Writer of Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry and Master Photographer
I’m taking a short break from history to put a plug in for my new book, It’s A Time in the Land: The Best of the Soap Box. The book is a collection of 86 of the best columns that I’ve written for The Nashville Graphic over the last nearly 25 years. I…
[Note: This originally appeared as a column several years ago in The Nashville Graphic] Maybe you remember that song that helped start the folk music scene of the late 1950s and 1960s. Maybe you remember the Darlings “scratching one off” for Andy Griffith. Or, maybe you just are into folklore. At…
August 1 marked the first official reading of the Declaration of Independence in Halifax. The Halifax Resolves was a key forerunner of the document. With that in mind, here are Declaration tidbits of interest: •Independence from Britain was officially voted on and approved by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776. The final…
It’s sadly ironic that most of us can name three cartoon characters but not the three North Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence. I like to think of myself as a historian and I’d struggle to come up with Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn. Let it be noted that…
Note: In working on a project involving my newspaper column, I found this piece about The Halifax Resoloves. This story appeared in part in The Nashville Graphic in June, 2005. It shouldn’t surprise that a document from Halifax County often gets overlooked. Many people have never heard of The Halifax Resolves, and many who have…
Lawson Andrew Scruggs was born into slavery, but rose out of that to become a doctor, pharmacist, and writer and one of the first three black licensed physicians in North Carolina. He was born to slave parents in 1857 in Bedford, Virginia. He grew up on a tenant farm and while there were few educational…
Even casual baseball fans know that George Herman “Babe” Ruth was a star baseball player for the New York Yankees, the first great home run hitter, and a legendary character. He was a star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox before that and part of a trade that was said started an 86-year curse that…
Many people are familiar with the name of World War I pilot Captain Eddie Rickenbacker — he held the record for enemy planes shot down. Far fewer people know that Greensboro’s George E. Preddy Jr. broke that record with his exploits in World War II. Preddy was born in Greensboro in 1919. He worked in…
I’ve done a little writing and job-related traveling the last couple of weeks and wanted to share how some of the things I’ve been able to see and use are accessible to the public. Some of these places offer great research possibilities and others — well are just fun things to see. I was fortunate…
I’ve seen the signs for years for the CSS Neuse when traveling on Highway 70 through Kinston. It’s one of those things my wife Kristi and I have always said “one day, we need to do that.” We finally did just before summer started, at the “new” museum for the ship and the area. It…