We are all entitled to life, liberty and automobiles to pursue happiness. Since 1922, Hemingway Motor Company has been selling Fords to help you pursue happiness. The blue and white Ford sign on Main Street in Andrews will soon disappear, but 85 years of service and integrity won’t evaporate.

Hemingway Motor Company will continue to sell cars. Ford and Hemingway are like a couple who has been married for 85 years and getting a divorce. When Edsel’s daddy sold his first Ford there was less horsepower under the hood than more horse sense behind the wheel. Today, people don’t want cheap cars; they want expensive cars that cost less.

When Hemingway Motor Company sold its first Ford; there were more mules in Williamsburg, Georgetown and Berkeley counties than cars. There was no rush hour traffic, no traffic jams, no $4 a gallon gasoline, and few paved roads. Today, the only way to solve the traffic problem is to keep vehicles off the roads that are not paid for. There would be more possums on the road than pick-ups if that ever happened in Williamsburg County.

I wonder how many dirt roads in our area haven’t known the tread of a car from Hemingway Motor Company? I always believed Black River would dry up and the New York Stock Exchange would move to Lambert town before Edsel quit selling Fords.
From running boards to rumble seats, from AM radios to compact discs, Model T’s, Model A’s, Fare Lanes, Pintos, Mustangs, Thunderbirds, the name Ford was like sterling on silver. But a product is no better than the people who sell it and service it.

Good products and good service make a satisfied customer. For 85 years every Ford product sold by Hemingway Motor Company was backed by integrity.

The Andrews of yesterday and today are as different as a T-Model Ford and a Mustang. I was 22 years old the first time I saw Andrews. Today, Main Street is wider, the sidewalks empty, jobs are scarce. But if memories were diamonds, Andrews would be King Solomon’s mine.

The Andrews then and now are as different as Roy Acuff and Hannah Montana. Starting in 1949, I called it Andrawers on the radio. Many thought it was funny, some didn’t. Today, all that’s left of the stores I advertised on the radio in 1950 are Reynolds’s Drug Store, Dunn’s Five & Dime, Hemingway Motor Company, H&S Oil, and Piggly Wiggly.
 
Back in the 50’s Andrews was full of furniture stores, dry good stores, and grocery stores. On Saturday, the sidewalks were as full as a fat gal in a bikini. There was more money in circulation in Andrews than Pawleys Island. 

In 1950 if you tried to cross Hwy. 17, where Frank Marlowe’s store was, you had a better chance of winning the lottery then getting the headlights connected to your pelvis.

In 1950 Pawleys Island wasn’t arrogantly shabby, it was just shabby. Almost 60 years ago Frank Marlowe sold neck bones and liver pudding. Today, Food Lion is selling ribeyes and lobster tails. Today gas is almost $4 a gallon and the land at Pawleys Island sells for $400 an inch.

In 1950 there were more pine trees than republicans at DeBordieu and more possums than Cadillac’s at Litchfield.

In 1950 the economy of Georgetown County was International Paper and tobacco, today its International Paper Co., and the Atlantic Ocean. Back then when the fragrance of the paper mill collided with Uncle Charlie’s jokes at the 9-mile curve, you had to replace the picture tube in your nose. Never again will you buy groceries or insurance from Tom Swinnie, a dress from Jerome Moskow at Capital Department Store, a pair of shoes from Joe Weiner, an Easter hat from Stern’s Department Store, a new outfit from Austin May or a new suit from Jimmy Ruffin.

Today if you live in Andrews or across the river, you buy groceries at the Pig or Food Lion. Yesterday it was Tom Morris, Tom Swinnie, Billy Langley, Laurie Rogerson, Wooten’s, Bobby Thomas, John C. Flagler, C.J. Brockington, Bud Reynolds and Julian, who have filled more prescriptions than anyone in Andrews.

Bud sold Swift Ice Cream. Collier’s sold Sealtest. I don’t remember what brand of ice cream Haye’s Drug Store sold.

Andrews was the furniture capitol way back when. Muldrow Blakely, Roy Mixon, Gus Thompkins, Lee Ragland, George Williams, Goss Furniture and J.W. Blount.

How many of you ate Sunday dinner at Osborne’s Café? A cheeseburger at Sam Clemons? French fries at Bill Ackerman’s? Dutch Howard ran a place where Newton’s is today. Mr. Wright ran Western Auto and Mrs. Long ran a drive-in theater.

Royce Green sold Plymouths, People Motor Sales sold Chevrolet and Hemingway Motor Company sold Fords.

In 1971, Don Fenters and D.T. Fenters bought People’s Motor Sales. Dave Fenters had graduated from Hemingway High in June 1971. He went to work selling Chevrolets for Don and D.T. in November 1971. Dave, along with Mr. Black bought out Cumbee’s in 1990 and renamed it Longstreet.

Do you remember Herman Brewington, Haseldon Hardware, Lurlean Nexson, E.L. Kelly, Clifford Bell, Maxie Hemingway, Willie Smith, Jesse Green, Carol Barrineau, Red Nickels, John Blakely, James Franklin Dunn, came to Andrews in 1929 and opened a shoe repair shop. After WWII he opened a Five & Ten cent store. The Present Store was open in 1963. When Mr. Dunn cracked a whip, Ben and Jimmy jumped.

When you’re 81 years old, your car becomes a time machine. Whether your trip to Andrews takes you through Trio, Spring Gully, or passed Bob Watford’s store, the memories out number the telephone poles. The road from Lane to Andrews is as straight as Billy Graham. But I never ride by the old Williamsburg High School without remembering the classic battles between the Yellow Jackets and the Lions with Webber Rowell on one side of the cow pasture and Robbie Higbe standing on the other side.

The memories light up the sky like shooting stars. I wonder if there’s still a Massey Ferguson tractor in Williamsburg County that was sold by Auther Parson? I wonder if there’s a Ford with a rumble seat that was sold by Edsel Hemingway?  Hemingway Motor Company has celebrated 85 birthdays in Andrews, but the memories far exceed the candles on the cake.