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By Liesha Huffstetler-Wessinger Our modern culture really has no clue what real work looks like. Our forefathers in the bygone days worked harder than we can even imagine. In the old days, running water was found in a river. Water for washing, drinking, and cooking was from a hand-dug wellContinue Reading

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By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Photo: The ash door to the smokehouse in Historic Brattonsville. To some, the smokehouse remains a symbol of the impoverished, rural South. Not me. I see it as a rustic savior, and I thank the late Harry Crews for my column’s title. I recalledContinue Reading

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My lost geisha By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net It was the photograph in my father’s war album. Her white kimono. Hair black as onyx. Pale, serene face. Perfect bone structure. Gloss, a sheen upon her hair. On one side, a nameless GI. On the other, my father, not muchContinue Reading

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I had the privilege of interviewing Francis Eleazer in 2017. She was born in 1926, and her parents were William Walter and Eunice Eargle Eleazer. Her memories echo the stories of many others in the Dutch Fork. She grew up in the Spring Hill area and remembered her and herContinue Reading

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By Liesha Huffstetler-Wessinger How did the German immigrants get their land from King George?  It was called a “Kings Land Grant, and some of us “1752 locals” know the location our ancestor’s original land grant.   A rare few live on that land granted to the family 273 years later. TheyContinue Reading

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By Radley West The Two Most Detrimental and Overused Phrases in American Culture Today: “It’s Not Fair” and “I Deserve It.” In a time when motivational quotes plaster our screens and self-help slogans promise quick fixes, two seemingly harmless phrases are quietly chipping away at the very fabric of resilienceContinue Reading

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By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Photographs speak if you listen to them. That curling, cracked Polaroid of your deceased uncle and aunt tells a story as surely as the photos of Iwo Jima and V-J Day in Times Square images do. A world entire lives inside the four wallsContinue Reading

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By Liesha Wessinger-Huffstetler Gandy’s letter reveals some interesting information. He mentions John Wesley Lybrand, who moved to Aiken County and became rich. His granddaughter, Willa Lybrand Fulmer married Congressman Hampton Pitts Fulmer of Springfield, in Orangeburg County.  When Congressman Fulmer (1875-1944) died in office in 1944, she took over hisContinue Reading

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By Mike DuBose In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, unwanted phone calls, texts, and emails have become more than just nuisances — they’re serious threats. From relentless telemarketers to cunning scammers, cyber thieves, robot callers, and criminals are constantly devising skillful ways to invade our privacy, steal money, and exploit personalContinue Reading

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Red, messy, slick, and a trademark of the American South. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Drizzle drifted and spritzed as if it were January except it was October. Mists coated my camera. In its viewfinder red mud glistened in rain that slickened it to slip-sliding away status and thatContinue Reading

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The stories passed down by the older and wiser ones create a fascinating oral history for those of us today. I have a copy of a 1980 letter by Lee Gandy, an area historian, who interviewed the older residents. I do not have a copy of his research or otherContinue Reading