Experience life on the one horse family farm in Horry County from 1900-1955 at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm. Join us for Wash Day on Tuesday, November 27th from 9:00 AM-3:00 PM to see how clothes would have been washed using a scrub board and wash pot. From 11-12, staff will discuss the parts of a hand pitcher pump and how it works. A free, hour long, guided tour of the farm will be available to the public starting at 3:00 PM.

The traditions of cooking communal stews in huge black iron pots stirred with wooden paddles has long been a way of Southern gatherings-whether at hunt clubs, church or family reunions, during holidays, or special events such as commemorating the end of harvests or to feed workers helping out at hog killing time. Requiring a number of workers, with a division of labor usually split between women who would prepare vegetables for the stews and men working in shifts under a stew-master to constantly stir the stew for up to 18 hours before serving, this documentary, introduced and narrated by Southern food writer, John Egerton, takes the viewer across the South. A fabulous opportunity to connect the dots between such Southern stews as Burgoo, Brunswick stew, Carolina Hash, Frogmore stew, chicken bog and sheep stew, these stews are becoming fragile traditions as the agrarian South gets replaced by modernity.

Experience life on the “one horse farm” in Horry County from 1900-1955 at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm. On December 1st, see how the farm family would have prepared for the Christmas season. Demonstrations will be centered on activities that would have taken place in the farm house including making candy, cooking on the wood burning stove, and decorating the Christmas tree. Other demonstrations will include traditional music at the syrup shed while making cane syrup from sugar cane. Demonstrations will take place from 9:00 AM-3:00 PM.

Southpaw bassist and South Carolina native Mac Arnold was only ten years old when he and his brother built a guitar out of a gas can, a couple strips of wood, a handful of nails, and some screen wire. Arnold played in J. Floyd & the Shamrocks (who frequently featured a young James Brown on piano) while still in high school, and officially began his professional career when he joined Charles Miller’s band in the early '60s. He moved to Chicago around 1965 and began working with saxophonist A.C. Reed before hooking up with Muddy Waters and his band in 1966. The Waters stint led to a fair amount of studio work, and Arnold played bass on several 1960s blues albums, including Otis Spann’s The Blues Is Where It’s At and John Lee Hooker’s Live at Cafe Au Go Go. By the 1980s Arnold had tired of the road and moved back to South Carolina, settling in his hometown of Pelzer, where for all practical purposes he retired from the music business. A group of local musicians kept after him to start performing again, though, which led to Arnold eventually fronting his own band, Mac Arnold & Plate Full o’ Blues.

Experience life on the “one horse farm” in Horry County from 1900-1955 at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm. Join us on December 6th from 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM for a cooking demonstration on the wood burning stove. Late fall and early winter brought cool weather that allowed for the butchering of a hog in time for the holidays. The fresh pork was a welcome change from the cured pork of the smokehouse. Rendering lard from the fat for holiday dishes was also a part of this first butchering. Join us as staff demonstrates the process of rendering lard from pork fat in this month’s cooking demonstration.

Junior Curators continues at the Horry County Museum on Saturday, December 8th from 9 AM-10 AM. This free, family friendly, program is open to children ages 5 and older and will teach children the history and natural history of Horry County through hands on activities. In this session, children will learn about the tradition of making orange pomanders at Christmas. Participants will also make an orange pomander to take home! Adults must remain with children. To participate, pre-register with Marion Haynes at haynesm@horrycounty.org or call 843-915-7861

The Horry County Museum and K12-South Carolina Virtual Charter School present a free Christmas concert on Tuesday, December 11th. The holiday season is upon us and there’s no better way to share Christmas joy, than with music. Celebrate the season by singing along with local musician Shelley Sasser and enjoy many holiday classics such as Frosty the Snowman, Santa Baby, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and many more.

Hash is only cooked primarily in South Carolina. If you travel across the border into NC or Georgia, you find that few have ever heard of hash. Filmmaker Stan Woodward discovered this anomaly while researching the difference between Brunswick stews cooked regionally. He gathered footage while shooting the Brunswick stew documentaries that led to this unusual film. Updated with new content that answered questions about the unusual place that mustard had in the barbecue sauce and hash ingredients found in the midlands of South Carolina, the story of has was enhanced to include the records of French Huguenot writers who wrote of “hashiers”, which was cooked in Carolina Rice Kitchens by African American artisan cooks who were given poor parts of the hog and told to make an edible concoction that provided a high-protein content for slaves working in the scorching heat. We learn that Hash-cooking migrated inland from plantations to small farms and became commonplace-along with puddin’ and liver mush-as a byproduct foodway cooked as part of the hog-killing that took place in the winter months. Hash today is a common side-dish eaten over rice along with barbecue in South Carolina.

Experience life on the one-horse family farm from 1900-1955 at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm. Junior Farmers is a free, family friendly program open to children ages 5-10 and focuses on the traditions of an early 1900s farm family. Join us on December 15th from 9:00 AM-10:00 AM to learn about Christmas traditions on the family farm. Maximum of 15 children, parents must remain with children. To participate, pre-register with Marion Haynes at haynesm@horrycounty.org or 843-915-7861.

The Horry County Museum will host “Scrooge According to Gullah” by Donald Sweeper. In this performance, Mr. Sweeper brings to life the old greedy money miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, from Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol. This reenactment has been adopted for the stage in a Chautauqua performance style in which the audience will interpret Scrooge as someone they personally know, (maybe in their own family) or have known in the past.

Enjoy a traditional Christmas music demonstration at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm on Saturday, December 15th. Join us to hear your favorite traditional Christmas music performed live in the church building by Farm Site Manager Wayne Skipper and other local musicians. The program will last from 1:00 PM until 3:30 PM and is free and open to the public.

The monthly Active Adult Series at the Horry County Museum will continue on December 18th at 1:00 PM with a program on the Carolina Bays. Join us to learn about these mysterious natural features and learn about the types of wildlife that call them home. The Active Adult Series is held the […]

In Latta, South Carolina in the historic Pee Dee region, a southern stew tradition that served the appetites of rural families located in the swamp communities of Lowcountry South Carolina, is maintained by the Mayor of Latta who has long held the mantle of “Chicken Bog King of the Pee Dee”. Filmmaker Stan Woodward follows him as he and his crew prepare a chicken bog (chicken, rice and secret ingredients only known to the stewmaster) for serving at a stump meeting rally for a local US Congressman running for re-election. Such stews are used in conjunction with political rallies in this part of the state, with the chicken bog tradition tracing back to the late 1800s and the democratic stump meeting held annually at Gallivants Ferry, SC.

Junior Curators continues at the Horry County Museum on Saturday, December 29th from 9 AM-10 AM. This free, family friendly, program is open to children ages 5 and older and will teach children the history and natural history of Horry County through hands on activities. In this session, children will learn about the types of fossils that could be found in Horry County and participate in a “dig” to see what fossils they can find! Adults must remain with children. To participate, pre-register with Marion Haynes at haynesm@horrycounty.org or call 843-915-7861.

Experience life on the one horse family farm in Horry County from 1900-1955 at the L.W. Paul Living History Farm. Join us for Sawmill Saturday from 9:30 AM-11:30 AM on December 29th to see the sawmill in operation. There were, and still are, a lot of trees being grown in Horry County for timber production. In the early twentieth century, most communities had a sawmill in the area to get the trees from their forest turned into boards. Farm staff and designated volunteers will operate the sawmill at the farm and Wayne will discuss the type of engines that would have powered these mills.