The Power of Belonging
April 8, 2021
By Jeff Becraft Even though I had grown up with a dog as a kid, we had never had a dog once I had my own family. Until one fateful…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
A Chapel and a School
April 8, 2021
By Tom Poland The Historic Sweet Easy Smith Chapel found me Sunday. Though it’s on Smith Chapel Road and sounds like a no brainer, directions for my first attempt…
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The Clothesline
April 1, 2021
By Tom Poland The Gentle Cycle A neighbor suggested I join a community website where people post about restaurant openings and closings, shady repairmen, and snakes. “What kind…
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Love and respect
March 30, 2021
By Jeff Becraft This morning I took our recycling bin out to the curb. The reason I knew that today was the day is because my neighbor had his bin…
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Live out of who you are
March 25, 2021
By Jeff Becraft When I was 15, I was at the baseball tryouts for the little league in our town. It was towards the end of the batting part of…
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The Flower World’s Beautiful Blonds
March 25, 2021
By Tom Poland Daffodils. They’re the beautiful blonds of the flower world and if it’s possible for a flower to smile, daffodils do. They bring to mind young women…
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The Unumb Center for Neurodevelopment is selling luminaries to Light It Up Blue on World Autism Awareness Day
March 25, 2021
The Unumb Center for Neurodevelopment invites the community to purchase or sponsor luminaries to light on Friday, April 2 at 8:00 p.m. outside of homes or businesses in honor of…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: education, health-care, life, non-profit, on-the-move, philanthropy
Could’ve danced all night!
March 24, 2021
The delightful lifelong recital of South Carolina’s Kerri Grimsley Roberts By W. Thomas Smith Jr. KERRI GRIMSLEY ROBERTS’ FACEBOOK PAGE DESCRIPTOR simply says: “I love Jesus! I love my family!…
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Winter’s Lush Green Carpet
March 17, 2021
By Tom Poland It’s an unusual plant. No flowers. No roots, but what a green velvety plant. Green moss mystifies me. When I come across it I stare. Always.…
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Suffering and perspective
March 12, 2021
By Jeff Becraft Suffering has a way of shifting our perspective. Whether it be an illness, a death of a loved one, a disappointment or whatever it is. Often times,…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
A painting as part of a journey
March 8, 2021
A review of artist Dawn Buskard Faber’s “Love Lifted Me” By W. Thomas Smith Jr. Art is a journey. Sounds vague, even cliché. But it’s true. And like music and…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: churches, life, on-the-move, the-arts
A Natural Motown Mystery-Miracle
March 4, 2021
By Tom Poland If you think this story is about Berry Gordy’s 1960’s record label that gave us “Baby Love,” “My Girl,” and “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,” you’re…
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Harbinger.
March 4, 2021By Cathy Monetti ABOUT MARCH, I HAVE ALWAYS felt ambivalent. This admission comes as a surprise, even to me, for March is the month that relieves us from the coldest…
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The Stoves Of My Life
February 26, 2021
By Tom Poland Early on, my grandmothers cooked on wood-burning stoves and, later, electric ranges. Cooking with electricity. That must have seemed a marvel to them. I never,…
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Get your tickets for the 3rd annual Doko Film Fest. This year, they’ll be free
February 22, 2021
In the second year of the Doko Film Fest, a total of 143 entrees came from across the country, as well as from Canada, India, China and the United Kingdom.…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
The Badwell Trilogy
February 17, 2021
By Tom Poland Faint, yet menacing, came the sound. I stood as still as the stones around me and listened. From woods northeast it came again. Coyotes. Well, it…
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The Cayce Arts Guild’s first group show at Still Hopes Retirement Community runs February 11 through March 26
February 17, 2021Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community is the host venue for the Cayce Arts Guild’s (CAG) first group show. The exhibit will be on display through March 26 in the Main…
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Alzheimer’s Association selects South Carolinians for National Early-Stage Advisory Group
February 14, 2021
The Alzheimer’s Association has selected Greenville resident Maria Turner and Clover resident Laurie Waters to serve on its 2020-2021 National Early-Stage Advisory Group (ESAG). Turner and Waters were chosen from…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, non-profit, on-the-move
Making Grammar Fun Again – A Book Review; “Woe is I” by Patricia T. O’Connor
February 11, 2021
By Reba Hull Campbell Woe is I. She is going with Margaret and I. Which one is grammatically correct? The first one might sound wrong to the ear but is…
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Tough Guy, Soft Heart
February 11, 2021
By Tom Poland Jack Palance—A City Slicker The book world brings interesting people my way. Some are nobodies. Some are famous. Jack Palance was famous, a Hollywood tough guy,…
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Creating a Budget: Empowerment Over Constraint
January 29, 2021
By Anne Marie E. Ashworth, CFP® For many, budgeting has a lot of negative connotations. Tracking where money comes from and where it goes leaves some feeling frustrated and guilty.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: banking-and-finance, life, on-the-move
See Life In An Old Way
January 28, 2021
By Tom Poland Along A Back Road My sister, Brenda, gave me a cool shirt for Christmas, “Take The Back Roads,” one of those Life Is Good shirts. That…
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EngenuitySC’s 2021 Midlands Regional Competitiveness Report identifies areas of growth/opportunity in economic competitiveness
January 25, 2021
Columbia MSA maintained or improved rank in all five indicators of economic competitiveness On Monday, Jan. 25, EngenuitySC unveiled its 2021 Midlands Regional Competitiveness Report in an online launch event…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: economic-development, headlines, life, local-industry, non-profit, on-the-move
A Mess of Collards
January 21, 2021
By Tom Poland Last week an email from my friend, Pat Branning, known for her gorgeous Shrimp, Collards, & Grits cookbooks, sent me on a quest. Pat and I…
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The Illusion—Looking Young Forever
January 13, 2021
By Tom Poland Late, late afternoon it was. She walked into the restaurant and lit it up. A beautiful woman will do that, light up a place, but she…
