The Forsaken Land
February 10, 2023
By Tom Poland Kudzu covered its outbuildings. The farm was lonesome so I turned around and stopped to visit it. Right off I saw a dusty mule collar hanging…
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The Colors Of Childhood
February 2, 2023
By Tom Poland I haven’t seen the old homeplace in a while. Not my homeplace, mind you, my childhood friend’s. That would be Sweetie Boy, he of the sweet…
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South Carolina State Fair Opens Applications for 2023 College Scholarships
February 1, 2023
The South Carolina State Fair, a self-supporting 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is now accepting applications for its 26th annual Ride of Your Life Scholarship program, which awards $300,000 in college scholarships…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc, laurenscountybuzz Category: agriculture, education, life, on-the-move
The Bygone Era Of Refinement
January 27, 2023
By Tom Poland Previous eras impress me. When I tour historic homes, for instance, the refined lifestyle their owners enjoyed stands in marked contrast to lifestyles today. The presence…
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St. Pat’s in Five Points announces band line up
January 19, 2023
St. Pat’s in Five Points, one the Southeast’s largest St. Patrick’s Day festivals, announces its 2023 band lineup for the 41st annual event, which returns on Saturday, March 18 in…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: conversations, entertainment, life, music, on-the-move, social-scene
Fear Of Flying
January 19, 2023
By Tom Poland It’s a good thing titles cannot be copyrighted. With apologies to Erica Jong, I title this self-confessional column, “Far of Flying.” I cannot say I fear…
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A dozen ideas to get reading more in 2023
January 17, 2023
By Reba Hull Campbell Reading has always been a delight for me. I loved the library’s summer reading clubs when I was a kid. Browsing bookstores is a favorite pastime…
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The Dignified Mule
January 12, 2023
By Tom Poland Like Halley’s Comet, I’m predictable. I come around to the same subject matter every so often. When I do, it’s because something triggered memories. A few…
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Green Bay couple opens Wisconsin Meat & Cheese store in Charleston
January 9, 2023A Wisconsin couple is spreading the culinary joys of the Badger State one stick of summer sausage and package of cheese curds at a time. Casey Diedrich and Taylor Ambrosius…
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The Lost Art Of Making Do
January 5, 2023
By Tom Poland He was twenty-six when the Great Depression arrived, thirty-six when it ended. A decade of doing without taught him something about survival. “Keep something seven years…
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Black Food Truck Festival presents Battle of the Bands
January 5, 2023
Tickets are on sale now for Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend at The Music Farm The Black Food Truck Festival presents The Battle of the Bands at The Music Farm,…
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Lincoln Street
December 19, 2022
By Tom Poland One word. That’s all it takes, and the brain’s mystifying chemistry swirls past and present into an amalgam we call life. Phases pass before us in…
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An Effigy Of Rock
December 8, 2022
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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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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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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Pancho Villa’s Fighting South Carolina Gamecocks
November 21, 2022
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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The Relentless Grind
November 17, 2022
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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Mud, Crushed Granite, And Memories
November 10, 2022
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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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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Aluminum, Glass, Rum, War, & Hemingway
November 3, 2022
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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Drowning The Past
October 27, 2022
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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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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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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Old Island Haunts
October 20, 2022
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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The Feared Invader
October 13, 2022
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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The CCC
October 6, 2022
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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The Pull Of The Macon Music Scene
September 29, 2022
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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Book Event Season Is Upon Us
September 21, 2022
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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The Power Of Moonlit Imagery
September 15, 2022
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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The National Park Nearest You
September 8, 2022
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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Start Planning Now: 7 Things You Have To Do On A Trip To The Hammock Coast
September 2, 2022
The weather along South Carolina’s Hammock Coast is near perfect in the fall. The summer humidity recedes and with average high temperatures of 77 degrees in October and 70 in…
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Botanical Beauty—For Women Only
August 31, 2022
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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The Gospel. Sunday Piano Memories
August 25, 2022
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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Ferns, Nature’s Colonists
August 18, 2022
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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Blink Book Review #11: A Double Dose – “Enough Already” by Valerie Bertinelli and “Back to the Prairie” by Melissa Gilbert
August 17, 2022
This is the eleventh in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell My recent beach reading consisted of memoirs by two actresses from my childhood…
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Formosan subterranean termites confirmed in Aiken County
August 11, 2022
Local entomologists recently announced the discovery of Formosan termites for the first time in Aiken County. While subterranean termites are common in the Palmetto State, the Formosan subterranean termite species,…
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Vintage Enamelware
August 10, 2022
By Tom Poland I was visiting the past at the Lincoln County History Park when I spied a graceful blue enamelware pot sitting among fire logs. Warm memories came…
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Blink Book Review #10: “The Splendid Beauty … A Dog and His People” by Rick Bragg
August 10, 2022
This is the tenth in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell A young friend recently asked me to choose my favorite dog book. I…
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Thistles, A Prickly Subject
August 4, 2022
By Tom Poland We’d be walking to a farm pond in quest of bream when Grandmom Poland would spot a thistle. “Watch out for that nettle.” She’d hardly break…
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Blink Book Review #8 – “Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR” by Lisa Napoli
August 4, 2022
This is the eighth in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell This book is the story of four women from vastly different backgrounds who…
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Groundbreaking feminist-driven dating coaching company aimed toward men announces upcoming launch of services
July 26, 2022
Modern Meet, a groundbreaking feminist-driven dating coaching aimed toward men, is announcing the upcoming launch of their services on August 1, 2022. Sara Tick, experienced dating coach and founder of…
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Blink Book Review #7: “Swimming with the Blowfish: Hootie, Healing and One Hell of a Ride” by Jim Sonefield
July 21, 2022
This is the seventh in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell Memoirs can often fall into two categories – hugely self-aggrandizing or humbly honest.…
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A Peach Of A Summer
July 20, 2022
By Tom Poland From my orchard of memories a lonely peach tree stands in the front yard of my youth. The tree looked sickly and produced fruit a tad…
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Porch Sitting
July 14, 2022
By Tom Poland It’s a vanishing art, porch sitting. There was a time, though, when folks retired to the porch just to pass the time. As a boy, I…
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The Rocky Shoals Highway
July 7, 2022
By Tom Poland Come May-June I burn the Rocky Shoals Highway up. I drive from Irmo, South Carolina to McCormick County and on into Georgia. My mission? Visiting two…
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Blink Book Review #5: “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott
July 7, 2022
This is the fifth in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell I recently reread Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” for the umpteenth time in…
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Folk Medicine Remedies
June 30, 2022
By Tom Poland Like the Black Crowe’s “Remedy, and its line, I need a remedy”, folks of yesteryear needed remedies and they came up with them. We call their…
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Blink Book Review #4: Going There by Katie Couric
June 30, 2022
Katie Couric’s memoir, “Going There,” gives readers a delightful and amazingly honest narrative about not only her personal life but also many of the national and international news stories from…
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Aldo’s Bench
June 24, 2022
By Tom Poland The bench you see overlooks an estuarine creek. That creek snakes its way into a wider creek, Pine Creek, I believe, that snakes its way into…
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Blink Book Review #3: Educated by Tara Westover
June 21, 2022
This is the second in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell When “Educated” first came out in 2018, I remember seeing the book in…
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