The Gift of Christmas “Presence”

  December 19, 2022

By Reba Campbell   We’ve just returned from a glorious two-week adventure in Germany, Austria and Hungary – most of it spent traveling with friends we’ve known since our young…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Things I Have Left Undone

  December 12, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Each Christmas my mind goes back to a June day in Valdosta, Georgia. I was driving through slash pines to interview Robert “Bob” Clyatt. A defense…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, the-arts

An Effigy Of Rock

  December 8, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Something like sixty years had passed since I saw it. This time, however, I saw it from above. The WPA built a beautiful tower of stone…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Tell your story

  December 8, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   Back when I was in my early 20’s, I heard a guy speak at a camp and he gave a message that he called “The 7…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Museum to remember Pearl Harbor on Saturday, Dec. 10

  December 5, 2022

It was, as usual, a beautiful Sunday morning in Hawaii. But it didn’t last long. At 7:55 a.m., the first wave of Japanese warplanes came flying over the Waianae mountains.…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, military, non-profit, on-the-move, veterans

Time

  December 1, 2022

By Tom Poland You know the song. “Time Is On My Side.” The Rolling Stones released it in 1964. Time was on my side back then, yes it was. It’s…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move

Luke entering Jerusalem

  November 29, 2022

A Biblically themed watercolor and the work of artist Paul Turnbaugh By W. Thomas Smith Jr. I love art; always have. No, I’m not an artist in terms of design…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Our attitude is ours

  November 22, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   On Thursday of last week, we took our other Texan grandson, two-year-old Levi, to the Aquarium in Dallas. This was quite an adventure… in more ways…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life

The Truth Behind Thanksgiving

  November 21, 2022

By Christophe Boucher Associate professor of Native American History College of Charleston   Just about everyone can get behind the themes of Thanksgiving – gratitude and sharing. But those weren’t…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: education, life, on-the-move

Pancho Villa’s Fighting South Carolina Gamecocks

  November 21, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland I’ll file this column under the category, Fowl History. Did Mexican Revolutionary War General, Pancho Villa, ride a train to Calhoun Falls, South Carolina to buy fighting…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, the-arts

The Relentless Grind

  November 17, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Football’s Hidden Injuries Winter Haven Florida, February 1996—I covered Cypress Gardens’ 60th anniversary for Ski World magazine. It was Florida’s oldest theme park, one where Southern…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, the-arts

What is your definition of a champion?

  November 17, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   I once asked our son’s baseball coach to speak to a group of guys I was working with through Fairway Outreach. We had taken them out…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Mud, Crushed Granite, And Memories

  November 10, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Nostalgia pulled at me hard. On the second Sunday in September, I decided to see three things that were no more. And so I drove up…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, the-arts

Epic Moments

  November 9, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   A couple of weeks ago, I talked about an epic moment in a grocery store. This week I want to talk about another epic moment that…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life

The Rock It! Co. names Katherine Underwood Director of Marketing

  November 9, 2022

The Rock It! Co., an immersive marketing and event production company for tech and software organizations, is pleased to announce and welcome Katherine K. Underwood as Director of Marketing. Underwood…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, upstatebizsc   Category: business-services, entrepreneurship, life, local-industry, marketing-and-communications, media, on-the-move

Aluminum, Glass, Rum, War, & Hemingway

  November 3, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   When Timelines Cross The vessels resemble, cousins of a sort, my worn canteen and its shiny glass companion. The two came to me by dissimilar routes.…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

The importance of community

  November 1, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   In the last month, we have had 3 different family members get covid… in Maryland, South Carolina, and New Jersey. And if you throw in a…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Drowning The Past

  October 27, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   What We’ve Lost I spent a lot of time on Clarks Hill Lake (Strom Thurmond Lake), during my teenage and college years. I camped, boated, and…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Teamwork – effective and fun!

