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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Mayor Steve Benjamin presents Keys to the City to former owners of Yesterday’s Restaurant
October 27, 2020In Recognition of the Restaurant’s Decades of Economic & Cultural Contributions to Five Points & City of Columbia On Tuesday, October 27 Mayor Steve Benjamin will present the Keys to…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: economic-development, life, on-the-move
All Kinds of Heroes
October 22, 2020
By Tammy Davis Part Three of a Series on the Life of American Hero Major James Capers, Jr. Part Two here. He finally convinced the girl of his dreams…
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Doko, the film festival for high schoolers, goes all-virtual for 2021
October 20, 2020
In its third year, the Doko Film Fest is going completely virtual. The film competition for students aged 14 to 18 – the first such event for high school-aged filmmakers…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: education, life, on-the-move, the-arts
Strange, Promising Life Forms
October 19, 2020
By Tom Poland Here I am biking along a nature trail, when a juvenile delinquent squirrel shoots across my path with a cigarette in his mouth, only it wasn’t…
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Pumpkin Carving Contests and Erin Brockovich’s Bosom
October 12, 2020
By Tammy Davis Back in its hay day, The State newspaper hosted an annual pumpkin-carving contest for employees. I’m crafty and clever but could never win a prize. One…
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The Epitome Of Elegance
October 12, 2020
By Tom Poland Not that many years ago I wrote about Cape Romain Refuge in Aida Roger’s original trend-setting volume, State of the Heart South Carolina Writers on the…
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The Stoplight Project aims to help people express social distance comfort levels
October 11, 2020
NDB Association & Event Management recently announced the creation of The Stoplight Project, a campaign to bring awareness to the varying degrees of social distancing comfort levels in local communities.…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: business-services, churches, government, health-care, hospitality, life, marketing-and-communications, non-profit, on-the-move
Masks, A Review
October 8, 2020
By Tammy Davis Part Eleven of the Corona Chronicles Before Corona, I loved writing reviews about movies, restaurants, and concerts. I never thought I would write a review…
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Down South – Sheltering Along The Back Roads
October 8, 2020
By Tom Poland March 13, 2020 seems an eternity ago. That day my niece, Benton, got an unwelcome big 4-O birthday gift—a national emergency courtesy of COVID-19. “How lucky…
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Remembering 911
October 1, 2020
By Tammy Davis The Museum Came to Us Any other year, I would have taken the kids on a field trip to the museum. In 2020, the museum had…
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What’s Happening Around the Main Street District in October
October 1, 2020Congratulations Hotel Trundle & Boudreaux on Receiving the South Carolina Historic Preservation’s Honor Award The combination of the boutique Hotel Trundle and BOUDREAUX’s architectural studio was recently recognized by South Carolina…
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Shelter Rock, Rock of Ages
September 30, 2020
By Tom Poland DATELINE NORTHERN LINCOLN COUNTY—Boulders loom over land, gray and long like sperm whales. One, like some stallion’s back, seems ready for a colossal saddle. Massive rocks…
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Lockdown Comes To Town, Part Three
September 23, 2020
By Tom Poland The Bistro’s Before & During Tale Some Normalcy Returns I stopped by on another Friday evening. A cloudless evening gave the Bistro On The Boulevard’s columns…
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A Mess On My Hands, Part Two
September 23, 2020
By Tammy Davis A Story About The Volunteers Who Helped Clean Up Columbia’s Big Mess Part Two in a Series, Looking Back at the Thousand Year Flood The…
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Lockdown Comes To Town, Part Two
September 23, 2020
By Tom Poland The Bistro’s Before & During Tale Restaurants Close First A lot of moving parts make up a restaurant. Operating a restaurant is complex. Bistro On The…
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Looking Back – The Day Columbia Flooded, Part One
September 16, 2020
By Tammy Davis Part One in a Series About the 2015 Thousand Year Flood The Thousand Year Flood hit five years ago. Hard to believe. The first time…
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Lockdown Comes To Town, Part One
September 16, 2020
By Tom Poland The Bistro’s Before & During Tale During this cool strange spring there comes to me a blistering afternoon in 2019 when a train locked down Lake…
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Classroom Cameras and Wooden Stars
September 10, 2020
By Tammy Davis Even In Pandemic, We Need To Connect Part Ten of the Corona Chronicles Shopping the Classroom Teachers call it shopping the classroom. When one teacher…
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An Atlantis Of Our Own
September 10, 2020
By Tom Poland Atlantis sank into the sea around 380 B.C. So said Plato. Its founders were half god and half human. Its lush islands contained gold and silver…
