Favorite post abt the game with that team from the midlands

Nov 20, 2018, 4:31 PM

I saved this from the dawning days of TigerNet. It's as applicable and true this year as any other. It was written by Pell'sLittleTiger, whom I never see here anymore. I apologize for the formatting. Wrap yourselves in its truth.

@Pell'sLittleTiger®

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The War Between The Schools

It's Rivalry Week and the War Between the Schools has officially
commenced. The following is pure speculation (and hopefully funny ideas)
about some of the many reasons Clemson and Carolina people have such
a fierce competition with one another.

It's about many things including: Us vs. Them, Good vs. Evil, Men of the
Soil vs. the Urbane. A Hobbesian worldview vs. John Locke's Constitution,
Upcountry and Lowcountry, The Pee Dee vs The Piedmont, Engineers versus
Lawyers, Soldiers agin Politicians, Calvinist vs. Arminian, Baptists vs.
Baptists. Dare I say who is in the co-operative camp? No I better not!

Whigs vs. Tories, Regulators rising up on the Oligarchy, even Backcountry
John C Calhoun and his Charlestonite bride Floride are parts of the
never-ending feud of the Palmettoland told in shades of Orange or that
awful Garnet stain. Each side claims Bravehearts, Patriots and Rebels,
though of course in all matters of heroism, loyalty or patriotism Clemson
folk, surely dominate the count.

The State is divided evenly in two by a curious physical feature known as
the Fall Line. It stretches from the Savannah River to the Sand Hills and
while this defining difference is geographical, it's also political, social
and economic. It can be a difference of philosophy, a matter of dialect, the way
you eat your bar-b-que, or the way you tell someone "Good Morning." The
Fall Line divides South Carolina between Piedmont Clayaggie and Lowcountry
Sandlapper, and more importantly between Clemson and Carolina. On the
Western Side people look to the Hills, on the other they feel wind from the
Sea.

We are the Country Gentlemen, the heirs of Pickens & Morgan, they are the
Midlandic Overseers who claim Sumter and Marion as their own. They are
institutionally older but we are more truly representative of South
Carolina.

If you want to, you can even take it back farther than America, Clemson is
the Cherokee, the Suzerains of the High Country who took Chicora from the
Catawbas and the various Lowcountry tribes in ages past. This is why the
Upper State's ground is red, for so much blood was shed in the fighting, or
so they say.

USC feeds our states worst element - Government (Gub'ment). Clemson
feeds the people. USC will try every new and bad idea that comes down the
road, almost as much as they change their football uniforms! While Clemson
is steadfast, unashamed of who we've been, who we are, almost a Roman
stoic to Carolina's Greek Epicurean. We both like Strom, and when asked, we
put on Red Shirts with Hampton. We both were Anti-Federalists before the
Constitution, because Rights are inalienable and aren't gifts of some
beneficent state. We liked Jefferson's vision of America more than any
Jacobin Yankee idea. We were suspicious of Secession in the High Country,
but when the Charlestonians decided to start the Civil War we were in it to
the death. Typically when "The War" (De Wah) began most of the folks in
this corner of the state were sent in the opposite direction to fight the
federals. I guess someone knew that South Carolinians have always had a
tendency to quarrel amongst ourselves if given the chance.

In recent years I've noticed that USC's professorial class is increasingly
engaging in Big City style Liberal democracy, surely a dangerous trend, so I
will add to the list of Us and Them Conservative & Yellow dog vs.
Conservative & Tree Huggin' Birkenstockers. USC is located in the midst of
urban blight and is overshadowed by our Statehouse. Clemson, on the other
hand rests upon our greatest Son's old Farm, Calhoun's Fort Hill, nestled in
the valley of the Keowee, nurtured by the Waters of Hartwell, colored by
the Mountains of the Blue Ridge, seasoned by the winds of Appalachia.

Clemson is Arcadia. USC is "lock the doors when riding in the car at night"
country. For afterall villainous Sherman never burned Clemson, maybe that's
why Columbia seems like the hottest place on earth. I go back and forth on
whether burning Columbia again is a good thing or not! Clemson is a historic
land-grant school that has evolved into America's best Public University;
USC has had more 5-year plans than the Soviet Union. Clemson has the
qualities and character of the Little Engine that Could, for most of our
history we have been a tiny A&M, located in the Dark Corner, no bigger than
PC or The Citadel. Yet, despite our obscurity we overcome, we triumph, and
we dominate this state. We beat Carolina like a drum, and then we
represent this state to the nation. This is why long ago people began saying
that Clemson IS The University of South Carolina because who wants losers
to carry the Bonnie Blue Flag. USC, on the other hand is a bloated
bureaucracy, who's only cultural legacies have long ago been made into
parking lots. USC people think that they're cutting edge, that they're
solving problems of the modern age, that long ago they surpassed their Upcountry
betters. Like the failed oldest son of a great family, they treasure their
heirlooms (the ones they haven't sold), because they've lost their land and
they now work for their Clemson siblings. Carolina, I'm sorry to say has
long ago become decadent, their Spirit is temporal. Clemson people believe in
eternal truths, not the passing spirit of the age. Carolina folk love to
poke fun at the notion of the Clemson family, they love to jest at how old
fashioned we are, what simple notions we cling to, and how out of step with
them we seem to be. USC people never get it about Clemson, too bad. For
we privately laugh at ourselves, and even their jokes (about us) harder than
they do. USC is so tragic, Its sort of like bullying the village idiot, what
do you prove by pointing out the obvious, by reasserting that the world is
indeed flat and that USC Football is indeed more dangerous than a chemical
dependency.

