Introducing the Professional Wrestling Awards of the Carolinas

The Carolinas have long been heralded as the origin of greatness in the realm of professional wrestling. Men, women, and promotions now considered to be legendary in their scope of influence on the future of professional wrestling began here in this, the region we call home. It is in this tradition of greatness that the Professional Wrestling Awards of the Carolinas will carry on in celebrating the achievements of talent working in the Carolinas.

For more information about the PWACs, visit the official group page on Facebook

Founded in 2014, the electorate of the Professional Wrestling Awards of the Carolinas is made up of a rotating seven-member panel of individuals who are in some way involved in the Carolinas independent wrestling scene. Categories included in the PWACs are:

Announcer of the Year

Referee of the Year

Rising Star

Feud of the Year

Female of the Year

Tag Team of the Year

Wrestler of the Year

Nominees for the PWACs are submitted by panel members; the list of nominees is narrowed to three competitors based on the highest percentage of nominations received. Winners are selected by panelist voting on the remaining contenders in each category. Whoever receives the most votes is declared the winner of a particular category.

Membership for the first panel of the PWACs will be made up of the following individuals.

Robert “Redbeard” Truesdale

Blogger/Documentarian

Robert “Redbeard” Truesdale has followed the Carolinas’ independent professional wrestling scene as a fan for nearly 15 years. Truesdale – who was a self-described “gopher boy” in his late teens for a long defunct promotion out of Lancaster, South Carolina – is well-traveled, having attended events in all corners of the Carolinas. He documents his wrestling-related road trips on his blog, Redbeard’s Rambling, as well as Rasslin’ with Redbeard, a YouTube series dedicated to depicting the experience of being an indie wrestling fan in the region.

Harrison South Worth

Photographer/Trainer

Even though his name may not be immediately recognizable, Harrison South Worth is a man who’s been a part of the independent professional wrestling scene in southern states (not just the Carolinas) for decades. Worth, who is a financial administrator as well as an athlete, has served as a trainer, promoter, and creative consultant for a number of federations at various points in his life. If you follow many of the top promotions and wrestlers in the Carolinas on social media, you’ve likely seen his photography (Worth Wrestle Photos) appear in your timeline. Indeed, he has an eye for talent and the credibility to make his thoughts count.

Chris Moister

Referee

Experienced journeyman referees are like the bass players of professional wrestling – their presence is acknowledged but their value is rarely made a point of because their role is that of support and not of star. Perhaps better known to observant fans as Ray Boring, Chris Moister is a veteran of the United States military who has grinded his way into being recognized as the head official for several promotions. Through his work ethic and commitment to consistently performing his duties as referee at a high level, he has become “the man in charge of all the action” for companies based in Georgia, both North and South Carolina, and will soon make his way into Tennessee.

Brett Wolverton

Ring Announcer

Much like referees, quality ring announcers are individuals whose contributions to professional wrestling are either underappreciated or woefully ignored altogether. That said, the fact that Brett Wolverton can be seen almost any given weekend handling the ring announcing duties (as well as providing television commentary and in some locales even serving as commissioner of the company) at events from Charleston to Cornelia and from Charlotte to Cayce means that he’s earned his place as someone who’s capable of adding an air of respect and professionalism to any given show. While Wolverton’s capacity to trade barbs with fans and unruly, villainous mouthpieces is evident, his distinctive delivery and his effort to maintain a dapper presentation distinguish him from the rest.

“The Fabulous Playboy” Bob Keller

Professional Wrestler

If it was scientifically possible to measure the amount of energy needed to convince a person that they hate someone else, “The Fabulous Playboy” Bob Keller would be as suitable a medium as any for facilitating such a study. Walking in the footsteps of infamous wrestling personalities such as “Classy” Freddie Blassie and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Keller has the rare ability to verbally eviscerate anyone he encounters through a combination of snares and insults. Even though Keller excels in the part of a scoundrel he can play a more straight-laced role as well which is why his versatility as a performer makes him a valuable commodity for any promotion. When he isn’t riling up his competition or the fans at ringside, Keller is working behind the scenes in a number of roles to help keep an event on track. Keller’s influence on independent professional wrestling in the Carolinas will continue to be felt through the work he does as operator of the WrestleForce School of Pro Wrestling.

Abel Adams

Professional Wrestler - Retired

When the subject of respected veterans comes up in regard to talking about local independent professional wrestlers, the list of names one can legitimately speak of is short. Be that as it may, a name that is consistently and deservedly involved in those discussions is that of Abel Adams. Best known as being one-half of Team Ego with his partner Will Snap, Adams’ reputation as a locker room leader and ring general precedes him. Having had at least a hand in developing the careers of competitors such as “The Southern Savior” John Skyler, Steven Walters (Dash Wilder in World Wrestling Entertainment’s NXT division), and IMPACT Wrestling’s Gunner, Adams contribution to independent professional wrestling in the Carolinas is most evident and will continue to be on display for years to come.

Brad “Lodi” Cain

Professional Wrestler

If you were a fan of professional wrestling during the late 1990s and paid attention to World Championship Wrestling, then you more than likely encountered one or more of the in-ring personalities of Lodi. Whether it was his run as “the sign guy” in Raven’s Flock, the unforgettable pairing he had with Lenny Lane in the West Hollywood Blondes, or the follow-up thereof with Lane as Standards & Practices (the team that would introduce the world to Stacey Keibler) the man has performed in front of untold thousands of fans and been on millions of TV screens all over the world. When he’s not beating his clientele skinny as owner of the personal fitness studio Your FLEX Appeal, Lodi – a North Carolina native, graduate of East Carolina University, and former member of the United States Army Reserve – can these days be found most any weekend of the month entertaining fans with his unmistakable sense of showmanship.

For more information on the PWACs, please join the official group page on Facebook by clicking this link.

Event Report: Trans-South Wrestling presents "HARDCORE BOOGIE"

I recently had an opportunity to make a road trip to the upstate for Trans-South Wrestling's "HARDCORE BOOGIE" event. The name comes from the fact that TSW would be hosting appearances by a pair of members of the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame, those being "The Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant and "The Hardcore Legend" Mick Foley.

For more information on Trans-South Wrestling, visit them on either Facebook or Twitter via these links:

Facebook.com/TransSouthWrestling
Twitter.com/WrestlingTSW

The opening contest of the evening would be between Jaxson James and The Stro who, as you may or may not recall, was at one point in time a member of World Championship Wrestling's roster where he performed as The Maestro. Stro, as he refers to himself on social media, is also going by the name Papa. I don't know where that came from or what it is supposed to represent, but he comes to the ring with what appears to be a branding iron. Again, I don't know what it is but that's the gimmick he's going with.

This was a simple match but that's not a bad thing! Jaxson James is one of the best young talents we have in this area and one of a select few out of that group who has a look that will help him earn a living at some point in his life doing this crazy wrestling thing.