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A Hero On and Off The Battlefields
September 2, 2020
By Tammy Davis Part Two of a Series About Bishopville, SC Native, Major James Capers, Jr. In the 1970s, he was the face of the Marines. Literally. The…
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Highway 79, A Historic Route
September 1, 2020
By Tom Poland Driving north on Highway 79 you see beautiful country in a region rich with history yet a tad poor looking. Don’t let the lack of development…
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Zoom series to feature Teddy Roosevelt’s tales of American heroism – Sept. 3
August 31, 2020
Before he was president, before he even charged up San Juan Hill, Teddy Roosevelt co-wrote a book about American heroes. Joe Long, curator of education at the South Carolina Confederate…
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Home Town Heroes
August 27, 2020
By Tom Poland Ware Shoals, SC Has One I wish every small town had a hero, someone who walks onto the national stage and stays untarnished by changing…
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A Nose for Local News
August 25, 2020
By Reba Hull Campbell The work of journalists has always intrigued me. I went to college thinking I’d be one. Even after I decided to get my degree in…
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Major James Capers, Jr. – An American Hero, Part One
August 24, 2020
By Tammy Davis He had no birth certificate. When he needed security clearance to join the Marines, the FBI made up a birth date for him – August 25,…
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Lessons for Us All
August 19, 2020
By Tammy Davis We all want our children in school, and we all want to be safe. Nobody is quite sure how to make that happen, but we do…
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Mr. Clifford’s Wild Turkey Heaven
August 19, 2020
By Tom Poland In a place called Childhood, Georgia, I worked for a country store grocer, Clifford M. Goolsby, who loved to hunt turkeys. Each spring the small town…
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Lecture to tell personal story of slavery in South Carolina, through war and beyond – August 28
August 13, 2020
Lavinia Corley Thompson was born into slavery in South Carolina on June 3, 1844. She would follow her master into battle in the Civil War, serving the Confederate army as…
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Bad Hair Days and Lessons from a Blow Out
August 13, 2020
By Tammy Davis Some call August the dog days. Women call it something else: bad hair days. SC humidity and hair styles don’t get along. Women hate their hair…
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The Roadside Stand
August 13, 2020
By Tom Poland Two words say it all. “Delicious simplicity.” No register. Cash and carry. Paper bags to hold jewels polished by the farmer’s hands. A friendly face. Produce…
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Over 1,000 acres now conserved in the Lynches River watershed
August 11, 2020
Over 1,000 acres in the Lynches River watershed are now conserved, thanks to the collaborative efforts of the McLeod family, Congaree Land Trust (CLT) and the Lynches River Conservation Fund…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: environmental, life, non-profit, on-the-move
The Mystery of Huguenot, Georgia
August 6, 2020
By Tom Poland I grew up unlettered as Huguenots go. That changed much later after I moved to South Carolina. There I drove along Huger and Gervais Street and…
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Tyler, Dustin, and the Streets Of New York City
August 6, 2020
By Tammy Davis Go ahead. Call me a bad mother. Back in 2019, I watched every single episode of The Bachelorette with my fifteen-year-old daughter. I knew it was…
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Survey respondents needed to Build it Back Better
August 3, 2020
South Carolina leaders urge parent to fill out Child Care Survey The South Carolina Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) and the United Way Association of South Carolina want to hear…
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All The Stories
July 31, 2020
By Tammy Davis A timeline. Every social studies classroom has one. Mine was up high, where the wall met the ceiling. The teacher before me, or maybe the teacher…
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Stonecutters’ Beautiful Legacy
July 31, 2020
By Tom Poland Stonecutters’ Beautiful Legacy I love back roads’ and their fading vestiges of yesteryear. Bull Durham and Coca Cola ads painted onto brick and old Camel cigarette…
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First-ever, free Drive-Through S.C. State Fair to be held Oct. 20-21, 2020
July 29, 2020
In an effort to give back to the community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit South Carolina State Fair will host its first-ever free, Drive-Through S.C. State Fair…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: agriculture, life, non-profit, on-the-move
Better At The Beach. Food and Family Vacations.
July 23, 2020
By Tammy Davis The only thing better than a week at the beach is a week at the beach with lots of good food. Vacations give families and friends…
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Tallulah Point Outlook, Part One
July 23, 2020
By Tom Poland An Enduring Icon Endures No More In that precious time of boyhood summers, our family would drive from Lincoln County, Georgia, to the North Carolina…
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