COLUMN: Everybody Calls Me Jana Banana

Many of you will be shopping today, but you won’t find me out there… I don’t go anywhere near stores on “Black Friday!” All those crowds are too much for me, I’d rather take this day to start pulling Christmas decorations down from storage, get the Christmas cards started and hopefully start to catch up on reading.

This time of year is traditionally a time to count the many blessings we have. Here in Hartsville, we have so much to be grateful for. Even in tough economic times we have pulled together as a community to help with community endeavors such as Christmas in April, Hartsville Interfaith Mini-stries, Hartsville Food Bank, Hartsville Soup Kitchen Mission, Carolina Kids, Guardian ad Litem program, Darlington County DSS Foster Care, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, Elohim, and the Darlington County Humane Society and many other just as wonderful missions.

How could a column on being grateful for our blessings not mention our wonderful churches in Hartsville? We are so blessed to have such a long list of churches of all denominations that all work together for the greater good of our community.

We have so many wonderful free things to take our families to, including Kalmia Gardens of Hartsville, the Hartsville Museum, Hartsville Memorial Library, Coker Farms National Historic Landmark and our four beautiful parks, Byerly, Pride, Burry and Lawton.

Here in Hartsville, we have not one but two independent bookstores that are wonderful places for Christmas shopping, Burry Bookstore and Carolina Christian Bookstore. They both are such a refreshing change from the big stores, and both are fantastic about ordering things for you quickly.

Our pretty city is home to two greatly admired campuses, Coker College and the S.C. Governor’s School for Math and Science. Coker College has received awards such as Princeton Review “Best Southeastern College” and U.S. News and World Report America’s Best College 2009 list once again. Their students are such an asset to our city, and 12 of the most wonderful students helped me last week in the soup kitchen.

The students and faculty of the S.C. Gov-ernor’s School for Math and Science are another major source of pride for Hartsville, and we are so fortunate to have them.

When we see many cities in our nation laying off people in large numbers, it is such a blessing to see our larger companies such as Sonoco, Progress Energy, Stingray Boats, Anderson Brass and many others. We have great places to eat, and shop and can even see a movie for $2 at the Hartsville Cinema Twin.

We are not a perfect city, no city is. But we have people here that genuinely care about each other and work hard to make this a nicer place for our children. When someone is ill and needing prayers, email prayer requests go out so quickly that it is astounding. 

Sometimes when I mention all the things that we have to my friends that live away, they think I’m making it up. But that is really how it is here. And for that,
I am grateful.

Happy Day after Thanksgiving, Hartsville.

Thanks for adopting me.