Higher Ground
March 13, 2025
By Jeff Becraft Years ago, at a camp called SOTO out in the Ozarks of Arkansas, our kids and I were part of that week’s camp and we were…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Like Being in a Liberace Movie
March 13, 2025
By Tom Poland For thirteen years I jogged a trail running within 60 feet of stolen art hidden in the home of acquaintance Roger Streeter. I had no clue…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Silent Voices Can Live On
March 6, 2025
By Tom Poland It’s Up to You The passing of another year is close at hand, and I find myself thinking of people I lost in 2024. Each…
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Windows of refreshment
March 6, 2025
By Jeff Becraft There are windows in life. Sometimes circumstances can become overwhelming in life. It can be severe things… or maybe even little things that all start to…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Battle over teaching history in SC rages on: A report from the front
March 5, 2025
“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government,” said George Washington. And how well do you think we’re doing with that right now?…
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Return To Monkey Island
February 27, 2025
By Tom Poland Rated PG-13. When the news broke that forty-three monkeys were on the loose in Yemassee, South Carolina, people reacted big time. They double locked their doors and…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Making the choice
February 26, 2025
By Jeff Becraft The number one thing you can do to keep your car running is to change the oil. Now, I am not a mechanic by any stretch…
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True romance
February 21, 2025
By Jeff Becraft It has been a while since I’ve talked about my prowess on the ski slopes… so I figured it’s about time. I am a person when…
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Remembering John Culler
February 20, 2025
By Tom Poland I was on the phone with Joey Frazier, South Carolina Wildlife magazine’s editor. “Tom, did you know John Culler died last week?” I did not. Just…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
The Forgotten Rain Porch
February 14, 2025
By Tom Poland A reader and friend, Zilphy DuRant of Florence, South Carolina mailed me a letter and clipping from The Post and Courier about an architectural feature I’d…
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A great day to reach out
February 13, 2025
By Jeff Becraft Last Saturday, I got up and I just didn’t feel that great. Something was off. I thought maybe it was my sugar levels were off or…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Just Passing Through
February 12, 2025
By Tom Poland Tabernacle Baptist Church sits near an intersection where collisions seem to occur for no reason. Daylight, midnight, rain, drought, people keep wrecking. It got so bad…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Thomas Sumter Interpretative Center to launch at Sumter Museum
February 11, 2025
The Sumter Museum invites the public to the grand opening of the Thomas Sumter Interpretative Center on Saturday, Feb. 22, from 2 to 5 p.m. The center, dedicated to the…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Welcoming the new person
February 5, 2025
By Jeff Becraft My wife’s birthday is around the time of Thanksgiving. This was an especially significant Thanksgiving this past year because we got to see all four grandkids.…
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Free lecture to address Air Force intelligence analysis in Vietnam
February 5, 2025
Few of us are experts on the Vietnam War, but most of us have heard that perhaps the greatest flaw in the way the United States conducted it was that…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move, veterans
The Woods Back Home
February 4, 2025
By Tom Poland Heart Pine Heartbreak I grew up in a simple house. My parents built it in 1947. In the early 50s we kids had chores and among…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Learning perseverance
January 30, 2025
By Jeff Becraft Well… I finally figured out what DIY stands for – Destroy It Yourself. I have said before that someday I’m going to start my own YouTube…
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Karl the Kool-Smoking, Chain-Smoking Kat
January 30, 2025
By Tom Poland Can Your Imagination Turn Real? Summer 2022, St. Simons Island, I was sitting around the pool when my niece, Harper, and her friend, Stella, asked me…
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University of South Carolina Dance Marathon
January 23, 2025
University of South Carolina Students Stand Together to Make Endless Miracles University of South Carolina Dance Marathon celebrates a yearlong fundraising initiative on Feb. 22, revealing the number of miracles…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: health-care, life, marketing-and-communications, non-profit, on-the-move, philanthropy
The Lost Art of Letter Writing
January 23, 2025
By Tom Poland When you write about earlier times as I often do, you hear from people who lived the very days you describe. Over the course of summer…
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Learn about World War I aviators from South Carolina
January 22, 2025
If you’re of a certain age, you may recall a silly comedy film from 1965 called “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.” It made slapstick fun of man’s often…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move
Living above our feelings
January 20, 2025
By Jeff Becraft Over the years, when our kids were younger, they would go with me on most of the camps and retreats, and one of those camps was…
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Parris Balazs of Eventfully Chic by Parris named winner of The Knot Best of Weddings 2025 and WeddingWire Couples Choice Award 2025
January 17, 2025
19th Annual Best of Weddings Awards Recognizes Top Wedding Professionals Across the U.S. Parris Balazs, owner of Eventfully Chic by Parris, announced that her company has been selected as a…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: business-services, entrepreneurship, life, local-industry, media, on-the-move
South Carolina sledding
January 16, 2025
By Jeff Becraft Years ago, one Sunday morning, there were some snow flurries. A member of our church called us up and said, “We’re not going to be meeting…
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Georgialina—A Southland As We Knew It
January 15, 2025
By Tom Poland In 2015, the University of South Carolina Press released my collection of memories on how things used to be. Here, then, is a trip down memory lane…
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SwordFest 2025 comes early to the Relic Room, on Jan. 25
January 13, 2025
Folks who are not historians tend to think of warfare in terms of things that go bang – rifles, machine guns and bombs. But for most of human history, certainly…
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The ladder
January 9, 2025
