Category: Local

Local items of interest from Greenville and Upstate SC.

Photo of the Month

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Photo of the Month
Internet, Local, Photography

Sciway.net (South Carolina Information Highway) is an outstanding website that has information or links to information to just about anything you would want to know about South Carolina. I use their resources regularly, and have tried to promote them when doing conference presentations, etc. There is some great stuff there. Random Connections has just been … Read More “Photo of the Month” »

The Children’s Graveyard

Posted on By Tom 23 Comments on The Children’s Graveyard
History and Genealogy, Local, Photography

Mary P

Eric from “A Day’s Drive from Greenville” recently wrote about a trip he took to the “Children’s Graveyard” near Furman University. His descriptions and photos made me want to take a visit for myself, so today I set off in search of this supposedly haunted location.

I had only heard about this graveyard recently while reading about ghost stories of the Upstate. It’s odd that throughout all my years of association with Furman and the Furman area I was never aware of this cemetery. However, it is easy to overlook the entrance, and the area has been left undeveloped.

Thanks to Eric’s lat/long coordinates, I was able to find the spot with no trouble. The entrance road, Thackston Road on Google Maps, has huge holes in the pavement and doesn’t look like something that’s really accessible. If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you would drive right by.

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Great-Great Grandparent Encounters

Posted on By Tom 14 Comments on Great-Great Grandparent Encounters
History and Genealogy, Local

I spent Sunday afternoon visiting my folks in Gray Court. My parents had just visited my Aunt Ann, who turned 90 this month. Therefore, much of the discussion involved family history, and we even took an excursion to a cemetery in Laurens County to look up some family history. First is the picture above. My … Read More “Great-Great Grandparent Encounters” »

Audio Journeys – The Anderson Jockey Lot

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Audio Journeys – The Anderson Jockey Lot
Local, Things Overheard, Weirdness

Jesus and Knives

Paul and I made our annual trek to the Anderson Jockey Lot. We always try to take a newbie with us – someone not yet immersed in southern flea market culture. Lately this has been a new faculty member at Furman, and this year was no different. Karen Buckmeuller was our victim this time. She couldn’t convince her new husband, Herman Holt, to come along with us. Several others were also supposed to go with us, but wimped out, too.

As I’ve learned, the denizens of the Jockey Lot get very nervous around cameras, and with good reason. We saw several less-than-legal items for sale. I was still able to snap a few shots, though. Most useful was the little Sansa Clip recorder. I clipped it to my shirt and left it recording the entire time we were there. I got some fascinating conversations. I’ve edited it down to the best clips and added a little background music, then posted it to Boomp3.com. It’s about six minutes long.

boomp3.com

In this audio clip, you will here the following, in order:

  • Question about the price of a Megatron helmet
  • Haggling over the sale of a car
  • A discussion about a breed of dog
  • The benefits of using fake security cameras
  • A bird saleslady
  • A call to repentance for stealing cars
  • A discussion of spicy pickled tomatoes
  • How society has been destroyed
  • The problems with Dale Earnhardt candles and Teresa Earnhardt
  • Good beans
  • Night blooming plants
  • A rooster crowing
  • Another dog salesman
  • And finally, selling big time

There were several more conversations I would have loved to have captured.

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Fourth Fireworks

Posted on By Tom 1 Comment on Fourth Fireworks
Local, Miscellaneous

Fireworks 11

Our family was somewhat scattered, and the drought was causing some concerns about lighting fireworks in the Upstate, so we decided on a different path for this year’s Fourth.

First, we headed over to Paul’s for some of his world-famous ribs and blistering rounds of bumper pool and bocce balls. No mercy was spared on either account.

For our fireworks, there were several option. We could brave the crowds downtown, or we could brave the religious nutjobs over at Redemption World Outreach Center. John Ellenberg has a hanger at the municipal airport, which would have a great view of the RWOC. Chip and I remembered his access code, and toyed with the idea of using his parking lot to view the fireworks.

We loaded up the convertible and headed to the Haywood Road Area. It was already a zoo, and there was stepped up security, so we decided not to try John’s place. As it turns out we parked on the road overlooking the hanger. It was a good thing, because they were launching from the end of John’s building, so we were actually in the fallout zone for the fireworks. The display was pretty cool.

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