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Tag Results: Columbia

“Everybody somebody.”

A Drunken Ghetto Scholar
Bethel Bishop Apartments
Circa 1991

Finlay Park (Columbia, SC) — Every time I come to this spot, I think of how this area was once full of red clay hills, and how some of the poorest families in Columbia lived here.

Before the homes on Governor’s Hill were crowded into the space that was once [then] Sydney Park’s parking lot, Columbians enjoyed the MayFest there! Teenage boys and girls would see that special someone from school, hold hands for the first time, and ride the rides. Back in the day, my brother and I would play with our radio controlled hovercraft in the pond. (4 hours of battery charging = 10 minutes of bonding. Hopefully kids get a bit more life out of their batteries these days). A lot of memories, good, bad, and GREAT hit me hard when I come here!

These days, this is the backdrop for our FloLympics freestyle battles.

Had a great experience at the #CarolinaBlogging luncheon on yesterday… with food and drink provided by The Blue Marlin located in the old train depot on Lincoln street in the heart of The Vista (Columbia, SC). I’ve eaten there many times but each of the dishes photo’d above was a first for me… and I made happy plates ~~and glasses~~ with each!

I also got to try a new wine made-in-the-Carolina’s called Manifesto… as well as an old Carolina favorite with a new twist: FireFly [PEACH] Sweet Tea Vodka

Carolina Blogging sure does know how to make an old rant and rave fella like myself feel appreciated! It was a great experience networking with other bloggers with similar interested… and even better getting to know folks that I’ve never heard of but will be reading often from now own! I anxiously look forward to our next assembly.

For More info on The Blue Marlin Restaurant click here and tell’em SUN sent ya!

Mike Stone and Kritikal Band are Super Duper DOPENESS!!!

The Fate of Richland Mall’s Time Capsule - Forest Acres, SC

If you’ve been living in Columbia, SC most of your life, as I have, you may be familiar with the dramatic series of rebuilds and renovations that Midtown at Forest Acres (formerly Richland Mall then Richland Fashion Mall) has undergone. Here’s a brief history of the changes as I recall them:

Richland Mall: The Richland Mall of the early 80s was not much to look at. It was an open-air mall with a laundromat, a Winn-Dixie grocery store, a pretty nice movie theater, and maybe a handful of retail stores. The original highlight of trips to the mall, for me, was the Baskin Robins 31 Ice Cream shoppe in a retail strip facing Forest Drive. (You could access it from the mall parking lot via a makeshift alleyway).
The movie theater was a huge attraction, I remember seeing awesome 80s cinema like Purple Rain, The Right Stuff, Superman III, and Howard the Duck there. The first movie shown there was Doris Day’s The Glass Bottom Boat (1966). It was orignally a one screen theater, then remodeled soon after to house two huge screens. There was a bronze plaque in the ground at the main entrance that marked the placement of a time capsule that had been there since the mall was constructed. The exhumation date was set to be between 2010 and 2018 (I can’t remember the exact year). All I knew was, as a small child… I wanted to be there when they opened it!