Following that was this bout between Josh Powers and Kameron Kade. Both Powers and Kade are known to have consistently strong showings; Powers in particular has gotten a reputation of being a reliable, versatile performer. I can attest to his talents as I've seen him perform at least half a dozen times in the past year and I would say that while he may not have the aesthetic of a top notch wrestler he has the tools. If ever the two meet up he'll be one to watch even more closely.

What I wasn't really sure about here is that I thought only a short while ago Kameron Kade was a villain in TSW yet he received a hero's welcome as soon as he came out of the back. I guess pro wrestling fans always have had short memories when it comes to that sort of thing.



One of the real stars of the evening came to the ring after the Powers/Kade match, that being the hardcore legend himself Mick Foley!

Foley would spend a few minutes addressing the fans in attendance, during which he made sure to put over TSW as being a quality promotion with great wrestlers. Not long into his talk, he was rudely interrupted by George South and Alex Avgerinos. South was quick to deem himself a superior author to Foley, essentially say that George's book - Dad You Don't Work, You Wrestle - is in a class above any of Mick's publications. Of course this approach to criticizing a fellow writer's work didn't wind up going so well for George...

I have to say that this was one of the most entertaining segments of the entire show. The interaction between Foley, South, and Avgerinos was fantastic and it did a great job in setting the stage for the main event of the evening.



Professional wrestling promoters, generally speaking, want to make the main event match THE match that fans go home talking about. It should be what sells the show and what ultimately makes fans want to come back for the next event. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way and a match on the under-card winds up stealing the show. That's exactly what happened at "HARDCORE BOOGIE" as Chase "Cauliflower" Brown and "The Southern Savior" John Skyler went out and had themselves a real barn burner.

Skyler and Brown are fantastic talents; Brown being the more traditional, old school style of grappler and Skyler being the modern heel. You throw in the presence of Skyler's manager, "The" Tommy Thomas, and you've got what was the match of the night in my opinion.



Everyone knows the old saying "less is more". I'm theorizing here but in my mind that statement goes along with the mechanical concept of how machinery with more moving parts are more likely to break down, hence the ideal of simplistic design being paramount. If you take that line of thought to the world of professional wrestling, the more competitors you involve the more likely it is that the end result is going to be messy, for lack of a better word.

I say all that to say this: The idea of a 4-way elimination tag team match at this level coming off well is a 50-50 prospect at best. This match wasn't bad but there's a lot going on here and not very much of it makes sense. It was an over-booked bout in my opinion; I'd have much sooner seen Chemical Z (Jett Black & TK Stark) have a rematch against Eric Adamz and Hardcore Hunter coming off TSW's last show where Adamz & Hunter brutally attacked Chemical Z in a post-match beat down.



With that, it was main event time!

We learned during Mick Foley's segment that what started off as an ordinary wrestling match would instead metamorphose into a "submit or surrender" match. "What's a submit or surrender match?", you ask. Good question because I was a little fuzzy on what it involved myself. Essentially it's a scenario where the only way to win is to either make your opponent submit or have them give up the contest in some way, shape, or form.

Alex Avgerinos has evolved into a real villain for TSW, which baffles me in a way. I still remember the days of pro wrestling's past when a good looking young man such as him would never be thought of as having an immoral cell in his body. He's a clean-cut gentleman, he wouldn't think of doing something as dastardly as throwing a ball of fire into the face of a fellow wrestler - which is exactly what he did to reigning TSW heavyweight champion Deon Johnson at the promotion's previous event!

There was a bit of heavy foreshadowing here as Deon Johnson came to the ring with Dirty, his tag team partner and one-half of the TSW tag team champions, who happened to be carrying a white towel with him. Alex Avgerinos, on the other hand, came to the ring by himself - no George South, so I assume the mandible claw Foley gave him earlier in the show was so debilitating that he couldn't accompany his charge. Wrestling is a rigorous activity but rarely do you see someone stop during a match to towel off because of excessive perspiration. The fact that Dirty had that towel meant something, clearly.

The finish of the match came off as being convoluted, I hate to say. Much like with the 4-way tag team match, there was a lot going on here at the end and if you weren't looking in the right spot you'd likely miss what happened to lead to the conclusion of the contest.



Overall this was a fun show with a good mix of talent and a variety of styles on display. There were some portions that could've been handled a little better, creatively speaking, and there were a handful of situations that didn't come off all that well, but that's nothing uncommon when it comes to indie pro wrestling so I'm not going to harp on that in these confines. The footage is here for you to make up your own minds!

Of course, it would have been out of character for me to have attended this event without filming an edition of my YouTube show, Rasslin' with Redbeard, during the show. You can view episode 11 of the program below, and if you enjoy it please keep in contact with me by either subscribing to my YouTube channel or liking the Rasslin' with Redbeard Facebook page!



TSW's next event will be Friday, December 5 in Laurens, SC where WWE and college football hall of famer Ron "Farooq" Simmons will be on hand for a meet & greet with fans.

Our Road to Building a Family - 10 Things I've Learned from "The Duke"

I will be upfront in saying that with this list I'm ripping off my wife's recent post over at her blog, The Truesdale Times, wherein she discussed 10 things she's learned from the time we've had thus far with our foster/hopefully adoptive child, who will be known in these parts until further notice simply as The Duke.

10) I don't know what we would do without family & friends

I pointed out in my previous submission to this blog series the fact that my wife & I had absolutely nothing in our home that would make it a suitable dwelling for a newborn when we got the call about The Duke being available. As a matter of fact, we had gone to great lengths to prepare our home for older children as we never anticipated we'd have the opportunity to potentially adopt a baby. Everything we were told in the training sessions we were required to sit through before we could be approved as adoptive/foster parents lead us to believe we had a better shot at finding a four leaf clover, getting struck by lightning, and winning the lottery all in the same day than of getting a baby.

That said, I don't know where we'd be if not for donations and gifts from the people we're lucky enough to have as family and friends. What most couples prepare for over the course of 9 months we did in a matter of hours, but only because we are surrounded by people who love us and who were willing to participate in The Duke's life. To anyone who helped us in any way, shape, or form, we can never say thank you enough!

9) Uninterrupted periods of sleep don't exist

I have to say that this has not been so much a learning experience for me as it has been for my wife.

Before The Duke came along I would typically get in bed around 10:30 PM, watch a little TV, and finally conk out by 11:30 or midnight. I drink a fair amount of water in the evening, and as a result I have to get up usually once or twice a night to relieve myself. (Too much information? Probably, but we're not done yet with the subject of bodily excretions in this blog entry, not by a long shot!) As such, I'm somewhat accustomed to having to put myself back to sleep every night after an interruption. The biggest difference now is that the "interruption" has to be fed, have his diaper changed, and then settled back into his own slumber before I/we go back to Dreamland.

The Duke is in a pattern of becoming needy about once every 3 to 3 and a half hours. So long as we time it right even with having to tend to him we can still get a good 6 or 7 hours of sleep per night, which is about what I was getting before.

