Your Continental Divide
June 15, 2023
By Tom Poland Something trendy comes along that’s annoying and you resist. Some manager at work decides to implement a new work procedure. You don’t like it. “C’mon now,…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
Nothing ever happens the same way twice
June 15, 2023
By Jeff Becraft One of the great principles in life I learned from Aslan in one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies. Aslan is by far my favorite character…
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C.W. Bowman was a ‘tunnel rat’ in Vietnam, hear about it at the Relic Room
June 13, 2023
In some parts of Vietnam, the Viet Cong lived for months at a time under the Earth, in elaborate tunnel systems so sophisticated that they included hospitals, training areas, and…
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Rescuing Buster
June 8, 2023
By Jeff Becraft One day last week I was driving to work and as I came to an intersection in our neighborhood, there was a bulldog out in the…
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Blink Book Review #2: Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin
June 8, 2023
By Reba Hull Campbell Is there anything that we take for granted more than the power of our five senses? Gretchen Rubin’s new book, “Life in Five Senses, How…
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Life’s Healing Elixir
June 8, 2023
By Tom Poland A Sunday sojourn found me at Healing Springs near Blackville, South Carolina. There I stood on Gods Acre, property deeded to God. Palm Sunday it was,…
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Myron Harrington, recipient of the Navy Cross, to tell story of the Battle of Hue
June 6, 2023
Retired Col. Myron Harrington, USMC, hasn’t visited the new Vietnam exhibit at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum yet. But when he does, he’ll see something familiar…
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If something is free
June 2, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Every summer I get to do a camp with a children’s home at Garden City Chapel. One of the main reasons that Garden City Chapel (GCC) was…
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Drumming Up White Feathery Memories
June 2, 2023
By Tom Poland Long before I moved to South Carolina, family vacation trips took us over Charleston’s “New Cooper River Bridge.” To be accurate, we drove over the Silas…
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Blink Book Review #1 – The Art of Calm by Roger Hutchison
May 31, 2023
By Reba Hull Campbell Roger Hutchison’s recently released book “The Art of Calm” is the perfect mix of thought-provoking, immensely readable, practical and insightful helping bring new awareness to our…
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The perfect place to play & stay
May 31, 2023
Do you remember vacationing as a child? Remember the freedom and excitement of exploring a new location with tantalizing adventures around every turn that kept you wanting more? From sights…
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Reservations for Purple Martin Tours are officially open for the 2023 season
May 30, 2023Wingard’s Market announced the official opening of the 2023 Purple Martin Tour Season on beautiful Lake Murray in Lexington, SC! The 2-hour guided boat tours will take place every Tuesday…
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When we are thankful
May 25, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Sorry there was no Friday email last week… was scrambling to get out of town to speak at a camp for a children’s home. I got…
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Highway 61 Revisited
May 25, 2023
By Tom Poland From 22,000 miles high, a satellite dropped an uncanny merging of highway and music into my path. XM Radio played the comedic ACME siren whistle that…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
State Museum announces MARS 1001 planetarium show and new summer events
May 18, 2023
Guests Are Invited to Disability Pride Day, See Laser Light Shows, Enjoy Baseball Day and More The South Carolina State Museum is set to celebrate summer with a variety of…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: education, life, on-the-move
Choosing to be entusiastic
May 18, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Back at a student session several years ago, after I had announced that snack break was over and it was time to get back at it,…
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Memories Of Zebco Reels & Red Wrigglers
May 17, 2023
By Tom Poland I drive west, Georgia bound, and pass it yet again, a place that pulls at my heart. My father had a worm farm, and my grandfather’s…
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Blue Star program provides free summer admission to military and their families
May 15, 2023
The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is all about honoring those who have served in uniform since our nation’s beginning. So we are once again proud to…
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Keep your shoulders pointed forward
May 10, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Just yesterday, I re-watched some film clips of Earl Campbell. If you don’t know who Earl Campbell is, he was a running back in the NFL for…
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Behind The Lens
May 10, 2023
By Tom Poland Thirty-seven years ago I wrote “Worth The Wait,” a feature on photographing wildlife. South Carolina Wildlife magazine photographers Ted Borg, Robert Clark, and Phillip Jones gave…
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20 Lessons Learned: From Diploma to Today
May 10, 2023
By Reba Hull Campbell ‘Tis the season for college graduations. USC’s recent graduation weekend makes me realize I walked across the Carolina Coliseum stage 40 years ago to pick…
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Desi Banks announces the Purpose Chaser Tour
May 8, 2023
Tickets Go On-Sale Friday, May 12 at 10 am local Comedian Desi Banks announced today he’ll bring the Purpose Chaser Tour to the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia, SC on…
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We’re Sending You To …
May 3, 2023
By Tom Poland In the 1960s my father visited the Central State Hospital in Georgia. He may have gone to visit a relative. I recall a heated family gathering…
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The glories of “no”
May 3, 2023
By Jeff Becraft The “no’s” of life can also be glorious. None of us like a “no.” There is the feeling of rejection, dejection, deflation, frustration, and extreme disappointment. (And the…
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Blink Book Review: “It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs” by Mary Louise Kelly
April 28, 2023
By Reba Hull Campbell The books I enjoy the most typically sit unfinished with one chapter to go. They deliciously hang out in my reading stack or on my…
