'I'm passing by Joe's house or Robinson's hardware.' Jim will tell Kirk.
If you grew up in this community in the 50's and 60's, you knew that '4 to 12' was not a fertilizer. When DuPont opened its plant in the early 50's, it put an indelible stamp on Kershaw County. The people who moved here or were transferred to this area helped make a sleepy burg a much more progressive community.
One did not have to have any family member employed at 'the plant' to be familiar with terms such as safety shoes,Waynesboro, orlon, shirt pocket plastic,or graveyard. I can still remember during the summer, Helen Nims telling all the neighborhood kids to be quiet because Doug was working graveyard. They finally got an a/c window unit that made enough noise to drive away kids and spiders.
These are the stories of some of the people who went to school in the 50's and 60's and some later moved away. All had some connection with the May Plant.
Jim Ring finished Camden High with me in 1965 and did not return to this area for over 30 years. He had 2 older brothers Kirk and Giles, who also graduated from CHS. All three now reside in Va. where their father Skip, a chemist,who was known for wearing short sleeve shirts all year, also retired.
Jim was the first of our class who was in a non kid picture. When he was in the 6th grade he was talented enough to play in the high school band. Now Jim was never tall so the local paper took a picture of him and Pete Cantey with Pete holding his clarinet on Jim's head. It was the first picture of a classmate who was not in a brownie, scout, or in a ball uniform.
Unfortunately, Jim's brother Kirk has cancer and is not doing well, and when Jim travels through here once or twice a year he will call Kirk and do the above travellogue.
I was fortunate enough to come along at the same time as some good athletes; such as All-Americans, all-staters. Shrine Bowl participants,etc. But until we were in the 6th grade the best athletes in our class were Sue Stogner, Bonnie Nowlen and Diana Elliot. They could outrun, outhit, and were stronger than any of the males in our class.
Sue Stogner Wilson, she married Bergen's son Charlie, was a treasure who was lost to us at a very early age. She was not only as good a person as one would want to know, but she could press more weights than anybody in our class. Bonnie is now Bonnie Worten and she lives outside of Atlanta, where her daughter has acted in films and commercials. Diana Elliott Dixon's father, Ace, pitched professionally. Diana could outrun everyone in our class. These three, along with Linda Graham Stogner, Molly Morris, and Susan Brown Leviner formed the nucleus who took the Rockettes all the way to the state champioship.
John Latschar, a fine basketball player,only attended school here while he was in high school. He also drove the team bus for the girl's team. One day he had to drive the team through Kershaw and ran three consecutive stoplights before the screaming got him to slow down. John was red/green color blind and at that time the stoplights in Kershaw were reversed.
If you visit the Gettysburg National Battlefield, you may want to contact John, because he is the director. If you look it up on the web site, there is the picture of a former Bulldog.
While we were of little and pony league age there were two brothers, Jimmy and Billy Sampson, who were good ball players. About 20 years ago Billy [who was spirited and happy-go-lucky] and his wife were instrumental in organiizing an anti Ku Klux Klan meeting. Apparently there was a confrontation between the different sides and Billy was shot and killed.
Steven Cooper, younger brother of Judge Tom Cooper, was one of several really smart kids in our class. We were in the 5th grade together and he made all e's [that should date you] except in penmanship where he made u's. He was lefthanded and did not have long fingers and Mrs. Louise Boykin was tough on writing skills. Mrs. Boykin claimed to be one of if not the first woman in Kershaw County to ride in a car.
Steven is now retired and lives in New Zealand. He and Richard Reed were two of our classmates to attend and graduate from Notre Dame. Richard, who may have been the best center to ever play football here, now lives in Ohio.
Sandra Cole Raynovic's father worked at DuPont until a vision problem caused him to retire. Sandra has lived most of her adult life in Alaska, but does now spend some winter in Arizona. Her son works on the Alaskan pipeline and she says there is plenty of oil and the pipeline has helped the enviroment. She can not understand what those of us in the lower 48 are waiting on.
Delores Cole Adams has a son who lives in Arizona and one of her daughters works with native Americans in New Mexico. Delores is now the chief administrator for transplantation at Case Western Hospital in Cleaveland.
Bill Steed played professional football before begining his career with DuPont. His daughter Suzanne was quite a character and an excellent tennis player. Suzanne once worked as Pepper Rodger's sercretary when Rodgers was the head football coach at Ga. Tech. Once when I was injured she sent me a rather large poster of Pepper adorned in a leisure suit walking across Grant Field.
Lin Watkins began working with Dupont soon after serving in WW11. His son Lin, is now retired from Dupont. Lin, as a tough defensive line starter, was a big reason Camden High went unscored on in 1964.
Preacher Joe Stines is also a DuPont retiree as was Joe Sr. Legend has it that when Joe Sr. retired he took his lunch pail and his alarm clock and hung them on his clothes line. He then took out his shotgun and blasted them to pieces. Guess not everyone was happy about working at a place that had lights in the parking lot.
As we move through the various stages and events of our life, we have contact with scores of people. Those of us who were fortunate enought to grow up here in the simpler times of the 50's and 60's are very fortunate indeed. DuPont made a better life for many.
Thank you for your attention.
I'll also put this up as a PDF link over to the right.
I would be interested in everyone's thoughts about the sale of the DuPont plant to who? Invista? My brother has been medically retired from there after the sale and, as I understand it, the work environment is not nearly as good as it used to be.
For years my mother would exasperate me with the admonition that if I had gone to work for DuPont I could have become a supervisor. I chose a different path with few regrets and many rewards as apparently did many with whom I went to school!
I always learn much more from Buster's writings than I ever knew before. Bonnie apparently still lives in an Atlanta suburb and Suzanne worked as secretary to Pepper Rodgers at Georgia Tech. After I got out of the navy I lived in the Atlanta area for a long time and lived on Ponce De Leon in midtown before I moved to Huntsville. I have to say that I miss Atlanta at times and I still have some really great friends there who I try to visit as much as possible!
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