8) Burping is not only necessary, it's encouraged

If you consider how newborns receive sustenance, you'll quickly realize why it is that they need to burp. They're on a liquid diet and they're going to wind up swallowing air. That air can be quite painful once it's trapped in their tiny bellies. Their little bodies aren't finely tuned enough to be able to bust out a burp as needed, so they need some assistance in the form of a pat on the back.

That said, The Duke burps like a grown man. He has all the power and volume behind his belches that I do, which is saying something seeing as how I've got roughly 34 more years of experience in the matter than he does. I'm sure that as he grows up he'll continue to hone these skills so that he's ready to vocalize a proper burp - because being able to throw a lighthearted jab at one of your buddies through a burp is part of what being a man is all about.

7) Baby formula is ridiculously expensive

We noticed that when The Duke was on a traditional formula after we first brought him home that it appeared to be going straight through him, meaning he wasn't getting the nutrition he needed. After talking to his doctor, we switched him to a soy-based product and he's really taken to it. He was a little over 6 pounds when he was born but I would say he's closer to 8 by this point in time.

I will admit that I had never looked at formula prices before now - all I can say about the matter is holy crap, why is this stuff so expensive?! It's just a powdered mix, how can it cost that much? Are soybeans on some kind of endangered species list? You'd think he was drinking something derived from a rare earth metal. And it's not like the stuff is packaged in a glass vial that was shaped by a master craftsman then scrubbed and polished by hand. It's a can for crying out loud!

Of course I say that even though when I was still working out regularly I used to pay $20 or more for a tub of protein powder. I guess that was different seeing as how I might take one or two doses a day versus him who's taking 7 or 8 per day.

6) Daycare is ridiculous

Up until now I had only heard stories of how daycare operations are so overcrowded that many have waiting lists and that if or when you do get approval for entrance into one the costs can be staggering. Suffice to say that we can verify both of those presumptions as being factual.

5) Baby poop is a horrific example of the sort of material our bodies can produce

I discussed formula earlier in this entry and I also mentioned how The Duke is on a soy-based formula. It still baffles me, to a degree, how a person like him can ingest what is a liquid (albeit one that is certainly loaded with vegetable fiber) and then poop what is most certainly a solid. It went in one end as a fluid but it came out the other end as this oddly chunky, not quite mustard yellow but not quite beige colored matter the odor of which is somewhere between rotting animal carcass and construction site port-a-potty.

It's a visual and smell that I wasn't necessarily prepared to have to deal with. I haven't gone so far as to invest in a HAZMAT suit but I am considering purchasing one of those inclosures with the rubber gloves in them - you know, like the type you see in monster movies where a scientist needs to examine a specimen but doesn't want to touch it for fear of contamination? I may have to run a ventilation line but that's alright.

4) When it comes to interpreting the needs of a baby, science has failed us

The Duke is a grunter. As in when he makes his presence known it's not through a coo or some kind of gentle sound, it's through a "HNNNNNGH!" or a "WUUUURGH!" When he starts to grunting you can safely bet that in short order he's going to need either a bottle or a fresh diaper.

That said, our boy isn't a particularly fussy baby however there have been times where he'll cry and we have no idea what his need in that moment actually is. Are you hungry? Here's a bottle. Wait, why are you still crying? Your diaper is full? Okay, lets change it - wait, I did what I thought you needed, why are you crying now? You don't like being naked and it's chilly in the house? Well why didn't you say that to begin with?

I'm shocked there isn't some kind of gadget out there that can accurately predict what it is that a baby like The Duke needs when he begins to sound off about a given displeasure he's experiencing. I don't know what a device like that would cost but I would be willing to at least consider buying it if it existed. It would seem to be a more worthwhile product than a lot of the other seemingly useless and/or limited baby tech that's out there.

3) Babies require roughly the same amount of gear as is needed for a military deployment

Speaking of baby tech, I am dumbfounded at the volume of gear that is available these days for parents to equip and accessorize their baby. I can only compare it to the cellular phone industry in that there exists this insane, fanatical culture centered around outfitting today's children with stuff that they don't know they have and would more than likely be just as well without. What's worse is the fact that to the modern parent all of it is apparently necessary, although I would say that aspect has more to do with Mom and/or Dad wanting to maintain a particular social status level through ownership of a certain stroller, car seat, or what have you than it does with serving the needs of the child.

There are things in my house right now because of The Duke that I have no idea what they do (some of which I have no desire to learn what they do) or that I could do without because I already had a device or process that accomplished the same task. Case in point, after we brought home The Duke I bought a lidded trash can (with the little step you can press to raise the lid) and a pack of stick-on air deodorizers thinking that would be an adequate containment unit for diapers and other waste. All totaled, it cost about $11. Was it sufficient?

Someone gave us one of these things, a Diaper Genie by Playtex.

If you've ever seen the bio-hazard disposal boxes mounted on the wall of a hospital or doctor's office examination room, this is essentially the same thing only instead of needles and bloody gauze this is for poopie diapers. Depending on what model you opt for, these things will set you back anywhere from $30-$40. The kicker, though, is that it doesn't use ordinary trash bags - instead it uses a cartridge pre-loaded with a sleeve of plastic that you must cut and tie off as needed. How long will the cartridge last? Who knows but refills of these cartridges cost $7 a pop!

So, just to re-cap where we stand with my trash can versus the Diaper Genie...

My Trash Can:
- Initial investment: $11
- Recurring costs:
     * $30 for 1,000 trash bags purchased from buying club
     * $3 per pack of deodorizer inserts

Diaper Genie:
- Initial investment: $35 (I split the difference)
- Recurring costs:
     * $7 per cartridge

If you do the math, the trash can wins handily in terms of cost of ownership over the lifetime of the device. Plus, who's to say manufacturing of the refills doesn't up and stop or that a new & improved model won't come out leaving you with no way to wrangle the poopie diapers? You're left with a gun for which no one is making bullets and that's not a good thing. Also, you can continue using the trash can well into the future either in the child's room or somewhere else in the house. At some point the child won't be in diapers anymore - what will you do with the Diaper Genie then? You might have gotten your money's worth out of it by then and I guess you could hold onto it until you're wearing Depends. The latter option is a personal choice and not one I'm ready to make right just yet.

2) Stores specializing in baby gear are oddly terrifying

My wife & I went to a Buy Buy Baby location last weekend in Columbia, South Carolina. (As it turns out, BBB is a sister store to Bed Bath & Beyond - whoever owns these things has some affinity for the letter B apparently.) It was the first time I'd ever set foot inside a store that sold nothing but baby products. To say that I had a hard time digesting the entirety of the thing would be an understatement.

Why? I can't hammer it down to be totally honest with you. I guess I assumed that babies weren't so complicated that the breadth of offerings in a store like that one would be as vast as they are. Sure, a lot of it is worthless stuff that people buy because they can, but I couldn't get over how it is that all of those products exist. Because if they exist, someone bought them and uses them. Babies have gotten along for a very long time without things like the Pee Pee Teepee (I'm pursuing a patent on a rival product right now, which I'm calling the Tinkle Tent), but there's a Mom or a Dad out there right now that won't change their son's diaper without it because they're mortified at the thought he might score a head shot on one of them with a well-timed stream of whiz.

