Fun Time in Pee Dee

Coming to your from Eye on the Pee Dee

Here it is another Football weekend and everyone is gearing up for Fall.  Many things going on in the area this coming week.    Francis Marion Performing Arts Center on Thursday night has Florence JazzMasters performing.  My BFF Miss T will be singing her sultry jazz songs for your enjoyment.  Great sound for all ages.

WINE, SWINE, BRATS & BREW

Friday night, Saffron Catering in Hartsville is hosting a Wine, Swine, Brats & Brew BBQ Event.  Bill Travis of Travis Jewelers will be cooking up his fantastic BBQ Ribs, Pulled Pork and throwing some brats on the grill.  Reservations MUST be made by Tuesday pm as Bill has got to get the meat and start preparing it.  Fun time.  You can choose, Combo Plate, $20, Ribs Plate, $18, Pulled BBQ Plate, $11 or Brats Plate, $8.  Sides of baked beans, cole slaw, mac n cheese will be your options and cornbread will be served with each meal.  Come join Saffron, you'll be glad you did.  Saffron is located at 110 W. Pinewood Avenue, Hartsville.  Their phone number is 857-1978.


               PIM'S FARM CORN MAZE

This Saturday is the Pim's Farm Corn Maze Festival.  Pim Booth has 2 corn mazes for you and your family to weave your way through.  Festival starts at 10 a.m. with a tribute to the Indian tribe that existed in the Society Hill area many years ago.  Old machinery, harvesting equipment people making crafts and home items as they did many years ago.  Disc golf is available along with a "primitive" putt-putt golf course, cow train, live animals and much, much more.  Pim's Farm is on Dovesville Highway between Darlington and Society Hill or between Hartsville and Society Hill.  Pim and the gang look forward to seeing you come and have a fun time.

              RED VELVET CAKE WARS

Hartsville Community Players presents a hilarious comedy Red Velvet Cake Wars.  This play has a huge cast and will certainly bring laughs to everyone attending.  Same writer as the "Dixie Swim Club", the family has returned to see who makes the best cake.  Friday, Saturday evenings and a Sunday matinee. check out Hartsville Community Player's webpage for times.

                                            AT THE CINEMA

And for those of you who haven't seen "The Help" you are missing a great movie.  Some nominations are sure to come out of this one.  Having lived in the South since 1980, this is what went on in the social scenes in small and large Southern towns.  Some of that is still around, I just hope we have learned to embrace each other and make this a better world working together rather than working separately.

Until we meet again, enjoy a great meal, perhaps even a great wine, but more important hug your family and tell them you love them.  Never know when tomorrow never comes!www.eyeondetail.biz

Children of Children & Grandparents

Coming to your from Eye on the Pee Dee

In the last year I have come across many situations of children having children and not being married and the reactions of grandparents.  As a grandparent of 5 beautiful grandchildren and two sons that are married these are my thoughts.  This article is about friends of mine living outside the Pee Dee area.

Being married at a young age and having children or being a single mom or dad is not an easy road to embark upon, but thinking your parents are going to babysit, feed you, house you, and give you free range of whatever you want to do when you want to do it is completely wrong.  I think you're playing on the emotions, especially, grandma-to-be, that they will always be there at your beckon call.  Grandparents have a life too.  They raised you, gave you an opportunity to have an education, probably provided you transportation and insurance for a car, in many cases, clothed you and took care of you when you were sick.

In the last two years I've watched two specific cases where the mom's go along their merry way and grandparents have taken the responsibility of being the care-giver and provider for the baby. How fun it is to go out and party and not have to worry about "the baby". When are we going to teach our children responsibility and be to be responsible for their actions?  Grandparents end up becoming enablers for these children.

Now, if grandparents want to be involved in their grand children's life and want to do and offer to do these things freely that's another story.  I will agree with the saying that grandchildren are the best.  As a grandmother, I can see my grandchildren, play with them, spoil them and then send them on their merry way.  Not the case if they were living in my home.

What's a grandparent to do?  What if they were young and came to us and said they were going to have a baby?  I would not have responded with a very open heart and probably would have be the "tough love" person in that situation.  As for the child, that child didn't ask to be brought into this world but I'm sure I would soften a bit around the edges.

Teaching children that they are responsible for their actions and that they need to be prepared for the consequences in whatever they do, was a deterrent for me not to stray to far from the "straight and narrow".  We as parents can't pull our children out of every bad situation.

I hope you as a parent are never faced with a situation when your child tells you there is a baby on the way.  It's a heartbreaking story to hear and it's a struggle to go through it.  Let's help young people make better decisions and wait to have 2 parents in a child's life.  It's not easy even then but some of the burden can be shared.   Parents raising grandchildren is not the answer but it is an option.

Kids Caught in the Middle: Schools & Education

I have observed for many years that the children at the top of the class and the children at the bottom of any given classroom setting are getting the best education in the public schools.

Why is that?  I think there are a number of factors involved.  An article, written by Janelle Martin, a retired math and special education and children's books author,  in the State Newspaper this week shared data from the annual Kids Count on children's well being which reveals the following:
24% of SC children are born to mothers with less than a high school education
45% of births are to single mothers, increasing the likelihood of a child living in poverty
20% of children tested "not ready" for school at age 5
64% of children living in poverty are never ready to by the parent

Startling statistic compiled for our state.   What are we to do?  From my perspective, there are several things that can be done.  First is to get the parents involved in children's lives.  It takes a village to raise a child.  That village consists of school, parent and the community.  Parents need to read to their children, take interest in what they are learning in school and if they are not able to help their children with their homework engage this people that can help their children have the best education possible.

