Category: News Exchange Columns

Cold River, Warm Memories—Beginnings Tom Poland Posted December 28, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netAll the presents opened, good food and family time done for a bit, come the day after Christmas I found myself standing on the banks of cold Little River. Before me stretched a wall of rock and...

Rivers I cross Tom Poland Posted December 19, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netRivers make me say things out loud. As I drive alone over a river I often say its name. In fact, some rivers’ names beg to be pronounced. On trips to Florida, I cross the Altamaha. Saying its...

Things I have left undone Tom Poland Posted December 12, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netEach Christmas my mind goes back to a June day in Valdosta, Georgia. I was driving through slash pines to interview Robert “Bob” Clyatt. A defense lawyer, Bob represented employers and insurers. He was on the...

The Word Merchant Highway Tom Poland Posted December 6, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netUpon taking a writing position long ago, the boss of bosses shot me a sideways look, “So, you’re a word merchant.” Clever, I thought, but as time wore on so did he. A tyrant, nothing he said...

If people were leaves… Tom Poland Posted November 30, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netSuppose people changed colors like autumn leaves. Would it be a better world? It just might. For sure it’d be more colorful. Think about that. Say it’s late November, and your fingertips redden. The tips of your...

Time Tom Poland Posted November 22, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netYou know the song. “Time Is On My Side.” The Rolling Stones released it in 1964. Time was on my side back then, yes it was. It’s not today. And so for some reason, songs about time play in my...

Pancho Villa’s Fighting South Carolina Gamecocks Tom Poland Posted November 15, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI’ll file this column under the category, Fowl History. Did Mexican Revolutionary War General, Pancho Villa, ride a train to Calhoun Falls, South Carolina to buy fighting gamecocks? Did he? Read on to unravel this...

The Forsaken Land Tom Poland Posted November 9, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netKudzu covered its outbuildings. The farm was lonesome so I turned around and stopped to visit it. Right off I saw a dusty mule collar hanging on a stable wall. The farmer and his mule were long gone,...

The Colors Of Childhood Tom Poland Posted November 3, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI haven’t seen the old homeplace in a while. Not my homeplace, mind you, my childhood friend’s. That would be Sweetie Boy, he of the sweet temperament that spurred Granddad to nickname him. His Christian name is...

The Bygone Era Of Refinement Tom Poland Posted October 25, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netPrevious eras impress me. When I tour historic homes, for instance, the refined lifestyle their owners enjoyed stands in marked contrast to lifestyles today. The presence of fine china and sterling silver attest not just to...

The Beauty of A Dusty Dirt Road Tom Poland Posted October 24, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThe creeks dribble. Shorelines drop. Leaves crunch. Colors fade. Birds queue up around my fountains. The lack of rain robbed us of a lot of fall color. I drove through the countryside this week....

Fear Of Flying Tom Poland Posted October 14, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIt’s a good thing titles cannot be copyrighted. With apologies to Erica Jong, I title this self-confessional column, “Fear of Flying.” I cannot say I fear flying, but I am a most reluctant air traveler. I have reason to be. I’ve had two close encounters with...

The Dignified Mule Tom Poland Posted October 11, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netLike Halley’s Comet, I’m predictable. I come around to the same subject matter every so often. When I do, it’s because something triggered memories. A few days ago I drove past Washington, Georgia’s Mule Day Festival at Callaway...

The Lost Art Of Making Do Tom Poland Posted October 6, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netHe was twenty-six when the Great Depression arrived, thirty-six when it ended. A decade of doing without taught him something about survival. “Keep something seven years and you’ll find a new use for it.” Granddad’s...

Lincoln Street Tom Poland Posted September 28, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netOne word. That’s all it takes, and the brain’s mystifying chemistry swirls past and present into an amalgam we call life. Phases pass before us in an experience akin to schizophrenia. We’re different people as we navigate life’s phases....

An Effigy Of Rock Tom Poland Posted September 27, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netSomething like sixty years had passed since I saw it. This time, however, I saw it from above. The WPA built a beautiful tower of stone so you can get a birds-eye view of a bird of...

The Relentless Grind: Football’s Hidden Injuries Tom Poland Posted September 14, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netWinter Haven Florida, February 1996—I covered Cypress Gardens’ 60th anniversary for Ski World magazine. It was Florida’s oldest theme park, one where Southern belles wore hoop skirts, skiers leapt from ramps, and women skiers built...

Mud, crushed granite, and memories Tom Poland Posted September 13, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netNostalgia pulled at me hard. On the second Sunday in September, I decided to see three things that were no more. And so I drove up Georgia Highway 79 to mom’s old homeplace. Gone. As I...

Aluminum, Glass, Rum, War, & Hemingway: When Timelines Cross Tom Poland Posted September 9, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netThe vessels resemble, cousins of a sort, my worn canteen and its shiny glass companion. The two came to me by dissimilar routes. A friend brought me the rum from Key West...

Old Island Haunts: Add Hazel’s Café to the list Tom Poland Posted September 6, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netOld island haunts. The fever to develop islands didn’t destroy all of them. In a few instances, someone decided, “Not for sale.” And so you can still find old stores, cafes, and...

The Feared Invader Tom Poland Posted August 30, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netLet’s talk invasive species. One will bite you. You can bite the other. You can eat it, but given time it will entomb all you possess. Fire ants or kudzu? Which do people fear most?I believe kudzu tops...

Drowning The Past: What We’ve Lost Tom Poland Posted August 30, 2022 By Tom Poland A Southern Writer www.tompoland.net tompol@earthlink.net I spent a lot of time on Clarks Hill Lake (Strom Thurmond Lake), during my teenage and college years. I camped, boated, and skied, but over the years lake fun...

The CCC: FDR's Tree Army Tom Poland Posted August 24, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netIf my mother didn’t like something, she’d tell you. If she liked something, you knew that too, and she liked the Civilian Conservation Corps, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Tree Army.” That arboreal moniker resulted from the CCC’s...

The Pull Of The Macon Music Scene Tom Poland Posted August 19, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netI find my mind drifting back to Macon, and then I find myself driving kudzu-bordered roads. Macon, Georgia sits in the middle of Georgia. It’s not an easy drive from Columbia, South Carolina, to...

Book Event Season Is Upon Us Tom Poland Posted August 11, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netShe asked, and I told her. “What’s the writing life like?”“It’s a sentence to solitary confinement. You work in isolation for long periods, and that’s a good, peaceful day most days.”However, the day comes when...

The Power Of Moonlit Imagery Tom Poland Posted August 2, 2022By Tom PolandA Southern Writerwww.tompoland.nettompol@earthlink.netHerman Melville created Moby Dick, the great white sperm whale that bit off Ahab’s leg. James Dickey had a 12-point white buck that swam from island to island in moonlight. And I recall boyhood tales of...