First print work in a while

So I have yet to update my print work from school. It was mostly photos and a few photo illustrations, but I'll have to save that for a rainy day. Right now when I'm not interning at WYFF 4, NBC's station in Greenville SC I am writing and taking pictures for the Laurens County Advertiser.

Here's a PDF screen shot of a photo spread and story I did on several cancer survivors. Talking to these beautiful strong people was an experience I won't forget.



Here's a link to the online edition.

Here are the individual pictures. Each person I talked to had a different story, a different life expectancy, but the common bond and fire.

Organic gardener puts a little green in "Blue Hose"

Local gardener to put a little green in the blue hose

by Kathleen Brown

For The Advertiser


It’s been said that gifted gardeners are blessed with a certain green appendage that enables them to grow things, while others beg and poke at a little lump in the dirt, which may or may not be photosynthesizing its last breath.

But 34-year-old Daniel Parson, a Clinton agriculturist, seems to be spreading his “green thumb” wherever he can sink a spade.

Parson’s Produce, located on the Bush River Farm in Clinton, contains one acre of various crops that he cultivates and sells to a number of Laurens County residents in a subscription-type membership.




Every Wednesday, his “subscribers” can come by the farm and pick up the vegetables, from okra to Swiss chard, that Parson has harvested that week.

“I have all kinds of stuff, diversity is my thing.” Parson said.

At least half of his members are in some way associated with Presbyterian College, due to his wife’s position as an English professor. This close relationship with the college enabled Parson to hear about a grant that the college’s environmental group, “Green Hose,” received that would apply and fund any sustainability programs. The specific program refers to the method of farming that produces large amounts of crop without causing environmental damage.


Eager to share his passion and talents, Parson asked, and was granted his own assignment under the grant that will be funded by the school for two years.

“I think it’s going to be a fun project,” Parson said

P.C. has given Parson a 7,500 sq. foot plot of land on campus to hold a student-run organic garden under his management. He plans to work closely with the students, which will include the P.C. garden club, freelance volunteers, and several freshman seminar classes.

“We chose to start this fall because everyone will be back in school,” Parson said, “and we’ll be able to harvest before they go home.”

Parson plans for students to be able to grow their own crops using his distinct organic methods, and then sell them back to the P.C. dining hall when they are harvested.

“Young people nowadays don’t get that much exposure to it (farming),” Parson said. “The actual cycle of taking food from where it’s produced and having it on the table for dinner – you don’t see that.”

Several P.C. students, like senior Hunter Barnhardt, have already put in their time at Parson’s Produce plot.

“I know that Daniel really believes in what he’s doing,” Barnhardt said. “It’s great when we can get produce from our own property, especially organically.”


Barnhardt is excited to see the growth of the P.C. plot and hopes that he can continue to help out where he is needed with the garden.

“It (the success) is really going to depend on how involved people get with the garden from the beginning,” Barnhardt said.

Parson plans to use his own method of farming that he has developed since graduating from Clemson University with a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture.


“I first got into agriculture because I wanted to grow my own food.” Parson said. “Now this is my living.”

Since Clemson, Parson has worked on several organic farms and has owned his own, most recently, a one-and-a-half acre plot in Atlanta.

Although Parson has farmed strictly organically on his plot in Clinton, due to the plot’s previous occupation, as alpaca grazing fields, he cannot legally call his produce organic.



“Right now it’s been three years since the last prohibited substance was on this land.” According to Parson, an organically prohibited item could be the hay that was used or pesticides.

“People always ask me, ‘if you’re organic how do you deal with the pests and crop fertility,’ and my answer is ‘crop rotation,’” Parson said.


Parson explained that his method of crop rotation is derived from a modern practice used in Japan involving sustainable agriculture.

"Crop rotation, deals with each plant’s specific (scientific) family,” Parson said. “For example I would never plant potatoes after tomatoes.”


Parson’s passion for agriculture goes hand in hand with his efforts to be eco-friendly.

“The organic movement is really a relationship with the environment, and food is place where I do that.” Parson said.

