The Oldest Profession
May 20, 2021
By Tom Poland Hauling two wire cages of stacked stone, the flatbed turned right and crept uphill. Cormac McCarthy wrote that the oldest profession in the world is not prostitution.…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life
Live out who you were created to be
May 20, 2021
By Jeff Becraft I was never really into horse racing… but I knew who Secretariat was. Someone said the movie was good and so years ago, one Saturday afternoon, I…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life
County prepares for mosquito spraying, surveillance
May 18, 2021
Vector Control staff are gearing up for Richland County’s annual mosquito-spraying campaign. As part of efforts to control the adult mosquito population, crews will conduct surveillance for the insects, treat…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Reggaetronic Music Festival returns to Lake Murray
May 18, 2021
The 8th annual Reggaetronic Music Festival is returning to Spence Island on Lake Murray on 19 June 2021. The free floating festival will take place from 11 a.m. – 6:30…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Contractors’ staff shortages cause delays in curbside trash pickup
May 18, 2021
Because of staff shortages for contracted trash haulers, Richland County residents might see delays in curbside pickup of garbage and yard waste. The County contracts with several businesses to provide…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: government, life, on-the-move
City’s recreational swim season begins Memorial Day Weekend
May 16, 2021
The recreational swim season for the City of Columbia’s outdoor pools and splash pads/spray pools will begin Saturday, May 29, 2021, the Columbia Parks & Recreation Department announced. Both Maxcy…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Support local and reward your graduate Saturday mornings at West Columbia’s Meeting Street Artisan Market
May 16, 2021
The City of West Columbia Meeting Street Artisan Market is open every Saturday, from 9:30 AM – 1:30 PM, at the Interactive Art Park, 425 Meeting Street, West Columbia. The…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, local-industry, on-the-move
West Columbia Police Officers Foundation to hold 5K Foot Pursuit
May 14, 2021
The West Columbia Police Officers Foundation is holding its annual 5K Foot Pursuit this Saturday, May 15, 2021, at 8 AM. Participants will meet at West Columbia City Hall and…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: government, life, on-the-move
Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing
May 13, 2021
By Jeff Becraft One of my mentors says, “Too many choices and too many voices.” He is right. Taking a shower is a great example. It used to be that…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life
The Allure Of Copper
May 13, 2021
By Tom Poland The hills were red. Barren, like some alien landscape. Nothing green. Could have been Mars. I was just ten or so when Dad drove us through…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Relic Room to offer free summer admission to military personnel and families
May 10, 2021
The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum will join museums nationwide in the Blue Star Museums initiative, a program that provides free admission to currently-serving U.S. military personnel…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move
Breaking The Cult of Difficulty
May 6, 2021
By Tom Poland Many tell me how difficult they find writing to be. Well, they speak the truth. It’s difficult to write at a high level, and that’s why…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Lead Your Heart
May 6, 2021
By Jeff Becraft I’m not really a decision maker. I’m an analyzer. That’s what all the personality tests say. And the toughest decisions in life are not between right and…
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Still Bringing People Together: How Saluda Shoals Park Processed the Pandemic
May 6, 2021Wade Rainey University of South Carolina Honors Journalism Student Saluda Shoals Park is seeing a resurgence of visitors following the global pandemic that kept many guests away last year.…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: hospitality, life, on-the-move
Your role is important
April 29, 2021
By Jeff Becraft My wife, my favorite mother-in-law (and I frequently tell her she is my favorite mother-in-law) and all my sisters-in-law like Hallmark movies… especially around Christmas time. I…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life
William Bartram’s Wild Azaleas
April 28, 2021
By Tom Poland Blooms, blossoms, and bracts splash color everywhere you look this time of year. Daffodils and now dogwoods and azaleas add their voice to the spring…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
What is Normal Anyway?
April 28, 2021
By Amy Coward Back to normal. What does that even mean? We’re slowly stepping off the wild ride of COVD-19 on the other side and do we even know…
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The Heart of a Champion
April 21, 2021
By Jeff Becraft One of my greatest coaching moments in my life was in a basketball game with a team of 4th-6th grade girls that we lost… by 9 points. …
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By The Light Of The Silvery Moon
April 20, 2021
By Tom Poland Sunday night the moon hung full and bright over treetops. Like some silver dollar hurled into the night she floated full and beautiful, though pollen gave…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Let’s genuinely love those around us
April 15, 2021
By Jeff Becraft In Youth Corps, what you see is what you get. We recently had a virtual “luncheon.” It was basically 30 minutes of people telling of the impact…
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A Seashell Tradition
April 14, 2021
By Tom Poland There it was. A grave covered in seashells. It’s as close to a burial at sea as an inland dweller will get. My sister, Deb, told…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Draw your blades! SwordFest is back at Relic Room, on a smaller scale
April 13, 2021
We’ve been hunkered down for the past year, but the time has come to draw swords and come forth: SwordFest 2021 will happen on Saturday, April 24, at the South…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
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…
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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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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,…
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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,…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: hospitality, life, on-the-move
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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