Author: Jen Madden

Making The Sea Bountiful Artificial Reefs & Memorial Fishing Grounds Tom Poland Posted April 26, 2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netEarly 1980s, it was. We put out to sink a ship. Waves tossed us about as we headed seaward to document the sinking of a Liberty ship. Seems it was the...

Moody Spring Tom Poland Posted 4/25/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netRounding a curve on Highway 107, I saw water spurting from handsome stonework set in a mountain. Moody Spring, I knew we’d stop. I had no qualms about drinking the spring’s water. It had no taste. That’s what made it great....

Your Continental Divide Tom Poland Posted 4/18/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netSomething trendy comes along that’s annoying and you resist. Some manager at work decides to implement a new work procedure. You don’t like it. “C’mon now, just go with the flow.” It takes courage to resist others. In going with...

Life’s Healing Elixir Tom Poland Posted 4/11/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.net A Sunday sojourn found me at Healing Springs near Blackville, South Carolina. There I stood on Gods Acre, property deeded to God. Palm Sunday it was, and processions came to be healed. Some came to slake a thirst driven by curiosity....

Drumming Up White Feathery Memories Tom Poland Posted 4/4/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netLong before I moved to South Carolina, family vacation trips took us over Charleston’s “New Cooper River Bridge.” To be accurate, we drove over the Silas N. Pearman Bridge to Mount Pleasant and Sullivan’s Island—destination surf and seafood....

Highway 61 Revisited Tom Poland Posted 4/4/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netFrom 22,000 miles high, a satellite dropped an uncanny merging of highway and music into my path. XM Radio played the comedic ACME siren whistle that rose, then fell smooth as silk. The second that whistle kicked off “Highway 61...

Memories Of Zebco Reels & Red Wrigglers Tom Poland Posted 3/30/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI drive west, Georgia bound,and pass it yet again, a place that pulls at my heart. My father had a worm farm, and my grandfather’s country store had a minnow tank. Fishing meant everything to me...

Behind The Lens Tom Poland Posted 03/20/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThirty-seven years ago I wrote “Worth The Wait,” a feature on photographing wildlife. South Carolina Wildlife magazine photographers Ted Borg, Robert Clark, and Phillip Jones gave me tips on seasons and subjects, cameras and lenses, film speed, light and color,...

We’re Sending You To … Tom Poland Posted 3/16/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIn the 1960s my father visited the Central State Hospital in Georgia. He may have gone to visit a relative. I recall a heated family gathering in the dining room. A relative had the family up in arms....

The Joy Of Scholarships Tom Poland Posted 3/16/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netAfter high school I hoped to land a scholarship to play football. I played first unit on the junior varsity ream and started three years on the varsity. Playing at a small college was a long shot at best....

The Home Place Tom Poland Posted 3/8/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIt’s a scene Normal Rockwell would have liked. We see an old hand-dug well, a corncrib, and an outhouse. A fine old cedar leans back as if taking a gander at my camera and me. We time travel here where...

The Green Of Winter Tom Poland Posted Feb. 28, 2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netPine pollen yellows my deck, but the green of winter colors my thoughts. Two things I like about winter. One, winter’s cold bones lay the land bare. You see things that go unnoticed when leaves flutter and...

Thirty Years—The Mountains To The Sea Tom Poland 1/21/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI remember the year well. 1984. It was my first year working as a staff writer for South Carolina Wildlife. I had just spent six years working in film for what would become DNR. Those six years opened...

A Walk In Winter Woods Tom Poland 2/14/2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI like boardwalks. Those that take you through protected natural areas. Several come to mind. The lovely boardwalk at Woods Bay takes you 1,150 feet through a cypress-tupelo swamp. Edisto Gardens’ 2,600-foot boardwalk also takes you through a cypress-tupelo...

We Need Tree Scholars Tom Poland 1/24/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThe January-February 2023 issue of South Carolina Wildlife magazine ran my story on Edgefield County’s Curryton Magnolia. The old tree’s close to being a state record magnolia but a magnolia with more state record potential lives at Hampton Plantation in...

A Writer’s Moon Tide Memories Tom Poland 1/23/23By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIt seems like yesterday though it was forty-five years. I took a job as a scriptwriter-cinematographer with the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department. I put my Journalism degree to work, writing film scripts about blackwater rivers, sea...

Devotion At An Abandoned Home Place Tom Poland Posted Jan. 10, 2023By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netNo matter how long, no matter how often you travel a road, it’ll surprise you. I’ve driven Highway 378 into Georgia for not quite fifty years. The road has been a journal, and some of...