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A Lustrum At The Rostrum   5 comments

Posted at 12:01 am in Uncategorized

Happy Blogday To Me!

cake.jpg

Today's post is a bit special. It was five years ago this day that I made the first post here at Columbia Closings.

I wasn't at all sure how it would go. I had been noodling around with doing something on the Internet for a while, and the idea for the site gradually took form over the course of probably a year or so. In the end the particular pieces making up Columbia Closings fell into place for a number of reasons. Partly because I had a certain number of stories I wanted to tell in some form, partly because I wanted to do something that would force me to write at least a little bit most days, partly because I liked driving around and taking pictures and partly to stroke my ever present streak of nostalgia. If it made me rich and famous somehow as well, that would be all right too. (It hasn't).

Everything came together specifically on 29 December 2007 for a very practical reason. At the time, I was working a job that took mandatory vacation the whole week between Christmas and New Years, so I had a few days to devote to nailing down a domain-name, setting up WordPress, and figuring out how to actually write a post, upload photos and get it all published. Of course, having the time is no guarantee of getting it all right and I didn't. There were no comments on that first post, but I thought there might be some interest in my second post (which interestingly ended up as one of my most often revised ones), but again there were none. I felt as though I were writing into a black-hole. In fact, not even Google was paying any attention to me. I kept going with a bit of frustration as nothing in my posts ever showed up in Google searches. When was I going to get indexed? Finally I discovered that by default WordPress has a privacy setting that defaults to on and keeps your blog from being indexed. (Because people always start blogs they don't want anyone to read..). Resetting that to off I finally started getting some hits and it was off to the races.

Looking back, I can see that the focus of Columbia Closings has stayed pretty true to what I set out in that first post (that became the Mission Statement). There have been some shifts in emphasis though. In particular, as I said above when I started I had a number of stories I wanted to tell, and I think I more or less accomplished that. Of course, having done so, I still had an ongoing blog to run, and gradually the mix of text and pictures turned the other way around. I still do longer form written posts from time to time, but inevitably there are closings where I have no special memories to set down, so I simply note the passing and provide some pictures. (Longtime readers will note that if the day is sunny with lots of puffy clouds, I may take pictures of them with the closed business in the frame as an afterthought..).

I appreciate all the folks who read this blog, and especially those who comment (even if it's to tell me how completely wrong I've gotten it). I plan to keep on doing it for the forseeable future and hope you'll stay along for the ride. I could break out a hundred posts from the past five years that I'm very pleased with for one reason or another, but nobody would read all that, so I'll just set out here what my top twenty favorite Columbia posts of all time are (at least as I see it today -- tomorrow I might make a different list), along with a few of my occasional "out of area" posts that I'm really pleased with as extras. These are not in any particular order, but here goes!

1) Forest Lake Park:

2) USC's R. G. Bell Camp:

3) Brickyard Shopping Center:

4) Sarge Frye Field:

5) The Diamond Disco / Southern Gentleman's:

6) Gibbes Planetarium:

7) Hi Hatt Drive In / Hi Hatt Club:

8) Roper Pond:

9) Hiller Hardware:

10) 1101 Harden Street:

11) Red Wing Rollerway:

12) Tricentennial Songs:

13) Waldenbooks Dutch Square:

14) Brick Chimney Forest Drive:

15) Boardwalk Plaza:

16) Columbia Athletic Club:

17) Green Hole:

18) Circle K Forest Drive:

19) WIS Radio:

20) The Towers (USC):

Bonus Posts

As I consider the Grand Strand a second home, I haven't hesitated to throw in a post from there every now and then. Here are a few of my favorites.

1) Myrtle Beach Pavilion:

2) Hurricane Hugo:

3) McKenzie Beach:

4) Oliver's Lodge:

Stick around -- there's another lustrum coming up!

Written by ted on December 29th, 2012

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5 Responses to 'A Lustrum At The Rostrum'

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  1. Congratulations, Ted. I have certainly enjoyed reading yours and everyone elses posts the last few years. I do not think you will have much trouble filling another 5 years worth of closings. I walked thru Sandhills earlier this week and you have a lot of uncovered material available. A toy store (name unknown) is closing soon, according to a sign posted on their front door glass.

    Terry

    29 Dec 12 at 5:39 am

  2. I've enjoyed following for 3 of those 5 years...As the Kmart at 96 North Arrowood was about to close, I was doing research on what was behind it and it lead me here. I've enjoyed sharing the knowledge that folks here have about places (past and present) around town. I have been able to relate to older friends & relatives about places in town that were before my time better because of it.

    I am now looking forward to a 2012 year in review type of post as I have some thoughts I've been looking forward to sharing on that type of post...

    Andrew

    29 Dec 12 at 1:38 pm

  3. I've only been following for about six months now but have enjoyed reading the blog. I came across it when searching online for background on a restaurant I used to work at in college, LaVecchia's, been hooked ever since.

    Justin

    30 Dec 12 at 6:41 pm

  4. Congratulations and thanks for keeping the post so active! (kind of a sad commentary on Columbia maybe). I drop by a few times a week and always enjoy. Often I will read about something closing before I even knew it existed. Your photos are great, and I enjoy the vacation photos as well. Thanks!

    Cheryl

    31 Dec 12 at 8:26 am

  5. I appreciate all of your posts and pictures, Ted! Great blog!

    Mary Douglass

    22 Jan 13 at 4:49 pm

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