By Jeff Becraft Recently on New Year’s Day, I got to use the ladder. Now this is the ladder. This is the ladder I got the Friday after Thanksgiving on a…
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Fluffy overused words are the drunk party crashers of writing
January 9, 2025
By Reba Hull Campbell It’s National Word Nerd Day, the perfect excuse to call out fluffy, pet peeve words that are a writer’s equivalent of drunk party crashers. These drunk…
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The New Orleans Blues
January 7, 2025
By Tom Poland New Orleans-bound, Georgia Dawgs Andy and I left Columbia, South Carolina, December 31 at 7:30 a.m. Headed to the Sugar Bowl, our rooms waited at a…
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Historic Columbia announces January 2025 events
January 6, 2025
Historic Columbia announced programming and events for January 2025. See the full list of January events below and be sure to leave room in your calendar to experience all Historic…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: hospitality, life, on-the-move
Endeavor kicks off New Year with superstar local entrepreneurs at signature Collaborators & Cocktails event
January 6, 2025
Endeavor Kicks Off New Year with Superstar Local Entrepreneurs at Signature Collaborators & Cocktails Event Insightful, Candid Session to Feature 6AM City Founders Endeavor Workspaces welcomes local entrepreneur duo, Ryan…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: conversations, entrepreneurship, life, local-industry, marketing-and-communications, media, on-the-move, social-scene
Eat Well Wednesdays Kick Off at the Clinton Library
December 28, 2024
The Clinton Library is excited to announce the launch of Eat Well Wednesdays, a brand-new Nutritional Food Program beginning on January 8th, 2025. This engaging series, presented in partnership with…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz, laurenscountybuzz Category: education, entertainment, food, health-care, life, on-the-move
Play the ball; don’t let the ball play you
December 19, 2024
By Jeff Becraft They say in baseball, “Play the ball; don’t let the ball play you.” That means on a ground ball, you want to field the ball where…
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Walking Through Prairie With Philip Juras
December 12, 2024
By Tom Poland August 21, 6:15 p.m. Philip Juras and I are walking through remnant prairie. His mission is to paint a vestige of our lost Southland. Mine is…
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The Price of Going Higher: A Tale of Ladders, Effort, and Perspective
December 12, 2024
By Jeff Becraft I used to own just one ladder. It’s an aluminum extension ladder and it lives in our garage. It doesn’t just hang on a wall… it’s…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, on-the-move
Leonard’s Losers
December 11, 2024
By Tom Poland The show claimed to raise your pigskin IQ. To get my weekly prescription of smart pills, I’d tune in the crackling, AM station to hear what…
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Fallen Color
December 5, 2024
By Tom Poland And a Never-Forgotten Dog Can uprooted trees flaunt fall color? No. Dead men don’t talk and dead leaves don’t reveal colors. I figured it was impossible.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
The best things are priceless
December 4, 2024
By Jeff Becraft For this past Thanksgiving, our daughter and her family came in from Texas with the two grandkids. And then our son came in Tuesday night with…
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Simpsonville woman writes book on faith and healing
December 4, 2024
A local woman has written her first book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made– a true story of how she overcame trauma, rediscovered her faith, and began to heal herself. A Michigan…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
Come get ready for Christmas on Pearl Harbor Day – Dec 7
November 20, 2024
December 7 will always be the “date which will live in infamy,” as President Franklin Roosevelt put it. And we will always remember. But on this Pearl Harbor Day, we’ll…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: life, military, on-the-move, veterans
There’s just something about working together
November 20, 2024
By Jeff Becraft There is a real camaraderie that happens when you work together, when you work side by side with others, shoulder to shoulder. Something happens in a relationship…
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We’re Soft & We Can’t Deny It
November 20, 2024
By Tom Poland Mama trembled when she talked about the Great Depression. I never forgot that. She’s gone and only the oldest survivors recall those hard times. Today’s full-plate…
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A Kind Word for the Irish Travelers
November 20, 2024
By Tom Poland A few years back I was frustrated, trying to get a book off the ground but it just wouldn’t come together. My limitations as a writer…
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Through the fog
November 14, 2024
By Jeff Becraft Recently, I have talked to our son and a couple other people who live in the western North Carolina area. Our son described taking his daughter…
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Cassette Music Memories
November 12, 2024
By Tom Poland Last week my writer-daughter, Beth, wrote a story about her MTV years. She recalled the 1980s watching music videos. She wrote, “When my sister and I…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Choose to be better
November 7, 2024
By Jeff Becraft I voted early this year. (And this is not an email to sway anyone in a particular political direction.) As I was standing in line, I…
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A Thin White Line
November 6, 2024
By Tom Poland CUMBERLAND SOUND, Fernandina Beach, Florida (Nov. 1, 2024): The catamaran motors by pelicans perched upon piers. It passes monstrous, red-orange contraptions that could be the Martian…
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USC’s Sonoco International Business Department being honored with Global Vision Award from Columbia World Affairs Council
November 6, 2024
The Darla Moore School of Business’ Sonoco International Business Department is being recognized by the Columbia World Affairs Council for the renowned IB program’s 50-year anniversary with the 2024 Global…
Read MorePosted in: midlandsbiz Category: business-services, economic-development, education, entrepreneurship, life, non-profit, on-the-move
Relic Room to host 33rd SCMMS Toy Soldier Show
November 4, 2024
The S.C. Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum will welcome you to the South Carolina Military Miniature Society’s 33rd Annual Toy Soldier Show on Saturday, Nov. 9, from 10 a.m.…
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Best Foot Forward
October 31, 2024
By Jeff Becraft I was once reading a book by Tony Dungy and he was describing a time in his life where he was heading into an interview with…
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