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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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,…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, non-profit, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: advice, life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: entertainment, life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz Category: life, non-profit, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, non-profit, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move
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,…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: conversations, health-care, life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Standing on a solid foundation
March 2, 2023
By Jeff Becraft A friend of mine named Lennox recently lost his wife to alzheimer’s. I have only met Lennox twice in person. We are part of a Monday night…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Devotion At An Abandoned Home Place
February 28, 2023
By Tom Poland No matter how long, no matter how often you travel a road, it’ll surprise you. I’ve driven Highway 378 into Georgia for not quite fifty years.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Practice over Perfect
February 28, 2023
By Reba Campbell “Practice makes perfect.” Surely a mantra we all heard as children…whether it was in sports, spelling, music or math. This was a standard line repeated by grown-ups…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Relic Room again celebrates South Carolina’s role in the American Revolution
February 27, 2023
For eight long years, the young United States – which at the start of the conflict wasn’t even formed yet, and had no army, navy, or national government – was…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
The way it really is
February 24, 2023
By Jeff Becraft A few weeks ago, I had to put some deadbolts in some doors. So I looked it up on YouTube just to see what advice I…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Rivers I Cross
February 24, 2023
By Tom Poland Rivers make me say things out loud. As I drive alone over a river I often say its name. In fact, some rivers’ names beg to…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
The Word Merchant Highway
February 16, 2023
By Tom Poland Upon taking a writing position long ago, the boss of bosses shot me a sideways look, “So, you’re a word merchant.” Clever, I thought, but as…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
The sacrifice of love
February 16, 2023
By Jeff Becraft Last weekend, our 3-year-old granddaughter came into town to spend the weekend with us. This was a big deal for all of us. After a full…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
The Forsaken Land
February 10, 2023
By Tom Poland Kudzu covered its outbuildings. The farm was lonesome so I turned around and stopped to visit it. Right off I saw a dusty mule collar hanging…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