  October 27, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   One of the most epic moments in my life happened in a grocery store. It was on an alumni trip back in the Youth Corps days. There…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, op-ed, the-arts

When we go through life and we try not to lose

  October 20, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   In Super Bowl XXXII, the Green Bay Packers played the Denver Broncos. The Packers were the defending Super Bowl champions. This was during the Brett Favre…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move

Old Island Haunts

  October 20, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Add Hazel’s Café to the List Old island haunts. The fever to develop islands didn’t destroy all of them. In a few instances, someone decided, “Not…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

The Feared Invader

  October 13, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland Let’s talk invasive species. One will bite you. You can bite the other. You can eat it, but given time it will entomb all you possess. Fire…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

First Female Real Estate Agent in Spartanburg – a Tribute

  October 12, 2022

A Tribute to my Grandmother, First Female Real Estate Agent in Spartanburg, SC: Diecy Gray Brennemann 1918-2022 By Taylor Vick, CFA / Grandson of Diecy / Blue Ridge Asset Management…

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Posted in: upstatebizsc   Category: commercial-real-estate, life, local-industry, on-the-move, residential-real-estate

The CCC

  October 6, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   FDR’s Tree Army If my mother didn’t like something, she’d tell you. If she liked something, you knew that too, and she liked the Civilian Conservation…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Today is the day

  October 6, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   One of the biggest causes of stress in my life is time. Which is kind of odd… because every single person has the exact same amount…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Courage is not the absence of fear

  September 29, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   Walter Payton was one of the greatest running backs in NFL history. At one point, he was the all-time leader in rushing yards until Emmitt Smith…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

The Pull Of The Macon Music Scene

  September 29, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   I find my mind drifting back to Macon, and then I find myself driving kudzu-bordered roads. Macon, Georgia sits in the middle of Georgia. It’s not…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Book Event Season Is Upon Us

  September 21, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   She asked, and I told her. “What’s the writing life like?” “It’s a sentence to solitary confinement. You work in isolation for long periods, and that’s…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Embracing the moment

  September 15, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   Our youngest daughter, Hannah, doesn’t like to eat at chain restaurants.  She likes to eat at local restaurants to get the local culture. I mentioned a couple…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

The Power Of Moonlit Imagery

  September 15, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Herman Melville created Moby Dick, the great white sperm whale that bit off Ahab’s leg. James Dickey had a 12-point white buck that swam from island…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

The National Park Nearest You

  September 8, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Here in the classic South, we have two choices when it comes to national parks. We have the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, the-arts

Kung fu and lizards

  September 8, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   Growing up, we would watch a show called Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.  An older guy named Marlin would wander out into the fray of wild creatures and…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

When Mobility Matters Friends and Colleagues Step Up

  August 31, 2022

Marcia Butler is a classroom teacher at Young World Day Care in Clinton. She works with the 2-year-olds in the morning and the afterschool kids in the afternoon.  Working with…

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Posted in: laurenscountybuzz   Category: life, on-the-move

Today is the day to love those around us

  August 31, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   Today is a day we have never seen… and we will never see it again. I have written before about Rev. Joe… back in May when…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Botanical Beauty—For Women Only

  August 31, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   What’s behind a name? Lots most of the time. Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s a mystery, but often it’s botanical. I’ve not met a woman named…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

The Gospel. Sunday Piano Memories

  August 25, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   The old book and instrument of wood and ivory need each other. In fact, they share what biologists call a symbiotic relationship. In my recall of…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

Doing something for someone else

  August 24, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   This morning, I pulled a mug out of the cabinet. On it is a moose and the words “Upper Peninsula.” I got it when Brenda and…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

When It Floods, And You Are In It

  August 24, 2022

By Cathy Rigg Monetti The Daily Grace The third time an emergency alert awakened me, I reached for my phone. It was dark, darkest dark, the bright light just outside…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move

Ferns, Nature’s Colonists

  August 18, 2022
Tom Poland

By Tom Poland   Ferns bless us with classic Southern settings but doing so isn’t always easy. Random winds pick up fern spores and scatter them, their destiny determined by…

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Posted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc   Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts

A new toothbrush

  August 17, 2022

By Jeff Becraft   Back in June, my wife gave me an electric toothbrush for Father’s Day. I am convinced that this toothbrush should be registered with the U.S. Geological…

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Posted in: midlandsbiz   Category: life, on-the-move