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Gardening Tips from Master Gardener Rev. Jim Bennett

By Valerie Sliker

Master Gardener Rev. Jim Bennett held a gardening seminar in the Wagener United Methodist Church fellowship hall on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.  Bennett is known for the gardening TV show he hosted before his ministry days and also for his work at Southern Living.  He currently tests seeds for the AAS , has a column in the Wagener Monthly newspaper and is in his 23rd year of ministry. 

Bennett opened the meeting discussing the new seeds he will be testing this Spring.  He has a hybrid watermelon in which the vines will remain small and a hearty tomato that is Cf-9 (I think) resistant which, he enthusiastically claims, "If you fertilize it right, you will have to cut it down to make a sandwich."  By the way, his watermelon tip?  Plant gourds in with your watermelon - deer won't eat gourds and will leave your melons alone.  And your cukes?  Plant them around an old discarded Christmas tree.  They'll climb the tree and the cucumbers will never lay on the ground, no yellow bellies.

It would take an entire website to share all of Bennett's tips, but I'll share a few here to get you started.  It's time to get your seeds started in your greenhouse.  Yogurt containers and cardboard egg cartons are great for this.  Pop a tiny hole in the bottom of the yogurt cups for drainage.  Tear the cardboard egg containers in half.  Mold tin foil under the bottom of the egg half and lay it on top of the solid top half to limit your drainage mess.  When it's time to plant them in the ground, you can plant egg carton and all since it will disintegrate.

Library Guide Spotlights Indian Head

Photo Credit:  Pamela Hansen
Article By Bill Bengtson, courtesy Wagener Monthly

A New York resident with SC roots has been honored for her research efforts focusing on several generations of SC history, with particular emphasis on the county's northeastern corner.

St. John's University student Pamela Griffin-Hansen, who lives on Long Island, is pursuing a master's degree in library and information science and archives, and has paid intense attention in recent months to "the place called the Indian Head," as a parcel near Perry has been known to some local residents.

The tract, which became the site of a historical marker in September, is the subject of a research tool -- known as a library guide, or "LibGuide" -- that she created and also submitted for a South Carolina Library Association poster competition.  She named it "Indian Head of Perry, South Carolina," and it won the state's top prize in the association's "student spotlight" category.

Griffin-Hansen's creation is online at bit.ly/2hmjs8u.  Plans are in place for a poster-size version of it to be placed in the Wagener Museum, the Nancy Bonnette Library (also in Wagener) and the Perry Town Hall.  "She incorporates... a lot of the important parts of the history in that poster, and she just did a magnificent job," said project supporter Al Brodie, a former mayor of Perry.

Lexington resident Dean Hunt, also a project booster, said the guide should be useful for teachers and students alike, and offers the welcome bonus of exploring Native American history, "which is just not out there."

WSHS Grads Continue Welding Programs

By Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly

Former Wagener-Salley High School (WSHS) graduates Richie Bailey, Jamie Poole and Oscar Rushton are excited about continuing the welding programs at Swansea High School (SHS), WSHS and South Aiken High School (SAHS) for the 2016/17 school year.  The three instructors intentionally collaborate to ensure their programs run closely together. They put in a lot of time together working out different processes, project based learning (PBL) curriculum and pacing guides for how the years are going to flow.  While the students don’t actually cross-participate, the instructors pace curriculum so they can turn to each other for problem solving, as well as recommendations.

Statistics show that the trade workforce is diminishing and people aren’t available to fill these jobs because they’ve been encouraged to get a college degree instead of developing a skill.  Far too many students are graduating college with too much debt and a scarcity of jobs available.  Career and Technology classes are making a come-back and proving to support the jobs that become the backbone of America. 

High school welding students are graduating with the knowledge of an entry level welder, not requiring further education to grab a job.  WSHS Welding Instructor Richie Bailey encourages his students to attend Aiken Tech for welding or industrial maintenance, free with the Life or Hope scholarship, and about 70% did last year.  However, he adds, “Kids need to understand that you can be successful with a trade.  You can make a lot of money in the service industry.  The sky is the limit.  If you have the desire and the work ethic, you can be successful without the four-year college.”

WSHS CATE Classes Support Community

WSHS Welding Classroom
By Valerie Sliker

For a small a small, rural high school, Wagener-Salley offers a tremendous amount of different types of classes to its students.  We especially have a great selection of CATE (Career and Technology Education) classes such as cosmetology, building and construction, JROTC and welding.  All of Aiken County schools still have the welding program, but only Wagener-Salley and South Aiken have welding class hosted inside the school perimeter.  The other schools' students travel to a career and technology center for lab work.  New this year, Ridge Spring Monetta students will also come to WSHS for lab work.

Unfortunately, the school can't place as many students as they'd like into the programs.  Sometimes students just have too many schedule conflicts, but for some of the students, the fees associated with CATE classes present a real problem, fees for consumables that are used in the classroom.  Those are costs that some of our parents cannot afford so they don't enroll their children despite having the option of a payment plan.  The school and community is calling out for business owners, faith-based organizations and other folks to make some donations that will allow more students to participate in the CATE classes. 

CE Tyler's Red & White Comes Down

By Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly

Feb. 8, 2018

The building that housed CE Tyler’s Red & White grocery, one of South Carolina’s first and last Red & White stores, is in the process of being repurposed.  Closed in the Summer of 2001, the store located next to Blizzard’s Funeral Home on Main Street, has remained empty and under the ownership of Charlie Tyler and LeMyra (Tyler) Young for fifteen years. 

“We never felt good about selling the store until now,” Charlie Tyler, son of the building’s proprietor, told me recently as he and his wife Ann talked with me in their home in the room that formerly was a covered porch where his grandmother would sit and collect greetings from Wagener residents as they did their weekly grocery shopping across the yard.

“The store was like our living room and this house was like our living room; didn’t matter, you were home either place.”  Charlie’s grandparents spent much of their time on the sun porch.  They could sit and watch the people come and go and wave to the people who were calling out, “Hey Ms. Myra!”

“We live so close to the building and we will have to live closely with whatever goes on over there,” Tyler explained.  After fifteen years standing empty, the sixty-year-old building that housed a ninety-seven-year-old store has been sold to its neighbor, Blizzard’s Funeral Home.  “Wilson’s (Blizzard) daddy was in the store every day.  He would either sit with my mother in the office or go back in the meat department with daddy and talk.  We have a long standing relationship with the Blizzards.  We’re like family.  When Wilson called about purchasing the building, I didn’t have to hesitate.  I feel like this is a perfect thing to happen to this piece of property.  It’s been a blessing and an answer to prayer.”

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