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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
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,…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: environmental, life, on-the-move, residential-real-estate
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
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.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
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…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
Blink Book Review #2: South of Heaven by Patti Frye Meredith
June 16, 2022
This is the second in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell For anyone who is southern by birth or has moved to the south,…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
Through Broken Glass
June 16, 2022
By Tom Poland The old church just wanted to be left alone, but that didn’t happen. Someone shot out her windows. Some kid’s BBs shattered panes, leaving sharp jagged…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
A Creek Runs Through It
June 9, 2022
By Tom Poland Writers title works and often they fail to come up with a good one. Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas comes to mind. Sometimes a gem of…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
The Cedars Of Philomath
May 19, 2022
By Tom Poland Long ago it was, in the late 1980s. I was in a hurry to get back to South Carolina. Thus did I take Georgia Highway 22,…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
A New Broom Sweeps Clean
May 18, 2022
By Tom Poland “A new broom sweeps clean, but an old broom knows the corners.” Mom pulled out this old saw when a new preacher attempted wholesale change or…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Upcountry History Museum presents iconic AP Vietnam War photos
May 13, 2022Iconic images are a powerful part of the collective memory of the Vietnam War, and the Associated Press produced a vivid visual narrative of the human story of the conflict…
Read MorePosted in: upstatebizsc Category: churches, life, media, military, non-profit, on-the-move
Rediscovering An Old Friend
May 12, 2022
By Tom Poland March 3rd is a day I’ll long remember. A bit earlier I had given a talk to the Kiwanis Club at the Darlington Country Club. Returning home…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
An Old Tree, An Old Academy
May 5, 2022
By Tom Poland A Magnolia and a School of Consequence As you top the Edgefield County rise, that fine word “copse” comes to mind. Copse, a small group of…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Cotton Pickin’ Memories
April 27, 2022
By Tom Poland My jaunts around the South take me past old haunts, a cotton gin now and then. I’ve seen gins in Salters, Bishopville, and other rural places.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Miss Emily’s Oak
April 20, 2022
By Tom Poland She planted the oak some sixty-eight years ago. Miss Emily was around twenty-six then. The years passed, the tree grew, and today it’s a setting Normal…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Masters Memories
April 11, 2022
By Tom Poland There comes a memory from long ago when Georgia had yet to win 1980 and 2021 national champions. No worries, Georgia was and is an annual…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, sports, the-arts
From Savior to Survivor
March 31, 2022
By Tom Poland Four relics remind me of how things used to be: fire towers, windmills, chimneys, and silos. I’ve written about fire towers, windmills, and chimneys but never…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: education, life, non-profit, on-the-move
Wild Horses
March 24, 2022
By Tom Poland When I hear some determined soul say “wild horses couldn’t pull me away” thoughts race through my mind. First, I think of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. You’d…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Just Say Something hosts 34TH Annual Red Ribbon Classic Golf Tournament
March 21, 2022
The 34th Annual Red Ribbon Classic Golf Tournament, presented by Reed Property Group, will be held on Monday, March 28th at the Thornblade Club, 1275 Thornblade Blvd, Greer, SC 29650-4515.…
Read MorePosted in: upstatebizsc Category: education, life, non-profit, on-the-move, sports
The Best Drink Of Water
March 16, 2022
By Tom Poland Seems to me, as the old folks would say, an aluminum dipper delivered the best drink of water. You’d sink that dipper into a wooden bucket. And…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Read The Fine Print
March 10, 2022
By Tom Poland Note: For Non-Offended Eyes Only Some say we are what we eat and that what we eat these days is killing us. Down in Australia, some…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Winter In Wambaw Bay
March 3, 2022
By Tom Poland The orchestra is quiet, as winter holds the conductor’s baton. Still, a song comes to mind. “California Dreamin” where much is brown and gray—every shade of…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
The Emperor’s Hem
February 23, 2022
