Col. Elliot White Springs was what we would call today “a Renaissance man.”

He was born in Lancaster, S.C., in the late 19th century to his mother and industrialist father who owned Springs Cotton Mills in South Carolina.

He was a pilot during in World War I and was considered an “ace.” He was awarded the British Flying Cross and the American Distinguished Service Cross.

A graduate of Princeton, Springs said he always thought of himself as a writer and published nine books and many short stories – some of which were turned into plays and movie scripts (just check out his entry in the Internet Movie Database.)

But the achievement that won him a spot in the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame was his running of Springs Cotton Mills from 1931, when the country was in the depths of the Great Depression, till his death in 1959, when the company was the world’s largest manufacturer of sheets and pillowcases.

How Springs managed to turn his father’s flagging company around is the subject of a wonderful exhibit at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia.

“Between the Springmaid Sheets” opened April 26 at the museum and features art from the daring ad campaign that made Springmaid sheets a household name. The ads were derided at the time as risqué and degrading. They are not politically correct by any means, but the fact that they were considered so racy points perhaps to the perceived innocence of the times.

One tagline was “A buck well spent on a Springmaid sheet” under artwork depicting an American Indian man obviously exhausted, lying on a sheet while an attractive Indian maid smiles at him mischievously. The phrase, for all its sexual innuendo and racial insensitivity, also was play on the cost of the sheets – $1.

It worked.

People may have hooted and hollered over the impropriety of the ad campaigns, but the word spread and the sheets sold.

According to his entry in the Business Hall of Fame, Springs Cotton Mills saw its assets grow to $138.5 million in 1958 from $13 million when Springs took over the company. Sales were $184 million, growing 20 fold under his leadership.

“These illustrations and their slogans have become part of the visual culture of our state and beyond,” said Paul Matheny, curator of art for the State Museum. “The artwork and its use in advertisements in nationally published magazines has become an important and influential part of our cultural history.”

The exhibit, originally curated by Karen Derksen, director of Winthrop University Galleries, will be open through the summer.

The museum, located appropriately in a former textile mill, is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. General admission is $7 for visitors ages 13-61 with a $1 discount for seniors and military, $5 for children 3-12 and free for younger children. Admission is just $1 on the first Sunday of each month. The museum is open seven days a week during summer.

I just want to get this out there. I love rice. I mean, I really love rice. As a kid, I once made and ate a rice sandwich. (I think even as a child, I realized that this was probably not the best diet.) 

So the Colleton County Rice Festival in Walterboro was right up my alley.

I expected lots of rice, rice dishes and the usual festival food trucks, but I was not prepared for the wide variety of entertainment and food available in this family-friendly atmosphere.

There were dozens of craft vendors from woodworkers and tanners to quilters and jewelry makers with everything in between.

The kids had a park full of amusement rides including a giant slide, one of those rides that spins you around so fast you are stuck to the outside wall of the ride and flying spaceships. There was face-painting, cotton candy and two stages with bands playing.

And, there was food, mostly rice.

Meat and rice dishes called “pirlou” (in various and sundry spellings) were available from several vendors, as were fried fish, shrimp and other seafood. The folks from Palmetto Corn from the Bluffton area came up to make and sell fresh kettle corn (YUM!) and there were frozen lemon ice stands, self-serve snow-cones and elephant ears and funnel cakes, just like at the fair.

The bands were all-local as well. Common Ground Bluegrass whose members live along the coast played at City Hall and Walterboro’s own rock-and-roll cover band Straight Shooter SC played at the food court.

And that was all just Friday night. The three-day festival includes a parade, dog shows, a horseshoe tournament, a rice cooking contest, a fun run and golf and tennis tournaments.

There also is a beauty pageant the weekend before the festival and the Taste of Walterboro was held Tuesday.

If you’re like me, or even just like rice a little, make plans to attend next year. It’s in late April and is a real treat.

This is is not the Florence I grew up in

Growing up in Florence, you could find a pulled-pork sandwich almost anywhere on almost any given day, but a vegetarian plate? Well, forget-about-it. (Vegetables, yes, but they almost always were seasoned with, well, pork.)

