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[/if ImageKingstree] Jim Owens is a gift to Kingstree that keeps on giving. He calls the house for an update on my condition. He has sent me DVDs of the Old Porter Wagoner show on TV. His latest gift included the first TV Gunsmoke shows from 1955-56 and the first Have Gun Will Travel TV shows. The man who lives in Nashville who grew up on Mill Street, who swam in Black River, who saw his first movie at the Anderson Theatre. Jim never has forgot his roots.
In 1955 Peggy and I would spend the weekend with my family in Cayce. On Sunday afternoon near Sumter I would pick up Gunsmoke on WBT in Charlotte on my AM radio. This week nostalgia is so thick you can eat it with a spoon. Memories are made up of the things we recall and the things we would like to forget. Memories are both precious and grotesque but it you didn’t have a memory what would one be worth. The time machine is waiting, so fasten your seatbelts and ride with me on a journey. Our destination is a place called “Remember When.”
Remember when Scott Poston’s and Preacher’s Drug store were on Academy Street along with Swails men shop, Trouble Shooter, Cliff Moore Service Station, Winslow Chevrolet, Anderson Theatre, Kingstree Federal Savings and Loan, Dubin’s Dept. store, Ervin’s Jewelers, Steve Montgomery Grocery store, and Stanley Inman’s Red and White?
Remember when Florence McGill sold ladies lingerie; Cheslie Gamble carried the latest fashions in children’s clothes at the kiddie shop?
Do you remember the first time you saw “Gone with the Wind” in Kingstree?
Do you remember when the Carolina Hotel had a telephone booth? When there were two pool halls on Main Street when Darling Starving Marion McCutcheon sold Fords, and Mag Cantley ran the parts department at Winslow Chevrolet?
Remember when John Mixon’s Carolina Service Station stayed open all night? Remember Crawford’s Shoe Shop, the B.R. Café?
Remember when you laid away toys at Roses dime store? When Frank McGill cut meat at Tomlinson’s Food Store. When D.S. Epps sold fertilizer and Briggs Walker sold insurance?
Do you remember when Ray Dennis sold beer, Solomon Mims drove a taxi and Tomlinson’s Food Store had a bakery?
Do you remember Royal Moters, when James Hinnant ran Southern Discount, when there were cotton gins at Cades, Salters, Lane, Greeleyville, Trio, Nesmith, Hemingway and Kingstree.
Do you remember when Henry had a post office, when Ray Cooper sold radios at Trio and SA Guerry sold shop jars, Wringer Washers and Golden Grain cigarette tobacco?
Do you remember when Greeleyville had its own telephone company?
Do you remember buying an engagement ring from Dewitt Jewelers? When Hemingway had a hospital, a hotel and Haselden Bros. sold gasoline on Main Street?
Do you remember when Charlie Drucker opened the Cut Rate? When the bus station was at Lybrand’s?
Do you remember Claude Watts, Jim Pinkerton, Happy Long, Mrs. W.D. Hanna, Jack McFadden, Mrs. Conyers Epps, Tom Kellahan, Noot Montgomery, Joe Alexander, Algae Coker, Charlie Graham, W.E. Allen, Margaret Sullivan, Moses Collins, Charlie McElveen, Willie Munn, Ernest Jarrett, Simpy Price, Roy Mixon, Tom Morris, Thomas McCabe, Ralph Gray, D.L. Payne, Peepsie Payne, Furman Tallavast, Red McClary, Herbert Rollins?
Did you ever buy ice or coal from Southern Cities Ice, a bicycle from Western Auto, nails from Allsbrook Hardware, oil to cure your tobacco from Thomas Gamble, F.W. Thomas, Santee Oil Co., Smith Fuel Co., Thomlinson and McWhite?
Remember when Snowball and Sunny Boy McKenzie ran a service station?
Do you remember H.T. McGill’s Texaco, Ed Mishoe sold Esso gasoline, when Greeleyville had two cotton gins, two furniture stores, a Red and White food store, two drug stores and Frank Mishoe and Browder’s whisky store with a bath tub chained to a tree?
Do you remember when John Flagler had stores in Kingstree, Lake City, Beulah, Warsaw, Bloomingvale, Andrews, Blakely, and Georgetown?
Do you remember going to the sale when Belk’s Bargain store closed? When Jarrett’s closed the store on Hwy. 52 to open the big warehouse on the old Lake City Hwy.? When Peggy fixed Mrs. Elizabeth Navarro’s hair and Bernard Baruch would pick her up at Eunice Beauty Shop?
Did you ever ride the freight elevator at Roses? On the second floor is where they kept the candy and the layaways. The walls near the windows overlooking Main Street were the names of those who worked there. Some had dates. The oldest dates I could find was 1951. Do you remember when Happy Rain was the Grand Marshal at the Kingstree parade? Someone threw something at her. She wrote letters to the News and Courier condemning Kingstree. The entire community was condemned for the sins of a few.
Do you remember when the Kiwanis Club met at Mrs. Kelley Florida’s house at the corner of Brooks and Academy?
Do you remember when all the drug stores sold ice cream? Now the only drug store in the county that sells ice cream is Walter Rogan at the Greeleyville Pharmacy.
There used to be a hotel over Marcus Dept. store. The numbers are still on the doors. The two sisters Jettie McClam and Sarah and Sybil Kirby worked at the Carolina Hotel and Carrie Mae Carter worked at Lybrand’s. Mrs. McFadden ran the draft board on Jackson Street.
Remember Country Williams, Tilla Robinson, Dick Cole, Capt. Bill Williams, Fred Guerry, Koobie Jack? When Mr. Barton had that big Santa Claus in the window of B.C. Moore’s on Hampton Ave.?
Remember when the Army Air Corps had a field at Gourdine during World War II?
Did you ever go to the Williamsburg County Fair?
Did you ever see a baseball game between Indiantown and Hebron? Did you ever see Pat Floyd, Billy Price, Dale McKenzie, Bull McKenzie, Buddy Gamble, Gus Montgomery, Pete Buckles, Cooper Horton, Tony Welch, John McKissick and Frank McGill played for the Boll Weevils? Or what about Ken Kellahan, Tyler Jarrett, Frank McGill, Byran Burgess, Chris Brown, David Holliday, Brooks McCutchen, Chuck Walker, Clark Carter, Jason Stillinger, Gene Hall, Tim McKenzie, Lloyd C. Morris, Glen McClary, Lee Carter, Craig Brown, Radley Slavinski, Wynn Myers, Jim Hutton, Al Tyler, Steve McKenzie, Steve Britton, Johnnie Nexson and Tony Williams when they played for the Stallions?