The generations of Gwynns who lived on Gwynn’s Island were pretty self-sufficient. They farmed and depended on the sea for much of their livelihood. The only way for them to reach the mainland was by boat. The bricks forming the foundation of Hugh Gwynn’s home are still there, with the name Gwynn stamped into each brick.[cointent_lockedcontent]

When we left the island, I felt a pang, saying goodbye to these people who were our people. We drove across the water and traveled from Matthews to Urbania, a small town on the bay famous for its oysters. Matt wanted Chesapeake Bay oysters, steamed, and I, as always, was on the hunt for crab. We reached Urbania after dark but found no place with a vacancy to stay. There were just a few bed and breakfasts and one motel, but we did enjoy an amazing meal in a small restaurant downtown. Matt got his oysters, and I had shrimp and grits. It was the best shrimp and grits dish I’d eaten since the Shrimp and Grits Festival on the coast of Georgia. The little cakes of fried grits were creamy and rich inside and crispy on the outside, and the shrimp was perfectly cooked. Not to mention the sauce.

We headed back toward Gloucester after supper and stayed overnight there.

The next morning, we left early and went south, back toward Norfolk. We were headed for Cape Charles, where we lived as very small children.

The only way to get there from Norfolk is to drive through the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel. There are several sections of tunnel beneath the waters of the bay, which alternate with section of bridge. It really is an engineering marvel, covering about 28 miles of water. We knew our Daddy, who was an engineer, worked on the project many years ago. We weren’t sure we’d remember anything about Cape Charles, but once we made land we were surprised to find landscapes that felt familiar. It’s a rural peninsula with many fields of cotton, soy beans, corn and hay. There are about 3,000 people on the Cape, and they farm, fish and work at the concrete plant or the aquifer, which cultivates seed oysters for distribution.

I remember that our house was near Cherrystone Creek, where Mama took us crabbing. She put our tennis shoes on us before we waded out into the water, as the creek bed was covered with sharp oyster shells. I remember driving back to our house with a bushel basket full of crabs and watching Mama drop them into a huge pot of boiling water, then, when done, taking them out and dumping them onto the newspaper-covered table. We’d all sit there with our hammers and crack the shells open and pick out the meat. I remember the crab casserole she’d make and the melted, salted butter we’d dip the leg meat in.

We easily found Cherrystone Creek, which is beautiful, with old houses along the bank. It’s more than a mile wide in places. There were several flat-bottomed boats used for crabbing and stacks of crab traps in every yard. There were rushes and marsh in areas, and the sun lit the place like a picture. A print I’d framed years ago was almost a duplicate of the scene before me. That image had been stored in memory, and I was duplicating it without even knowing it.

Although we knew a railroad track was located near our old house, we still couldn’t find the house itself. We remembered it had a windmill in the backyard, but learned that all the windmills were gone as people now irrigated crops from a different water supply.

We drove into the town of Cape Charles. I didn’t remember the downtown, but did recognize the beach where Mama took us to swim. I have a blurry memory of a hot summer day on the beach circling the body of a giant sea turtle that had washed ashore. The turtle was larger than our dining room table, at least in my memory.

We both remembered riding the ferry across the bay to Norfolk when Mama bought our shoes. The ferry service no longer exists, but the ferry building and landing are still there. There’s a seafood shack in the building, and we ate lunch there.

Everything on the menu was caught in the bay surrounding us. Matt had fried oysters, and I had a crab cake that was pure lump meat, with no breading at all that I could see.

Our waitress, Becky, told us the elementary school Matt attended in first grade has finally been replaced. She taught there but left teaching as she could make double her salary waiting tables. She told us the summer tourist season helped sustain the economy all year. And then it was time to leave.

We strolled downtown and visited a couple of art galleries. Revisiting this place was a wonderful experience. It is little changed and felt familiar to us. When we left, I felt we’d come full circle. Although we didn’t find out everything we wanted to know, we did discover many things we didn’t know about our family. We’re hooked now and want to find out if there are family connections still alive. So that is the next part of our journey. I’ll never forget this trip with my brother, tracing the journey our ancestors took, which finally led to our very existence. Now that we know more about them, I feel as though we’ve also learned more about ourselves.

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Angry People

Dear Editor,

It never ceases to amaze me how people can get angry over minor things.

If you work with the public, you can back me up on what I’m going to say.

Someone is short-changed a nickel and they come back bellowing like a mad bull! You might as well have stuck a gun in their face and took all they had monetarily.

They get one thing wrong on their order and they take the roof off the building.

In a world where nuclear war is a real possibility, now more than ever, they’re gripped about their order! People are starving all over the world, and they get overheated because you didn’t get their order to them as fast as they thought you should.

If you have been through this — and you have if you work with the public — then here’s something for you.

When my daughter was about 6, a child said something mean to her. When she came to me crying, I calmly said, “honey, when the Good Lord created this old world, he had to make at least a few rear ends or it would have surely died of constipation. So just be thankful you’re not one.”

Think about that the next time some low-brow, hairy knuckle-dragging, sawdust-for-brains lout goes off on you.

Some people are just born with a corncob sideways where the sun doesn’t shine.

Don’t let them bother you. You are better than them.

Can I get an amen from those of you out there who have been through any of this or worse?!

Eddie Boggs

Westminster

Thanks from Rock the Fall Ball official

Dear Editor,

What a great time we had at the first Rock the Fall Ball on Friday night at Bruce Field in Pickens!

