Across The Railroad Tracks ::

This photograph of the old Amtrak station and tracks was taken almost exactly one year ago:



I played little league baseball on the fields behind the station and I remember riding my bicycle down here almost every day during the summer. There was a pathway through the woods on the right which came out right at the ball parks which saved us a lot of pedaling.

The History Of The American Civil War ::

H/T to Dan over at The Daily Dixie:

[Sorry, I should have downloaded this and put it up on my own server. I'll check this weekend and see if I can't find it somewhere else!]

An Image From Camden

I have long been fascinated by these roadside monuments to those who have died in accidents. I was in Camden in March of 2006 and ran across this one just as I turned onto the Bishopville Highway (I think):





I have lived away from Camden since roughly 1975 and my brother, Bill, still laughs at me when I don't remember all of the roads and place names from my youth. I have tried to make it a point to revisit some of the old landmarks from the past whenever I'm in Camden and I'll share these as we go along. In fact, here's an image from Quaker Cemetery:



Recurring themes in my photographs are cemeteries, flags, and, to some extent, these roadside monuments, but I find cemeteries to be especially fascinating!

Sharing Some Writing ::

I have purposefully not added a link sidebar although I have been tempted and I still may, but I'm going to share one of my favorite sites which I don't visit as often as I should and which GK doesn't sometime update as often as he should, but he seems to be on a roll after the new year:

“Art is faith,”
Van Gogh wrote from
the sunflower penitentiary
of his imagination.
“Friendship is addiction.”

If you enjoy good writing from a wonderful person then you should be reading Whistle And Fish often!

Blog Views

I find it interesting that we seem to be getting an average of 5 to 6 new visitors here per day along with about the same average of returning visitors. I would like to encourage all of our visitors to contribute whatever they can to what we are sharing here. My e-mail address is over there on the right and I would love to expand the authorship privileges to whomever would like to add some thoughts!

Nuggets From Googling

There are lots of things archived on the world wide web. Here is one from the past:



Number 81 was, of course, Buster Beckham. Here's the caption which accompanies the photograph:

Buster Beckham (CHS 1965) scores against Stall in the 1964 Lower State finals. The Dogs won the game 30-6 and went on to beat Easley for the AA State Championship

This photograph and caption is up on a Camden Bulldog web site, but I don't believe it is correct. As I remember the only touchdown scored against this team was in the state championship game in Easley and it was the only touchdown scored against the team all year long. Here is another photograph:



This is, of course, Billy Ammons who was honored with a blurb in Sports Illustrated after this great season. I'll have to see if I can find the SI piece on the web and post it here!

[correction to the above post] I got an e-mail from Jim Ring today confirming that the caption was indeed correct and my memory, such as it is these days, is indeed defective! Where was Stall from? I don't remember that team at all!

An Update To The Nostalgia Post

After I posted about some of the places I remember from the past I realized that I had forgotten the one which jogged my memory and prompted the nostalgia: the old Broad Street Lunch which was actually on Broad Street. Quite the hang-out in its day-kinda like Ralphs if you happen to remember Happy Days!

Passing Into History!

I try to follow what is happening around Camden on a weekly basis by reading the Chronicle-Independent on-line, generally on Monday afternoon, and each day I glance over the web edition of The State so last year it was with great sadness that I read of the closing of both Burns Hardware and Sheheen's Feed and Seed!



I was in Camden for a few days last year when Burns Hardware was going out of business and I started to stop in, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I love the old-time hardware stores and I still shop in them whenever possible even though it may cost a bit more. I can still picture Mr. Burns waiting on customers and I remember one of his employees, I can't remember his name, whose hobby was assembling model cars and he was always offering us tips when we were kids.

When I was a youngster staying with my grandparents we would normally come into town on Monday afternoon to do what little shopping we needed to do and we would often run by Sheheen's Feed and Seed for some chicken feed and, at some point around Easter, my grandparents would buy us kids a couple of little chicks which I'm sure at some point wound up on the Sunday dinner table. They were fun to raise, but we never got very attached to what would someday be our meal!

Let's see what else I remember:

Zemp's Drug Store (where we got Cherry Cokes!)
Bernie Baum's pawn shop
Rowell's Shoe Shop (I think this is right)
Rose's Five and Dime
Goodale Jewelers (which I think is still there-I remember Frank well!)
Ah, I almost forgot Sheorn's Mens Wear where we bought our Bass Weejuns!
Sam Karesh's dress store on the corner

Oh, Oh, and, of course Little Theater with Mr. Parker's barber shop right next door (I think this is now a tobacco shop)

The big-box stores such as Lowes, Wal-Mart, Target and the like may be convenient, but we have given up far too much in the quest for the lowest price! I'll take a bit of atmosphere along with knowledgeable personal service any time!

All of this nostalgia is taxing my feeble brain. Please, feel free to add your memories in comments!

Photographs ::

About 3 years ago I began bringing my laptop and scanner when I visited Camden. My mother had a stash of old photographs hidden away and after I found them I began to scan as many of them as possible over the course of several trips and I built a nice digital archive of family photographs going back to when I was a little guy and I have posted 3 over at the Random Photograph page located over on the right sidebar along with a couple that Sandy Cole sent me over the past few days.

I would love to share some of the older photographs of classmates contrasted with some of the latest images. If you would like to contribute just e-mail the images to me along with any text you would like to include. The e-mail address is also over at the right sidebar-just substitute @ for (at) and be sure to include a subject line in the e-mail!