The health of Burke County residents is only as good as the health of our surrounding environment, the two halves combining to form the whole that we call our community. The Appalachian essayist and …

Retirement planning failed to contemplate a recent phenomenon known as the Boomerang Generation. Loosely defined as adult children who move out of the family home for a time and then boomerang right …

As watershed manager of the Northern Basin of the Catawba River, Grant Buckner has a lot of ground – and water – to cover. From its headwaters in the hills south of Old Fort to the dam that …

Good old Salem High School, home of the Tigers. We were considered hillbillies and hicks, living 4.2 miles out of town as the crow flies.  Yeah, we did have our share of roughnecks since we boys …

I have a love-hate relationship with yard work; which basically means I love to hate it. This is a shame, in that it’s one of the few things I’m pretty good at doing. I relate to you here, dear …

This is an American history educational moment of those who made a difference during the Revolutionary War era and how they served our country. George Clymer was born in Philadelphia on March 16, …

I am a dog lover and readily admit it. I didn’t start out that way. In fact, I was once on the cat side of the fence. I especially love to see dogs riding in cars. Dogs with their heads stuck out …

It’s summertime. The Fourth of July week. Hotdogs, hamburgers, apple pie and baseball. Not that long ago it was also the Morganton Aggies. Here’s a look back: During the Morganton City …

Three decades or so ago, back when I was editor of another newspaper in Morganton, I wrote a sweet and nostalgic column recalling how Independence Day was celebrated in Drexel on July 4, 1965. On …

As my car's transmission breathed its last, I never imagined I would still be without my car more than three weeks later!  My mom and I had just run an errand when, on our way home, my Buick …

Located on a prime point where Sterling Street and Fleming Drive connect, the Plaza Service Center (originally Plaza Gulf Service Center) opened in June, 1970; so it has been in continuous operation …

In the closet of one of the spare bedrooms in the Poteat home in Drexel is a tie rack with perhaps 25 ties hanging from it. The youngest tie on the rack is probably at least 10 years old, going back …

In all healthy marriages there are those occasional incidents when the proverbial, unseen, landmine is stepped on, all hell breaks loose, and one partner, typically the guy, finds themselves deep in …

In one of Gary Larson’s classic “The Far Side” cartoons, a student with an unusually small head raises his hand to get the teacher’s attention and asks to be excused from class. “My brain …

W e can’t call Bob Anthony a Drexel native because he was actually born over in Wilkes County and did not move with his family to Burke until he was six months old. And, we can’t call Bob Anthony …

What do deep dish apple pies, red velvet cakes with cream cheese frosting, and freshly-baked loaves of sourdough bread have to do with meeting the need for affordable housing in Burke County? Well, …

“Mr. School Bus Driver” That was the salutation on a beautiful hand-crafted card given to me on the last day of school by a student at Freedom High School. Three years ago, the pandemic ushered …

Sharley Mendoza is in many ways a living embodiment of The American Dream. Mendoza, was born in Guatemala and immigrated to North Carolina at the age of 4. A 2015 graduate of Patton High School, she …

If you’re feeling glum about the future of the world and disgusted with the state “of people these days,” I got a sure-fire cure for your blues: Sit down and talk with Morganton’s Gary …

The aroma of fish frying wafted through the morning air with a gentle breeze awakening my taste buds. Like a bloodhound, hot to the scent, I began to follow the smell to its source, but was …

It’s formally called Generative Pre-trained Transformer. Some call it Generative Artificial Intelligence.  Most of us just refer to it as AI. Call it what you might. It does not change the …

A close friend once told me I was born several hundred years – perhaps a millennia or two — too late.  I took it the way it was intended — as a compliment. To paraphrase the great Jimmy …

I first visited Burke County many years ago as a young lawyer, sent here on a legal project by the law firm I then worked with in Charlotte. As I drove north up Highway 18 to Morganton, I was struck …

I struggled writing this column. I hit it from many different angles, pulled it apart, cut and pasted, scraped it all altogether more than once. No matter how I tried, the superlatives seemed trite. …

Hardware disease, also known as traumatic reticuloperitonitis, is really not a disease at all. It is an injury to the reticulum caused by ingestion of such things as small pieces of wire, nails, …