P.C. students will get their hands dirty in the campus plot this Saturday during the school’s Freshman Service Day, when Parson hopes he can share the passion he has for agriculture.


“Until I fall over in the field one day, this is what I’ll be doing.” Parson said with a smile.

Sweet like peaches....

The most touching story I have ever had the pleasure of working on so far.

Wonderful people and peaches warm my heart.


Coggins Retraces Old Roots and Replants Peach Orchard
By Kathleen Brown
For The Advertiser


Tommy Coggins can’t talk about peaches without smiling. While standing in his 400-tree orchard on Lisbon Road last week, he reached a tanned arm into a tree that is brimming with the sunset-colored peaches.

While he explained the type and exact differences in this species he pulled a pocketknife from his pocket and took a slice out of the very fruit of his labor.

Tommy Coggins shows off one of his sun-kissed peaches that he
grows at his orchard in Laurens.

“A peach only grows on new growth,” Coggins said, explaining that a peach tree has to be pruned every year.

Another type of “new growth” is exactly what has brought Coggins to the orchard he is standing in.

Coggins’ father, the late E.B. Coggins, was the first of the family to catch the peach fever.

“My father, he could make a peach tree look just picture perfect,” Coggins said as he looked out into his orchard. “He’d always be out here pruning them and picking at them, getting them just right.”

Tommy’s peach orchard is located on the very road where the Coggins’ family once held their farming dynasty. Not to discount the successful Coggins’ Poultry Farm, owned and operated by Tommy’s brother, 57 year-old David Coggins, but the entire family once was able to live completely off the land.

David Coggins, who owns the Coggins Poultry on Lisbon Road three driveways down from his brother's peach orchard has planted an entire field of sunflowers.
He plans to use the field for dove hunting.

Tommy Coggins’ 80 year-old mother, Carolynn Coggins, remembers the sprawling farm that boasted cotton, grain, a dairy farm, and peaches - lots of them.

During WWII Carolynn Coggins was a young woman when she met E.B. Coggins while he was stationed in her South Dakota town. The southern charm must have made an impression because after the war, the two wed and Carolynn was brought to her new home in distant, Laurens, SC.

Laurens in 1946 must have seemed a strange place to the city-dwelling bride when she first arrived.

Carolynn Coggins leans on the rail of her porch outside of her home in Laurens

“I had never been South in my life,” Carolynn said, “and I knew nothing about farming.”

The family hired help to manage the large variety of crops, but Carolynn remembers countless times when she helped with the farm, especially with the peaches.

“We had this shed around back for packing, and I’d sit in there and pack peaches all day.”

At the time the Coggins’ Peach Orchard was shipping peaches all over the state, and the peaches became their primary income.

Tommy Coggins remembered the excitement of packaging peaches even at an early age.

“When I wasn’t big as nothing…they’d (the workers) bring peaches into the shed to pack and the chickens would be running around trying to peck at them,” he said. “It was my job to keep them away.”

But in 1976, after five years of failing peach crops killed by heavy freezes, the Coggins abandoned the peach business.

“I can remember I was a junior in high school when we brought down all the trees,” David recalled.

The itch to revive the empty peach orchards caught up to Tommy and his father in 2003, and they began to fill the empty rows up again.

“I just missed having them around,” Tommy said.

Carrying the fruits of his labor

Together the father and son team cultivated the new trees and tried to get the trees ready to grow fruit. But last year, before the duo could enjoy the success of the first good crop, E.B. passed away.

This year, only a year and a half after his father’s death the peach season brought trees that were full and healthy, but the memories left in these fields can be bittersweet to Tommy Coggins.

Coggins sells his peaches to the occasional customer,
but he considers it mostly an "expensive hobby."

Today, he grows 14 different types of peaches on his orchard, and knows which variety is best for canning, which one is best for pies and which ones you can eat right off the tree. Tommy can rattle off facts about peaches all day, but he readily assures that there is a lot he doesn’t know.

