SCIWAY News, No. 23 – November 1999

In This Issue

• South Carolina Jobs Directory Expands
• New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites
• Thanks to Our Advertisers!
• Sponsor Your Own SCIway Page
• New South Carolina College Financial Aid Directory
• Ask SCIWAY Adds Upstate Forum
• Remembering Those Who Died in Battle
• Consumer Tip of the Month
• Upcoming Festivals and Events
• How to Buy a Good Christmas Tree and Make It Last
• What Is That Red South Carolina Flag?

South Carolina Jobs Directory Expands

Two summers ago, we introduced SCIWAY's South Carolina Jobs Directory. It featured links to 75 "job openings" pages for SC businesses, hospitals, government agencies, school districts, colleges, and other employment resources.

Today SCIWAY's Jobs Directory links to more than 300 employer Web pages, and these pages have become more useful. In addition to job listings, most provide instructions on how to apply for a position, and many include information about company benefits.

You can find SCIWAY's Jobs Directory by going to https://www.sciway.net/jobs/ . Then you can search for jobs either by location or by type of employer.

If your company's employment opportunities page is not in this directory, please send its address to service@sciway.net, and we will be happy to add it. There is no charge.

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New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites

Anderson County Office of Economic Development - formerly Anderson County Development Partnership

http://www.andersoncountytoday.com/ - site no longer available

Home Schooling in South Carolina

https://www.sciway.net/edu/k12/homeschooling.html

Horry County Museum

http://www.horrycountymuseum.org

North Myrtle Beach, SC - official city site

http://www.nmb.us/

Liberty High School - Pickens County School District

http://lhs.pickens.k12.sc.us/

South Carolina Family Organizations

https://www.sciway.net/org/family.html

South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs

http://ddsn.sc.gov/

Thornwell Home and School for Children - Clinton - a SC treasure!

http://www.thornwell.org

Ware Shoals School District Alumni Page - Greenwood County

http://gwd51.org/alumni - site no longer available

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Thanks to Our Advertisers!

Charleston Regional Development Alliance

http://www.crda.org

Golden Strip Real Estate - Greenville

http://www.gs-re.com - site no longer available

PRIDE Web Site Design and Hosting - Summerville

http://www.pride-net.com - site no longer available

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Sponsor Your Own SCIway Page

During the past month we've made some good changes to SCIWAY's advertising programs and added some new options as well. One choice that's proving popular is the exclusive sponsorship of a single SCIway page directly related to a company's business focus or geographic market. Your graphic or text banner is displayed every time the page is viewed ... no other banners appear on the page ... and you have a permanent first option to renew your sponsorship.

SCIWAY's Web site now attracts more than a million visitors a year, most of whom either live in South Carolina or want to move here or vacation here. If your business or organization could benefit from reaching this audience, you can quickly learn a lot about our cost-effective advertising programs by going to https://www.sciway.net/join-us/.

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New South Carolina College Financial Aid Directory

Since the start of the school year, we have been receiving lots of questions about South Carolina's new college financial aid programs such as the LIFE and Palmetto Fellows Scholarships. So we've developed a new SCIway page that focuses entirely on financial aid resources. You can find this page at https://www.sciway.net/finaid.html.

If you visit our SC Financial Aid Directory, you'll find brief descriptions of state and federal financial aid programs, along with links to more detailed information. You'll also find direct links to most South Carolina college admissions and financial aid offices as well as their telephone numbers. (If you work in one of these offices, please check the information for your school and write us if we need to make changes.)

The smallest section on this new page is the one that I hope becomes the largest and most useful. It's called "Private Financial Aid Programs," and it's for non-governmental scholarships and awards that are limited to South Carolina residents, but not limited to students who enroll at a particular college. If you know of such a scholarship, please write us at service@sciway.net. One way or another, we'll find a way to get your information online.

We hope this new South Carolina Financial Aid Directory will be useful to high school students, their parents, and the counselors and teachers who help them. If you think of a way we can make it more useful, please let us know.

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Ask SCIway Adds Upstate Forum

One of SCIWAY's most popular services is Ask SCIway, an online bulletin board where anyone can ask or answer a question about South Carolina.

Ask SCIway is divided into groups of "forums" (history, genealogy, regions, etc.), and I am delighted to announce a new forum that will focus on South Carolina's Upstate. This forum will be moderated by Elaine Hooker, the Assistant Director of Reference Services at Spartanburg County Public Libraries.

