Take the 7th inning stretch at Upcountry History Museum with “Picturing America’s Pastime” Exhibit
June 26, 2026“Take me out to the…Museum?” Yes, step into the 7th inning stretch with “Picturing America’s Pastime” and explore the grandeur of the early game through the vibrancy of today’s big-league…
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A Body Of Work
June 24, 2026By Tom Poland A woman asked what made me the proudest of all I had written. It isn’t books. Maybe one. It’s not the films. It’s not the magazine…
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Summer Blink Book Reviews Return
June 22, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell If it’s summer, that means I’m back to my annual effort to get off the screens and back to the page by reading more. In recent…
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Greenville artist advances to quarterfinals of international art competition with paintings inspired by her son’s rare genetic condition
June 19, 2026Greenville artist and mother Nicole Shannon has advanced to the quarterfinals of The People’s Artist, an international art competition presented by Johnny Depp in support of The Art of Elysium,…
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A Curious Battle For Independence
June 17, 2026By Tom Poland It’s a battle Britain claimed to have won, and yet it sent the Redcoats to Charleston and back to Britain ending their presence in the Carolina…
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New Peanuts exhibit at Upcountry History Museum explores origins of beloved Franklin character
June 11, 2026On July 31, 1968, Charlie Brown made a new friend, and the Peanuts comic strip made history as that new friend, Franklin, became the first Black character in this popular…
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A Rare Sighting
June 10, 2026By Tom Poland I have seen outhouses, smokehouses, henhouses, doghouses, and all manner of birdhouses. Mankind has its jailhouses, cathouses, flophouses, and roadhouses. A first for me, I saw…
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‘Tis the season for graduations and my 2026 “20 lessons” list
June 3, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell ‘Tis the season for graduations, new jobs and life transitions. It’s also the season for my annual updated “20 lessons” list. A number of years ago,…
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My City Of Dust Calendar
June 3, 2026By Tom Poland Passport To Preservation John Mulhouse sent me his 2026 Abandoned New Mexico City of Dust calendar, and it’s a keeper. John’s beat is why. “The lost…
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Man, The Intruder
May 27, 2026By Tom Poland The rains of late and spring’s approach set my mind on the Carolina bays, those coastal plain wetlands of mystery and life. The elliptical depressions are…
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The World Book
May 20, 2026By Tom Poland A lulu of a lady sold my parents a set of the World Book Encyclopedia. Miss Lulu Goolsby to be exact. It changed my life living…
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The secret’s out – Xavier Riddle exhibit bringing time travel adventures to the Upcountry History Museum
May 18, 2026Travel back in time and unravel the secrets of world-famous heroes and heroines in “Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: The Exhibit,” a new exhibition opening on Saturday, May 16,…
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A Striped Bass & An Oak
May 13, 2026By Tom Poland Though my hair was chestnut brown, I was green, a young writer hoping to create something memorable. I needed inspiration and I found it in a…
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ScanSource’s Impact 360 Community Program receives national Halo Award
May 8, 2026ScanSource, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCSC), a leading technology distributor uniquely positioned to address complex, converging technologies, announced the Company has been recognized with a Silver Halo Award for Best Education Initiative…
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Buried Alive
May 6, 2026By Tom Poland A road down Edisto Island way will take you past green swamps and oaks dripping with Spanish moss and shanties with bright, sky-blue doors. Churches white…
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Real Lizard Earrings
April 29, 2026By Tom Poland I called it a green lizard. I couldn’t pronounce Anolis carolinensis back then. Heck, I hadn’t even heard of the term. But now something catches me…
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American Revolution Exhibit at Upcountry History Museum takes you from front lines to home fronts
April 24, 2026From 1775-1783, Patriots and Loyalists engaged in ongoing skirmishes and all-out battles as the American Revolution spread throughout the 13 Colonies until the tide of war turned in favor of…
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Lonza Capsugel donates $50,000 to expand autism services in Greenwood
April 22, 2026Lonza Capsugel has donated $50,000 to Project Hope Foundation to support the development and expansion of local autism services. A check presentation took place at the site of Project Hope’s…
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The Transistor Made History
April 21, 2026By Tom Poland Cell phones are a big deal but to some of us the transistor was an even bigger deal. I was disobeying my parents staying up late…
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YMCA of Greenville celebrates 150 years of serving Greenville County
April 16, 2026The YMCA of Greenville officially commemorates its 150th anniversary, marking a sesquicentennial of service to the people of Greenville County. What began on April 16, 1876, when an interdenominational committee…
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Peach Blossom Lit
April 15, 2026By Tom Poland Come March, my thoughts turn to peach blossoms and memories of family fruit trees. One tree from youth stands above others. From my deep well of…
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Masters Memories
April 5, 2026By Tom Poland I never had time for golf, but I love the Masters. I never miss the Sunday round on TV. It almost always provides high drama. I…
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A Man Named Twiggs
April 1, 2026By Tom Poland He was charismatic and a lightning rod for trouble. He was a roadie for the Allman Brothers Band. What little I know of his life tells…
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Clunky Phones & Party Lines
March 25, 2026By Tom Poland In rural Georgia the party line was our lot back in the early 1950s. When the phone rang, we counted. Our phone rang two times. Three…
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Southern Truth Tellers
