Sweet Beginnings

I decided that the OHC needs a blog because, 1) its a great way for you, John Q. Public, to keep yourself up to date on the happenings here, and 2) you can get to know me, Leslie White, the new Director/Curator. So here goes.

Basically, to answer some of the questions posed by the many new people I have met since I started here a few weeks ago, I am a real live native of this great county. I was born in Oconee Memorial Hospital on a Tuesday evening - December 18, 1984. No questions about the authenticity of my birth certificate please...haha. I grew up in the Bear Swamp (the West side, not the East) community in Walhalla. My mother is Linda White (maiden name Linda Pierce) of the Flat Rock community in Walhalla. Her parents are Jewel and Bill Pierce. My father is Richard White. You may know him from White's Culvert Company on Highway 11. He grew up in Tamassee, well, the Camp Oak/Flat Shoals area to be specific. His parents were Howard and Edna White.

I graduated from Walhalla High School in 2003. Then I went to college at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, where I studied mass communication and print journalism. I received my BA there in 2007. I then went straight on for my master's degree in Public History at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. For those of you just read that and said "what's public history? Is there private history?" I will tell you. Public History teaches you how to make all that boring history you learn in school fun, interesting, and accessible to the general public. This practice generally occurs through outlets like museums, heritage centers, historic homes, monuments, historic sites, national parks, etc... I encourage you to Google it sometime. While working on my MA I worked/interned/or did projects with the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Blowing Rock Historical Society, the Adirondack Museum (in upstate NY), the original Mast General Store, the Upcountry History Museum, the Levine Museum of the New South, and probably something else I'm forgetting. At any rate, I am very lucky and proud to have been selected to take on this position at the Oconee Heritage Center. This county and its people are very near and dear to my heart and I hope I can serve it well.

So, that's the boring stuff about me. The fun stuff? Let's see - no, I don't fiddle, sorry. I played the violin (unfortunately, its not the same thing) for 8 years. I hope to learn though. I like art, photography, almost any and all music, movies, and books. I go home every night and water my flowers and tomato plants. I like to cook (and eat). Also, I should mention that I have a guinea pig - her name is LoLo.

A lot of people have come to refer to me as "the new Nick." Someone told me last night though, "Don't be Nick, just be you." and that is really all I can do. Nick laid a wonderful foundation for me and we can only keep going up from there. I hope you will all stop by and introduce yourselves. I don't have any intentions of coming in and changing everything. Of course I have some ideas of my own and such, but what I really want is for the entire community (county-wide) to feel that the OHC belongs to them and that everyone has had a hand in shaping it.

So, that being said, I hope you will all rally with me because we have several projects that are all very literally underway - the Westminster satellite location, the reading room in the basement, the Heritage Park, and the farmstead. Its going to be a lot of hard work, but I'm looking forward to it.