Elaine is a Spartanburg native who now lives in nearby Woodruff. She received her bachelor's degree from Furman and her master's degree in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During the three years she's worked at Spartanburg County, one of her main responsibilities has been helping people use INFORMation Spartanburg, an exceptional community information database developed by the library's staff. She's also done a great job of answering questions about the Upstate posted on Ask SCIway.

So, you ask, what exactly is "the Upstate"? Well, we've found as many answers to this question as there are new companies along I-85! But for SCIWAY's purposes, the "Upstate" will be defined as the 14 counties in the northwestern corner of South Carolina: Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Edgefield, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Pickens, Saluda, Spartanburg, and Union.

If you have a question about the Upstate, odds are you can get it answered by posting it on Ask SCIway. And remember, you can answer questions too, so please feel free to pitch in.

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Remembering Those Who Died in Battle

As Veterans Day approaches, it is important to remember and honor those who have died in our country's wars. These two lists will help:

South Carolinians who died in the Korean War - 1950-1957

PDF - http://www.archives.gov/research/military/korean-war/casualty-lists/sc-alpha.pdf

South Carolinians who died in the Vietnam War - 1957-1995

PDF - http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-lists/sc-alpha.pdf

Top of SCIWAY News No. 23

Consumer Tip of the Month

When your phone rings ... and you say hello ... and there's an odd pause before the other party speaks ... the odds are high that the other party is a paid telephone solicitor who wants you to switch long-distance companies, use a different credit card, etc.

The telltale pause occurs because your number was dialed by a computer, not a person. When the solicitor is notified that you've answered, he connects too, but this process takes a couple of seconds.

The resulting silence is a useful warning. When the caller asks to speak to me, I quickly say that I'm not there and ask if they would like to leave a message. They invariably say they'll call back. They never leave a message.

You may want to try this tactic, especially if you have a hard time telling people that you don't want what they're selling. It has saved me a lot of time.

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Upcoming Festivals and Events

For current SC calendar of events, click here.

South Carolina Celebration of Blues and Jazz - Columbia - Nov 5

Holiday Festival of Lights - James Island - Nov 12 thru Jan 2

Charleston Cup - horse racing - Stono Ferry - Nov 14

Colonial Cup Races - Springdale Race Course - Camden - Nov 21

A Christmas Carol - for Babcock Center - Columbia - Nov 26-27

SC Railroad Museum's Santa Trains - Rockton - Nov 27-28, Dec 4-5

Top of SCIWAY News No. 23

How to Buy a Good Christmas Tree and Make It Last

Speaking of Santa, there's more to buying and putting up a Christmas tree than meets the eye–even a twinkling eye. To learn about the best way to choose your tree and keep it fresh, read this recent Clemson University press release (http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/psamedia/1999REL.DIR/Cttips.txt - page no longer exists). It's not fancy, but it may make your Christmas greener.

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What Is That Red South Carolina Flag?

Perhaps you've seen it flying from a car or a boat ... or gracing a cap or belt or tie. It looks exactly like South Carolina's blue and white state flag–except it has a red field.

What you're seeing is "Big Red," the official spirit flag of The Citadel Corps of Cadets (http://citadel.edu). This flag has been associated with the college since the beginning of the Civil War.

The cadets manned a sand battery of four cannons, and their mission was to protect the harbor and prevent US ships from resupplying the Union troops sequestered in Fort Sumter. When the Star of the West, an unarmed commercial steamer, entered the harbor on the morning of January 9, 1861, Cadet George Edward Haynesworth of Sumter fired the first hostile shot of the accelerating conflict between North and South. Above the battery, according to the captain of the Star of the West, flew a red flag with a white palmetto.

After the Civil War this red and white palmetto flag seems to have disappeared for almost a century. But in the fall of 1960 it was used as a guidon by that year's honor company (Romeo) in anticipation of its reenactment of the firing on the Star of the West on January 9, 1961. As best I can determine, this is when the term "Big Red" was first used to describe the flag, as it was much larger than the normal guidon.

In recent decades Big Red has been flown by the Touchdown Cannon Crew that fires a round every time The Citadel's football team scores ... and since 1989 it has replaced the Confederate Naval Jack that cadets used to wave at sports events. You can also see Big Red flying daily near the center of The Citadel campus, at the north end of the parade ground.

So now when you see that red South Carolina flag, you'll know what it is. However ...

Last weekend I saw a historically suspect orange and white version of Big Red. This may be getting out of hand.

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