27 April 2013

The Return of The Piedmont Chronicles to About Covington to Madison Magazine

My goodness, it's been about a year since The Piedmont Chronicles graced the pages of About Covington to Madison magazine. It's been a long time. Too long! I'm back, and very grateful for it. 

I had made the decision to stop writing in the aforementioned publication for a variety of reasons, but I must confess - I missed it terribly. I had lofty ambitions of continuing at least a column a month on the ole webpage, but it just didn't quite happen. I'm very grateful to Treasa Waters, the new editor and publisher of About Covington to Madison, for wanting to bring me back. I look forward to many future columns! 

Below is my newest column for the upcoming Mother's Day edition, due to be released in the next few days. 

It's great to be back.

Greetings! It’s so great to be back with the readers of About Covington to Madison magazine. It’s been too long. As some of you may know, I decided to quit writing my column last year. And you know what? I sure missed it. Apparently, many of you missed it as well. It meant a lot for so many of you to tell me how much you wished I was still writing The Piedmont Chronicles in About Covington to Madison magazine. Well, it’s back. And thanks for the support! For those readers out there who aren’t familiar with my work, feel free to visit my blog (the URL is at the top of this page) and read some of my previous columns covering cities like Covington, Madison, Social Circle, Oxford, Porterdale, Monticello and others. I’ve also written about interesting people and events as well.

I’d like to take a moment to thank Treasa Waters, the new publisher and editor of About Covington to Madison. Treasa recently asked me if I’d be interested in writing for “that little book” again, and I told her I would. Like I said, I was eager to get back to it, so it really worked out. Treasa has some great ideas for this publication, and I foresee very good things for About Covington to Madison. This little book really does serve a useful and needed niche for many businesses and endeavors looking to advertise in and around the Covington and Madison areas. I’m glad to be featured in it again and look forward to writing some future columns.


I believe it’s been about a year since I last wrote a print column here. That last one was about Presley Jones and his one man war against the Yankees back in 1864 that culminated in a gun fight on the Covington Square. Speaking of the Covington Square, as I mentioned in one of my oldest columns, the Square we know now is quite different from the one of the 1880’s. By then, Covington had become somewhat of a “wild west town” and had upwards of a dozen saloons and drinking establishments. Some of these included hotels and general stores, but several were just straight-up whiskey joints where cards could be played and other types of entertainment could be found. Yep, it’s definitely a bit different nowadays.


Our city square, and particularly our courthouse, is well known to many, many people who remember it from the great TV show, “In the Heat of the Night.” One of my all-time favorite shows, it was almost exclusively filmed in Covington and features lots of great footage of our city. These days, you can still catch reruns of that great show on the Chicago station, WGN. Also, another show filmed in Covington has captured the attention of many of folks out there, especially with the younger crowd. “The Vampire Diaries,” of the CW network, has been filming in Covington for a few years now and has brought a good bit of tourism and attention to our fair city.


As an aside, since we’re on the subject of courthouses and such, I have to address one thing right quick. A few years ago, I wrote a column about the fine city of Madison, GA. In that article, I wrote the following line: “On the southeast corner of the square is where you will find the Morgan County Courthouse. As many of you know who’ve read some of my previous columns—I’m a sucker for Georgia courthouses. And folks, I must say (and with apologies to my hometown of Covington, GA), I believe that Madison has the best one in Georgia. Built in 1905 with a neoclassic architectural style, it is absolutely wonderful.” Just so you know, especially you good folks in Madison, I received a lot of heat on that one from some of the Covington crowd. But, at the time, that’s just how I felt about it. Upon further review, however, I’ve realized that it’s just really hard to rank these courthouses especially when so many of them have such different styles. But I will say this – Covington and Madison have two of the best. No doubt about it.


Well, alright. I sure enjoyed it, and it’s great to be back. Look forward to the next one. Until next time…