1) Priorities

There was an indie professional wrestling event last Sunday (November 2) in Cayce, SC promoted by a company called WrestleForce which I have featured previously in my Rasslin' with Redbeard YouTube show. When I'm at events like that one I typically will record the matches (provided the federation in question has voiced no opposition to my doing so) then later on I'll add them to my YouTube channel (which you can find here at this link). I don't want to toot my own horn but after that particular show I was contacted by three of the wrestlers that had performed on the show who wanted to know if I was there because they were eager to see and share footage of their matches.

I wasn't at the show. For obvious reasons.

That's not my way of saying I'll never go to another pro wrestling event; far from it, actually, as I would hope to be able to get to one or two a month even now. I had just spent the night in North Carolina the weekend before in order to attend a show in that state. Even though the building where WrestleForce runs their shows is less than 45 minutes from our house, it wouldn't be fair of me to take off two weekends in a row and leave my wife to tend to our child by herself.

Only I would use professional wrestling as an analogy for pertinent life lessons, right? It's a valid example of the fact that we're parents now and there will quite often be times where our schedules, needs, wants, and desires are going to play second fiddle to The Duke's schedule, needs, wants, and desires. Parents have to be prepared for that.

To me, sacrificing things like personal interests for the sake of being a considerate, involved parent is just one more way of showing how much you love your children. That doesn't mean giving up on your own aspirations, rather that as a parent you've got to acknowledge the responsibility that comes with the life you're charged with shaping while continuing your own life. For some that might mean not going to the movies or out to dinner as often, for others it might be that your work hours have to change or that you'll have to look at your classes to see what will be best going forward. Everyone can do it, you just have to be willing to put in the work to make it happen.

Being a Mom or Dad takes a level of maturity that a lot of people just plain don't seem to have these days, and I feel like that's why some relationships fail after children come into the picture. My wife & I aren't as young as a lot of new parents are when they bring home their first child. We're fortunate enough to have already done a lot in our lives and are fairly content with where we are emotionally and professionally. I've made the comment before that I don't have a whole lot of goals left in my life. I met a President of the United States. I've traveled abroad. I have a stable career. I was front row at a Metallica concert. I could name others but I'm sure you get the idea. Saying you've checked off a lot of items from your list of things to do isn't bad. It means I can be more in tune with allowing things to happen in my life as opposed to having to chase them as hard as I would have otherwise. It's an especially good thing now because it will allow me to enjoy being a Dad without feeling like I've got to impose my will on my wife or The Duke in order to pursue some arbitrary gain that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't matter as much as making sure that little boy grows up to be healthy and happy.

Rasslin' with Redbeard - Chikara Pro's THUNDERBALL

Professional wrestling has a lot in common with pizza. (Stay with me here, I'm trying to use an analogy that hasn't been beaten to death, like how pro wrestling has a lot in common with theater for example.) You've got traditional hand-tossed crust, Chicago style deep-dish, thin crust, stuffed crust, and probably half a dozen other types of crust - and that's just the crust, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of pizza possibilities because for every style of crust there's at least ten different toppings one might add to a given pie. Likewise, there are many different styles when it comes to professional wrestling. Lucha libre is common to Mexico whereas strong style is more or less the norm in Japan. Here in the United States we seem to be latched onto sports entertainment although that's not to say there aren't pockets of resistance, if you will, dedicated to preserving what would nowadays be considered old school, as in the style of wrestling made popular by greats such as Ric Flair, Harley Race, and others.

There are a lot of promotions out there these days that seem to strive towards doing just one thing when it comes to the style of wrestling they've chosen to display. Ring of Honor, for example, has become known for being arguably the most popular equivalent to a strong style promotion that we have here in the US. Not to say that they are doing a disservice to the wrestling world as a whole, but in my opinion when a promotion is all one style of wrestling the product can become bland. "Bland" is a term you'll never hear in regards to Chikara Pro, a company that is anything but vanilla when it comes to the variety of wrestling styles and characters they put on display at their events.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you might remember that my wife & I were able to see Chikara's event in Porterdale, Georgia last year. The trip to GA made for a great weekend getaway (we were celebrating our anniversary - we each got our way on the trip; my wife wanted to visit the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta and, of course, I wanted to see some wrestling) and the show was a tremendously memorable part of the occasion as I feel like we both came away from it with a smile on our faces (at least I know I did). The fact that the Porterdale experience was as enjoyable as it was became the primary influence behind my decision to make the drive all the way to Burlington, North Carolina (all 200+ miles of it) as the stars of Chikara would be making an appearance there for an event entitled THUNDERBALL.

The CWF Mid-Atlantic Sportatorium served as host for this event and the arena was absolutely jam-packed with fans. Indeed, it was great to see that kind of turnout as some insist that pro wrestling is on a downward slide. I would contend that only certain pro wrestling shows are in that state - definitely not Chikara, at least by the number of fans that were on hand this night.

Matches on the card included the following.

1) The Bloc Party (Proletariat Boar, Prakash Sabar, and Mr. Azerbaijan) vs. The Spectral Envjoy (Ultramantis Black, Frightmare, and Hallowicked)
2) Aftermath (Chet Sterling & Trevor Lee) vs. 3.0 (Scott Parker & Shane Matthews)
3) "Smooth Sailing" Ashley Remington vs. Juan Francisco De Coronado
4) The Flood (Oleg the Usurper & Flex Rumblecrunch) vs. The Osirian Portal (Ophidian & Amasis)
5) The Devastation Corporation (Max Smashmaster & Blaster McMassive) vs. The Colony (Fire Ant & Worker Ant)
6) Shynron vs. Silver Ant
7) The Flood (Jimmy Jacobs, Jakob Hammermeier, Nokken & 17) vs. Icarus, Mr. Touchdown, Dasher Hatfield & Eddie Kingston

Of course, it goes without saying that I had my camera in hand! Here's episode 10 of my Rasslin' with Redbeard YouTube program.



If you enjoy the show, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. I try to keep it as freshly stocked as I can with new content include match videos, vlog entries, and others. And if you didn't enjoy the show, all I can say is I'm sorry - that's almost 49 minutes of your life you'll never get back.

In closing I'd like to point out an observation I made while typing up the credits for this episode of Rasslin' with Redbeard. There were 32 wrestlers on the card for this event - yes, you read that right, THIRTY-TWO. That is somewhat mind-boggling to me seeing as how for a typical wrestling event (indie or otherwise) you would normally see around half of that number present as representing a "full" roster. I think the volume of talent present is an indication as to how involved and how passionate Chikara is about their product in that they want to give everything they can to their loyal and dedicated fans.

Our Road to Building a Family - When You Least Expect It

Since I last made an entry to my "Our Road to Building a Family" series, my wife and I had been doing our best to remain cautiously optimistic about our prospects moving forward.

