Of all the places I have lived, Summerville, SC holds the fondest memories for me as a child. My family lived there for close to six years and it was the longest place we lived anywhere that I could remember with my dad in the Air Force and Army, and then a Traveling Salesman for Portalite Aluminum Screens and Windows, etc. We moved so often it seemed that we didn't have time to make and keep friends, which was okay because I had lots of sisters and brothers (8 all together) to play with. Then we moved to Summerville and it seems like this is where my life began. We lived on an acre of land surrounded by woods on every side of us. Our rental home had a large front porch and a smaller back one. There were 4 bedrooms, a big livingroom with a fireplace, diningroom, kitchen, and one bathroom for all of us. My youngest brother and sister were born in Summerville. There was an old chicken house on the property that we would use as a play house and that we also jumped off the roof of...much to my Mom's worried concern. No matter how many times she asked us not to do this...some of us (including me) just couldn't resist doing this. Thank God we never broke any bones or hurt ourselves in any way. Since we lived in the country, we were bussed to our Elementary school an hour away in Monks Corner. I can remember looking out the bus window and pretending I was in a little car racing along the fire line on either side of the highway keeping up with our school bus. I had a great imagination during those years in Summerville. I loved going to school in Monks Corner, I even loved the lunches they served us...all except on the day we would have liver and peas. Our teacher always made us eat everything on our plates, but I could not stomach liver and peas (still can't to this day) and as luck would have it, every time we had liver and peas we also had an ice cream cup too. That ice cream cup would save my life every time. I would eat everything but the liver and peas and then cut up my liver and put the pieces of it and the peas in my empty ice cream cup and once the lid was back on top...my secret was safe and my stomach too. At recess time we played dodge ball, jump rope, marbles, hopscotch, etc. and we enjoyed time talking and making friends with each other. School was not just about learning back then and we had what I considered plenty of recess time. One of the best days at school was the day we got to go to the school library and pick out books to read. I loved reading then and it is still one of my favorite things to do. When I wasn't in school I spent alot of time exploring all the woods around home with some of my sisters, brothers and a few friends too. We discovered lots of fishing spots where you could catch brim and sometimes catfish to your heart's content. Many weekend mornings I would get up before dawn and dig up some worms, take my cane pole and a bag lunch and fish from sun up until sun down. Those were the days when my Mom did not have to worry about something happening to me...those were the days when you were safe and people could be trusted not to harm you. I look back at that time now and I wish that it was that way still for my children and grandchildren. to be continued...
I know someone who lives in Summerville. She is a Yankee transplant, but she really likes the area. I would have to live right next to the ocean to live somewhere even hotter than here, not a fan of humidity here. I would like to visit the area again though, by that, I mean Charleston. I was only in the city once and it was years ago. We took a horse carriage ride, which was fun. I bought a woven jacket which I wore for years.
I was such a tomboy in South Carolina. I did everything the boys did...and lots of times much better too. Sometimes I think a lot of my tomboy ways were because after my two sisters were born my dad wanted a boy so bad that when Mom delivered me my dad swore the Doctor said I was a boy and they had to prove to my dad that I wasn't by removing my diaper. It seemed I was always hearing that story go around in my family and part of me unconsciously did a lot of "boy" things to show them I was just as good as they were at them. Sports, climbing trees, wearing my brothers jeans when my Mom wanted me to wear a dress, fighting like a boy fists and all, even keeping my hair cut short. There was even an old saying that if you could kiss your elbow you could turn into a boy, etc. and of course I spend a lot of time trying to do just that. It's a wonder I don't have gender identity confusion, which even when I wanted to be what my dad had expected me to be, I can say with all honesty...I always knew I was a girl! But I liked proving to boys that I could do everything they could do and just as well too! Then came a day when I didn't even want to be a boy at all anymore. I remember when it started so clearly. My womanhood starting "budding out" on my chest and I just ignored that, but the boys weren't ignoring this. One day we were playing football as usual and I had always run with the ball to make touch downs...and even though I got tackled alot...I also made many of those touch downs. But this time when I got tackled...the boys gathered around me and starting asking me "if I was alright" and "if they had hurt me?" Gee whiz...I wasn't just one of the fellows anymore to them. At first I was really disappointed in this fact....but a few months later I had my first boyfriend and my first kiss...and all of a sudden I liked being a girl just fine. I was in Fifth grade by that time, a time of innocence in love and kisses. Yes indeed, being a girl turned out to be just fine with me and from that time on I never tried to kiss my elbow again or tried to prove I could do everything the guys did and just as good as them too. And sometimes I even wore a dress to please my Mom. Main Street Summerville, SC. My oldest sister used to work at Barshay's department store here. more to come...