I have one (very distant) relative who pulls for Carolina. If I wanted to I
would be glad to demonstrate how "different" he is from the rest of he
family. In every way his problems can be traced to his unfortunate life
experiences as a USC fan. He's the most unrealistic starry eyed, jump on
the bandwagon Big Chicken this side of Maurice's Piggy Park in West
Columbia. At a family gathering I once asked him if you had to do it over
again, would you go through your 60 + years as a Gamecock fan, the
rollercoaster ride of emotion. All the lows, the time spent in "alone," time
lost with your family following Carolina football? Without missing a beat he
said. "NO I WOULD NOT!...I would pull for Clemson if I had it to do over
again, and I'd have had a much more happy life." I didn't have the heart to
tell him I was just joking. It wasn't a serious question, but he was deadly
serious, being a Gamecock had ruined his Life.

Clemson is Small Town South Carolina, personal, individual
and memorable. Clemson is the kind of place people want to
live, raise a family and live out their dreams. There are more
Congressional of Honor winners per capita in Pickens County then any other
county in the United States. I once went into a business meeting in Clemson
and was challenged to stand up and call for "The Captain." Of the 50 men in
the room fully half turned in my direction and looked to see what I wanted
with them. Clemson is full of patriotic people who have done their duty.

Against a backdrop of rural beauty the adjoining Upcountry Counties of
Greenville & Spartanburg boast more multi-national business Corporations
per capita than any County in the United States. Clemson is part of this
transformation; Clemson's got no problem with free enterprise. As long as
they flip cheeseburgers at Mac's Drive In, as long as people stop their cars
along Highway 11 and gaze in wonder at God's creation, as long as Orange
Sunsets burn the night sky above Hartwell's dark waters, there will always
be a Clemson.

In case you haven't noticed, I dislike the University. I have sought in vain
to say something nice about the Bull Street Inhabitants. I have done my best
not to mention them at all so far this year, but sometimes like unrest in
Haiti, or Jesse Jackson showing up a riot, these things just have to be
addressed. I will leave it at this, never in the long history of Man, has a
particular group of people (USC) done so little - with so much and
accomplished less. Why these people are as arrogant as they are is a
mystery worth looking into. What's not unknown is how bad we own them in
this football series. We are South Carolina's team, and they are a
human-interest story in a carnival. Their program is a graveyard for
football, give them time and those people can ruin anything. Some of their fans
border on the absurd. I have no doubt that many of the thousands in Palm
Beach County Florida that couldn't figure out how to punch a ballot in the
Presidential election had some connection to USC.

USC is the unwanted gift that keeps on giving, a disease on the face of
sport, and a blight on the state's good name. USC's nickname is profane;
their abbreviation is often misunderstood for a University in Southern
California, when you say "Carolina" most often people think of Chapel Hill's
goat herders. When you say you pull for the Gamecocks, most people who
have not heard will say, "What's a Gamecock?" I once heard a conversation
in an airport in the Midwest where two people were arguing whether or not
Clemson WAS the University of South Carolina. I of course stepped in and
assured these two fine young ladies that was the case. All of this points to
Carolina's (USC) obscurity within their own regional identity. Poor old
Carolina, on top of all of that they bear the weight of the most burdensome
thing in all of College Athletics...The Chicken Curse, long may she own
effect your collective mind.

Never had misery so much work to do as when she first visited the Banks of
the Congaree. From the bottom of my heart and with 4 generations of
Clemson men behind me I would like to say to all fans, students and tax
supported employees of USC-Columbia, "its time for you to go... Its time to
put you down again for the winter."

Cock-a-doodle doo,
Cock-a-doodle doo,
Carolina Gamecocks,
To the dustpan with you.

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Favorite post abt the game with that team from the midlands

WoW..unreal effort, knowledge of state history & ability to comprise this long & interesting piece!

He logged in today, so he's still around

Really good piece..sounds like the Rev's writing.***

Re: Really good piece..sounds like the Rev's writing.***

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