and I needed to find someone to fill in just in case.
I got a call from her a few weeks ago that she was back from Illinois but would be going to Georgia to see her son and grandchildren there.
In my heart, I have held out some hope that Rosie might get back and say she's ready to go back to work, but I know she and Bob have some other priorities now. I certainly am not closing that door, but I don’t want the time to pass before I say how much I appreciate all she has done for us.
From a business and professional standpoint, I could not ask for anyone to care more about doing it right. Rosie is a detail person. Just ask the stat people at Aycock and Rosewood High School, where she kept football statistics. She developed statistics for us on our newspaper rack sales and mail distribution, too.
If you came to work for Rosie at the News Leader, you were going to work. Some of the people who came in weren’t there to work, and weren’t around for very long. Even those of us who have been around longer than Rosie know that when we are over in Fremont, we do it Rosie’s way. And that was fine with us.
While there is a serious business side to Rosie, over time we have all realized that there's more to her than that.
About the time Rosie came to work for us, we had sold the Johnstonian Sun, the Selma newspaper at that time. Until we sold it, as that was the largest paper with the largest office, it was the base for our production and distribution for that paper, along with our Fremont and Princeton papers.
When we sold that paper, we moved the production to our Princeton office, and the distribution to our Fremont office, and we put Rosie in charge of that.
We had two retired gentlemen, one from Pine Level and one from Selma, who had been helping us by transporting the papers from the printer and addressing the papers. As part of the terms of our sale, they stayed with the new owners to help them with the Selma paper.
Well, as happens, the new owners had their way of doing things, and the old employees who stayed with them didn’t fit. A few months later, they asked if they could come back to work with us.
Jack and Bob continued with us for some time in Fremont, despite it being a bit of a drive, until their health situations forced them to quit. They didn’t stop being Rosie’s (and our) friends, however. She still has lunch or dinner with them from time to time.
For many of the years that Rosie ran the office, we had two reporters, John Feely and the late Greg Tobolski, both bachelors. I know they had a surrogate mom in Pikeville.
Both of them rented trailers while they were living in the area. When hurricanes came through the area, both were over in Rosie’s home.
Greg’s parents visited Rosie just a few weeks ago.
We have had retired folk help in our office, usually just for some part-time hours, who sometimes want a reason to get out for a while. One time in particular, Rosie chose to let one of those workers pick up the slack, making her own job more difficult, but Rosie felt it was the right decision to make.
In the last few years, Rosie’s grandson, Travis Milligan, and his friends would often help with processing the paper after school. Some of those kids Rosie and Bob had worked with in Little Falcons, and often they would be at Rosie and Bob’s house evenings and on weekends. They were her boys, as well.
The Cotton Museum, the Pikeville 4th Celebration, Little Falcons, Aycock Football, and the News Leader, among many others, are better because a lady from Pikeville cared about them.
Thanks, Rosie. We care about you!

Do we really need to do more?

Some time ago, I prayed one of those prayers that you probably shouldn’t pray: I wanted to do more. I wanted to be enabled to do more. I wasn’t satisfied just doing what I was already doing.
Yes, I prayed in His name. Yes, I said it was for the Kingdom of God that I wanted to do more. Well, you know what people say about prayers like that: be careful what you ask for.
I remember well maybe six months ago my pastor preaching I think on a Wednesday night and saying there were two things you don’t pray for: patience and humility. Well, to show you how dumb (you can fill in other adjectives if you want) I can be, I thought to myself I could well use a dose of each. Within a few days I had a significant lesson, a speeding ticket while on the way to a church function. It was the first speeding ticket I had gotten in fifteen years!
If the first lesson didn’t take, I got a second lesson, another speeding ticket maybe two months later. Talk about patience and humility!
One of the things I stress is efficiency. I believe one of the great strengths of our American economy is our growth in productivity. We are doing more with less. With computers, I know our newspapers are much more efficient.
Despite publishing more pages than we did four years ago, our work hours are not that much different. For example, processing photographs a few years ago was a long process where we made photo prints, turned them into dot patterns for reproduction making negatives of the prints, and we physically had to cut out photo negatives and tape them into the page negatives that the press plates were made from. Making color photographs was a much more involved and expensive process.
The physical handling time to process a single photograph a few years ago in most newspapers was probably ten minutes each, not to mention the drying times for the prints and negatives. Oh, and that doesn’t count the time to develop the film the photo is on, and the time to go through and find the prints that you use, and the time wasted on prints that looked pretty good on the negative but don’t come out when you get them off the film.
Today, I can “process” a photo in a minute. With digital cameras, there is no film processing. Everything is done in the computer with Photoshop. It goes from our computer to their computer over the internet, and on the other end, that computer spits out a printing plate. That printing plate prints a better looking paper than we were able to produce with a lot more time and trouble and money just a few years ago. Praise God!
I love my cell phone as another example. It has a calendar function, to remind me of places I need to be. I can call people while I drive down the road (I’m trying to give that up) or while I’m waiting for something else to happen. It helps me get more accomplished.
There is something else, though. My wife regularly preaches to me about it. I know that I am able to do more, I am able to get a lot accomplished. I feel good about that.
But there is a price to pay.
I went to a photo assignment recently. Other staffers went to similar photo assignments at the same time. I covered the basics, got it done, and got back to other things; I moved on to do more.
One of our other staffers, Sarah Wise, got what I saw as an outstanding photo. The others on the staff will tell you I am hard to please, so this is no faint praise.
She took more time. She was more patient. She wasn’t more concerned about moving on to something else. She did a better job on the assignment.
Eight months ago, we hired an office manager in Princeton, Lucy Brower. I told Lucy I would delegate things to her and to scream when I gave her too much. Lucy is a lot like my wife, and worries too much about things, but like Marilyn, she gets a lot accomplished. I’ve seen her on more than one occasion wring her hands, but she has yet to scream about too much. Frankly, she’s taken on more than I would have thought she could do, and she’s done what she does well. Very well.
Forgive a little fatherly pride here, but my two daughters have come to work at the paper this summer. My older daughter (I still see her as my little girl), Ashley, has stepped in to put together the two papers with scarcely a ripple. I wanted to take some of the responsibility, and thought I would need to. I was wrong. It has been seemless, and I know in her own ways, she has improved the paper.
My baby girl, Kelly (and she’s growing up into a fine young woman), wanted to help make photos this summer, and she has helped fill in for vacations in some other areas. Kelly has also taken some photos which have been outstanding. She has been more patience and perhaps been more creative in her photos than I probably would have been.
I believe in excellence. I believe we serve a most excellent master, and we are called to serve in excellence. We reflect Him when we serve in excellence.
As Jim Collins says in “Good to Great,” good is the enemy of great. Settling for good keeps us from greatness.
I recently preached on Martha and Mary. As I told the congregation of that little church, I needed the lesson probably more than they did, and I keep learning.
Like Martha I want to do more, thinking that makes me worthy. Unlike Mary, I can lose focus on the important things, the priorities.
Do you really want to do more?

