Just master your ABCs.
A is for Aiken and Allendale and Appling and Augusta. And also for Arnie. Mr. Palmer's a golfer with skill, charisma and his own army.
B is for Butler and Bath and Berckmans, a family that ran a nursery which later became Augusta National Golf Course. The road bearing their name is crowded every April.
C is for cotton and commerce and Cobb. Old Ty, the "Georgia Peach," was one of the best baseball players of all time. He married a local woman and built his first house on Williams Street.
D is for doctors. We're the home of the state medical college and many other hospitals and health-care facilities.
E is for Eisenhower, a president who came here often to golf.
F is for "feel good," which is what the performances of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, have been doing for years.
G is for golf. No surprise. No explanation, either.
H is for horses. They're all over Aiken. And many of them are real.
I is for interstate. I-20 brings a lot of people our way.
J is for Jones, as in Bobby. As in the one of the best golfers/sportsmen/athletes of the 20th century. He built a pretty good golf course, too.
K is for kin. Living in Augusta means you'll probably hear from yours every April when the Masters begins.
L is for laughs. Early movie comedian Oliver Hardy was born in Harlem. He teamed with Stan Laurel to become a star when Hollywood was young.
M is for mills. Augusta and the surrounding area was once a cotton and textile center.
N is for Nicklaus, a Jack of all glades - his Masters exploits are legendary.
O is for Olmstead, the lake that gives its name to the stadium where our baseball GreenJackets play.
P is for paper. The Augusta Chronicle is not only Georgia's oldest newspaper, it's the South's oldest newspaper. When you begin in 1785, you're older than just about everything.
Q is for questions: If you have any, please ask. People here are friendly.
R is for radioactivity, which is pretty well controlled at Savannah River Site, a nuclear facility that bolstered national defense and the local economy.
S is for Silver Bluff. The area occupies the high bluff on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River and is known for its championship high school sports teams and its legends of American Indian lore and Spanish gold.
T is for trains. The city of Aiken traces its roots to a railroad line.
U is for U.S. Army, which has had a presence in Augusta for more than two centuries.
V is for visitors. Before Florida, tourists came to Augusta for the winter.
W is for water. Thurmond Lake is the biggest man-made lake east of the Mississippi River.
X marks the spot. Some scientists say Augusta's location between the Atlantic and Gulf Coast produces consistently mild weather.
Y is for youth, which is what future President Woodrow Wilson spent in Augusta.
Z is for zest, the feeling you get if you consider you're living among all this stuff.
Put them altogether from A to Z.
They spell home.
Bill Kirby, Metro Editor