Florence has changed a lot since my childhood days, and this change is reflected most in its more eclectic offerings of food and entertainment.

The Clay Pot Coffee Shop, 166 South Dargan St., Florence, (803) 407-1646 specializes in all things organic and locally grown. Its eclectic menu ranges from pulled pork sandwiches to vegetarian delights. Its art offerings include photography, watercolors and ceramics. And its entertainment offers everything from local singer/songwriters to a monthly storytelling club.

This Wednesday, the monthly Clay Pot Story Swap will be a liar’s club featuring the tall tales of Martha Reed Johnson and Jessica Willis, Alan Hoal – an import from Cary, N.C. – and Brianna Zhang. Audience participation is welcome so brush off your best five-minute lie and take a chance you will get chosen to share it. The fibbing starts around 7 p.m., honestly, it does.

On Friday, the Vicious Hillbillies will perform, and on Saturday there is a meet and greet with Marilyn Smith Neilans, author of “Saying Goodbye to the Iris Lady.” Also on Saturday is an artist sidewalk sale featuring the work of local metalsmith John Dix.

Hours are 6:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Tuesday; add 5-9 p.m. for Wednesday-Saturday and Sunday hours are 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

If you find yourself heading over to catch a show at the Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center, make a stop at the Clay Pot, you never know what you might see or hear.

Or just head over for breakfast, lunch or dinner or maybe just to share a little white lie over a cup of black coffee.

As a youngster, I could never seem to develop a taste for sweet potatoes. I know, sounds crazy, but I liked my sweet sweet and my savory savory. Of course, this was before I discovered sweet potato fries … and salted caramel.

Even though North Carolina grows the most sweet potatoes of any state in the U.S., South Carolina has at least three festivals celebrating the sweet spud.
The first one each year is the Lower Richland Sweet Potato Festival in Hopkins on April 27.

The free event starts at 11 a.m. and includes local crafters, praise dancers, music, step teams, carnival rides and, of course, a sweet potato pie contest. Call the Hopkins Adult Activity Center at (803) 776-2778 for more information.

The second one is the longest-running festival in Darlington County. Since 1983, the square in Darlington has been home to the South Carolina Sweet Potato Festival, which attracts more than 17,000 visitors each year. There are plenty of games for the kids, crafts, music, a car show and, of course, sweet potato pie. The free event is sponsored by the Pilot Club of Darlington and is held the second Saturday in October. Call (843) 393-3526 for more information.

Just a week later is the Midland Valley Area Sweet Potato Festival in Jacksonville. Arts and crafts booths line the streets of this Aiken County community and there are carnival rides for the children and, you guessed it, plenty of sweet potato pie. This festival has been going on since 1995 and raises money for community improvements.

For most of us who spent our late teens and early 20s in Columbia, a Happy Hour History Tour of Five Points sounds like walk through our own past.

But there is history beyond the fun of late nights/early mornings of the bar and restaurant scene in the entertainment district.

As the folks at the Historic Columbia Foundation like to say, it’s a concoction of one-part happy hour and two-parts history.

Five Points started as a trolley hub for the first “suburb” of the capital city. To cater to those folks passing through and the residents of Shandon, a string of retail shops and a grocery opened up, followed by restaurants and bars. Today’s architecture reflects all the key time periods in the area’s development.

The flavor of Five Points comes largely from generations of students at the University of South Carolina who have passed through and grown up there, as well as the countless others who haven’t grown up, but stick around, keeping the youthful search for fun and adventure alive.

But the bricks and mortar have a story all their own to tell and the folks at the Historic Columbia Foundation fill in those details between martinis, beers and goblets of wine.

Reservations are encouraged as the tours fill up quickly, especially this weekend, which is the last one in the monthlong series. For reservations, email reservations@historiccolumbia.org or call (803) 252-1770, Ext. 24. The tour costs $25 per person (with a $5 discount for Historic Columbia Foundation members) and includes two adult beverages and appetizers along the way.

I’ll have my history on the rocks, please, with a twist.