South Carolinians who get their electricity from one of our state’s 20 co-ops (including Pee Dee and Santee Electric) and directly from Santee Cooper are in debt to the tune of over $8 billion. Half of that comes from Santee Cooper’s 45 percent ownership

I took a deep breath and entered no man’s land, a hair salon. Dolly’s Salon, however, I would discover is not your ordinary salon. My muse, Memory led me to write about this unusual salon in Edgefield. A classmate who did my mother’s hair for many years d

I had to see it. I heard it was up North Carolina way, and with the aid of my son-in-law’s Garmin GPS I found it, the resting place of mules and horses. To see this poignant cemetery is to see how urban encroachment chews up farmland. To see it is to witn

Dear Editor, My name is Alexis Hinson and I am a junior in the IB Program at Wilson High School. I have been a student in Florence School District 1 for my whole life and have experienced the horrible conditions in the buildings of our district. There is

I am writing to suggest that owners of residential rental and commercial property think twice before voting for the Florence District One Referendum. In 2018 the tax per $100,000 for my personal residence was $323.23 while the tax on a commercial building

A defining moment in determining Florence’s competitive future in South Carolina will occur with the citizens’ vote in the school board referendum. Recruitment of quality teachers and the replacement of the aging and disgraceful learning environments for

By Tom Poland Despite all those bygone years the memory remains. Having my photograph taken. That was a big deal before phones turned cameras. There I am, circa 1957, standing amid green and yellow clumps of daffodils. Dad posed me in their midst for my

Dear Editor: I am a Junior at South Florence High School and an intern with Students First. I wanted to help with the referendum because I believe that I should work to leave this world a better place than it was when I got here. As long as I’ve been a s

I’ve been writing about how the South is changing for a while now. That’s why I was asked to take part in Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit, “Crossroads, Change Comes To Rural America.” By the time you read this I will have taken the stage at the Newberry O

By Tom Poland I played trumpet in the Lincolnton High School band. Well, that’s not true. I was in elementary school, not high school, so the band must have had another name, and I never played the trumpet. I tried. I would quit the band to play football

By Tom Poland In Sunday drives’ heyday, air conditioning was gaining momentum but you’d be hard pressed to find air-conditioned stores and homes in rural areas. Oh, you might see a window unit or two but central air was rare. Breezes blew back windows’ c

By Tom Poland Hollywood props, of all things, took me back to family roots in Georgia. I was bored, a rare malady, for which the cure is a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western (so named because Italians directed them). A scene in Pale Rider featured a famili

by Thomas L. Knapp In March, US president Donald Trump promised the American public that US troops would be leaving Syria “very soon.” Nine months later, he threw Washington’s political establishment into turmoil by finally ordering the withdrawal he’d p

By Tom Poland Christmas Day blesses us with good times with family and food, and, yes, it’s a day of giving, but how many gifts, among the many, do you remember? Not many I bet. Well, some gifts stand tall in memory. I’d think country boys remember thei

By Tom Poland Growing up before weather satellites was great when I was a kid. Come winter, I’d go to bed unaware that rain was washing in from the west and cold air descending from the north. A colossal winter collision was in the making and the next mo