Thank you to everyone who braved the cold to see four great performances and raise money for Upstate Warrior Solutions.

Thank you to the artists who played with frozen fingers to our audience — J. Adam Broome, Matt Tucker, Benton Blount and Confederate Railroad.

So much appreciation to the City of Pickens Street and Sanitation, Landscaping, Police Department, Fire Department, Mayor David Owens, Pickens County Rescue Squad, Coca Cola of Greenville, Michael’s Restaurant, Cornerstone Christian Music, Pickens County Courier, iheart Media of Greenville, Pickens Sentinel, Studio 62, Scene on Seven and Pickens Senior Center.

Our volunteers are priceless. Thank you to every person who gave their time and hard work to help execute our event — groups from Home Depot of Easley, Pickens High School Science Club and Women of Flame and every individual volunteer. We couldn’t do our events without you!

Thank you for your service to our country, Derrick Popham, and each member of Upstate Warrior Solutions. We are proud of what you stand for and appreciate you allowing our committee to dedicate the Rock the Fall Ball to your organization.

And last, but not least, thank you to our Pickens Azalea Committee — Russ Gantt, Jeff Hogan, Glenda Stewart Lofink, Kristen Henry, Carlton Holley and Frances Wannamaker.

Susan Stansell

Pickens Azalea Festival

                                                                                      Media and Promotions

Earlier this year, the School District of Pickens County received a report from a review of the district’s accrediting agency, AdvancED. The report cited areas where the school district needed to ensure compliance.[cointent_lockedcontent]

While AdvancED stated our academics, teaching and facilities were outstanding, they noted that there were seven areas related to board governance that needed to be addressed. Those areas are follows:

• Revise or develop a policy on how agendas are set and amended

• Revise or develop a policy on how committees function

• Revise the policy on ethics and how the board deals with members who ignore the policy

• Review and revise policies on how the board functions and governs itself

• Create and implement a self-evaluation to be used by the board

• Participate in ongoing professional development

• Review all policies with the S.C. School Boards Association

Since receiving those directives, the Pickens County School Board has been working diligently to respond to each of them. Numerous policies related to how the board is managed, board ethics and board discipline have been approved and are now helping guide the board. The board also approved a new policy on how the agenda is put together and carried out for each meeting. This policy allows for more inclusion of the entire board. In addition, the board instituted a new “committee of the whole” monthly meeting that has greatly assisted in facilitating communication and better understanding of topics amongst board members and district administration. All board members participated in a Boardsman Institute, sponsored by the S.C. School Boards Association and numerous board members have participated in conferences and workshops and will continue to do so throughout the coming year. Over half of the board will become active in the National School Boards Association in the coming year, where they will learn more about trends and best practices throughout the entire nation. The board feels confident that ongoing learning and development is paramount. The board has also contracted with the S.C. School Boards Association to do a complete and comprehensive review of all policies. As policies are reviewed, recommended modifications will be presented to the board for approval.

In addition to the work that has been taking place by our board, our school district has had one of the best years on record with regard to achievement. In just one year, our district has accomplished the following:

• ACT scores, fourth highest among all S.C. school districts, scores were above national and state averages

• SAT scores, fifth highest among all S.C. school districts

• SAT scores, highest among ALL county-wide school districts

• 3 percent increase in the number of students passing AP exams (above state and national averages)

• More than 90 percent of our high school juniors earned a National Career Readiness Certificate through WorkKeys

• WorkKeys scores, eighth highest among all school districts and first among county-wide school districts

• 82 percent graduation rate, highest in school district history

• One-fifth of all district students are participating in career oriented programs through our Career and Technology Center, a new record for SDPC

Other items of note in our district:

• A long range capital needs plan was approved and implemented, thus allowing for the district to project and plan for long range expenditures, instead of knee-jerk reactions, as has been in the past

• Teacher pay rose from 48th in the state to 20th in the state due to the school board’s strong support of our teachers

• Athletic and band supplements were increased by 20 percent

• Supply budgets were funded at 100 percent for the first time in nearly a decade

• 56 of 56 leaders (100 percent) in the Pickens County school district were retained from the 2014 to the 2015 school year, a first ever in our district

• Our superintendent, Dr. Danny Merck, received a contract extension through 2019. Dr. Merck is the fiftth superintendent in our district in 10 years — a contract extension demonstrated the board’s commitment to his continued leadership and leadership consistency in our district.

While our accomplishments of the past year speak volumes to improved leadership and culture in our school system, challenges continue to be on the horizon. Some of the challenges facing the board and district this year include:

• Ongoing capital needs that continue to plague the district, as a result of many schools being neglected during the district’s building program

• How best to address schools that are consistently underperforming in our district

• How to provide the best resources for our students, while being good stewards with taxpayer funds

• A long-range facilities and programming plan for the school district

• Increased competition to hire the best teachers (the number of teachers retiring over the next five years will far outpace those who are graduating from our colleges. We have to positon ourselves to be an employer of choice, and work harder to attract the best teachers)

I feel confident that the school board’s exceptional work on addressing any concerns outlined by AdvancED will be satisfied in our upcoming review in December. I applaud our board for their work and leadership. In addition, I want to thank Dr. Merck, our senior leadership, our teachers, staff, and school administrators for the exceptional work they do each day in our schools.

Dr. Brian D. Swords is chairman of the Pickens County School Board.

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