Ready for some football?

I got in the car to ride around yesterday. I wasn’t going too far, probably not far enough for the air conditioner to really get it cooled down anyway, so I just put the windows down and enjoyed the Carolina Summer. It’s that time of the year.
When I pick up the N&O sports section, articles are starting to pepper the paper on the upcoming college sports seasons. I saw Carolina’s ad hawking football tickets over the weekend.
The Panthers are in training camp. An article in one of the weekend papers spoke with excitement about the improvement in my beloved Cowboys’ defense. Even without Bill Parcells, there’s excitement in Big D.
I met a couple from Texas Friday night. Understand that Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemmens are from Texas, and Kevin Durant played for the University of Texas and went number two in the NBA draft. They really do play other sports there, but they confirmed still for most of us from Texas will say there are only two sports there: football and spring football. Maybe they are a little fanatical, but it’s not that different in North Carolina.
I interviewed a football coach Monday, and while we were talking his cell phone went off. It played the Notre Dame Fight Song as the ring tone. I think Coach Williamson is ready.
Monday morning cheerleaders were beginning practice. They’re getting ready to turn heads and stir the spirit on Friday nights. They’re eager for the season to get underway.
Monday night football players across the state were putting on some tattered practice jerseys salvaged from seasons past; beginning the work on the blocking formations and running the passing routes. They’re full of energy and optimism.
My daughter was making photos of the young guys on the first night of football practice. She was impressed with how many were eager to get their photos in the newspaper. They’re proud to say they are out there.
There is something different about football. No offense, but there are reasons that they build stadiums for football. There is something very masculine about the sport. It takes a lot of hard work and determination by a lot of young men to put a football team out on the field.
Most schools are blessed with some fine athletes, but to get twenty-two young men out there executing the game plan, putting in the extra effort to win the battle in the trenches takes something extra. Sometimes you are not going to be the biggest and the strongest. It can very much be a battle of wills.
And they put on helmets. Their hats are distinctive. It carries the school logo. It’s a sign of school pride. You represent not only those in the hallways of your school, but the ones who went before you. There are parents, and in some cases grandparents, who strapped on the helmet before you. It’s the sign you are a football player, ready to go out onto the field and do battle.
And right now they are all winners.
The victories are hollow if they are not won on the field of battle. Yes, there is some consolation in playing a good team well, even if you don’t claim the “W”, but there is no substitute.
I watched some fathers watching their sons from a distance.
To be sure, once they start playing for real, teams will have to lose, but right now, it is great to see the energy, the enthusiasm, and the optimism.
Are you ready for some football? I am!

Governor Easley signed the new state budget Tuesday. Like the Republicans, I am disappointed that the proposed bond issue for classrooms was not included, though I am hopeful that will be re-addressed soon.
I am sure most of you have seen the commercials the state’s realtors have spent big bucks on to dissuade the legislature from passing a land transfer tax. I join the governor in applauding the legislature for the passage of the land transfer tax.
As I have heard the issue discussed, I don’t feel there is a fairer way to help deal with the burden growth puts on county commissioners.
I don’t blame the realtors for protesting. If the legislature was proposing a tax on newspapers, I’d probably be screaming like a pig, too.
I think there is wisdom in giving counties the option of imposing additional sales tax. I’m not big on more taxes, and more sales tax, but that is one of the fairer ways to impose taxes, and certainly slower growth counties could better use a sales tax increase than a transfer tax.