We'd more or less re-established ourselves as we were prior to the moment when the three children who were placed with us came into our lives. We got back into our own routines; work, hobbies, house work, date days/nights, work, and more work. Jill's efforts at being an advocate for us were quieted - not silenced but they definitely became more reserved. Heartbreak has a way of making you rethink what you did to get to where you are, obviously. Her candle had been burning at both ends for so long and so hot that the wicks just couldn't sustain that same fire anymore.

I feel as though we both had accepted the fact that we might have burned a bridge with the organization we'd been working with in having to relinquish custody of the sibling group that was placed with us, and that in so doing we might have put ourselves into an "undesirable" category within their filing system for potential adoptive parents. You'd hope that sort of thing doesn't exist in a program like this, and just to be clear we have no legitimate reason to believe it does. (I wanted to make sure that statement was made as the Department of Social Services in the state of South Carolina gets dragged through the mud enough as is.) Even so, paranoia will make even the silliest untruth seem feasible.

Work, for me, has been particularly busy the past few weeks. As someone who works with information technology in the public sector, the beginning of a new fiscal year tends to be on the other side of ridiculous in terms of expectations. Offices and officials have budgeted for certain items and they want to purchase those items as soon as possible so that they can enjoy the benefits of having new tech in their employ. Quite frankly I can't say as I blame them. Between new installations and service calls, I haven't spent a whole lot of time behind my desk as of late. It's tough to juggle at times, however it's been a welcome respite as it's been something I can use to take my mind off things that have been bothering me. Feeling as though we'd missed an opportunity and not understanding why we had to go through that, mostly.

Similarly, my wife's work has kept her moving as of late. I don't know that I've ever mentioned this here but she's the assistant director for the Calhoun County Council On Aging. I will tell you that I know what she does for a living although I don't know a whole lot about what she does for a living, if you catch my drift. I hate to say that because it makes me out to be an inattentive idiot of a husband but I promise you I'm not. Our occupations really are extensions of our personalities. She's thinks with emotion, I think with logic. She works with people, I work with machines - go figure, right?

There are so many aspects of this process that can, have, and continue to blow my mind. Main among them is the speed with which entire lives can change. Case in point, with the sibling group, we were on vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina when we were called about having been matched with them. We didn't have to rush back home because of it but the fact of the matter was that we suddenly had a choice to make: Play the hand you've been dealt or keep rolling the dice. Likewise, our lives changed in a flash again this past Tuesday when my wife received a call from our adoption worker that a baby had come into their custody and was in need of foster care.

My wife in turn called me - she didn't know if the baby had medical needs or if the child was a boy or a girl, black, white, Hispanic, or Kryptonian. All she knew was that a baby was being offered to us. I, of course, wanted to know more details. (I can't help it; I'm the one with the logistical brain, remember?) I didn't want to say no to the opportunity but at the same time I didn't want to immediately say yes and we wind up in another situation where we'd have bitten off more than we could chew seeing as how we've been down that road already.

Jill got more details on the situation and we talked again. The baby is male, Caucasian, roughly 6 pounds and 18.25" at birth, with no signs of defects or abnormalities. He is, for all intents and purposes, a perfectly healthy baby boy. The identity of the father is unknown. He came into the state's custody as a result of his birth mother having given a verbal relinquishment of custody, however there is a statute of limitations within which she can still claim him.

That last bit wrenched at my heart. Since he is a foster child, he could be with us for days, weeks, months, or forever. A child with circumstances like this is considered a high risk placement due to the fact that any number of biological family members could emerge and pursue custody, and that, in turn, can lead to legal entanglements. The notion that we might grow to love this child only to then have him leave us was so difficult to process. Nevertheless, we couldn't say no to this risk, this chance, this opportunity, this blessing. (As a humorous aside to this I'll say that after my wife & I spoke for the second time she said I had 10 minutes to decide whether or not I was okay with accepting the baby. Yep, 10 minutes. I can't take a shower in 10 minutes and she's expecting me to make a decision of this magnitude?)

After we'd made up our minds we contacted our adoption worker and began to make arrangements to pick up the child. Since our worker is located in Charleston we both assumed the baby was there. As it turned out he was only minutes away at a local hospital.

When we got to the hospital, we first had to figure out where we were going - we had a room number but no real idea of how to get there seeing as how neither of us knew a whole lot about the layout of the facility. We encountered a friendly member of the nursing staff who saw us wandering around and she directed us to exactly where we needed to be.

We met with several members of the neonatal nursing staff, a doctor, and a caseworker from DSS. Everyone kept addressing us as "the parents" or "Mom and Dad". (I've tried not to read too much into that, mind you, but you can't help but take impressions from the way people with more information than you about a given situation talk about that situation.) When you hear those words and aren't expecting them they have something of a sizzling effect on your psyche. It forces you to realize at that moment, if it hadn't already before then, that this is happening.

The doctor, a young woman who looked to have been in our age range, was very kind in her manner and took the time to go over a lot of answers to first-time parent questions without us ever asking them. The nursing staff were also very pleasant to work with. I have to say that seeing them handle the children in their care is like watching a skilled craftsman. Not to say they were twirling babies in the air while walking a tightrope, just that they clearly know what they're doing.

As part of the discharge process we had to watch a video on shaken baby syndrome and sign a batch of paperwork. Before we knew it, a loaned car seat was installed in the back of Jill's ride and we were on our way back home. The whole process took less than an hour.

I am in no way ashamed of saying that after Jill & I got him inside our house that I cried like men aren't supposed to admit to crying. I had accepted that I just wasn't going to get to have certain things in my life - in that moment, hope for those dreams returned.

Jill's Mom and Dad came to our house that evening and they brought with them a literal smorgasbord of stuff related to maintaining a baby that family & friends had given to them to share with us. (I've said it before and I'll say it again, we wouldn't be where we are without the support of loving, generous people. We've got some of the best family, friends, and co-workers imaginable!) I know my way around the realm of information technology but baby technology is a whole new ballgame for me, personally. I was introduced to several varieties of bassinets that either swing, rock, vibrate, or some combination thereof. I had heard the term Pack and Play previously but I'd never seen one - seemed kind of like a kennel for a child, but who's to argue with that logic? Also knew to me, the boppy pillow, which is a great example of what can happen when someone takes an existing product (the travelers neck pillow, in this instance), increases its size, and gives it a cute name. In addition to this, our kitchen is now overrun with baby bottles, cans of formula, and various accessories related to feeding. From the amount of bottles alone you'd think we had 5 babies instead of 1, however I'm quickly learning that bottles are much like .22 ammo - when you think you have enough, you don't.

The baby's biological mother did give him a name. We're not especially fond of it, so if or when we have the chance to change his name we already have one picked out. It's one of the names that Jill & I had talked about a while back when we were toying with ideas for baby names. I can't publish his real name because of the fact that we have to protect his identity, and I'm going to hold off on doing the same with the name we've given him until such time that it's appropriate. Don't worry, though, he's not going to have any identity issues because my Father in-law and I already came up with a nickname (or codename, as I've said to some people) for him - The Duke.

Feel free to read into that as you would like. And no, his name is not John Wayne. If it were that easy to figure out do you think I'd bother calling it a codename?

