Monthly Archives: November 2012
Nutcracker coming back to Brooks Center
The Foothills Conservatory for the Performing Arts will present The Nutcracker in its entirety Saturday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3 p.m. at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Clemson University. Perhaps the most popular of all ballets, The Nutcracker offers a memorable family tradition for celebrating the holidays. Advance tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students/children. Tickets may be purchased by visiting The Brooks Center Box Office or by calling (864) 656-RSVP (7787), Monday through Friday, 1-5 pm. Tickets are also available online at www.clemson.edu/Brooks. Subject to availability, tickets will be sold on the day of the show at $17 for adults and $12 for students/children.
Inmates captured following escape
PICKENS — Two inmates who escaped from the Pickens County Detention Center last week are back in custody.
According to a release from the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, Jonathan Dean Moody and Rickylee Smith slipped out a door that had been compromised at the LEC around 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 20.
Moody was apprehended around noon the following day in a wooded area just north of Highway 178, less than a mile from the detention center.
School board votes to name new Easley school after Brice
By Nicole Daughhetee
Staff Reporter
EASLEY — J.C. Brice Middle School will be the name of the second middle school in Easley, following a 4-2 vote at Monday night’s SDPC Board Meeting. The name J.C. Brice was chosen from a pool of the top three, which also included Clearview Middle and Pendleton Street Middle.
District spokesman John Eby facilitated the Easley Middle School Naming Committee, which began on September 19.
Eby said that the naming process began with a public notice that the district was seeking input for the naming of the new school. Advertisements ran in local newspapers, and submission forms were sent home with students. Name submission forms noted that the board generally prefers to name a school for a geographic location, similar to Chastain Road Elementary, as opposed to being named for a person.
Blue Ridge Electric Co-op honored with philanthropy award
PENDLETON — Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative was recently named the 2012 recipient of the Tri-County Technical College Foundation’s Philanthropist of the Year award.
This is the Foundation’s highest and most prestigious honor reserved for individuals, foundations, companies, trusts, organizations, or other entities that have made a significant financial contribution, either cash or non-cash, to the Foundation to support the work of the College.
Alan Blackmon, manager of engineering at Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, Inc., in Pickens and a member of Tri-County’s Foundation Board, accepted the award, along with Manager of Operations Sam McMillan and Manager of Finance David Collins.
Gettys building plan goes back to committee
By Nicole Daughhetee
Staff Reporter
EASLEY — Gettys Middle School and the School District of Pickens County’s building plan were the focus of much discussion among board members during Monday night’s scheduled board meeting.
Jennifer Graham, the parent of current and future Gettys students, addressed board members and requested that they review the plan previously voted on because she doesn’t believe that the plan meets the needs for the school or its students.
According to Graham, the plan does not adequately address safety measures or changes to the outside of the building or the roof, and if it is not reassessed, Graham fears that the two middle schools in Easley will be divided into the “the schools of have and have nots.”
Easley celebrates Christmas
EASLEY — The city of Easley has already started its holiday celebrations, and the festivities will only continue to ramp up this weekend.
It began on Nov. 24 with Small Business Saturday.
On that day, the Easley Downtown Business Association revealed the first installment of the collectible Downtown Easley Christmas ornament. The ornament is the first in a series of ornaments that will be offered annually and can be purchased for $10 from participating merchants.
Parades, holiday festivities set around county
By Niclole Daughhetee
Staff Report
COUNTY — December is just around the corner, and local municipalities throughout Pickens County will usher in the Christmas season with family-friendly annual parades and events.
Easley will host its Grand Illumination and Downtown Merchants Open House Christmas celebration this Friday, Nov. 30. Horse-drawn carriage rides (starting at the park at Pendleton Street) and live entertainment festivities begin at 5:30 p.m., and the tree-lighting ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. in front of city hall.
Saturday, Dec. 1, the Easley Christmas Parade, themed “Home for the Holidays” begins at 10 a.m. and will trace a new parade route. With the closing of the Easley High School on Pendleton Street, a new parade route has been designed.
The parade floats and lineup will start in the parking lot behind Alice Mills’ corporate office and Easley First Baptist Church. From this starting point, the parade will go up Bradley Avenue to Main Street, turning left on Main all the way through town to a left on South 1st Street, and then West on 1st Avenue, ending on Pendleton Street.
It was just an ordinary day
On The Way
By Olivia Fowler
I was sitting in my desk in math class on November 22, 1963.
Mrs. Memory had just gone to the board. We were working our way through the solutions to our homework assignment.
Someone tapped on the door. Mrs. Memory walked to the door and opened it, and Mr. Parker, our principal, was there. He was holding a small television set.
They spoke in low voices, and I saw Mrs. Memory’s face. She was shocked by something. Mr. Parker walked into the classroom and set the television on the projector stand, and plugged it in.
Spread the joy of Christmas
LIFE AS I KNOW IT
By Nicole Daughhetee
I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I was certainly born with a taste for silver.
Truly I am the epitome of having a proclivity for drinking champagne but a budget that can afford PBR beer on a good day.
I’m not having a one-woman pity party here, nor am I suggesting that I am unable to meet the basic needs of my children or myself.
What I am saying is that the present state of my financial affairs has me in a bit of a funk, and I am kicking myself in the behind for not being more fiscally responsible in the not too distant past.
Albeit alluring with the sweet promises you can have whatever you want right now and worry about paying for it later, credit cards have afforded so many of us the opportunity to live well beyond our means.
Cash for change
ALL ABOUT BEN
by Ben Robinson
Being unemployed is never any fun. Since I’ve “misplaced” (i.e. “lost”) the charge card that the State puts my unemployment benefits on, I’ve had to scramble for funds as I try to straighten out the situation.
My nephew was driving my car last year and wrecked it. So now my insurance is roughly half the cost of the car every six months. I’ve promised that my nephew won’t be driving my car anymore, but the insurance company wants proof, perhaps his head on a platter.
That seems a bit extreme. Besides, I couldn’t pin them down on exactly how much that would lower my insurance payment.
So the first payment on my policy was due last week, and — being without a job and missing my unemployment checks for a while — I had to be a little creative. In my car, I keep a little drawer full of change that I receive back from drive-thrus. The theory is that the next time I go through a drive-thru, I will have enough change to avoid breaking a dollar. Of course, I generally forget about the change, it builds up, and eventually I cash it in for “real money.”