Secondly, let's start teaching parenting and family life skills in churches and non-profit organizations focusing on giving young parents the necessary resources needed to teach themselves and their children finance and family life.  Family life skills, according to Jannelle Martin, are both taught and caught.  Many of these parents have never been taught these skills and cannot pass along that valuable information to their children.

Last but not least, educate families on where they can go to get help in mentoring and motivating their children to do their best in school.  In Jannelle's article she mentioned former US Education Secretary and Gov. Dick Riley noted education reform is not just a moral imperative but an economic imperative and becoming more and more a national security imperative.  He notes that under current conditions, only 10% of children in poverty will ever rise above that status.

We can't loose these children.  They are caught in the middle.  How do we take the next generation out of poverty and show them they can do anything they want with education and information in their lives?

I certainly don't have the answers but I do know as a parent, engaging in your children's education, reading to them and teaching basic life skills, many hugs and kisses, tough love and discipline will give your children the very fundamental skills of being an independent adult.

What's your take on the situation?

Grocery Carts & Football

It seems everyone is in a "Do Not Spend" Mode, according to all the news reports on business being slow and retailer's profits being down.   While out this week,  I've looked around and there seems to be a number of people spending but perhaps on the wrong things.

I recently got behind a person in line at the grocery store who was paying with food stamps.  What she had in her shopping cart was appalling.  Instant everything and microwave or bake and serve foods.  I am not saying they may not have been good, but the cost per items of those purchases was significantly higher than buying the old box of mac and cheese, adding milk and having to cook it on the stove.  I would have liked to have spent about one hour with her, if she cared, showing her how to stretch her budget a little further and how to purchase healthier food for her family.  

Let me say this about TV dinners?  I ate them many, many years ago and they were not good then, I can't imagine them being much better now.  Are they fast?  Yes, but the salt and additive content in these items is WAY out of proportion to the taste of the food.  She must have had 20 TV dinner in her cart.  What a great example for a child of what is acceptable, good, & healthy choices.

And then there were the drinks that were in the shopping cart.  No wonder we have a health problem in the Pee Dee.  There were big bottles of Gatorade, carbonated drinks, jugs of sweet tea, and oh yes, something that looked like Kool-Aid.  There was no milk, but then again with all the sugar cereals in the cart, perhaps they didn't need milk on their cereal.

OK, I'm off my soapbox.  Just checkout those shopping carts around you the next time you're in the grocery store.

Football season has begun on the local high school and college levels.  All of you that have teenagers you Fall is pretty well scheduled if your children play sports, participate in band or enjoy hunting.  Enjoy those football game, band competitions or hunt with them.  Before you know it they will be gone and you'll find some of that interest you had when they were little wains the older you become.  And those of you college football fans, you season has come.  Enjoy it, drink responsibly, if you're going to drink, and please drive safe or have a DD.

Social Media & Women in Politics

I spent two days in Columbia last week at a SocialCrush conference.  Fantastic speakers about, you guessed it, social media.  Learned new tools and what the future holds for Google+, Facebook, Twitter.  Sit back and hold on to our hats, it's going to be a Social World with more people going to mobile information than computer.

While there I met-up with a woman I hadn't seen probably in 20 years, Barbara Rackes.  Barbara was the owner of a wonderful boutique in Columbia called Rackes.  She was at SocialCrush to learn about social media and how to reach young people with her non-profit, Women in Politics.  Watch this group because they are looking to help woman run for local office not only on the local but state levels, bipartisan and she is a proven winner.  I know where some of my extra time is going to be spent.

Great quote from Barbara, "if there were more women in the government, there would have been compromises made.  We know how to make compromise."  What do you think of that statement?  You know, I think she may be on to something.

Going to be sharing some of my social media knowledge in my upcoming email newsletter.  If you aren't subscribed to it, you need to be.  For small business owners that are looking for ideas on how to make their business a little easier for them.  Visit my website and sign up today!   https://eyeondetail.biz

As for politics, WOMAN we need to get involved on what ever party level.  Make the Pee Dee a better place by getting involved on whatever level you can and MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Have a beautiful weekend.  School is back in session and we need to drive a little more defensively and be careful of those little ones.

As for hurricane Irene, SC has blown it off but my Northeastern friends are going to get hit hard.

Eye on the Pee Dee

In starting any blog one must decide what the subject matter is going to be.  Eye on Detail is the name of my consulting company and I live in the Pee Dee.  This blog is going to be about communities in the Pee Dee and what is going on in each one specifically.

I need your help in being able to provide information for this site.  I am looking for people from Cheraw, Bennettsville, Society Hill, Hartsville, Darlington, Florence, Marion, Mullins, Kingstree, and Johnsville to be able to provide me with relevant material on the arts, cook-offs, restaurants, bed and breakfast, events, special appearances, fund raisers and festival that would be of interest to those folks living in the Pee Dee Area.

If it doesn't fit within the areas listed above, it will not be mentioned on this site.  Let's explore what wonderful opportunities we all have right underneath our noses and share with others that might have a like interest.

I look forward to putting together a calendar of various things happening in the area towns and giving you an opportunity to know what's going on throughout the Pee Dee at any one given time, all in one easy location.

Email me at eyeondetail.jh@gmail.com with information on what's happening in your area of the Pee Dee.  If the information posted on this blog doesn't fit the categories below, it will not remain on the site.

Let's keep our Eye on the Pee Dee.  What news do you have to share?

The Arts
Food & Dining
Events
Festivals
B&B's
Special Apperances
Fundraiser
Cooking Contests
Agri-tourism