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Fueling wider circle connections in a COVID world
January 6, 2021
By Reba Hull Campbell One surprising joy of this strange COVID holiday season has been the unexpected reminder of how my wider circles of friends and acquaintances provide necessary threads…
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Insignificant Treasures
January 6, 2021
By Tom Poland The things we collect. When I am gone my daughters will think their dad was a bit touched. Just why did he hang onto a rusty…
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Smut or Soot? Either Way It’s Dirty
December 21, 2020
By Tammy Davis This dirty little Christmas story happened to a friend of mine, a single mother named Dee. Her kids were young and still believed in Santa.…
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Winter Is Upon Us
December 21, 2020
By Tom Poland As I write it’s 38 degrees and rain is falling. We always seem to be just a few degrees away from snow. This winter a light…
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My Favorite Christmas Books
December 16, 2020
By Tammy Davis Angela and the Baby Jesus, by Frank McCourt, author of best seller Angela’s Ashes Angela and the Baby Jesus is based on the true story…
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If Another Earth Exists
December 16, 2020
By Tom Poland There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility…
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Christmas and Corona
December 10, 2020
By Tammy Davis Part 12 of a Very, Very Long Series – The Corona Chronicles When Covid-19 hit back in March, we lost our routines. Quarantine wiped out…
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Shifting Gears, End Of The Road
December 10, 2020
By Tom Poland Driving a straight means real driving. Need to pass a slowpoke? Down shift to third and hit it. By 5th gear he’s in the rearview mirror.…
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Q+ Architects expands leadership team: Robyn Rogers, Spencer Hutchinson named firm associates
December 7, 2020Quackenbush Architects + Planners named Robyn Rogers and Spencer Hutchinson firm associates, expanding their roles to reflect the firm’s growing list of projects and clients. “As key members of our…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: architecture, business-services, conversations, employment, life, on-the-move
No Crying At Christmas
December 3, 2020
By Tammy Davis As a first-year teacher, December found me worn out and looking forward to the Christmas break. That last day of school was a cold, dreary one,…
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Amazon announces 2020’s Best Books of the Year
December 3, 2020
On November 19, Amazon announced 2020’s Best Books of the Year, selecting Brittany K. Barnett’s “A Knock at Midnight” as the top pick. The inspiring true story is a brilliant…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Nature’s Engineers
December 3, 2020
By Tom Poland Back when I worked in wildlife cinematography, I tried to film the beavers on an old woodland pond back home. I’d get up before dark and…
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Sea Cadets raise new jack over USS Columbia memorial
December 1, 2020
Who were those masked young people at Memorial Park in Columbia recently, and what were they doing? Those were members of the Columbia (CL-56) Palmetto Division of the Sea Cadets,…
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Dreams and Dreamers and Drive-Thru Safaris. Part Two in a Series About Eudora Farms
November 23, 2020
By Tammy Davis Imagine getting a private tour of Disneyland led by Walt Disney himself. That’s how I felt as I walked the Eudora Farms property in Salley, SC,…
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The Sad Ballad Of Moses Corley
November 23, 2020
By Tom Poland Each Thanksgiving, I Remember Moses We all cross paths with a person we can’t forget. And so, a man by the beautiful name of Moses Corley…
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Camels and Ostriches and Zebras, Oh, My! Part One – My Big Adventure at Eudora Farms
November 19, 2020
By Tammy Davis When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong. I kept seeing posts on Facebook about a drive-thru safari park in Salley, SC. Lots of excitement about that…
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Where Big Trees, History, and Preservation Live
November 19, 2020
By Tom Poland October 26 found me on a history adventure courtesy of Ralph Scurry. Ralph and I met at a book talk in Edgefield several years ago. Ralph…
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Quackenbush Architects receive 3 2020 AIA Columbia Design Awards
November 18, 2020
Quackenbush Architects + Planners received three American Institute of Architects Columbia awards for its innovative work on the Center for Health and Well-Being at the University of South Carolina, a…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: architecture, business-services, construction, economic-development, education, life, local-industry, marketing-and-communications, on-the-move
Honest Columbia-area homebuyers return forgotten coins worth $15,000
November 11, 2020When an Irmo, SC couple recently sold their house to James and Clarrisa Munford, they were sure they had tied up all the loose ends before the sale. Repairs had…
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Country Mice and City Mice and A Little College Football History
November 10, 2020
By Tammy Davis Clemson’s star quarterback Trevor Lawrence tested positive for COVID. That was the headline for sports talk radio as we headed to the upstate, or God’s-country as…
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When The Apothecary Worked Magic
November 10, 2020
By Tom Poland Remember the old drugstores? Most have faded into the night. They retreated to a place called “Obscurity” but I recall them with fondness and I feel…
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Names, Let’s Get Them Right
November 4, 2020
By Tammy Davis This is not a story about politics. It’s a story about good manners and respect, something we all seem to be lacking right now. I’ve been…
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A Page Right Out Of Americana
November 4, 2020
By Tom Poland My excursions along backroads always reveal two nostalgic sights: the rusting tin and decaying wood of crumbling barns and old pickup trucks beneath sheds. They’re going…
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Things That Scare Us
October 29, 2020
By Tammy Davis Halloween has always been a stress-free holiday. Until 2020. To trick or treat or not? That is the question. Like most 2020 issues, there is no…
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Black Cats, Bad Luck, & Worse Luck
October 29, 2020
By Tom Poland Was it left to right, or right to left? When a black cat crossed the highway in front of Dad, he made a sweeping “X” movement…
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