Ben Robinson

All About Ben

By Ben Robinson

I’m so excited. Monday was my first day working part-time for the Courier. I will be working Mondays and Tuesdays, then running my usual route on Wednesdays, and filling in when needed the rest of the week. We will work out exactly what I will be covering, but I imagine it will be like most other weekly newspapers — you cover what you need to, then worry about if anybody else is covering something later before the paper goes to press.

It’s exciting because I will be doing what I love to do. The next part in my recovery is to put ill feelings that may be lingering behind me.

I just need to concentrate on doing this new job to the best of my ability. Putting the past behind me is the sign that I can be a well-adjusted adult. The future is what I need to concentrate on.

It took a little bit of getting used to. Getting up early Monday morning was an adventure. Getting ready and making sure my injured knee was not going to give me problems was another.

We haven’t written about the injured knee much yet. At home I tripped over a metal box and cut my knee badly. I should be thankful that I did not cut any muscles or tendons, or do any serious damage. But my shallow self keeps concentrating on the fact that I did injure myself.

The doctors took care of my injury well, but for a few days I had to carry a bag with me that essentially caught the blood coming out my leg. Not a good conversation starter: “Hi, I am Ben, and this is the bag I bleed into.” It doesn’t really attract females.

So when the doctors took away my “blood bag” last week, I was happy. I really did not care if I had a job. I no longer had to keep my blood, so I was ahead of the world.

So now I just keep the leg bandaged and I hope soon that too will be a thing of the past. There’s no excuse for me to not be able to cover any story, and I look forward to the challenge.

Of course part of this process involves you. A newspaper does not prosper by covering what a reporter is interested in. It needs to concentrate on what the readers want. So if you have any story ideas, no matter how silly you may think they are, please give me a call. I believe that there are no bad story ideas, just bad writers who do not think well enough to make something interesting.

So the Ben Robinson era at the Pickens County Courier has officially begun. From what I know about weekly newspapers, if it’s a success, the credit will need to go to these wonderful people I am working with. But if it’s a failure, you can blame me.

Olivia Fowler

On The Way

By Olivia Fowler

My grandparents eloped. She was a teacher and he was a farmer. They came from two political families from opposite camps, hence the elopement.

Grandmama was 26 years old, teaching in a one room school house in Allendale, N.C. She drove home every Friday afternoon in a buggy her Papa sent to pick her up in. She idolized her Papa and never considered marrying without his approval until Granddaddy appeared on the scene. Our Granddaddy was engaged to someone else before he met Grandmama. He and his fiancé had already built a new house on a portion of his farm and had selected furniture for it. Grandmother was beautiful, bright and much-courted