[if ImageKingstree]

[/if ImageKingstree] Things change. Nothing stays the same. Did you believe you would see the day Charlie Walker couldn’t talk? I liked shooting off my mouth and I never ran out of ammunition. I never put off till tomorrow what I could say today.

Did you believe you would see the day Bob Watford no longer owned a grocery store at Warsaw?

The Watford store was the last out past in Williamsburg where Hwy. 521 met Hwy. 41 before entering Georgetown County where seldom is the heard a discouraging word, the home of a paper mill and sunny beaches.

History doesn’t record it but Williamsburg County had a choice of Tisdales and McClarys or Pawleys Island. Williamsburg chose Tisdales and McClarys because even back then our SAT scores where lower than temperatures inside a glacier.

I said nothing remains the same but consider the mega dump everyone rejoices not coming, but what about the $750,000 the county has agreed to pay in a signed contract. Now that it’s over, there’s dancing in the streets but you and I know the taxpayers will have to pay that money back. I congratulate the county for kissing the mega dump good-bye, but I don’t applaud kissing my tax money good-bye.

Now that Bob has sold the store, the sale of Watford grocery is the end of an era. The way we were, when Bob took over that store, children rode the school bus from Piney Forest. The 50 Cent Road, Morrisville, Warsaw to Williamsburg school.

Stores like Watford were the backbone of the community they were located in. Children still went to school at Hebron and Indiantown. At Earle’s, Farrah Wheeler’s store was Wal-Mart. I never ride by that school without remembering the lights at the football field, the voice of Coach Higbe. Some memories just won’t die.

I wonder how many alumni of the school who are now grandparents remember drinking a Pepsi at Farrah Wheeler’s when Pepsi was twice as much a nickel too.

At Trio it was Robert Rowell and Ray Cooper that ran the country store. H.P. Brown at Gourdine. At Lane D.P. Caison, Shirer Grocery and Shriberg. Greeleyville had Rawlinson’s Red & White and Farmers Lucky Dollar. Salters Depot had Bert Mosley and W.S. McCullough. Hebron had Gowdy’s. Nesmith has W.T. Nesmith and Mitchell.

Millwood had S.A. Guerry. Brunson Cross Roads had O’Neil Tanner and Opie Baxley. Hinnant’s Grocery at Sutton, D.L. Payne Grocery at Aimwell. Indiantown had Vera Owens and Tanners Grocery. Hemingway had Cockfield’s IGA, Daniel’s Red & White, Ruffins’ Thrift Way, Cox Grocery, Durant’s Piggly Wiggly, Davis Grocery, Calcutt’s Grocery. Tommy Grier was at Midway. Hagwood’s was the shopping center at Boogie Bottom. Sandy Bay had Chief McCutcheon.

Remember Wheat’s Grocery at Bloomingvale. Kingstree had Gordon Little’s Grocery, Dukes Grocery, Hoke Smith, Ed Mishoe, Stanley Inman, PK Kozma, Montgomery Grocery, and the A&P.

Did you believe you would live to see this county without Tomlinson’s Food Store or John Flagler’s store?

And now Bob Watford is gone. Well, its there in the same place, but it won’t be the same without Bob and Libby not there. The hot dogs won’t be the same; the gossip won’t be as tasty.

When I came to Kingstree in 1949 many of the grocery stores offered credit. Today if Food Lion, Bi-Lo, the IGA, or Piggly Wiggly offered credit how long would you predict they would stay in business? If McDonald’s offered to sell egg McMuffins on credit, it wouldn’t be long before the golden arches like Baxter, Warsaw Manufacturing and Milliken, would be gone with the wind.

The only thing that hasn’t changed is Black River. It may not be the fisherman’s paradise that it used to be, but the color is the same. One of our industries has to run ads in Florence newspaper looking for qualified people while our unemployment is 15 percent.

The only thing we are qualified for in Williamsburg County is welfare and free cheese. But we can rejoice knowing there will be no mega dump at Nesmith. But when you get your tax bill, someone should ask county council why we are paying $750,000 for something we didn’t wont and don’t have.

When Diane Chinnes was a little girl, she used to come from Hemingway to sing on WDKD. I have a letter she wrote me from Columbia. She remembered I called her “the little girl with the strawberry curls.” She sent me a picture, one of Diane in 1954 when she sang on WDKD and one of Diane today. She’s still got that red hair.