GREER, S.C. — Right smack in the middle of Greer’s industrial and urban growth stands one of the last vestiges of the community’s storied past. 

It’s Suber’s Mill and it’s been a cherished institution in these parts since the earliest years of the 20th century. 

The old mill is one of the very few water-ground gristmills remaining in the state of South Carolina, and a visit there is like stepping back into another time. 

When you walk through the door, you can hear the rhythmic swoosh of the giant water wheel out back as it makes another revolution. 

In wintertime, a pot-bellied stove spreads its warmth across the room. And there’s a pleasant aroma of grinding corn permeating the old building that’s stood at this location for around a hundred years. 

Leave your cares and your technology behind. 

You’ll feel right at home here and you’ll likely walk away with a bag of freshly ground grits or cornmeal packaged in the trademark Suber bag.

Jim and Linda Suber are the owners of the historic mill and have been since Jim’s mother passed away in 2017. 

But Jim’s been here grinding corn for most of his 81 years, first helping his father, the late Walter Hilary Suber, and then taking over the day-to-day operations of the mill when his father was no longer able. 

Jim remembers the days when local farmers would bring their own corn to be milled, paying the Subers a toll for their work. There was also a hammer mill which was used to grind animal feed in years past.

That’s all gone now. These days Jim buys the corn he needs for the mill’s operation, and most of it comes out of Kentucky. Suber cornmeal continues to be sold in several retail locations, including Greer’s own Quality Foods. And a few local restaurants use Suber products in their recipes.

At one time the mill was open six days a week, but a couple of years ago Jim and Linda decided to abbreviate their work week, and now they’re open only on Saturdays. Even at that you’re likely to find a crowd of people there happily making their purchases and talking with the amiable owners who are always glad to give visitors a tour of the old mill.

 The coming new year will mark another transition in Suber’s long and rich history. Jim and Linda have decided to hand the operation of the mill over to their son Brian and daughter Lisa. They will be the fifth generation of Subers to operate the gristmill on Prince’s Creek. And so, the future of one of Greer’s most-beloved and cherished historical landmarks seems to be secure. 

We are elated that New York City’s Guardian Angels, a group of  volunteer vigilantes, has announced that it has decided to resume NYC subway patrols for first time since 2020 — after a recent shocking arson murder.

“The Guardian Angels are resuming their patrols of the Big Apple’s subways as if it were crime-riddled Gotham in 1979, after the horrifying arson murder of a sleeping straphanger on a train last week (Dec. 22), founder Curtis Sliwa said” on Dec. 29, the New York Post noted in a Dec. 29 news article.

The Guardian Angels squad, identifiable by its bright-red berets and matching jackets, is beefing up its ranks to its level 45 years ago, Sliwa said.

“We’re going to have to increase our numbers, increase the training and increase our presence as we did back in 1979,” Sliwa told the Post at the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island station in Brooklyn, where the woman was killed.

“We went from 13 to 1,000 [members] back then within a period of a year,” he told the Post. “Because the need was there. The need is here now once again. We’re going to step up. We’re going to make sure we have a visual presence, just like we had in the ’70s, 80’s and ’90s.”

Ever since the shocking slaying, “hundreds of citizens” have requested the Guardian Angels return to patrol the subway cars, Sliwa claimed, as he slammed NYC’s “sanctuary city” policies.

.“We’re covering the actual trains from front to back, walking through the trains and making sure that everything is okay,” he told The Post on Dec. 29. “We’re doing this constantly now. Starting today. that’s going to be our complete focus because the subways are out of control.” 

In a Dec. 30 editorial, the Post noted, “Mayor Eric Adams’ office dismissed the Angels’ return as a ‘meaningless stunt,’ and it is, indeed, mostly symbolic — their patrols can only do wellness checks on the mentally disturbed and homeless, watch cars and platforms for nefarious activity and alert cops to potential problems.”

Yet, we thoroughly agree with the Post’s viewpoint that “every set of eyes helps, as does every visible source of order...” in the city’s crime-ridden subways.