Robin Bruce: My formative years
Through the years, as I have written my columns, I've mentioned several times that my formative years were not spent in the great state of South Carolina.
No, it was either Texas, Georgia, the isle of Guam, then finally we crossed the Mason-Dixon for a couple years in Massachusetts.
But wherever I went, whenever I was asked where I was from, with pride I always answered, "South Carolina."
For you see, when you move around so much, there always seems to be one place you want to return to after your travels, and that place becomes your center of the universe.
No matter how far you may roam, one day, you always seem to return, and to me that was the little house my Grandparents lived in at Seven Pines. And to a little boy that was my little piece of heaven, a place called South Carolina.
But Sunday night they did it to me again. Wasn't much on, so like a lot of us, I was flipping the channels, and as I was passing by Nancy Grace, I'm sorry ya'll, I can't stand her, there at the bottom of the screen as I was hitting the channel select button, I saw the words "South Carolina."
So I stopped. I must have been the last person to hear about it, but a former SC lawmaker got caught with his pants down, well not with his pants down, but it was close. OH PLEASE NOT AGAIN!
Yep, one more time, the rest of the country has another reason to point at us and laugh. Seems like he was caught with a young lady in a cemetery of all places, with a bag full of ... I don't want to know. What's wrong up there in Columbia, something in the water?
What is it, they can't help themselves? It seems like in the last year our elected officials have spent more time trying to be the punch line for late night talk show hosts than they have running the state.
Which came first, our Governor, or the Congressman yelling at the President? It don't matter. I'm just gonna take 'um as I see 'um.
First the Governor. Hoss, if I had told my boss that I was taking a couple days off cause I was feeling bad, then the camera had caught me catching a fly ball at the World Series, I doubt very seriously I'd had a job to come back to.
And that just besides what he drug his wife threw. If I had went on national TV, told everybody that I was in Argentina with my mistress, the only comment Mel would have had for the TV camera's shoved in her face would have been, "Any of ya'll know how to reload this thing," as she stood over my cold carcass. So, Bubba, you came off lucky.
Then there's the guy yelling at the President. Well, if he doesn't agree with him, I don't have a problem with that. That's why we have a two party system in the country.
But where he did it, and how he did it, yeah, that wasn't right. In those hallowed halls, where the giants of the legal system that have made this country great have walked the halls, you don't just holler out like your hollering at an umpire at a ball game.
I know we've almost become immune to the way people on those so-called "news shows" keep interrupting each other, to the point where we think that it's becoming socially acceptable to be rude, but that wasn't the way I was raised.
It's like we used to say years ago, "You just skinned your ignorance."
And this ain't got a thing to do with politics, but you remember a couple a months ago when this fellow over around Conway somewhere fell in love with this horse.
The only reason I mentioned this, was the Friday after it hit the news, as I was watching Bill Maher, I watch it, and all I could think of, I hope he did hear the latest out of Carolina, but my hopes were dashed.
Because before I knew it, it was out there, and you know how comedians are, he couldn't let it go. And in his cynical comedic style he asked, "What's going on down there?" and you knew what he was talking about.
And now we've got another one caught with his girlfriend (Yeah, right). Well, at least he was outta work, literally, within a couple of hours. But the damage has been done.
But the good people of South Carolina don't deserve this, enough is enough. I know we've got some problems, I'll be the first to admit it. But this is getting embarrassing.
But if ya'll ain't man enough to pull it together, at least be man enough to tell us. And we'll try to find somebody who is!
I'M GETTING TIRED OF THIS! DO YOU HEAR ME!
Robbin Bruce is an Andrews resident. He may be reached via e-mail at robbinbruce@yahoo.com, or by letter in care of this newspaper, P.O. Box 2778, Georgetown, S.C, 29442.