Training continues for Sea Cadets at Relic Room – this time virtually
July 15, 2020Educational activities continue at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, but a little differently from what we’re used to. For instance, on Saturday, July 18, we’ll have…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, non-profit, on-the-move
Moving On, The Gift of Forgiveness
July 14, 2020By Tammy Davis A friend recently saw her ex for the first time in years. It was time to make peace. Past time really. She saw his truck when…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Ghost Stories
July 14, 2020By Tom Poland Great Aunt Annie, long buried in some graveyard up Asheville way, told me ghost stories when I was a boy. I’d sit by a hissing wood…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Old Dogs, New Tricks
July 8, 2020By Tammy Davis I love it when the universe gives us what we need. Lately, I’ve been trying to grow my audience. I’ve asked several experts for advice, and…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Saws, Maters, & Men Long Gone
July 8, 2020By Tom Poland Growing up in eastern Georgia deep in pines, I wakened to the wail of chainsaws six days a week. Yellow McCullochs and red Poulans sliced through…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
From Three Black Men to Two
July 2, 2020By Tammy Davis 1990. Summer School, a place nobody ever wants to be. One of my first teaching assignments, and nothing from my education classes applied. The students fell…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Fried Green Tomatoes
July 2, 2020By Tom Poland My back-road explorations take me to little eateries tucked neatly in the middle of nowhere, whistle-stop places. Country folks run these deep-fried, lonely roadside stops so…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
July 4th on Lake Murray
June 30, 2020The Capital City/ Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board is pleased to present Lake Murray’s July 4th Celebration scheduled for Saturday, July 4th. At approximately 9:15 or dark, fireworks will launch…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Summer camps continue at Town Theatre – virtual AND in-person!
June 29, 2020Summer Camps Continue at Town Theatre! Let’s go! Summer camp is in full swing ~ virtual AND in person options for ALL ages are available July 6-31. We offer a…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: education, life, music, non-profit, on-the-move, the-arts
This Is What We Like – Robert Gardiner, Jazz Musician
June 25, 2020By Tammy Davis January 2020. Date night, back when folks could actually leave the house. On that rainy evening, I showered, put on make-up, fixed my hair and wore…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
The Outhouse Flower
June 25, 2020By Tom Poland I remember Mom talked of a flower with a strange name, hollyhocks. She talked flowers a lot mentioning dahlias, Cape jasmines, which go by jasmines, gardenia,…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: life, the-arts
Grace Will Lead Us Home: A Compelling Guide to Understanding the Emanuel Church shootings
June 17, 2020By Reba Hull Campbell Rarely does a book appeal to all my “reading” senses – well written, important message, compelling story and human connections. “Grace Will Lead Us Home”…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Sword Drills and The Devil, We’re All Scared to Death
June 17, 2020By Tammy Davis If you grew up Baptist, you know all about sword drills. At my little church in Bishopville, SC, it went like this: the Sunday school teacher…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
A Childhood, The Biography of a Place
June 17, 2020By Tom Poland The book is 9.25 inches long, 6.5 inches wide, and less than an inch thick. Its 182 pages present a world well-fed folks can only guess…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Free lecture shows how one sailor’s story can be a window on all of history
June 15, 2020J.H. Minnis just missed out on the action of the First World War. But when you join the U.S. Navy, you get to “see the world.” And for his part,…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
The Bad Dream, the Book Bag, and the KKK
June 11, 2020By Tammy Davis 1993 found me at an alternative school with a mixed bunch of students. Trashy kids and nice kids. Plenty of thugs and more than enough rednecks.…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Just One Great Adventure
June 11, 2020By Tom Poland On my way back I crossed Clarks Hill Lake twice. In soft early evening light, the water lay like a mirror. Smooth as glass as we…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
The Soundtrack of the Pandemic – Those Voices in My Head
June 11, 2020By Reba Hull Campbell Hearing someone’s voice encourages a connection that’s completely different than just exchanging a text, an email or even a handwritten letter. A voice is as distinctive…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Vacations in Capital City/Lake Murray Country, South Carolina, start in the great outdoors
June 10, 2020Join in the outdoor excitement centered around world-class lake events from fishing to boating, as well as outdoor adventure like hiking and biking on countless trails With travelers easing back…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Ready or Not, It’s Back to Work.
