Category: Life in the United States
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BREWERY TRAIL – BLUE MOUNTAIN BREWERY
One of our favorite pastimes? Visiting craft breweries close to and far from home. Since we once homebrewed, we’re fascinated by what these local folks can do. Many of them began as living room brewers before expanding. When we visited Waynesboro, Virginia, this past summer, we stumbled upon one of the more unique establishments and…
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FALLING IN LOVE WITH PITTSBURGH
I fell in love twice during the summer of 2009. The first time I fell in love with the man who would become my husband. The second time I fell in love with Pittsburgh, the city he had called home for more than three decades. “You’re moving where?” family and friends asked when I announced…
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OUR URBAN OASIS
A Place of Calm in the Middle of Chaos We live on the southeast side of Tallahassee, but when we drive a mile from our home to a city park, it’s hard to believe we’re so close to an urban area with a population of 200,000. We call it Piney Z after the name of…
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NEVER IGNORE A “LITTLE OLD LADY IN TENNIS SHOES”
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social “I’m just a little old lady in tennis shoes.” So said Margaret Hames when other more glowing titles followed her name. Environmentalist, conservationist, defender of wetlands, scrubs, and hammocks, and savior of public places in Brevard County, Florida, are more accurate descriptions of this “force of nature,” her daughter, Pat Baxter,…
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LIGHTHOUSE PASSION SERIES – MORRIS ISLAND, CHARLESTON
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social On a recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina, we kept hearing about the charming town of Folly Beach a short drive south of Charleston proper. Photo: Pineapple Fountain, Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC A colorful little beach community with the second longest boardwalk on the eastern coast, the Folly Beach Pier juts…
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SMALL TOWNS ROCK – GRAFTON AND PHILIPPI, WEST VIRGINIA
Photo: On the dam trail in Tygart Lake State Park By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social We stumbled upon a unique area in West Virginia. Each year we visit family in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The three hundred miles between them takes us through West Virginia and the New River Gorge, which we’ve visited several…
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ON THE ROAD – COASTAL MAINE AND ROAD SCHOLAR
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social “Let’s go somewhere we’ve never been,” I suggested nearly a year ago to my husband. “I’ve never been to Maine,” he replied. I had been to Maine once for fifteen minutes when I’d visited Portsmouth, New Hampshire, decades ago. We drove over the border to buy live Maine lobsters than…
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DESSIE SMITH PRESCOTT – A WOMAN FOR THE AGES
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social As a freelance writer, I’ve been fortunate enough to write about some interesting events and people. In a few instances, I’ve even had the privilege of interviewing a handful of famous or infamous folks. Dessie Smith Prescott could be categorized as both famous and infamous, and the interview with her…
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THE HUMAN HEIRS OF MARJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social Last week, I wrote about the inspiration of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on my life and career. Here is the essay “Human Heirs” that I wrote for the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Essay Contest in 2001 as I left my decades-long teaching career to venture into freelance writing. The essay won first…
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A WRITER’S LIFE AND INSPIRATION
By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling and Cross Creek and many more books, remains an inspiration to me even though she died a year before I was born. Still, her journey as author and woman who left the north for the south provided a road map for me. I…
P.C. ZICK 