Like his father told him all his life, Tommy said, “You always learn.”

Patience....

As the saying goes "patience is a virtue". A virtue that I would jump to live without, but unfortunately every day requires some amount of it. As goes waiting on deadline for some quotes and a picture.

The post below was referring to a story I did for the Laurens County Advertiser about retirees who are a part of the army of "pick-up men" for the local car dealers. Unfortunately these guys were on the go so much that I couldn't track them down for two days...two precious, life threatening days.

But in the end persistence paid off. I had already gone to the Advertiser to turn in my story with out a picture and without a single exciting graph in it. In other words the rule of thumb, as taught by Prof. Larry Timbs, "Why Should I Give A Shit" was not there.

But just as I was walking out the door the call came in that one of the road warriors was back and in Laurens. I rushed over, got the picture and got the anecdote I had been looking for the whole time.

Below is the finished story, which actually turned out okay.


Retirees Travel Road Less Traveled
by Kathleen Brown
For The Advertiser


Always on the move, the handful of men who do pick-ups of new and used cars for several of the car dealerships in town can be hard to reach, much less to persuade to keep their foot off the pedal long enough for a picture.

An “on-the-go” attitude is exactly what Bobby Cook, sales manager for Smith Chevrolet-Cadillac, looks for when hiring a driver, and it is exactly what can be found in the retirees that drive for the dealerships of Laurens County.

The drivers are given a destination, either a dealership or an auction yard where the purchased car awaits their arrival.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - Jerry Pulley, pictured, is a regular driver for Smith Cheverolet-Cadillac in Laurens. "I retired from work, and this way I get to see places I wouldn't ordinarily get to see," Pulley said. His favorite "on the job" memory happened last year while en-route to a car destination in Greensboro, N.C. At a Wendy's restaurant Pulley was reunited with a military comrade he had not seen since 1962. Unexpected people and places is just a part of the job for the pick-up drivers of Laurens.

“Normally we look for people in good health and a clean driving record.” Cook said. “These guys love to drive.”

Joe Leopard, 71, had retired from his job as supervisor at J.P. Watts Plant when he came across a job that required lots of time and a steady foot. Since working for the dealership, Leopard has clocked thousands of miles picking up cars and inspecting them before turning around with them to Laurens.

“One time we went 750 miles in one trip,” Leopard said.

Long trips are not rare, although most of their pick-ups are from North Carolina or Georgia.

Leroy Workman, 68, who drives for Firmin Ford, is used to the road trips. Formerly a tractor-trailer driver, Workman has been doing pick-ups for dealerships around the county for almost five years.

He now makes his trips “locally,” as he calls it, which means stops at Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, or any other number of Southeastern states.

Technology has made it easier for many of the drivers who now rely on their own GPS systems to get from place to place. Although some still rely on maps and an earful of directions.

Dealerships around the state all have similar pick up systems, according to Cook. The “road trip” starts with two drivers in one car provided by the dealer. The pair then makes their way to the car, and then splits up to make the trip home solo.

The goal is to pick up the vehicle and return it, quickly and safely to the dealership, but heavy traffic and unexpected problems can hinder a speedy return. Leopard recalls several times when the car he was supposed to bring back delayed the trip back.

“Sometimes when we pick up the car the tires are flat, or the battery will be dead and we’ve got to get them fixed,” Leopard said.

The thing most of the guys say they enjoy is the open road and a good driving partner.

“We get to meet different people, and riding down together (with other drivers) is good fellowship,” Leopard said.

Jerry Pulley, 69 has been driving for two years and credits the work for taking him all over the southeast as well as reuniting him with an old friend.

On a drive to Greensboro, N.C. for a pick-up, Pulley walked into a Wendy’s for a quick bite to eat before heading back to Laurens. When he walked in he thought he saw a familiar face, but he couldn’t quite remember who the man was.

The stranger turned out to be a close friend he had made in basic training. The two had not seen each other since 1962.

“Before I could place him he was walking right up to me,” Pulley said. “I would have never seen him, had I not been driving.”