IT'S HARTSVILLE. And it is HOT!

 The weather app says the current temperature is 94 degrees and we can expect sunny conditions the rest of the day.  I did leave the window down because the last time I jumped in the Avalon the dashboard temperature said inside it was 110.  Today is June 1.  I guess we expect that this is the way it is supposed to be.  

So, the temperature is not really news but there are lots of things happening that sort of qualify as news in our town.  For example, did you know that if you live in the city limits the holiday moved your trash collection back a day.  If you generally have your trash picked up on Tuesday it should have been picked up today.  That is noted here because there has been some rumbling by people who think the city messed up -- THEY DID NOT.  

Because the Pandemic has been with us so long there are lots of things that are happening that seem to come under the category "normal/not normal."  The Darlington County School District is continuing the summer feeding program this year.

For the next comment, I am out of my depth but we still have to think about it even if I am not the person to lead the discussion -- 

Children across our country, heck people across our country are feeling less secure than many people can ever remember.  Adults need to, I think, do some stepping out and reaching out to children to sometimes blatantly ask and other times covertly ask if things are okay or if there is something you can do.  And, I do not care what you believe about guns if they are in the hands of children they should not be in their hands.  We have problems in our community with groups of young people thinking it is acceptable to target others with their firearms.  This is not a new normal that we can live with.  Kids being kids, few of them are carrying weapons without others knowing.  Right now it is not a question of do you have a right to carry -- but it is a question of SHOULD you?  NO. Adults have to step up even more now -- because we can see the problem.  Adults in this community can look out for others by giving some direction.  

This blog about community thinking is generally a pollyanna blog about all the great things happening in our community  -- like, did you know that today was CHALK day at the Hartsville Memorial Library.  

I hope all of stories can cover the fun things and the interesting things and I hope we can avoid the catastrophic things are are unfortunately all too common around our world today.

Author of the blog is Richard Puffer, dpuffer@gmail.com

So How Was the Holiday Weekend in Hartsville, South Carolina?

 One of the big news items over the weekend for this community focused on the Hartsville High School Boys Baseball Team.  They were in the State Championship playing Eastside of Greenville in the second of a best-of-three series.  They had been killed in the first game.

The second game started badly for the Foxes but they pitched and hit their way back making up a large deficit and taking a 9-8 lead before giving up two runs at the end of the game to lose the Championship series 10-9.  It was an amazing comeback for that team and will give them stories they will still be telling grand children 50 or more years from now. 

As sort of a side light on the baseball game, the Hartsville High graduation was held last Friday morning with about 240 students getting their high school diploma.  The valedictory speech was given by Braden Mays who also happens to be the starting catcher on the 2022 Red Fox Baseball team.  His talk focused on the lessons he learned from his playmates during this past amazing season.  I think he is heading to Clemson for his college experience.  

And the end of last week was a big time for the graduating seniors at other schools in Darlington County. The Governors's School of South Carolina, located in Hartsville; at Mayo High School a magnet school in Darlington County, at Lamar High School and at Darlington High School all said good bye to their seniors.  Think about it, our community has just graduated more than 600 children beginning to look for their productive place in our world.  That by itself is exciting!

One of the big things happening in Hartsville over the Memorial Day weekend was the opening of NEPTUNE ISLAND, our city-owned-managed Water Park that is a visitor magnet. Driving past the Park on Saturday, Sunday and Monday it appeared full of visitors.  The mostly blue skies with occasional fluffy clouds made for a pretty perfect water park weekend.

Neptune Island is a fun-in-the-sun kind of place with water amusements including some real high water slides and toddler friendly splash pad places that seem ready to delight nine months to 15 years.  Those older can really enjoy the complete freedom of just sort of roasting in the sun or renting a cabana and finding a way to just enjoy sights and sound of people having a good time.

Driving around on Monday Suga Rush had a customers in their new summer hours and there were also customers out at the tables at the Sweet Shop on College Avenue. This note about these two businesses that supply lots of sweets and in particular ice cream is important because not long ago it was not easy to find ice cream dipping in our City.  Hope you all are getting your cones, your milk shakes and other sweet treats -- they add another cool option for us in this small town.

 Generally it appeared fairly quiet on Monday afternoon as many of the busy restaurants opted to give their employees some downtime for the holiday weekend. 

Hartsville is rapidly moving into Summer mode -- It would be interesting to hear some of the activities you are looking forward to in and around our community.