March memories
By Bill Shepard This is March and I have not seen the first kite sailing in the blue skies overhead! March is half over and I have not seen the first marble game in progress! Ah, if I could be a boy again! I pity the boy who has never had the experience of standing at the edge of an open field, bracing himself against the cold March wind, while holding tightly to the roll of twine in his hand. The tug on the end of the line sends a...
Living on the West End: A memory
By Bill Shepard I have heard it said many times that one picture is worth a thousand words. I don’t know if that is true or not. This I do know: The picture of the Old Post Office building on the front page of the March 4 News & Press has awakened a lot of memories in this old writer’s mind. On some of my visits to Darlington and passing by the empty building, I have thought, “What a shame that old building looks so neglected and...
LIVING ON PURPOSE: Fear and faith are choices
By Bill Holland Fear and anxiety are negative byproducts of modern life, which unfortunately attempt to influence us every day. Our jobs are often stressful, our relationships and finances, and even our children struggle with social pressures we hardly faced when we were their age. Some people turn to natural remedies, like the newly popular cannabidiol products, while others find relief in meditation, but there is even better news...
The past still lives on back roads
By Tom Poland The past lives in a rural version of an assisted living center for a parallel exists between elders and the sights along back roads. A lot of people live out their final days in homes these days. Unless you have reason to visit them, they are invisible. Like a society you never see they nonetheless are there. The sights along back roads remain out of sight too unless you drive by them. It’s like a country you’ll never...
Living on the West End (Fires of March)
Editor’s note: This is a reprint of a column Bill Shepard wrote last year. By Bill Shepard Ah, those merciless fires of March! They still burn inside the mind of this old writer, and the sounds of the March winds whistling through the treetops cause me to shiver. I remember them both all too well. By the time I had reached the tender age of 12, I had developed a dread of seeing the leaf on the calendar turn to the month of March. I...
Living on the West End: Kite season
By Bill Shepard “In like a lamb, out like a lion; and if in like a lion, out like a lamb.” I heard- that old saying when I was a boy. March is just around the corner; by the time this article reaches the newspaper, March will have arrived! This writer welcomes March with mixed feelings. Daylight Savings Time arrives early in March, but the jury is still out as to whether the continuation of that practice, begun during World War II, is...