When I lived in Summerville it was a small country town that grew alot of tobacco, cotton, and corn. In the summer when school was out, I used to help pick cotton and tobacco...and although I did not pick corn I did help grind it into meal by loading the machine that ground it with ears of corn and tying the sacks that would hold the ground corn unto the machine. I also helped string the tobacco leaves for curing which was a little like braiding hair. My family did not have alot of money and since there were 9 of us children those of us who could earn spending money in one way or another did just that. Picking cotton in the hot sun and with the stickers on the cotton balls was not fun, but everyone who did it worked as a team and the time went by fast. Although there were no more slaves there were many people of color who I picked both cotton and tobacco with and the songs they would sing and the stories they were tell were wonderful and memories I cherish to this day. It was wonderful days when people were just people and what color or nationality they were made no difference at all during that time of my life. I wish life and people were that way now...it was so easy then. No one had alot, but there was always plenty to share with others. Another thing we did to make spending money was pick up empty cola bottles, back then you could get five cents for each bottle and just like now people like to litter and even though we did a lot of walking along the back roads, etc. there were always plenty of bottles to be found. On the weekends that my dad was home, he would often take us crabbing in Charleston, SC. Moma would freeze all the chicken necks, and backs and we would tie one to a string, drop our bait into the water, wait a while and then slowly pull our string up to the surface where most of the time a crab would be clawing away on the bait and we would scoop them up with our nets and put them in bushel baskets to take home and boil. Those days were so much fun and crabs are still my favorite seafood. Other times we would all go to Mrytle Beach, SC and play in the waves and sand and come home sun burnt with silly grins on all our faces. My dad wasn't around much during the week but when he was home, he was a great dad and he was smart. He was always learning how to do something new to help support his large family. He got a book and studied it and then started fixing people's TV's. Those first TV's had tubes kind of on a board...and most of the time it was just a matter of changing out some of those tubes. I helped him quite often with those TV's although sometimes he gave me the job of holding his unfiltered lit Camel cigarette. With all the drags I snuck, I often wonder why I never became a smoker. But I am thankful I didn't too. I grew up knowing I was loved and that is the greatest gift parents can give their children to me. Myrtle Beach, SC picture Middleton Gardens in Charleston, SC. We went on lots of school field trips to this beautiful place. to be continued...
Me and some of my siblings at our home in Summerville. The weather in Summerville was hot in the summer...but since I was a kid then I had no complaints about this. No need to stand under the hot sun when there was shaded woods to explore. It seemed the moment you entered those woods the temperature would suddenly go from hot to cool. From sun up until sun down if someone was looking for us and we couldn't be found you can bet we were playing in the woods. I often think of those woods whenever I hear anything about ticks and Lyme Disease. Back then I never heard of anyone getting any disease from a tick and I can assure you after playing in the woods full of pine trees, etc. we were always checked for ticks before taking our baths, and most of the time ticks were found somewhere on us. Back then we did take a pair of tweezers and pinch as close to where they were digging in our skin...and pluck those ticks right out! It makes me wonder what has happened to these ticks that they are now spreading Lyme Disease? One time while we were exploring in the woods, we came across a dump site. And we would find the most interesting treasures in that Dump, treasures we would use to "furnish" our play homes in the forest. You would have thought we had struck gold when we came across that Dump site. Hours would fly by while we all searched for the perfect things to furnish our "homes" in the forest. We weren't allowed to camp out in any of our forest homes though. That was considered to dangerous. But in our back yard was a large picnic table with benches that my dad had built and we were allowed to throw old blankets, etc. over that to make a tent that we would often camp out in. It was quite a ways from our back porch but as long as we were within site at night...our parents felt we were safe...and so did we. We had a flash light for emergencies, but we loved to make our own "lanterns" for camping out with. My Mom would give us some old mason jars and we would punch holes in the top of the lid, add some greenery to the jar and then catch as many "lightning bugs" as we could to fill up our jars and be the light for our lanterns. There's nothing like seeing an open field full of lightning bugs at night, and having a ball catching as many of them as you can! I'd like to say that we always slept in our make shift tent all night...but we usually scared ourselves silly telling ghost stories, etc. and ended up in our own beds long before the morning light. On one side of our house there was a path through the woods and at the end of that path when you came out of the woods there was a Country Store owned by our neighbors the Moores. They had a daughter and two sons and we all were very good friends with them. I loved collecting pop bottles and cashing them in for penny candy or the two for a penny cookies that seemed as large as a coffee cup saucer back in those days. That's where I first discovered dreamsicles too. I liked almost any kind of ice cream for those dreamsicles were my favorite. That's also where I discovered RC colas and peanuts mixed together was yummy! Like most Country Stores back then there was a little bit of everything for sale there, from clothes to bologna. I never liked Spam, but I did love potted meat and saltine crackers and often brought that home from the store. The best part about that Store being so close to us was whenever there was a bad storm that knocked out the electricity....we got all the free ice cream we could eat because the cold cases shut down during those storms and ice cream doesn't take long to melt. I'm sure we got other things too...but ice cream is all I really remember. more to come...