Back when we were still working with the sibling group, we had applied for a license to be foster parents. We did this in addition to being approved as adoptive parents because of the fact that it would have served as something of a contingency for that scenario due to timing of the proceedings. In hindsight we were fortunate in that we did apply for our foster license. Since they weren't ours, permanently speaking, we were able sever the relationship due to the disruption they had caused and have things end there. Not to make those children out to be horrors but I don't know what would've happened to us - my wife & I - had we not been on a foster to adopt path with them instead of straight adoption. That having been said, it is ironic that we finally received our foster license in the mail on the same day that we brought home The Duke.

At this point we (all three of us - well, four if you count our dog, Roddy) are settling in and adjusting to our new family dynamic. The waking up at night is what's going to take the most time to get used to, I do believe, but we'll get there. Interpreting his needs is an interesting thing to tackle; he's not a particularly fussy baby so when he does cry it genuinely means he's either hungry or in need of a fresh diaper. Jill took him to his first doctor's visit and it was recommended that we put him onto a soy-based formula as it seemed traditional mixes weren't staying with him long enough to get him the nutrition he needs. He checked out fine other than that and a little redness around his bottom for which the doctor prescribed an ointment.

Many people have asked if there are things that we need. At this point, I feel as though we're on good standing thanks to what has been donated to us (it seems as though almost everyone we know has gently used baby gear tucked away in storage somewhere), but we would never say no to things like diapers, wipes, or gift cards. Jill had the idea to suggest bringing a meal - fresh or frozen - for us wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Above all else I would ask that you pray for our family. Like I said earlier in this entry, we don't know how long this ride will last but we're going to take it for all it's worth. With God's will and love, we'll endure. I believe The Duke was sent to us for a reason - we're going to love him with all the affection we have because that's what he deserves.

A Blog About A Vlog - Medieval Times in Myrtle Beach, SC

A little more than a year ago I published an entry to my blog titled "The Medieval Times Experience - Myrtle Beach, SC Edition", which you can read for yourself by clicking the hyperlink. As you might assume, that particular entry was more or less a gushing love letter to Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament. My wife and I are huge fans of Medieval Times, you see, so much so that we visit their Myrtle Beach castle at least once a year. On top of that, we've also been to the Atlanta and Orlando castles as well but to be completely honest with you of the MT locations we've visited Myrtle Beach is the best of the three in our opinion.

All that having been said, I'd like to share with you a vlog we recorded after a recent visit to MT in Myrtle Beach. I wanted to take the time to document the entire experience, from getting into the parking lot to ticketing, and from navigating the great hall to the tournament itself. I'd like to think I did a fairly thorough job which is why the video clocks in at just under 40 minutes. You people should know me by now - brevity is not something I'm good at.

The Sudden Proliferation of Bad Wrestling Posters - Part 4

It's been a few weeks since I published another entry in my "Sudden Proliferation of Bad Wrestling Posters" series - I hope that you, my dear readers, didn't think I'd run out of material. Never fear! So long as there are trailer park inhabitants with dreams of being pro wrestlers and people with questionable Photoshop skills (I say Photoshop even though some of these things look like they were put together in Microsoft Paint), there will always be bad wrestling posters.

We start off this entry with a real beauty from OMEGA Championship Wrestling which was used to promote their recent LOCO IN JOCO 2 event. Something I don't feel as though I've touched on in talking about exemplary posters in the past is the concept of form or how the layout of a poster makes the eye flow from one aspect of it to another. In the case of this poster, the LOCO IN JOCO logo (Say that 10 times fast!) creates a natural center point and the talent form a ring around it. Because of this, your eye naturally floats around the perimeter and you get to appreciate the quality each stock photo of the talent appearing on the show.

I was not at this event put I've seen photos and video from it and it was a literal standing-room-only affair. I have no doubt that these posters being seen in the local area played at least a part in that success!

Premiere Wrestling Xperience is consistently at the top of each of these entries, and there's a reason for that. I don't know if they have a dedicated art department or what but their posters are indicative of their having someone behind the scenes who's remarkably talented. This poster represents their DAWN OF A NEW DAY event. The only possible criticism I could make for this poster, and it would be reaching for something just to rake them over the coals about, is that they possibly could have incorporated a background that played into the idea of the "dawn" aspect of the event title. Like I said, that's me nitpicking for the sake of nitpicking - it's a fantastic poster regardless.

Flatline Pro Wrestling is an up & coming promotion operating not far from Augusta, Georgia that has gotten a lot of attention here lately and for all the right reasons. Their shows feature young, athletic, entertaining talent and their promoter seems to be doing a fine job of using every mechanism possible to get the word out about their events, which is a recipe for success. (Truly, it's amazing what can happen when wrestlers wrestle and promoters promote - people say the business is down, I say it's only down for promoters who aren't working hard enough.) There's a lot going on in this poster, which was used to advertise their REDEMPTION event, and it's a bit text-heavy but I have to say that I love what they're doing.

The talent stock photos are fantastic - clearly someone there gets what I've been saying about having crisp, clear images of the roster available for use in promotional materials. In this regard, I want to point out the center of the poster where two matches are detailed because this area is my favorite aspect of the whole thing. If you look there, what does it remind you of? From my perspective, it looks just like the versus loading screens from older fighting video games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter! I dig that and while I know they aren't the first to borrow the idea I think they've done it well enough to warrant taking note of it.

I don't recall that I've ever previously featured a poster from Shockwave Wrestling Entertainment in this series. They are one of several promotions (including Ring Wars Carolina and Steve Corino's Premiere Wrestling Federation) that seem to have popped up here lately in eastern North Carolina. North Carolina has never been lacking when it comes to professional wrestling, needless to say, but quantity doesn't necessarily equate with quality. That said, I feel as though this poster doesn't exactly deliver any incentives in the "I'm a wrestling fan but I've never seen these guys before" department. What I mean by that is, with the exception of Steve Corino, if I see this combination of talent on a poster I can't say that I'm going to become interested in attending the event. I see a lot of guys wearing shirts and two women who wouldn't make me turn my head if I saw them walking around in public. Harsh as though that may sound, this is a business where looks and physique matter almost more than anything else. The washed out, "antiqued" look doesn't help matters as it makes me feel as though it's there to try and hide flaws as opposed to compliment anything. As an admitted hard-to-please fan of professional wrestling, if all I ever see of SWE is this poster, unfortunately I won't have been convinced that the show is worth checking out.

I can't help but feel as though Southern Wrestling Association out of Forest City, North Carolina gets poorly represented by their posters. I genuinely hate to say that because I see photos and video from their events all the time, and hardly ever do I come away from absorbing that content feeling as though their shows aren't worthwhile. Quite the opposite, honestly - if not for the fact that it would be a 3+ hour drive for me, I'd probably attend their events. Be that as it may, this poster is what it is, which is to say more of the same from their "art department". I have no idea why you would select a photo of paint flaking off some random surface as a background image. Why? It doesn't make your product edgy, if that's what you're going for. The stock photos seem like whoever made this is doing the best they can with what they've got to work with, which is admirable in terms of effort but fruitless here because of the overall composition.

