Deputy Coroner Susan Moore-Cooke, huge Gamecock women’s basketball “fam,” seen waving aboard this clever float from the Richland County Coroner’s Office
(each R.I.P. headstone had a score for every post-season game including championship game with Iowa which the Gamecocks won 87-75)
Let’s go, Gamecocks!
hand in hand
we’ll march later for world peace, world hunger, equal justice, democracy —
but today we march for Coach Staleyand her Gamecocks
granddaughters Molly and Ella mesmerized by parade
Nina, ice cream! ICE CREAM!
Spurs Up!
Gamecock Brian and Ella having fun waiting for the next float
Texting with a favorite cousin Nita in Texas yesterday about my post on the Gamecock women’s basketball National Championship – she shared a memory of my daddy’s coaching days in Richards, a memory that made me smile.
I remember your Dad in his shorts when he was coaching basketball in Richards, she texted me. Now that would have been a vision, I thought and laughed to myself. My daddy was a very short man with skinny legs in those days but I guess he wore shorts to practice with his team.
So few people left who remember him, I texted Nita.
He was an amazing man. Very strong and loving, she responded.
I wish I had had him longer, I said. He was my best friend. (He died from colon cancer at the age of 51 when I was 30 years old.)
You’re lucky to have had that valuable relationship, she texted. He would be so pleased to see you now in your happy place and all the things you do and experience. You’re the Energizer Bunny. You can knock her down, but she’ll pop up again. And keep going.
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My cousin Nita has known me since I was born nearly 78 years ago in Navasota, Texas. Because she lived in the much bigger city of Rosenberg, was a few years older, was beautiful, always kind to me and my family, was my mother’s first cousin – the stars aligned to make her a goddess to me when I was growing up. Thinking of her now always makes me smile; she lives in Austin today with her husband Joey who is a huge sports fan like Pretty and me. When the Texas Longhorns women’s basketball team was eliminated in post season play, Nita and Joey became Gamecock fans.
Many of my younger friends call me Sheila Slo because it takes me longer to get around when I’m with them. But my cousin Nita sees the Energizer Bunny side of me that she’s watched for nearly eight decades. I’ve had many knock downs in my life, gut checks happen at any age – it’s the “popping up” choices we make that may define us in the end.
Our family road trips following the Texas years have been far and few between as my cousin Martin used to say, but March Madness brings the passions that are often an impetus for wild yearnings to be a part of something bigger than our living rooms. Before you could say Go Gamecocks, Carl and I were passengers in our Grannymobile being driven by Pretty to watch our Gamecock women’s basketball team play in the Sweet Sixteen in Albany, New York, a mere 853 miles from our home in West Columbia, South Carolina.
We were welcomed by North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York on our trip – but Virginia’s Blue Star Memorial Highway pet rest area was Carl’s personal favorite. Pretty and I oohed and aahed over the beautiful Shenandoah Valley in Virginia between the Blue Ridge mountains to the east and the Alleghenies to the west while Carl slept in the back seat. He missed breathtaking vistas during that 140-mile portion of the trip but didn’t seem bothered when he woke up in West Virginia.
Gamecock mascot Cocky cheers with fans at team send-off in their Albany hotel on Game Day, Baby!
Associate Head Coach Lisa Boyer and me in hotel lobby
(hm. I possibly had cocktail before this picture was taken)
Head Coach Dawn Staley leads team through hotel lobby to bus
basketball buddy Brian, me and Pretty in MVP Arena on Game Day
basketball buddy Robert with new Gamecock friends we met at game
Brian, Robert, me and Pretty thrilled as Gamecock women wins in Albany send them to 2024 Final Four!
Consider the 2023-24 South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team which at the end of the regular season + the SEC tournament + the first two games of the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball tournament + the Sweet Sixteen + the Elite Eight = the only undefeated team on the road to Cleveland, Ohio, for the Final Four. Go Gamecocks!
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We’ll be watching March Madness this weekend at home from our living room – still trying to catch our breaths from road trip – catching up with laundry, too.
(Thanks to Robert, Brian, and Pretty for photos used today.)
Penny is the newest addition to our good friend Susan’s farm in Elgin – Susan loves her Gamecock women’s basketball team almost as much as she loves Penny.
Here’s to new life in the spring, renewed hope in a future that includes another national title for Coach Staley and her Gamecock women in the NCAA tournament starting today in Columbia!
On June 30, 1966, the National Organization for Women was founded by activists who wanted to end sex discrimination. Who could argue with that lofty goal?
Oh, well. Just about everyone. Many men felt threatened in those early days by a national organization formed to remove barriers of discrimination they liked and needed. Women of color often felt excluded because they weren’t represented in the movement. Queer women felt equally left out. Voter suppression wasn’t a major talking point. Intersectional feminism, what exactly was that? Misunderstood, misconstrued, lost in translation – the challenges of the early days of the National Organization for Women.
In an effort to better explain its mission, Article II of the bylaws adopted by the NOW membership in 2020 states the following:
NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.
NOW’s 2024 Action Plan aims to “win a feminist vistory in the 2024 elections, defeat estremist attacks and restore women’s rights” through grassroots campaigns.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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