We are putting on a play about Manse Jolly and the time of Reconstruction in Pickens, Oconee and Anderson counties, when we were under martial law and occupied by federal troops.

One of the sets for the play is Gettysburg, or at least our interpretation of Gettysburg. We picked the area of the Devil’s Den, an area covered with large granite boulders and the site of fierce fighting and great loss of life.

Fowler is the set designer and prop builder. I paint and look up directions on how to make rock out of paper and how to make cardboard look like wood.

I found directions online which said we should first shape our boulders from chicken wire, then mix up a flour and water paste and create a rock surface out of paper mache. The step-by-step pictures online didn’t look all that hard, so we bought the wire and went to work.

Our boulders were large. One was about five feet long and three feet high. The other was slightly smaller. We got the wire shaped into what looked like a rock, then mixed up our flour paste.

We started with five pounds of flour. Before we finished the project, we’d used 15 pounds of flour.

We first used sheets of newspaper. After realizing it might take longer to cover the wire with paper than we had left to live, we switched to brown wrapping paper. We treated it like wallpaper and paste, except we coated both sides, saturating it before fitting it over the wire base.

It was one of the messiest projects ever done in the tractor shed. At least we had some assistance. All five dogs were part of the paper mache rock team. They stood beneath the sawhorses while we spread paste all over the paper.

When I started shaping the paper over the wire, they worked hard to lick all the paste off the paper.

Soon they were pretty well covered with thick splotches of flour paste. It dried on their fur and gave them a spiked look. I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

The step-by-step directions online said the whole thing should take about two hours. I sincerely hope they were making much smaller rocks, because it took us almost a week to complete our rocks. And that was just the paper mache part. Next came the painting. I must say that was a lot easier. We took a rock out of the yard to Home Depot and got the color matched, spread it on the rock, then spray painted some lighter and darker color. It looked pretty good.

Then we had to find a place to keep the rocks, because Fowler had to move the Farmall tractor back into the tractor shed. After some rearranging, we were able to get the rocks into the bay formerly occupied by the horse trailer, which is temporarily parked in the tractor yard.

The rocks are in good company out there with the fireplace for the log cabin, the picket fence for the village green, the log cabin walls and the old wooden wagon wheel that now serves as a wheel off a field cannon, lost on the way to the battle when it came off near the rocks.

All that’s left to do now is finish painting the log cabin wall to look like logs and construct the shelving for the general store set. Fowler is building that. And then we’ll be ready.

If you want to see some pretty decent-looking rocks, come to the Liberty Civic Auditorium on March 12 and 13. They’ll be on stage.

Still waiting

Dear Editor,

The campaigns have begun, and I am still waiting to hear one of the GOP candidates tell me how he’s going to close the tax loopholes that allow the rich and corporations to offshore money to evade paying taxes.

I am also waiting to hear how he’ll close the loophole that allows American companies to set up phony headquarters in other countries to evade taxes.

And how he’ll stop companies from sending our jobs overseas.

Still waiting to hear how he would replace Obamacare if they repeal it, or do they care that 20 million Americans will lose their healthcare if repealed?

So far I have heard nothing, but that is expected from those who make sure the rich and powerful are protected.

One candidate even said raising taxes on the rich was class warfare — then again, cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, education, minimum wage and the Affordable Care Act isn’t class warfare?

I guess it depends on the class that gives you the most money. So it’s the same old smoke and mirror routine to distract the voters.

Larry Allen

Easley

Politics 2016

Dear Editor,

It’s another presidential election year, and the political talk is much the same as the previous 14 I’ve seen. Might as well include the 14 off-year election cycles also. They always say the same thing — “The country’s in bad shape; Elect me and I’ll fix it.” “It’s all the other party’s fault; Vote for ours and we’ll make things better again.”

Instead, the country gets in worse shape because it’s both their faults. Liberals/Democrats and Republicans/conservatives can’t get along together any better than the Sunnis and Shias over in the Middle East. It feels like what the latter has done to those countries, the former has been doing here.

For the last eight years it’s been Republicans complaining about most everything Obama’s done. They even started with the objective of making him a one-term president. The eight years before, it was the Democrats complaining about Bush II’s Republican policies. Before then, it was back to Republicans versus Clinton. Yep, it’s both their faults.

Elect an outsider as president to change/reform Washington politics — that’s just wishful thinking. Then it’ll be established Republicans and Democrats opposing everything the outsider does. I suppose that would be the only time the two would work together. Besides, what’s one person — the president — going to do by himself against 535 senators and representatives? More government shutdowns and disruptions of people’s lives when one side or the other doesn’t get their way?

Meanwhile, down in Columbia, the legislators are again talking about fixing the roads. Somehow that’s become a three-way debate, since they want to also restructure the way the money is managed and spent along with giving back some part of the tax increase. First, one would think that after 75-plus years of road building and maintenance, they would have already figured out how to do that. Second, restructuring probably means they just want to update the politics of mismanaging tax money for roads. Third, my gasoline cost will be increasing, along with driver’s license and vehicle/road-use fees, while someone else will get the benefits of reduced taxes.

