My mother, Sarah Bull Clarkson, (1926-2021) grew up in Georgetown, SC and penned this piece in 1993 for her high school reunion - Winyah High School- Class of 1944. What an endearing glimpse of small-town life!
Growing Up in Georgetown Was....
Having an entire town and county to roam totally unconcerned about safety.
Leaving doors unlocked.
Playing out after dark.
Going for Sunday afternoon rides around the Boulevard.
Attending Daily Vacation Bible School at the Baptist Church.
Meeting everybody in town in curlers and robes at house fires; the fire alarm being the town clock which gave the location of the fire.
Having the ice wagon come every day, and groceries delivered from C. L. Ford Mercantile Company.
May Day parades down Front Street ending at the Turner's big yard on Prince Street for the May Pole dance, games and costume contest.
Going to the Strand Theater every Saturday; being in love with Gary Cooper, trying to walk like Bette Davis, and wishing I could look like Loretta Young. All the while avoiding the gum stuck under the seats.
Being scared of our Principal, Mr. Bynum, or "Gum Shoe" as we called him very privately.
Taking half-dead cats to Dr. Phillip Assey, M.D. for medical care.
Remembering Halloween night as a young child, dragging trolley cars made of shoe boxes with tissue paper stain glass windows and a lighted candle inside. In later years, harassing the neighbors by ringing their doorbell and hiding. There were no treats, only tricks.
Seeing the wash women walking with huge loads of laundry balanced on their heads with all the dignity of African queens.
Living in peace and harmony with our black neighbors literally neighbors - for most of those years.
Waking up in the dark dawn on Christmas, hearing the black people singing carols as they walked through town.
Remembering teachers Misses Minnie and Birdie Condon, and Miss Ethel Bellune.
Remembering the Gladstone Hotel, the Atlantic Coast Lumber Company, Buster Brown shoes, Fogel's Department Store, and Mr. Maness’ unisex barber shop.
BEING A WINYAH HIGH GATOR WAS:
Cheering the football team on Friday nights. We knew that our team (1943 — 44) led by Jack Miller and "Bird" Bourne was the very best ever.
Detesting every teenager in Andrews sight unseen.
Mr. William Young's Latin class.
Being compared unfavorably with my older and smarter siblings by Miss Sadie Hazzard.
Aggravating Miss Pence during Glee Club practice so that she stamped a foot breaking off a high heel much to our delight.
Being in the Miss Georgetown beauty pageant and losing to a beautiful and blonde Frances Cameron.
Remembering the time Jane Woodcock turned up with orange hair having washed it in Octagon soap and then sat in the sun.
Playing "spin the bottle" at Janie Harrelson's house.
Remembering a very hip Jack Blount and his band.
Decorating the high school gymnasium with crepe paper festoons.
Yearning for the Evening In Paris in the window of Isman's Drug Store. The cobalt blue bottles of cologne and boxes of powder nestled in white satin evoking dreams of romance.
Sitting in the porch swing at the McKinney's, sipping blackberry acid with Mary, Johnnie Doyle, and Jane Skinner.
Dancing the Big and the Little Apple at Pawley’s Island Pavilion.
Milk shakes at the Milk Bar after school.
Drinking cherry cokes with ammonia at the drug store.
Dates at the Whistling Pig Drive-In.
Riding in the rumble seat of Bobby Mahon’s cool Ford Coupe.
BEING IN GEORGETOWN DURING THOSE YEARS WAS:
Living with a large assortment of interesting and eccentric people; some of whom today would most certainly be in the mental health system. Learning tolerance, understanding, and appreciation of the infinite variety of the human family that made up Georgetown.
Like most of our families enduring the poverty that was the Depression, and at the same time being wealthy beyond belief in everything that was of any importance whatsoever.
Written April 1993 on the occasion of the reunion of the classes of Winyah High School
Georgetown, South Carolina
1943 and 1944.
Sarah Bull Clarkson
Class of 1944
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