By Tom Poland In the late 1990s, a time that seems ancient, I touched the emperor’s hem. That is I corresponded with a writer whose words revealed a style…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Noble Ruin of the South
February 17, 2022
By Tom Poland When man abandoned it, the traffic diverted west, and the forest began to claim it. Today, sycamores, cedars, and oaks console it, and wind and water…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
‘Rosie the Riveter’ had a lot to say in her letters to a boy in uniform
February 14, 2022
Catherine Ladnier says her mother never threw anything away. So when she died on Mother’s Day, 2001, there were a lot of things to go through in her house in…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
Miss Lucy, Childhood Legend
February 10, 2022
By Tom Poland “Perhaps you recall a person from childhood whom everyone kept their distance from. Enjoy this glimpse of small-town life in the 1960s.” Small towns have that one…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Bitters, A History In Life And Literature
February 2, 2022
By Tom Poland Among the dusty bottles and vase stand three alcoholic potions. I bought the matador-like bottle in Madrid when I traveled by train through hard, brown Spain. Next…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Crow Tastes Pretty Good In Snow
January 27, 2022
By Tom Poland My last column criticized I-20 as a barrier to snow in the classic South. “Winter after winter, radar reveals blue, pink, and white blotches rolling north…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
The Great Dividing Line
January 21, 2022
By Tom Poland Yet another dud weather storm forecast teaches me something. When the next Ice Age arrives, its frozen sheet will grind to a halt where I-20 crosses…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Remembering Smokehouses
January 20, 2022
By Tom Poland I wrote about old hand-dug wells not long ago. Many old wells had a companion nearby, smokehouses. I’ve written about these farm icons before, but a…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
More SC families say “YES” to organ donation in 2021 than any previous year
January 19, 2022
479 lives saved, 45,000 lives healed by SC donors During unprecedented times, South Carolinians find the courage to give. On their darkest day after learning of the loss of a…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: health-care, life, on-the-move
How to Buy a Car in 2022: Navigating The Automobile Shortage
January 14, 2022
By Mike DuBose The COVID-19 pandemic has had dramatic and wide-ranging impacts on the United States and the world as a whole. Most people are traveling, going to events, and…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: advice, banking-and-finance, life, on-the-move, transportation
The Old Hand-Dug Well
January 12, 2022
By Tom Poland Driving a country road, I passed an old well house. It didn’t look like a wishing well. It looked rustic, more like a shed, a practical…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
The Allure of Barbed Wire & Cedar
January 6, 2022
By Tom Poland Out in the country skinny metal fence posts rule pasturelands nowadays. I seldom see old cedar-barbed wire fences, but when I do they unleash a flood…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
No Gas, No Batteries, No Electricity Required
December 16, 2021
By Tom Poland All it requires is a steady hand. It doesn’t disturb the peace on Saturday mornings. So quiet is it, I doubt it’d suffer banning in ever-vigilant…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
A Vanishing Coastal Icon
December 8, 2021
By Tom Poland Photographers love to shoot them at sunrise. Riding a glittering golden sea, shrimp boats strike a classic silhouette with that orb of fire rising behind them.…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
That Legendary Everlasting Plant, Rabbit Tobacco
November 30, 2021
By Tom Poland She smoked it as a kid. Said she smoked grapevines too but it was Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium, one of the everlastings, she talked about most. She and…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, the-arts
Grandmom’s Fabulous Fried Pies
November 17, 2021
By Tom Poland She dried sliced apple, peaches, and pears on a slanted wooden table facing the sun. Nails prevented the fruit from sliding to the ground. Once it…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move, the-arts
Just Say Something hosts FUNraiser of the year
November 17, 2021
Everyone is invited to attend Just Say Something’s FUNraising for the Future Social Event, Silent Auction, and Live Auction on Thursday, November 18, 2021 from 6:00pm – 9:00pm at Jack…
Read MorePosted in: upstatebizsc Category: education, life, non-profit, on-the-move
Above, Not Below, The Jailhouse
November 10, 2021
By Tom Poland Standing in a courtroom, a malefactor dreads a dire warning. “If you don’t straighten up, I’ll put you under the jailhouse.” Uttered by many a judge,…
Read MorePosted in: lowcountrybizsc, midlandsbiz, upstatebizsc Category: life, on-the-move