Meanwhile again, back up here in Pickens County, there are those school board trustees with their school building construction and school closing issues. An earlier group of trustees decided to build new schools and upgrade existing schools. Now a later group wants to close some of those upgraded schools to save taxpayer money. Apparently the long-range planning of the trustee system is limited to about five years. Makes me wonder what the next group of trustees will want to do — re-open the closed schools to accommodate population growth? Or will it be convert them to semi-private/public, magnet schools, where taxpayer money supports an effectively private school? That accreditation group made a mistake in giving its approval of the way the school district conducts its business. Maybe closing the political school board trustee system and finding another way would be better.

Of course there are other issues — immigration, refugees, Wall Street, rich vs. poor, terrorists, gun control and all the rest. And then there’s just plain American politics, which also threatens the nation.

Jerry Hughes

Pickens

Challenges facing teachers

Dear Editor,

It’s no secret that three local elementary schools, near and dear to the hearts of small communities, are in jeopardy of being closed. Several challenges arise from this situation: unemployment and scarce jobs for teachers, less-effective teaching environments and a much larger number of students to teach. This “solution” may be effective financially, however, students are more than just a number, and schools more than just a facility.

I attended Holly Springs Elementary. This school is the perfect environment for teachers and students — one-on-one learning, everyone is included and beautiful outdoor areas to exercise and learn. If they close Holly Springs and place these students and teachers in an over-crowded dump, teachers will not have the opportunity or blessing to get to know the students and figure out how they learn individually. This will stunt the growth of a student’s learning academically and morally, and prevent them from blossoming into a unique, confident individual.

For a teacher, it’s impossible to teach a large amount of kids that are all on different levels. Teachers can’t just make them grow up and pay attention — it was only a few years ago they were in diapers.

I teach guitar and mandolin for the Young Appalachian Musicians Program at Six Mile Elementary. Whether I have three students or 10, I have to teach a tune to them one by one. These students tell me every week about what’s going on in their lives. They are more attentive and care about what I have to say because I listen and care about them. I think this is important, and a big plus in small elementary schools. In big schools, a teacher cannot engage them in the same way, and the student will reflect a no-care and non-attentive attitude that will follow the student throughout high school. That is if they finish.

With a tight budget, teachers will have a difficult time finding local jobs. If a teacher is employed, it will be much more stressful to keep the attention of 30 young wandering minds. It will be tragic for teachers to see the absence of growth and family-like qualities in a classroom.

Danielle Yother

Pickens High School junior

Questioning Collins

Dear Editor,

House District 5 Rep. Neal Collins voted no on HR3521, which as written bans Sharia (Islamic) law and any other foreign law in South Carolina. He chose to vote against this protection for our state and citizenry.

Rep. Collins justified his no vote in part by citing his fear for future legal battles for the state. But perhaps his trip to Turkey and his interaction with Muslims there last year has shaped his current convictions.

I am disturbed that my representative chose to oppose banning this barbaric Muslim law for our state.

Fortunately, this bill did pass by the majority yes votes of strong leaders taking a stand. Our state still has elected officials who chose to approve this bill for our protection and to keep the principals of our established American way of life.

As one who originally voted for Rep. Collins, I am now regretting my support and vote. In monitoring his positions and votes, his record reveals his support for safe, politically correct issues. However, his stands on actual hard issues which require strong leadership are lacking.

Collins has announced his intention to seek re-election for a second term. All voting citizens are urged to review his record. His aspirations for a long-term career in politics should be questioned to determine if he warrants re-election for our particular local area.

Pickens House District 5 residents deserve strong leadership supporting our local values, especially in these unsettling times.

Marie Vaughan

Easley

Flawed thinking

Dear Editor,

Here are the thinking skills that reflect not only some on the Pickens County School Board but the other people cheering them on to raise taxes and close schools. The thinking goes like this — “I am going to set aside funds within the budget for the eventual replacement of roofs and air conditioners. And If I set aside too little, then I’ll just have to borrow or tax more to replace those items when they inevitably fail, or I can just close the school, kick everyone out and move them into another school that doesn’t need a roof or air conditioner just yet.”

These types of thinking skills are flawed. Obviously they didn’t set aside enough funds for the roof replacements or air conditioners because they knew they always had a backup plan to fall back on called raising taxes.

They used poor judgment and mismanaged our tax dollars … now they think they only have three choices to make up for this poor judgment. They need to borrow more or get more revenue or close schools.

They don’t want to think about the fourth option of cutting back on “wants” and saving more till you have the funds for the true needs … because that’s too hard and requires effort.

What is going on in the SDPC is too much emphasis on “convenience” and beautification. Everyone wants things that make their job easier and looks good, which costs more funds. The SDPC does not understand the difference between wants and needs — it is as simple as that. I taught the difference between wants and needs to my first graders, and they get it better than the SDPC does, As a former teacher, I know why the funds aren’t getting to the classroom, and it’s called mismanagement of funds plus wrong priorities plus too many administrative employees equals not enough money for the classroom, which equals let’s fleece the taxpayer for more funds.

More than half of my income goes toward 100 different taxes the government imposes on us — it is time to stop denying me my rights to provide for my families’ needs by over-taxation!

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens