On Wednesday, a Florence man pulled a fish out of the Big Pee Dee River that nobody in South Carolina had ever topped.
Joseph Driggers was out on the water when he landed a flathead catfish that weighed 113.7 pounds. That is not a typo. It beat the old state record by almost thirty pounds, and in the world of record fish, thirty pounds is not a nudge past the line. It is a whole different category of big.
He took it down to Georgetown Landing Marina to get it weighed, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources certified it right there as the new state record. A fish like that does not come from nowhere. It comes from a river a lot of us cross without a second thought, the same brown water that has been running quietly through this part of the state a lot longer than any of us have been around.
So the next time you drive over the Pee Dee, give it a little respect. You never really know what is down there.
Also Worth Knowing
The School Foundation is sending almost $150,000 to Florence 1 Schools. The money is split across seven projects that teachers asked for themselves, for the coming school year. West Florence High landed the two biggest, including new driving simulators to make driver's ed safer. That pushes the foundation past $2.58 million in grants to the district over the years.
Keep Florence Beautiful gave a nod to several local schools this spring for their work on litter prevention, sustainability, and getting students involved in taking care of the place they live. Small habits, started young, are the ones that tend to stick.
Florence just marked 46 years in a row as a Tree City USA, and picked up its 19th Growth Award along the way. That is almost half a century of planting and keeping the canopy. The next time you park in the shade downtown, know that it did not happen by accident.
Duke Energy handed the Florence Fire Department a HERO grant this week to help cover equipment and gear. Good neighbors look out for the people who run toward the trouble.
The Florence County Library is handing out seeds. They have set up a spot where you can grab some and pick up advice on how to actually keep a plant alive. A quiet, easy excuse to grow something this summer.