By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Summer 2022, St. Simons Island, I’m sitting around the pool when my niece, Harper, and her friend, Stella, ask me to tell them a story. I had seen a photo of a tuxedo cat smoking four cigarettes at a time. I make up aContinue Reading

One of the first things a new golfer hears is to “keep your head down” and “keep your eye on the ball.” While well-intentioned, that advice can sometimes be misunderstood. The player in today’s example shows many solid fundamentals, but at the top of the backswing, his face is noContinue Reading

Photo: Beyond the fence, an open battlefield filled with longleaf pines in 1780e. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Old battlefields seem more like parks. Trying to imagine cannon and cries of the wounded? Difficult, but not always. Farmers’ plows unearthed so many Minié balls at Shiloh, the soil turnedContinue Reading

Photo: Old Photographs By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” Cormac McCarthy’s words. Lord knows I’d like to forget some things, namely certain people I’ve known. Memory is a blessing and a curse but we areContinue Reading

Photo: Wilson’s Laundromat, The stories this place could tell. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net My first time home from college I took a bag of dirty laundry to Mom. She tossed it out the door. “You’re education has just begun. From now on wash your own clothes.” Thus didContinue Reading

No one hears the wind chimes. The parking lot stays empty. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net I call it the Roll Call of The Waiting. Inactive churches in need of friends. Friendship, Dothan Methodist, St. Simon’s Episcopal Church, Halfway Creek, Workman Methodist, Graham’s Methodist . . . the rollContinue Reading

By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net It’s a battle Britain claimed to have won, and yet it sent the Redcoats to Charleston and back to Britan ending their presence in the Carolina backcountry. I have visited six battlefields: Civil War battlefields Gettysburg and North Carolina’s Bentonville, Kettle Creek in GeorgiaContinue Reading

By Curtis Loftis State Treasurer As your State Treasurer and a fellow citizen of South Carolina, I am excited to inform you that our state’s future is in excellent hands. What began as a classroom activity to teach students about the importance of saving quickly turned into a statewide outpouringContinue Reading

A Collaborative Future for Our Natural Resources By Tom Mullikin Earth Day is a time to reflect on the state of our natural resources. Across the U.S., especially here in South Carolina, we are confronting a new environmental reality defined by intensifying storms, rising waters, and historic growth. These forcesContinue Reading