March 18, 2026By Tom Poland Each January, my thoughts turn to a fellow Georgian. James Dickey died January 19, 1997, of the same disease that took my mother’s life. On June…
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A Good Whooping
March 11, 2026By Tom Poland I am no stranger to the flyswatter, switch, belt, and paddle. I even got a good whooping with a paint brush. I ought to be a…
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Osprey At Crooked Bridge
March 4, 2026By Tom Poland Three birds hold me in their thrall. The osprey, whippoorwill, and oft-slighted buzzard. I love the whippoorwill’s lilting call. The noble osprey and its distinctive M-shaped…
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Blink Book Review: “The Concise Guide to South Carolina Government” by Vincent Sheheen
February 26, 2026By Reba Hull Campbell As a self proclaimed “policy nerd,” I was excited to receive “The Concise Guide to SC State Government” by Vincent Sheheen as a Christmas gift.…
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Mischief Along The Augusta Highway
February 26, 2026By Tom Poland A restless boy grew up in the midst of forests and pastures. Outside of biking, reading, and exploring woods, the Augusta Highway entertained me. If Rambling…
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The Ghosts Of Winter
February 18, 2026By Tom Poland Fall in full tumble gives us a kind of X-ray vision. We see that a leafless land is a lovely land, a surprising land. We see what…
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Collard Green Memories
February 11, 2026By Tom Poland Being the chap I was, collard greens’ smell and similarity to the stringy dark-green algae in fish ponds repulsed me. Mom would cook up a mess…
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Cast Iron Cornbread
February 5, 2026By Tom Poland Born of fire, master of fire, and survivor of fire, my vintage cast iron cornbread mold fed many a soul. Best I figure it came to…
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The Sweetest Smoke A Man Was Ever To Smell
February 2, 2026By Tom Poland To some, the smokehouse remains a symbol of the impoverished, rural South. Not me. I see it as a rustic savior, and I thank the late…
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My Lost Geisha
January 28, 2026By Tom Poland It was the photograph in my father’s war album. Her white kimono. Hair black as onyx. Pale, serene face. Perfect bone structure. Gloss, a sheen upon her…
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Red Clay
January 21, 2026By Tom Poland Drizzle drifted and spritzed as if it were January except it was October. Mists coated my camera. In its viewfinder red mud glistened in rain that…
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The Last Open Door
January 14, 2026By Tom Poland For the first time in my life I was alone in my church. The old Regulator wall clock ticked away as I ticked away the families…
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Sardis Road
January 7, 2026By Tom Poland Back roads never disappoint me. Such was the case with a road, paved just a tad, but deliciously dirt the rest of the way. As I…
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Kids Made Toys Once Upon A Time
December 19, 2025By Tom Poland Christmas is coming. Toys will be high on many a list. My grandsons have outgrown toys but not that many years ago I got them remote-controlled…
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Cold, Cold, Cold
December 10, 2025By Tom Poland A thirteen-year relationship was dying. Here comes one of those songs that arrives at a hurtful time. The song seemed written for us. You grieve, heal,…
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My Fried Chicken History
December 3, 2025By Tom Poland As evening shadows fell, I made my way home through woods. Overpowering the peppery smell of autumn leaves, the chicken frying in Mom’s cast iron skillet…
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Early bird pricing for Greenville Convention Center’s Holiday Fair benefitting Rotary Club of Greenville ends soon
December 2, 2025Ticket Prices Increase by $5 on December 4th Don’t miss your chance to save on tickets for Holiday Fair benefitting the Rotary Club of Greenville, Greenville’s largest winter festival, running…
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How the night before Thanksgiving became one of the heaviest drinking nights of the year
November 25, 2025The night before Thanksgiving has become known for heavy drinking, crowded gathering spots and increased risky behavior among young adults returning home for the holiday. National traffic safety data consistently…
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Highway Song, Part II
November 25, 2025By Tom Poland A Sunday Drive Highways 321 and 301 meet my criteria for back roads. Little traffic. Lots of abandonment. Old stuff getting older. Those 1950 snowbirds heading…
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Highway Song, Part I
November 20, 2025By Tom Poland A Sunday Drive I hadn’t seen him in 10 years. Him would be the preacher who buried Dad and Mom. He was preaching down South Georgia…
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Where The Dead Live On
November 12, 2025By Tom Poland On a sultry August Sunday I drove up on Shady Grove Methodist Church. Seeing it resurrected James Agee’s “Shady Grove, Alabama, July 1936,” his description of…
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Don’t Let the Tricycle Horns of Life Scare You
November 6, 2025By Jeff Becraft I don’t know what kid the car manufacturer took the horn off his tricycle and stuck it in my car is, but I’m sure that kid…
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Winter’s Rainy Windows
November 5, 2025By Tom Poland I have long admired the work of a fighter pilot turned writer. He wrote under the pen name James Salter. James Arnold Horowitz volunteered for combat duty…
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Return To Pawleys
October 28, 2025By Tom Poland Sunday lunch at the Sea View Inn. Forty-five years it had been since my daughters and I were together at Pawleys. While eating I thought about our…
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Notes From The Road
October 22, 2025By Tom Poland June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Interstate Act. Nigh 70 years later a grid of steel, cement, and asphalt makes it impossible to see…
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Tim Burton’s ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ exhibition helps kick off holiday season at Upcountry History Museum
October 22, 2025The doors of the Upcountry History Museum have now opened to the enchanting world of animation with “Beyond Halloween Land: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas,” an exhibition dedicated to…
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