Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This Dairy Queen replaced the old Hardee's and opened during the Pandemic of 2020 when people were desperate to get out of the house somehow, whether they could go inside and eat or not: During the opening weeks, the line of cars would be backed up on US-17 for half a block.

After that, things settled down, but from my observation the place seemed to do a decent business, making me think the closing may have more to do with the chain's ongoing issues than anything with this particular store.

I was a little bemused during my walk-around to see Dennis The Menace surfing on a mural. Dennis was the chain's spokeskid during the 70s, and one radio commercial of Dennis and his pal Joey talking gave me a (probably annoying) catch-phrase to throw into conversations: Yeah, Joey: Like a super-brazier chilli-dog! I had thought Dennis & Dairy Queen had parted ways years ago, but I guess not.

Here is a very brief news note on the closing. As of early 2025 there is no activity with the building.

Sol was the follow-on in this space (which was built as a Sam's Corner hotdog place) to the idiosyncratically named Joe Loves Lobster Rolls.

It was a rather upscale Mexican place, the kind where they don't have the items you expect, and you don't get free chips & salsa. In the event, I only ate there once, with my college roommate & his wife after we had taken in an evening at Nights Of A Thousand Candles. The only thing I saw on the menu that appealed to me was the Chile Rellenos, which were fine, but on the whole for that type of concept, I prefer Luna in Murrells Inlet.

One thing I did notice driving by in the years after that, was that the hours of the place were rather unusual, and they tended to take the winter completely off. The Sun News has the story on the closing. The given reason is that the rent in this spot is too high, which seems odd as it is a building which has had trouble holding restaurants, and it is a bit off the beaten path. At any rate, the owner hopes to re-open somewhere on the Grand Strand.

For many years Pawleys Island Plaza was kind of down-at-the-heels strip mall. There was an off brand grocery store that failed after a year or so (Farmer John's?), a small local office supply store, a barber shop, coin laundry and dry cleaner. For a few years the Post Office did operate there in between leaving their original photomat sized building and building the current location across from the Hammock Shops, but on the whole not a lot was going on there.

Things have changed a good bit in recent years as the whole area has gone upscale, and the plaza got a Publix, Dunkin, Smoothie King, Petco, and of course, Tuesday Morning. I went in there a number of times over the years, looking for lampshades and the like, and it was fine, like outlets of the chain everywhere. And like all of those, it is now closing (and may be closed by this time).

We'll have to see what's next. I see the plaza operators have gyms in some of their other properties -- that might work.

I'm glad I saw this year's Nights of 1000 Candles last week when it was still pleasant outside. I know the folks who saw it tonight were probably brittle with the cold.

Since I couldn't get any weekend tickets, I went on a Wednesday this year,and my impression is it was a little more subdued, but there was still a pretty good crowd. I didn't notice any big changes from last year, but as always, it was a very impressive display, and a nice way to spend an evening. I believe they are sold out for the rest of the year, but if you do find you can get tickets, I recommend it.

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Jimmyz moved into this former KFC sometime after 2015, and seemed to do a decent business. I think COVID hit time pretty hard though, as they never reopened for dine-in service after it hit.

I can't find any definite info on the closing date, but it was open in January, and given the still fully equipped state of the place, I think the end of March is probably the logical time to guess.

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I took the opportunity Saturday to make my annual trip to Brookgreen Gardens and the Nights Of A Thousand Candles Christmas display. This year was quite warm for a December night, unlike some years in the past, and it was very pleasant to be out and about under the trees with all the lights and candles.

As usual, the big picture stays the same: sculpture, trees & lights, but the details change yearly. This year, I think there was more going on in the Children's Garden for instance, and less in The Fountain of the Muses. I also think that they took some cues from last year's Bruce Munroe installation, which I liked quite a bit, especially in the riverbank area which rather combined the ideas from his frog display and his firefly display in a way.

One very noticable change was that the popular "Holiday Memories & Trains" exhibit has moved across the main concourse to the Rosen Galleries, leaving the old space as a members' lounge.

Though some of the remaining nights are sold out, if you can Read the rest of this entry »

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Somehow I spent my whole life without ever seeing such a thing, but apparently it's not uncommon:

A 22° halo is an optical phenomenon that belongs to the family of ice-crystal halos. Its form is a ring with an apparent radius of approximately 22° around the Sun or Moon. When visible around the Moon, it is called a moon ring or winter halo. It forms as direct sunlight or moonlight is refracted in millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere.[1] The halo appears large; its radius is roughly the length of an outstretched hand at arm's length.[2] A 22° halo may be visible on as many as 100 days per year – much more frequently than rainbows.

Somehow I still doubt that "more frequently than rainbows" part..

I noticed on my recent trip to the beach that this golf store in Litchfield Beach had closed. I'm not a golfer, so I never went inside, but they always had a note on their sign to the effect of "Come see the train", so I was tempted to stop every now and then just to see what it was.

This article from the Sun News says that the owner passed a few years ago and that his wife was continuing to run the store with a daughter, so perhaps she has now retired.

Due to scheduling issues of one sort and another, I did not get to Brookgreen Gardens Nights of 1000 Candles in 2019, so I was looking forward to seeing the Bruce Munro Southern Light installation this Spring. Well, then there was, of course, COVID-19, and that was put on hold for a while.

Now however, the display is up and running, and I found a chance to take it in on 6 June 2020. It was one of those unseasonably cool nights we have had this Spring, so the bugs were down, but it was still very comfortable, and there was also a beautiful full moon to go with the lights. My favorite part was towards the last of this set of pictures, a profusion of small color-changing bulbs on stalks planted across one of the more open and less sculpture-studded sections of the gardens. I felt as though I could probably have sat out there for some hours, but as the display closes at 11pm, I had to move on out before I was quite ready.

The exhibition runs from 8pm-11pm through September, so if you are in the area, it's well worth checking out.

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