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.