Here we have a poster from another North Carolina-based promotion, AIWF Mid Atlantic, even though you wouldn't know it from looking at this poster. Yes, the Allied Independent Wrestling Federations logo is present, but AIWF is the sanctioning body, not the name of the promotion. This is a fine example of a poster where the text on said poster overwhelms the featured talent. That's a bad thing because, as I've said before, a professional wrestling event poster isn't supposed to sell text, it's supposed to sell the wrestlers involved. Speaking of the talent involved, there are a lot of them pictured here - so many, in fact, that I think between them and the massive amount of text this may qualify as one of the most unnecessarily busy posters I've ever seen. On the plus side, the stock photos are of good quality, and there's a piggy bank piñata. (Because, lucha libre?)

Before I get into the next poster, I want to talk about something related to the AIWF. It is my understanding that the term "independent professional wrestling" was originally a descriptor for any promotion not operating under the umbrella of the National Wrestling Alliance. In other words, if you were indie then you weren't with NWA, and if you were with NWA then you weren't indie. Obviously this is a very old term, one that pre-dates the existence of World Wrestling Entertainment. Consider that definition and apply it to AIWF, which is essentially a take on the NWA model. How can you be independent if you're part of an alliance? Likewise, if you're part of an alliance then how can you be independent? It's semantics and it very much reminds me of this scene from the Brendan Fraser classic, Airheads (skip to about the 1:50 mark).



From the "we use images of wrestlers from 20 years ago because current images would scare people away" department comes this gem from the North Carolina Wrestling Association. And no, I'm not talking about Sonjay Dutt - that's a mostly current photo of him as he's arguably in better shape now than he ever has been before. I'm talking about Justin Credible, Jim Neidhart, Ricky Morton, and Buff Bagwell. None of those guys look like that anymore, especially not Morton. (To his credit, Justin Credible had fallen on hard times but does appear to be getting back into form.) Also, who knew Sonny Onoo was still taking bookings? Here I thought he'd retired and moved back to Japan so he could run one of those fancy dance clubs where all the guys are street racers or Yakuza and all the girls are way too young to be in such an establishment.

Professional wrestling isn't an industry that has much in the way of a moral center, but I'm going to get on my moral high horse here for a moment because the poster below from the Alabama Wrestling Federation is a disgusting example of what some people will do in an attempt to draw a crowd.

For years, Matt Osborne performed in WWE rings as Doink the Clown. He would go on to continue performing as Doink on the independent circuit after he was released from the company, however the nature of the costume and gimmick allowed for many people to rip off the character. On any given night you could see "Doink" appearing in Charlotte and Dallas, or Phoenix and Columbia, or Orlando and Brooklyn because there were dozens of copycats.

Sadly, Matt Osborne died in 2013 of a drug overdose. Because there is seemingly no honor among certain people within professional wrestling, here you have a promotion advertising an appearance by Doink the Clown.

I would not go to an event promoted by a company that does this sort of thing on principle alone. They should be ashamed, and so should anyone who works for them.

Moving on from that wretched stupidity, here we have our first ever exhibit from Action Packed Wrestling in Chester, South Carolina. (Not to be confused with American Pro Wrestling just up the road from Chester in Boiling Springs, SC.) I have to tread somewhat lightly here because I used to attend APW events. Their building wasn't far from Lancaster, SC which is my hometown and where I lived for the majority of my life. APW has the distinction of having had quite a bit of very good talent coming through their doors - for example, before he was Gunner in Total Non-stop Action/Impact Wrestling he was known as Phil Shatter and he was a mainstay for APW.

That having been said, I've joked that some of these posters could've been made in Microsoft Paint but I think this one actually was. If not Paint certainly some other rudimentary graphics application where that kind of firey, glowing border/outline thingy they've done there is considered a "high-end" effect. I think if I handed a 6 year old a box of markers, a pack of construction paper, some stock photos of those wrestlers, a pair of scissors, and a glue stick they could've come up with something more respectable than this.

In the wake of Extreme Championship Wrestling's demise there were several other companies that would go on to make use of many members from ECW's roster in an attempt at recreating the same kind of frenzied, chaotic, and oddly entertaining content ECW had been able to generate. One of those was Xtreme Pro Wrestling from Los Angeles, California. XPW never really stabilized itself (for a variety of reasons, main among them being the fact that their owner, Rob Zicari - a pornographer who runs a company known as Extreme Associates - was indicted for distributing obscene pornographic material), but the fact of the matter is that they were an established company that, technically, still exists.

That said, the poster below is not for Xtreme Pro Wrestling - well, at least not that Xtreme Pro Wrestling. This is the Xtreme Pro Wrestling that is based somewhere in the coastal region of South Carolina and has shows at a brewery in North Charleston.

Seriously, guys - I know it's not easy to come up with a unique name for a promotion these days but at least try to be original! And for that matter, if you're not sure someone else might be using the name you have settled on, there's this handy website called Google that will help you find pretty much anything ever recorded in the history of mankind, so you might want to look and see if it's already been copyrighted by someone else before you do anything silly like having t-shirts made.

Speaking of promotions with poorly chosen names, here we have a poster produced by Dirty South Championship Wrestling emanating from Supply, NC. I gather that DSCW is in something of a feud with Myrtle Beach's C4W Explosive Wrestling, which (perhaps not surprisingly) is a federation I've featured here in this blog series in the past. This poster is like Frankenstein's monster in that it's a whole bunch of pieces that don't necessarily belong together assembled into the final product. The shoddy stock photos, layout, and graphics aside, I'd like to point out that they've made egregious use of a copyrighted logo, that being of the Versus TV network (which doesn't actually exist anymore as it was converted into the NBC Sports network some time ago).

Reusing clip art or graphics is one thing but ripping off something like a corporate symbol is something else entirely.

Pop quiz, folks - what's the color of key lime pie filling and loaded with 7 examples of bad talent stock photos? This poster from New Millennium Championship Wrestling!

This is another poster I hate to drag through the mud because it was apparently meant to promote a fundraiser event. Be that as it may, I can't help but throw a few jabs at the gimmicks featured herein. "Ravishing" Shane Austin - nothing says "ravishing" like prison tattoos and cheap sunglasses on a guy with a double chin. "Dreamz" - watching him wrestle will put you in a coma, it seems to say. Chris "Thunder" Anderson - because claiming to be an Anderson is never a bad idea if you're a wrestler who's a heavyset guy with a beard. "Delta Squad" - that's the one Chuck Norris was in, right? (Nope, sorry, that was Delta Force.) "Tank Sherman" - instead of a Sherman tank, get it? (See what we did there?) "Ringlord Speedy" - what the Hell is that about?

Earlier in this entry I brought you a poster from Action Packed Wrestling, which is one of two APWs operating in South Carolina. Up next is a poster from the other APW, American Pro Wrestling in Spartanburg, SC, where there's apparently "A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN".

