Well I survived the reunion. 

This year we wanted to go someplace, just slightly cooler than the surface of the sun.   Of course that place is Columbia, SC. 
Columbia is latin for “melt your shoes”.

Everything was ready as we arrived.

Our host, uncle Teddy was on the phone giving directions to the party.

The “northern” part of the Wilson clan was there.

There is never a shortge of entertaiment at one of our family events. 

Here we see two of our favorites combined.  Spin the cousin and mud bog.

No expense was spared.  The swimming pool was ready for those needing to cool off.

Finally we all gathered to toast the recent graduation from high school of cousin Aynor.  He was named for that small town just above Conway.  Seems thats where he was conceived.  His parents, my “distant” aunt and uncle had car touble on the way to beach and well, he was the only thng they brought back from the coast. 

Nothing beats a good family reunion moment…shared by those linked to you by DNA….and NOT by choice.   

Tomorrow is the first day of summer and with it comes my annual family reunion. 

Here’s a pic of my 2 brothers and a few cousins from lasts years get togther.

Nothing says “junkyard of damaged DNA” like the Wilson clan.

Like most folks here in the south, the summer heat and humidity seem to never end.  At last year’s beach reunion I got a quick pic of my Aunt Nouveen heading to the keg…again. 

She is the type of woman that eats Vienna sausages out of the can…and then drinks the juice. 

She has led what can only be described a “hard” life and has wrestled with her demons, sometimes winning, sometimes not. 

Her body is the roadmap of her life. 
Head on collisions as well as the occasional rear ender.

Here’s to you Aunt Nouveen, and I can’t wait to see you and this years summer fashion explosion. God, I love being me.!!

 Here we are in the middle of the year and for some folks, this is when they get their annual review. 
For the majority of us a single digit increase is getting to be the norm. 

If you earn $30,000 and get a 3% increase, you see a bump of $900 or $34.61 every two weeks.

On the other hand, if you are John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch and you get a 3% increase your pay gets bumped…$2,490,000. 

So 3% means different things for different people.

By the way, his firm has taken a beating and a number of folks have lost their jobs to “save money.”

Below are a few folks doing pretty well this year.

This past weekend was just about as good as it gets.

Saturday morning was spent riding to Clinton to be part of the “Friends of Whitten Center” rally.  Buddy and Tony moved the location from Gaffney to Clinton this year and let’s just say the availability of shade trees was a welcome addition.

Everyone made us feel welcome.  I say “us” because I was joined by Tyler and Kim, from the Rock 101 Promotion Department.  Tyler works a lot of my events and did his standard great job. Kim is brand new to Rock 101 and this was her first event.  She learns quick and earned her stripes.

During my time there I met Big Al from the “Carolina Cruiser” TV show.  Seems they have had a change in emcees and based on what I can tell, it’s an improvement.  For a brief moment Al and his camera man, Ken Griener considered my chop as “Bike of the Week.”   I think they found a better candidate before I left. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the air doing Classic Rock Z to A, play our entire library in alphabetical order, backwards.  This is just one of the many very cool things we do at Rock 101 and I love it.  Bikes and classic rock!!

Like I said, this weekend was just about as good as it gets.

  In the last few weeks WYFF-TV has started running editorials. 

These are being presented by WYFF President and General Manager Michael J. Hayes .  According to the TV4 website they “ will present periodic editorials on behalf of the station, spotlighting important issues to the communities the station serves.”  This is a great idea….that so far has left the road and careened into the ditch.

The first issue they took a stand on was voting. Yep, their controversial position was that you needed to vote in the recent primary.

The next week they went out on a limb and announced they had won an award.  Thats right, they staked out two risky areas right off the bat.

Now, I remember Norvin Duncan and Doug Smith as they took a stand, sometimes unpopular, and made the viewer think, and possibly react.  Now, we get to watch as Mr. Hayes (who I’m sure is a very nice man), walk the tight rope of political correctness telling the viewer “you should vote.”  

I suspect the pieces will get better and the opinions stronger.  In a time where the upstate is seeing growing gang activity, child predators, spiraling costs and a major election, maybe he can throw the dart and land on something with more substance than “hey ya’ll we won an award.”