My parents were Catholics and raising us in this denomination too and yet in Summerville there was three problems with us attending a Catholic Church. The first one was that the nearest Catholic Church was over and hour away from us, the second was that my mother did not drive, and the third was that my dad was a traveling salesman who often wasn't home to take us to Church. Back then if you were Catholic you did not go to another denomination services! Yet somehow my dad got special permission from the Catholic Bishop of our Parish for us kids to go to the Methodist Church that was just down the street from our home when our dad wasn't home to take us to the Catholic mass. The really funny thing about all of this was that we could attend the Methodist service, but we weren't to believe anything they told us except that God loved us! New Hope Methodist Church was where most of our friends went to Church so we enjoyed being able to go where they went and also to be in the Sunday school classes with them too. The biggest difference to me between our denominations at my young age was that I couldn't understand much of what the Catholic mass said because it was mostly in Latin, while the Methodist service was all in English and I could understand everything the Minister talked about. I love going to the Methodist Church and every year they had "Homecoming" which to me was a big Family picnic. On Homecoming Sunday everybody brought their favorite sides and desserts while the Church furnished the meats, and the drinks. Tables were lined up together and seemed to go on for miles...and on every table would be every food you could imagine, starting with the meats like fried chicken, ham, meat loaf, then salads and vegetables of every kind, then breads, and then the most wonderful tables of all with every inch covered with every dessert you could think of. And there were huge wooden barrels filled with homemade lemonade and root beer, etc. After the Service on Homecoming Sunday, everyone would form a line and fill their plates to overflowing with the best food anyone could ever eat! Old blankets, etc. were set up all over the grounds and it was the biggest picnic I had ever been too. There were games to play, etc. too. It was one of my favorite days of each year that I lived in Summerville. It was in some ways a little bit of heaven on earth to me, as was the years I lived in Summerville, SC.
One thing about living in Summerville and so close to the historic city of Charleston was the great field trips we would take when I was in school. For history studies we had field trips to the Charleston Museums and Fort Sumter. The Civil War Museum and artifacts. The Charleston Museum with its artifacts and dinosaur exhibits.
Our school field trip to Fort Sumter was one I still see vividly in my mind to this day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Sumter There's nothing like learning history when you are walking through the ruins of it.
Summerville, SC was also special because it was there that my dad took my sister and me on our first vacation. Since he was a traveling salesman, in the summertime he would sometimes take one or two of us older kids with him so we would get see some of America, and my Mom would have a few less kids to take care of while he was working. The year my sister and I got to travel with him to Miami was a very special year in my life. It was the first time I ever tasted fast food. Our dad treated us to a Whopper meal from Burger King down in Miami. We stayed in a motel that looked just like this one. My dad did business in Miami quite a bit and he would usually stay in this Mom and Pop motel that had a kitchenette, a pool, and was across the street from the beach. He got to be friends with the family that owned the motel and they had a daughter between the ages of my sister and me. They told dad to bring us down with him anytime and they would keep an eye on us when he had sales calls to make. Their daughter was an only child and they wanted us to meet her too. So the time came when dad decided this was a good idea and my sister and I had our first real vacation/ The Motel had lemon trees growing on the grounds and there was coconut trees with edible coconuts to eat too. We ate our fill of these things while we were there. We got along great with the Owner's daughter too and spent most of our days either in the pool or at the beach with the daughter and one of the grown up chaperones to watch us. When dad didn't have any sales calls he took us to eat the best chili cheese dog I've ever eaten at a little open air place called Sloppy Joes. Sloppy Joe's hot dogs also had sauerkraut on them...and they were yummy! Miami was where our dad took us to the Movies for the very first time in our lives too. The Movie was Al Capone...which I'm sure was really not suitable for our age but my dad probably figured that was the only movie he could sit through and it was about a real person even if that person was a notorious gangster! I don't remember most of the movie, but I do remember that scene in the picture below. The woman in the bed was the wife of someone who those men needed to find...and in the movie the woman gets out of the bed and the men are circled around her and pushing her around between them to scare her into telling them where her husband was. I just remember her finaling telling them to please not hurt her because she was pregnant....and then all the men stopped shoving her around and their faces showed how ashamed they were....and they left without hurting her or trying to get the info from her. The Motel owner's daughter gave me a beautiful doll with long hair out of this collection she had (with her parent's permission). We didn't have the kind of money to buy that kind of doll and I brought her home and took very good care of her until I out grew dolls...and thinking back on it I can't say what happened to her, but I probably passed her down to one of my younger sisters as we did often with the things we outgrew back then. I'm thinking about putting a trip back to Summerville, SC on my Bucket List. I know it will not be the same place as the one I grew up in...life goes on. But I'm sure there are still many things that I would recognize.