June 4, 2020By Amy Coward When I came home from work a couple of months ago, I washed my thermos and stared at it. I wondered how long it would be…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Disasters and Dreams
June 3, 2020By Tammy Davis It took two disasters to throw me into writing. The first was a natural disaster: the Thousand Year Flood that hit in 2015. Thank you notes…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
July 4th on Lake Murray
June 3, 2020The Capital City/ Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board is pleased to present Lake Murray’s July 4th Celebration scheduled for Saturday, July 4th. At approximately 9:15 or dark, fireworks will launch…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Woods, Waters, and Flowers
June 3, 2020By Tom Poland A botanical superstar lives in the South. It’s exquisite, ephemeral, and periled, in that much of its habitat lies beneath lakes. I’m writing about the rocky…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Relic Room will reopen, with precautions, starting Saturday, May 30
May 27, 2020The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum will be open again starting Saturday, May 30, at 10 a.m. The museum, which has been closed since mid-March because of…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Quarantine Heartbreak
May 25, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Ten of The Corona Chronicles Part Nine here Part Eight here Part Seven here Part Six here Part Five here Part Four here Part Three here Part Two here Part One here After…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
If At First You Don’t Succeed
May 25, 2020By Tom Poland Among my father’s passions were birds and woodworking. He made bluebird boxes in his workshop and mounted them around home. He loved hummingbirds and looked for…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
A Few Life Lessons for New Graduates
May 21, 2020By Reba Hull Campbell When May 23 rolls around every year, I put aside all the other renowned celebrations that fall on the same day – Eliza Doolittle Day,…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Dusting Off Your Instinct
May 21, 2020By Cathy Rigg Monetti WHAT A STRANGE and unsettling time we’re in, suffering the coronavirus pandemic. Two months of self-isolation and at least we can say we have managed…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life
Relic Room awarded re-accreditation by American Alliance of Museums
May 20, 2020The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum has again achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums. National accreditation recognizes the highest standards of excellence among American museums.…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move
Parties and Pandemics – Slowing Coming Out
May 18, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Nine of The Corona Chronicles Part Eight here Part Seven here Part Six here Part Five here Part Four here Part Three here Part Two here Part One here Nothing says…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Junkyard Beauty
May 18, 2020By Tom Poland One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. It’s true. We live in a throwaway society and junkyard junkies seek bargains. Making use of discards is frugal.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Free lecture covers Nixon’s efforts to produce ‘peace with honor’ in Vietnam
May 18, 2020“Peace with Honor.” That’s what Richard Nixon promised voters in 1968, and it’s what he spent his time in the White House trying to achieve – extricating the United States…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Looking Pretty in a Pandemic
May 13, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Eight of The Corona Chronicles Part Seven here Part Six here Part Five here Part Four here Part Three here Part Two here Part One here Week eight, and…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
The Pull Of Beauty
May 13, 2020By Tom Poland Over the last five years, I’ve developed two traditions I plan to never break. Come March and come May, I drop everything and head to three…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Roosevelt Was Right; The Every-Single-Senior Project
May 6, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Seven of The Corona Chronicles Part Six here Part Five here Part Four here Part Three here Part Two here Part One here Part Seven of The Corona…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Buzzard Luck
May 6, 2020By Tom Poland A searing, sweaty summer day … just as my friend leaned over to pick up his dropped keys, his glasses slid onto the asphalt and cracked.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Love in the Time of Corona, Fishing and First Dates
April 30, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Six of a Very Long Series, The Corona Chronicles Part Five here Part Four here Part Three here Part Two here Part One here Courting in the midst…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Had Harry Sat Here
April 30, 2020By Tom Poland Rain, rain, and more rain. It hasn’t been a biblical forty days and forty nights but sure seems like it. A record sopping-wet winter has creeks…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Buddy bear.
April 30, 2020By Cathy Rigg Monetti There are a thousand reasons, I suppose, we are obsessed with the bear. He’s beautiful, for one. Big, and healthy, with a full shiny coat…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
The Toilet Paper Caper
April 22, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Five of the Corona Chronicles Part Four here Part Three here Part Two here Part One here I just finished the Toilet Paper Caper, a virtual 5K. Thank goodness…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
High As A Georgia Pine
April 16, 2020By Tom Poland The South and its vernacular, love it and never lose it. Seems to me, we have the finest, most colorful expressions. Yes, Southerners have a flair…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
The Things I Miss
April 16, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Four of the Corona Chronicles Part One here Part Two here Part Three here I’m following the governor’s orders, but I still had church and…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, the-arts
Be well.
April 16, 2020By Cathy Rigg Monetti YESTERDAY WE AWOKE to a strange and beautiful scene. It was 5:55 a.m., and through our east window we saw that slight but gorgeous glow…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
State Museum e-learning resources update
April 15, 2020While the State Museum is closed to the public, we are committed to continuing to fulfill our mission to providing educational environments that entertain and inspire.Museum curators and educators are…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: education, life, on-the-move
House Arrest Haircuts
April 8, 2020By Tom Poland Nancy’s eyes betrayed frustration and fear. “I can’t cut your hair right now. I’ve got to close.” Early April 2020, the year of perfect vision, what…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Virtual Education or Virtual Nightmare?
April 8, 2020By Tammy Davis Part Three of the Corona Chronicles Part One here Part Two here Parents are stressed out. Virtual education is a virtual nightmare for some. Here are…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: education, life, the-arts
When a House Became a Home Fifty Years Ago Today
April 8, 2020By Reba Hull Campbell Fifty years ago today, a young family moved into a house they had just built. Nothing spectacular about this. It’s an event as American as apple…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
Can we use social media for the good?
April 6, 2020By Reba Hull Campbell A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a rather long Facebook post spotlighting a couple dozen friends’ positive posts on social media. These friends shared, in…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Duke Endowment announces $1.25 million gift to One SC Fund: COVID-19 Response
April 3, 2020First round of grants distributed to five local nonprofits The Duke Endowment approved $2.5 million to support Carolinians impacted by the coronavirus crisis. In South Carolina, $1.25 million of the…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: health-care, life, non-profit, on-the-move
Ways to Cope During Social Distancing
April 2, 2020By Cathy Rigg Monetti THERE IS SO MUCH TO SAY, and also nothing to say, about the feels we’re all experiencing during this scary, awful pandemic. It reminds me of…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move






