"... the lady at the ABC store recognized me..."

Chapel Hill’s going to take some getting used to.

I’ve been scoping the place out in preparation for starting law school in the fall, and I don’t like some of what I see.

First of all, I don’t know where I’ll shoot my flintlock. As classes ramp up I may not have too much time for marksmanship and some of my other hobbies anyway, but if I did want to go shooting the best I’ve been able to reconnoiter online are expensive clubs and little indoor ranges that wouldn’t like my big blackpowder rifle.

I’ve gotten spoiled living here in Cleveland County with a free, usually empty, rifle range only 20 minutes away.

And I’ve gotten spoiled by Royster Memorial Golf Course here in Shelby. For under $200 I joined as a member and have been able to play to my heart’s content for the past year. That’s really cheap for golf and has given me an affordable education in the sport.

I’m not sure I’ll find that sort of deal around Chapel Hill. Truth be known, this area has spoiled me with everything from trout fishing to ultralight flying to boating… even though I’m going to keep doing these things and writing columns about them, I’ll miss doing them in Cleveland County.

And I’ve enjoyed all the people I’ve gotten to know and things I’ve gotten to do with The Star. Driving my trusty Camry from Pennsylvania to Louisiana, flying in a B-17, getting to know a community….

I’m amazed at how many folks in the community have gotten to know me through my work at
The Star. Folks say hello to me on the golf course, at the laundromat, around town and everywhere else. Even the lady at the ABC store recognized me (I was buying a birthday present for someone else, honest).

Lots of folks have wished me well as I leave, passing along kind comments and sharing good fellowship. I’ve got an unbelievably nice letter from a reader in Boiling Springs that I’ve spent the past week trying to figure out a worthy response to. The people and the community have been far too good to me during my time at The Star.

And even just working at a paper, always at the center of the news, is an experience.

When a reporter at The Star makes out an assignment for a photographer, the writer prints out a sheet of paper with the basics of the shoot so we’ll know what to get a picture of.

These sheets of paper wind up in pockets, camera bags, cabinets and everywhere else.

I’m going through my apartment, getting ready to move to Wake Forest for the summer and then to Chapel Hill in the fall. I’ve given some things away, recycled others and been generally working to cull down the pile of what we’ll have to move. I’ve been finding the assignment sheets for two years of photo shoots.

And I can remember every single one of them.