Following a quiet Christmas, and on the cusp of a new year, which will mark my 50th as a community journalist, I have to say 2024 was a year like few others that I have covered anywhere. A major fire and a hurricane have never happened in the same year and to the same city where I have been a journalist, to the best of my recollection.
I don’t remember a year in which a young person was seriously injured by a pack of roaming dogs, while he was waiting for the school bus, just a few blocks from the center of town and, therefore, the police station. Good thing, now we will have a dedicated, city officer to take care of stray dogs .. oh ... wait ...
That hasn’t happened yet. At least, a hiring has not been announced.
Then, as other things happen, it fades from memory. We have such short attention spans these days.
I can’t remember covering back to back years when the primary sports program in the city where I was a journalist winning state championships. This year, it was Clinton High football and in 2023 it was Clinton High baseball. Re-alignment might have helped Red Devil football along in its quest this season - we didn’t have the barriers of Daniel or Dillon in Class AA - but it also led to some misinformation. No, Clinton did not “move down” in classification because the high school and, subsequently, the town lost populations. Re-alignment was driven by the fact that other areas of South Carolina have grown faster - not uncommon in a state where the population has gone from 3 Million to 5 Million in what historians would call “the blink of an eye”. Whitmire fans can remember when they used to play Indian Land - the high school (IL, I’m talking about), in the southern shadow of Charlotte, now is a 5A monster. Much of what we used to consider rural South Carolina is rural no more.
Also, before this past year, I had never covered an NCAA National Championship Tournament. The Presbyterian College women’s basketball team took care of that deficiency in my resume. Their totally unexpected win in the Big South Tournament meant they got the automatic bid to try to gain entry - it’s bascially a “play-in” game - into The Big Dance. I sat with John Clayton of our sister paper, The Laurens Advertiser, in the belly of the Colonial Life Arena waiting for that game to start; then, took a seat on press row - where no photo-taking was allow.
Heck with this, I decided. I took a baseline spot - in front of the Dreher High School band which served as the PC pep band - and photographed the action from there. Then there were pre-game and post-game news conferences to wade through, for that game and PC’s subsequent loss to the National Champion Lady Gamecocks, and some on-campus coming home from the tournament and leaving for the tournament and coming home again from the tournament activities to cover. It was great time, and something for PC Athletics to always cherish.
Again, life moves on. PC’s women have a new coach and new challenges to overcome.
I’m not sure I’ve seen a time when “my city’s” police chief took another job and his replacement was named by the city manager and then just days later that manager himself decided to move on. Jobs change, I understand - certainly we’ve had more than our share of PC Presidents since 2012 - but every change brings new uncertainties. It may always be true - small cities train them, big cities (or others) scoop them up. In any event, Clinton has many, many challenges, as visioned by the fact that a city councilwoman just this past weekend had harsh words for an Uptown business just getting back on its feet with new owners. Stay Tuned -- for 2025.
Reach Vic MacDonald at 864-833-1900.
