Identifying what’s most important

  June 19, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   I finally got another car. The car I was driving, which has been a fantastic car, was fifteen years old and had over 316,000 miles on…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

They Just Upped And Left

  June 18, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Late 1950s. May 1. Riding with Dad by a cement block house. White. A few clothes out back on the clothesline. Diapers mainly. A tricycle with…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

My Perfumed Nights

  June 12, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Squall lines, thunder and lighting, and tornadoes signify the changing of the guard. Winter’s heavy air gives way to lighter air, and soon air conditioning will…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move

Four guys and 10 minutes

  June 12, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   Since I recently talked about Wallaby, and also Mr. Mert, I am going to tell another story that happened at Mr. Mert’s wedding. There were four…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Fences Say A Lot About Folks

  June 5, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   A fence has become more than a way to mark property—delineate—as a five-dollar word goes. “I put that fence up to delineate precisely where my line…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move

Summer Blink Book Reviews are back for 2025

  June 5, 2025

By Reba Hull Campbell   If it’s summer, that means it’s time to gear up for summer reading. Remember those summer reading clubs from childhood? In my family, we would…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Saying thank you

  June 5, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   As I’ve said before, my Dad was a great man and my Mom was a great woman. They were two incredible parents. And so, as time…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Newest exhibition at Upcountry History Museum assembles display of Avengers originals

  June 4, 2025

Traverse the Marvel Universe through a unique experience that explores the fourth installment of the Avengers saga in “Avengers: Endgame – The Exhibition,” a first-of-its-kind showcase opening at the Upcountry…

Read More

Posted in: upstatebizsc   Category: chamber, day-care, education, entertainment, life, marketing-and-communications, media, military, non-profit, on-the-move, the-arts, veterans

Wallaby, the Soldier We Never Expected

  May 29, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   Years ago, I was at a friend’s wedding in Virginia Beach and one of the friends who was also at the wedding was telling me about…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Man Will Always Wage War

  May 29, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Cynicism Sometimes Is Backed By Reality I remember the Vietnam anti-war protests at the University of Georgia. Some group firebombed the Army ROTC building and I…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Sometimes I Hallucinate

  May 22, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Fate lays its hand on me. While driving the Fall Lines Freeway to Dry Branch, Georgia, the time to medicate arrived, 9 a.m. I had a…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move

Our mistakes do not define us

  May 20, 2025

I may have talked about this before, and to be honest, I really can’t remember. Some of the early Friday emails got lost when we changed servers years ago… but…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Pizza and fried chicken

  May 15, 2025

A couple of Friday nights ago I needed to work late, which meant I had to eat late. Brenda was not feeling well. as she was fighting off a cold,…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Juke Joints & Dive Bars 

  May 14, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Mom never darkened the door of a juke joint, but that didn’t stop her from rendering a harsh judgment. “The only people who go to juke…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

The Battle of Camden, as explained by a ‘redcoat’

  May 13, 2025

Books have been written about war since writing was invented. In the 1890s, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage initiated a new way to tell such stories. Rather than…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, military, on-the-move, veterans

The Birds of Death

  May 7, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Forever Fly, You Black Riders Roads tell stories. I’ve come across the “Mule Kick That Killed Eight People” in Edgefield County. I’ve seen stores fall to…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Brighten up someone’s life

  May 5, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   (Someone once told me they end their week and start their weekend with the Friday email. Well… maybe on this one, you can end your weekend…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Capt. Mose Rogers & The S.S. Savannah

  May 1, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland I visit cemeteries never knowing what I’ll find. February 10, a cemetery gave me a story that has the elements of a great movie—risk, bravery, tragedy, the…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Do it right the first time

  May 1, 2025

One time when I was up in Maryland, I bought a big bag of frozen blueberries. Now this was a big bag. I felt along the top when I was first opening…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

He took my place

  April 24, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   (Another story involving Black Mountain for Children… names have been changed for privacy sake.) Last year, I was speaking at a weekend camp with Black Mountain…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Nature’s Fierce Defiance

  April 23, 2025

By Tom Poland   For seven years I only read Russian writers, Boris Pasternak, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and my favorite, Alexander Ilyich Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn wrote of life under Stalin.…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Clinton Library Set to Celebrate Grand Opening April 27

  April 23, 2025

The Laurens County Public Library System is excited to welcome the community to the Grand Opening of the new Clinton Library on Sunday, April 27, at 3:00 p.m. Located at…

Read More

Posted in: laurenscountybuzz   Category: education, entertainment, life, on-the-move, technology, the-arts

South Carolinians to shine “Two Lights for Tomorrow” on April 18

  April 18, 2025

South Carolina will participate in “Two Lights for Tomorrow” on the night of Friday, April 18, a nationwide commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s legendary midnight ride and…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move

Pictures don’t even capture it

  April 17, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   This past weekend, I went with a group of guys to Black Mountain Home for Children in Black Mountain, North Carolina. On the west campus of…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

A Southern Rock Connection

  April 16, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Back roads took me past pecan groves and cotton fields and eventually to Charlane Woodlands, Chuck and Rose Lane Leavell’s home/tree farm. That evening Chuck and…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

HOLY WEEK: Being always mindful of life’s blessings

  April 14, 2025

God literally saved me physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually By W. Thomas Smith Jr. As we begin HOLY WEEK – Palm Sunday through Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, then…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

We Never Met

  April 10, 2025
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   I wish we had. I traded letters with a writer who lived alone in the remote reaches of Alaska, the Land of the Midnight Sun. Poet…

Read More

Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Responding to life

  April 4, 2025

By Jeff Becraft   I am building a storage shed in my backyard.  I am being trained by this guy in a blue shirt off of YouTube University. I watched…

Read More

Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move