By Tom Poland   When I heard Hurricane Helene destroyed some 42,000 pecan trees in Georgia, I thought of my mother and my last pecan pie, not the last…

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By Tom Poland   Read no further if you suffer arachnophobia … How well I remember a night when we were under the lights scrimmaging. I can’t recall who we…

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By Tom Poland On a hot July Saturday I drove to the Native American Studies Center in Lancaster, South Carolina. First chance I got, I abandoned I-20 for U.S. 21.…

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By Tom Poland   Springs creaking, Granddad’s maroon Ford rattles down Mom and Dad’s long dirt driveway. Washouts make for a rough ride but that doesn’t stop Granddad. Here he…

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By Tom Poland Growing up in landlocked Lincoln County, Georgia, I never worried about hurricanes. I left that to folks on the coast. Hurricanes were not to be feared. If…

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By Tom Poland   “Don’t forget to be happy. It’s the only measurement of success that really counts.” – Ken Burger I wish I had known Ken Burger for more…

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By Tom Poland   For two summers now I have battled a rogue squirrel, and the score is squirrel 100, Tom zero. He raids my “go to” hummingbird feeder, and…

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By Tom Poland Shrimping Down McClellanville Way I got up at 4:30 a.m. to go to two Carolina bays in the Francis Marion National Forest. Hours later I left pitcher…

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By Tom Poland   In the beginning, there was the urge to draw—and inspiration, Saturday morning cartoons. “I’d drawn since I was a boy, spending hours with crayons, pencils, manila…

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By Tom Poland   Billfish Conservation & Record Releases of Blue Marlin I wanted a real-deal Ernest Hemingway long-bill cap to let me see into the depths. One that would…

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By Tom Poland   And Carnivorous Plants At first I thought men had poured cement onto the beach. Protection against an encroaching sea, I figured. The waves had scoured it…

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By Tom Poland   Late May, I made one last effort to see the rare rocky shoals spider lilies before they play out. Rain and high water had deviled the…

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By Tom Poland   The towns sounded distant, not as miles go, but as memories. Hazlehurst, McRae, Baxley, Soperton, Alma, and Tifton. Tifton meant trouble. I was studying a map…

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By Tom Poland   We give little thought to our pockets until one gets a hole in it. When it does, it becomes a liability. Well, what’s the history of…

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By Tom Poland   I reached deep into my sense of place and reckoned the road ought to come out near Anthony Shoals Road, and it did. My parents drove…

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By Tom Poland   The breaking news alert held just 29 words. “Cale Yarborough, a NASCAR great, dies at 84. Known for his fierce toughness and grit, Mr. Yarborough won…

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By Tom Poland   Backroad Portfolio You cannot raise your ancestors from their grave, but you can appreciate how they lived. Just take a backroad deep into the countryside and…

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By Tom Poland   Mid 1950s, early morning on the farm, it was. Rivers of gold ran down the stack of pancakes on the old oak table. Butter pooled higher…

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By Tom Poland I call it broomstraw. Others broomsedge. Whatever you call it, it doesn’t kill my memories of my grandmother’s homemade brooms. About a yardstick long, they stood in…

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By Tom Poland   In Saluda County an old homeplace sits on brick piers. It’s as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar, but that wasn’t always the case. Some refer…

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By Tom Poland   Its exoskeleton brings the creature in Alien to mind. It’s armed with needle-sharp claws and glistens as if waxed. It bristles with filaments like stinging nettle,…

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By Tom Poland   I go back now, back to August 1, 2012. That’s the day the University of South Carolina Press published Save The Last Dance For Me. Strange…

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By Tom Poland   Why do we need cutlines? Simple. To better serve the reader. A cutline needs to be right. Long after the writer is gone, his work will…

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By Tom Poland   A Sunday before Christmas it was. With the gifts all wrapped, I had a bit of time. I wanted to see the monument where Mayor T.J.…

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By Tom Poland I dreamed I was in a football game again. Then I awoke. Such disappointment. Other than playing in a game again, the next best thing would be…

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By Tom Poland   You reach a point in life where you look backwards a lot. I recall my days studying Journalism at the University of Georgia. Turns out I…

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By Tom Poland   During my not quite 10 years at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources I worked among talented illustrators, filmmakers, designers, photographers, and artists. I watched…

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By Tom Poland   With winter knock, knock, knocking on their door, people are thinking of storm doors and weather stripping. Well, drafty old screen doors occupy my mind. Recent…

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By Tom Poland   I wanted to hunt birds when a boy. Problem was no one would take me hunting. Dad tried but hunting wasn’t in his blood. And so…

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By Tom Poland   On a November Saturday, I drove to the geographic heart of Georgia. The cool breath of autumn and a blue-sky day had pulled people outdoors. I…

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By Tom Poland   December 1, 1969, was no ordinary Monday. It was a day when your birthday was your destiny. In Athens, Georgia’s Benton Apartments my roommates and I…

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By Tom Poland   Daddy set me straight. “If you want some spending money, get a job.” Thus did I work two jobs while going through college at Georgia. I…

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By Tom Poland   Giving Old Tin New Life During my school days the yellow bus rolled me past chicken houses. In 1972, when I taught creative writing in Lincolnton,…

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