Clemson Sayings And Quotes

Moving was one thing that helped me understand what our environment does to us. Another was becoming a foster parent. Our foster kids were born in a county that borders Clemson, where we lived. Their county is in the ninth percentile for upward income mobility—it’s a very poor area with few jobs and fewer opportunities. Due to the legalities surrounding foster children, I cannot go into much detail about their early environment, but suffice it to say their home situation was far from ideal. The chances for these bright, intelligent, loving children to improve their lot in life, as well as their opportunities for happiness and fulfillment, if they had remained in their native environment were practically zero percent. But as Dr. Raj Chetty and Dr. Nathaniel Hendren stated, “The data shows we can do something about upward mobility…Every extra year of childhood spent in a better neighborhood seems to matter.

suppose it’s not odd, then, that I have trouble reconciling my life to those of my friends, or at least to their lives as I perceive them to be. Charles and Camilla are orphans (how I longed to be an orphan when I was a child!) reared by grandmothers and great-aunts in a house in Virginia: a childhood I like to think about, with horses and rivers and sweet-gum trees. And Francis. His mother, when she had him, was only seventeen—a thin-blooded, capricious girl with red hair and a rich daddy, who ran off with the drummer for Vance Vane and his Musical Swains. She was home in three weeks, and the marriage was annulled in six; and, as Francis is fond of saying, the grandparents brought them up like brother and sister, him and his mother, brought them up in such a magnanimous style that even the gossips were impressed—English nannies and private schools, summers in Switzerland, winters in France. Consider even bluff old Bunny, if you would. Not a childhood of reefer coats and dancing lessons, any more than mine was. But an American childhood. Son of a Clemson football star turned banker. Four brothers, no sisters, in a big noisy house in the suburbs, with sailboats and tennis rackets and golden retrievers; summers on Cape Cod, boarding schools near Boston and tailgate picnics during football season; an upbringing vitally present in Bunny in every respect, from the way he shook your hand to the way he told a joke.

But it wasn’t our fault,” said Sara. “Of course not,” said Wyatt scathingly. “You were on board the launch for a tour of the canal system, which leaves London Bridge every hour on the hour!” “You’re being sarcastic because you’re angry,” said Andrew patiently, “but it really wasn’t our fault. We were on the launch because we’d been kidnapped.” “Kidnapped where and when?” “At Beasley’s shop this morning.” “What were you doing there?” “Looking for Sean.” “Why?” Andrew hesitated, glancing at Sara. They were standing just outside the warehouse—he, Sara, Wyatt, Beasley, and, somewhat surprisingly, Captain Clemson. The reason he hesitated was that Wyatt might have a right to be angry at this point. And then, again surprisingly, Clemson spoke up. “Excuse me, inspector,” he said. “I don’t want to interfere, but they weren’t on the launch of their own free will. The Indians had them in the house and brought them along.” “Is he a friend of yours?” Sara asked Wyatt, looking at Clemson. “In a way,” said Wyatt. “But he seems to be a friend of yours, too, trying to find excuses for your being in a place where you shouldn’t have been." “Look, we all know why you’re so angry, inspector,” said Beasley. “It’s because you like this pair of rapscallions—as who doesn’t—and you were worried about them. But I suspect things wouldn’t have worked out as nicely as they did if it wasn’t for them. I’ll bet they were the ones who spotted us from the house.” “You don’t say! And what do you want me to do about it—give them each a medal?” “No,” said Andrew, playing on the fact that Wyatt was speaking a little more moderately. “All we want is for you not to be quite so angry with us.” “And of course let us know what’s been going on,” said Sara. “Exactly what’s been happening and why.” “You would want to know that,” said Wyatt dryly. “And you’ll remember everything I say, and the next time it’ll be even harder to keep you out of any case you get within a mile of.