That, friends, is nothing short of gimmick infringement. I just wonder if he got the Brahma bull tattoo (which, of course, has been made famous by "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson) before or after he decided to become a professional wrestler.

Conveniently enough, the last poster I'll give you in this submission is from Last Rites Wrestling out of Franklin, NC where they apparently prefer their posters the color of sweet potatoes instead of key lime pie filling. Also, what did people use to dry their CLOTHES before the advent of CLOTHES dryers?

CLOSELINES, that's what...

A Funny Thing Happened on Our Way Out of Walmart...

First and foremost, this isn't a blog about an experience I had with a Walmart so much as it is a blog about an experience I happened to have had while I was at a Walmart. There is a difference, obviously. While I've had plenty of reasons to develop a sense of disdain for Walmart over the years (case in point, this post from all the way back in March of 2011 - "Reason #340,781 to avoid Wal-Mart") I'm not going to drag the company into the mud when it's not deserved. No, this is more of a look inside the minds of the kind of people you encounter while at Walmart.

My wife & I have something of a routine on Sundays. We typically get up around 7:30 AM, get ready for church, go to church, and then when we're dismissed from the worship service we go to Walmart to pick up our provisions for the week. (Occasionally we'll have lunch out with my Mom as well but that doesn't happen every week.) We attend Cornerstone Community Church in Orangeburg, South Carolina so, of course, we go to the Walmart in Orangeburg. Could we shop elsewhere? Sure we could, but we go to Walmart because of the same reason everyone else goes to Walmart - it's convenient and, generally speaking, the prices are better there.

This past Sunday (September 21, 2014) was different than usual as that particular day we were on our way back from a brief overnight trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. Our plan was to drop off our bags at home then come into Orangeburg to get our supplies as well as pick up our dog, who was being looked after by my Mom.

It was around 3 PM by the time we made it to Walmart. I know my wife well enough to know that she wasn't looking forward to being there at that time of day. Going to Walmart early on a Sunday morning as we normally do (almost invariably we're out of church by 10:30 AM) is ideal for a number of reasons, primary among them being the fact that there aren't as many people there, meaning it's a bit easier to get in and out than it would be otherwise. Judging by the volume of cars in the parking lot, it looked like a fair segment of the population of Orangeburg had beaten us to the punch. To show you how different my wife and I are in regard to our individual attitudes about this shopping excursion, my only fear as we made our way into the store that day was whether or not there would be any good bananas left.

Because, priorities.

We rounded up our supplies (Jill gathered sustenance while I went in search of wheel & tire cleaner and other necessities), paid our bill (just over $80), and made our way to the exit. Heading out of the store I had command of our shopping cart, as I do more often than not. After having walked past the salon, the manicure/pedicure shop, and a cavalcade of oddly positioned merchandise displays (we're not certain but it appears as though some sort of renovations are being done to this store) I navigated past the first set of sliding doors, on into the void between the store and the outside world, then finally I passed through the final set of sliding doors.

Before I go further, I feel as though a visual aide is in order.

What you see here is an image taken from Google Maps of the entrance/exit we were using that day at the Walmart in Orangeburg. There is nothing unique about it as this is an example of what you can expect to find if you were to look at a similar view of pretty much any Walmart. You can see the building, the cars, the parking lot, and most importantly the white painted (albeit faded) lines on the asphalt directly in front of the store. If you weren't aware, these lines denote a pedestrian crosswalk, a construct that is also made noticeable to oncoming motorists via accompanying signage (yes, this is one of the actual signs at the Walmart in question).

For guidelines regarding how the operator of a motor vehicle is to conduct themselves when they approach a pedestrian crosswalk, let us refer to section 56-5-3130 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, which states:

When traffic-control signals are not in place or not in operation the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to yield to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is upon the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger.

I looked both ways as I exited the store that day to make sure there weren't any oncoming cars nearby. I saw one to my right but it appeared to be far enough away that I would be able to begin crossing the distance from the store to the parking lot as I, being a pedestrian, would've had the right of way. As I got about halfway between the store and the lot I noticed this car didn't appear to be slowing down - it wasn't going all that fast but it also wasn't showing signs of yielding.

I kept walking.

The car slowed a bit but was still coming towards me.

I kept walking. By this point I'm probably 75% of the way to my objective.

The car keeps coming - slowly, but it's still coming.

I'm about 85% of the way across the crosswalk. The front bumper of the car (a black Ford Focus sedan, similar to the one my wife owns oddly enough) is now so close to me that I had to angle our buggy out of its path else it would've struck the cart. I stop dead in my tracks then turn my head so that I'm looking directly at the driver of the car, a black woman wearing sunglasses (the kind that make the wearer's eyes look like that of a bulbous insect). She looked back at me, expressionless - we were in something of a duel at that moment, waiting to see who would make the next move. Suddenly her passenger, a black male, shouted at me through the open window on his side of the car, saying "You need to look around!" I began pushing our buggy out of harms way and as I was doing so I pointed at the ground then said back to the passenger "It's called a pedestrian crosswalk..." It was meaningless effort, but it made me feel a little better.

I know what some of you are probably thinking. "You idiot, that woman could've run you over and you just kept walking in the road!" Yes, that's entirely possible. I could have stopped at the moment I first noticed she wasn't going to slow down and let her pass. I didn't do that because I had decided there was a point to be made in standing my ground, however chauvinistic it may have been. I'm not the one who deserves to be chided for their behavior in this scenario because the driver of that car had decided, willfully and without provocation, that she had no problem with hitting another human being with her vehicle.

Why? I'm a 34-year old white guy. I'm speaking directly to the driver of that car here - would you have been so bold as to aim your car at me if I were a black guy of the same age? (Oh yeah, I'm going there.) Or perhaps if I were a little old black lady who was just out to pick up a gallon of milk and some bread? Do you still want to run me over or do you yield? Likewise, what if it had been my wife in my place or possibly a child? Are you still alright with potentially killing someone or does the race, age, gender, etc. of your potential victim have something to do with your decision?

Would it have been worth injuring me or damaging the buggy and our groceries to say "I belong here and you don't"? I don't think there's a personal injury lawyer in this state that wouldn't have been knocking at my hospital room door had she actually done harm to me. I can only assume she would've been fine with going to jail for that act. I don't know what kind of jail time a vehicular assault conviction carries but I'm sure it's not pleasant (or so I would hope). What would her defense have been, "He shouldn't have been walking where I was driving..."?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people like this woman exist. I think we encounter people of poor character every day, unfortunately, but they reveal themselves in varying degrees. Sometimes they might drop an empty soda can out the window of their car, then sometimes they might cheat on their husband with one of their co-workers. Sometimes they might eat a few grapes off the bunch they intend to buy while walking around a store, sometimes they might beat their son with a broom handle when he wets the bed. Sometimes they might take an extra newspaper from the box, sometimes they might bring a pistol into a crowded movie theater. My point being to say that we never know what evil exists inside of a person until it's let loose into the world and by then it's too late. You just have to hope you're not the one who winds up on the receiving end when the levy finally breaks.