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Automatic faucets
April 27, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Have been on the road a lot this week and have hit quite a few rest areas and quite a few truck stops… and quite a…
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The Joy Of Scholarships
April 26, 2023
By Tom Poland After high school I hoped to land a scholarship to play football. I played first unit on the junior varsity team and started three years on the…
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The Home Place
April 19, 2023
By Tom Poland It’s a scene Normal Rockwell would have liked. We see an old hand-dug well, a corncrib, and an outhouse. A fine old cedar leans back as…
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The Green Of Winter
April 13, 2023
By Tom Poland Pine pollen yellows my deck, but the green of winter colors my thoughts. Two things I like about winter. One, winter’s cold bones lay the land…
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Blink Book Review: “Women Holding Things” by Maira Kalman
April 13, 2023
By Reba Hull Campbell Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. That’s one of the many reasons I walked out of Square Books in Oxford, MS, recently…
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Receiving and trusting
April 13, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Last August, I was with a children’s home heading back on I-40 East. We were coming from Arkansas where we had had a great week at…
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At the Relic Room: Learn about Loyalists during the Revolution in South Carolina
April 12, 2023
The American Revolution is among historian Anthony Scotti’s areas of study. “I’m also a re-enactor,” he says. That’s not a surprise, but this might be: “I’m a Loyalist.” At one…
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Just taking it all in
April 6, 2023
By Jeff Becraft On Tuesday night, I was at a Board meeting for Our Place of Hope. It was in a new spot for us… in the facility of a…
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Thirty Years—The Mountains To The Sea
April 6, 2023
By Tom Poland I remember the year well. 1984. It was my first year working as a staff writer for South Carolina Wildlife. I had just spent six years…
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Second symposium on battle of Firebase Ripcord to be held April 29 at Relic Room
April 4, 2023
In 2011, historian James Smither first attended a meeting of the Fire Support Base Ripcord Association. He’s been back every year since, and has now interviewed more than 100 veterans…
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Camden Battlefield Revolutionary War soldiers to be honored, reinterred
March 30, 2023
April 20 – 22, 2023 events offer opportunities to pay respects The South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust released the schedule of events for the Camden Burials, April 20 – 22,…
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A perspective of honor
March 30, 2023
By Jeff Becraft On their 50th wedding anniversary (they were married 68 years), my Dad gave my Mom a Lincoln Town Car. My Mom had grown up during the…
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A Walk In Winter Woods
March 29, 2023
By Tom Poland I like boardwalks. Those that take you through protected natural areas. Several come to mind. The lovely boardwalk at Woods Bay takes you 1,150 feet through…
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New rankings show healthiest and least healthy counties in South Carolina
March 29, 2023
Beaufort County ranks the healthiest in South Carolina and Allendale is the least healthy county in the state, according to new County Health Rankings data from the University of Wisconsin…
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Why I love the gym
March 27, 2023One man’s reflections on his penultimate past-time By W. Thomas Smith Jr. I LOVE THE GYM, which is why it baffles me when people regularly work-out at the gym yet…
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Interconnected reflections of mainland Ecuador, the Galapagos, the Amazon Jungle, and South Carolina
March 26, 2023
A whirlwind tour across one of the world’s greatest natural incubators By Dr. Tom Mullikin PLEASE FORGIVE THE INTERRUPTION WITH THIS IN-FLIGHT HOME UPDATE, but as I push deeper into…
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We Need Tree Scholars
March 23, 2023
By Tom Poland The January-February 2023 issue of South Carolina Wildlife magazine ran my story on Edgefield County’s Curryton Magnolia. The old tree’s close to being a state record magnolia…
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Making adjustments
March 22, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Years ago, I was coaching an 11-13 year old basketball team in an inner-city neighborhood. We were a .500 team during the regular season… but that is…
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The magic and mess of a blank page
March 21, 2023
By Reba Campbell I started the year trying to resume the discipline of keeping a handwritten journal. This process of deliberately writing by hand has reminded me how it so…
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A grand adventure
March 16, 2023
By Jeff Becraft A couple of weeks ago, we moved our daughter’s furniture to a temporary residence that allows her to go visit her Grandad every single day. I…
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A Writer’s Moon Tide Memories
March 16, 2023
By Tom Poland It seems like yesterday though it was forty-five years. I took a job as a scriptwriter-cinematographer with the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department. I…
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Vietnam Veterans Day: Those who have served get in free to museum on March 29
March 15, 2023
Admission will be free for all military veterans and active duty personnel on Wednesday, March 29, at the South Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, in observance of National Vietnam…
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Learn about South Carolina lighthouses in free lecture at Relic Room
March 14, 2023
Debbie Mollycheck’s father was born in a lighthouse – technically, in the keeper’s house attached to the lighthouse in St. Simons, Ga., where her grandfather was the assistant keeper. After…
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Are we too focused on outcomes?
March 9, 2023
By Jeff Becraft I was thinking earlier today about outcomes… and in particular, how much we focus on outcomes. Certainly outcomes are important. Who is going to say something…
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A Story Of Music, Trees, And Family
March 8, 2023
By Two Sons Of The American South On a January day in 2019 I met Chuck Leavell in Georgia’s geographic center. We met to write a magazine cover story.…
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