High School Days
Three of my high school friends came over to my house for dinner last night. One of them 'found' me on the internet, and I knew how to find the other two. That prompted me to write about our high school days.
I went to Summerville High School from August of 1963 until June of 1967. In those days, Summerville SC was a beautiful little town near Charleston. Most of the local business was on a little town square. The two largest stores on the square were a 'dime store' and a 'department store'. The dime store was "Ben Franklin's Five and Dime". It's closest modern day equivalent would be a Dollar General without the food. There was no Walmart back then. The department store was Barshay's. Barshay's had clothing and fabric/patterns/sewing supplies. Many of my clothes originated from Barshay's pattern books. There were a few other stores along the square - Poppleton's dime store, Alexander's clothing store, Wolper's jewelry store, Guerrin's pharmacy, and Kramer's pharmacy. Across the street there was Eva's restaurant, Helen's beauty parlor, and the shut down former movie theater. Some time during those four years another clothing store opened - Seymour's - around the corner from the square.
There were two grocery stores in town - Piggily Wiggily - across from the square, and Colonial - a good ways down the highway.
There were no movie theaters in Summerville - you drove to North Charleston (for drive in movies) or Charleston (for sit down movies). There were no malls in Charleston then.
If we needed something we could not find in Summerville, we drove down the 'garden road' to King Street in Charleston. There was no I-26 back then. In my junior high days, my grandmother tried to make us wear Sunday clothes including hats and gloves for shopping trips to King Street!
During our high school days, there was only one bridge to Mount Pleasant - the old two lane (two directions, including big trucks) bridge. A common Saturday night date was a trip to the "Seaside", a popular teen night club at Isle of Palms that featured wonderful bands (actually famous ones), dancing, shows, and lots of beer (including underage drinking). The return trips over that shaky little two lane bridge with a drunk teenager driving were pretty scary - especially for me since I was the odd one who refused to drink until I was 18 (legal age back then).
We had a very special time in the 1960s in our small town. My friends and I were not the most popular 'in crowd' - I was more likely to be around the 'intellectual' group - but we had plenty of dates and social life. Our high school had an 'arch rival' high school in the next town - Monck's Corner. Our junior year I committed the unspeakable crime of dating a really nice boy from there. He started bringing his friends over and meeting with my friends and Sunday afternoon drives started many 'relationships'. We called them the 'Berkeley Boys' and we had a wonderful time with them.
At the beginning of my senior year, I apparently broke up with my 'Berkeley Boyfriend' (based on a letter from him that I recently found) to start dating my current husband - Denny. Denny grabbed my heart and never let go - but it took us more than 30 years and several failed marriages to end up together. We are so different, but the magic is still there for us! We've been married for 7 years now.
Anyway, one evening was not nearly enough to catch up on 40 years – so we plan to meet again later this summer for some concerts in Greenville.
I went to Summerville High School from August of 1963 until June of 1967. In those days, Summerville SC was a beautiful little town near Charleston. Most of the local business was on a little town square. The two largest stores on the square were a 'dime store' and a 'department store'. The dime store was "Ben Franklin's Five and Dime". It's closest modern day equivalent would be a Dollar General without the food. There was no Walmart back then. The department store was Barshay's. Barshay's had clothing and fabric/patterns/sewing supplies. Many of my clothes originated from Barshay's pattern books. There were a few other stores along the square - Poppleton's dime store, Alexander's clothing store, Wolper's jewelry store, Guerrin's pharmacy, and Kramer's pharmacy. Across the street there was Eva's restaurant, Helen's beauty parlor, and the shut down former movie theater. Some time during those four years another clothing store opened - Seymour's - around the corner from the square.
There were two grocery stores in town - Piggily Wiggily - across from the square, and Colonial - a good ways down the highway.
There were no movie theaters in Summerville - you drove to North Charleston (for drive in movies) or Charleston (for sit down movies). There were no malls in Charleston then.
If we needed something we could not find in Summerville, we drove down the 'garden road' to King Street in Charleston. There was no I-26 back then. In my junior high days, my grandmother tried to make us wear Sunday clothes including hats and gloves for shopping trips to King Street!
During our high school days, there was only one bridge to Mount Pleasant - the old two lane (two directions, including big trucks) bridge. A common Saturday night date was a trip to the "Seaside", a popular teen night club at Isle of Palms that featured wonderful bands (actually famous ones), dancing, shows, and lots of beer (including underage drinking). The return trips over that shaky little two lane bridge with a drunk teenager driving were pretty scary - especially for me since I was the odd one who refused to drink until I was 18 (legal age back then).
We had a very special time in the 1960s in our small town. My friends and I were not the most popular 'in crowd' - I was more likely to be around the 'intellectual' group - but we had plenty of dates and social life. Our high school had an 'arch rival' high school in the next town - Monck's Corner. Our junior year I committed the unspeakable crime of dating a really nice boy from there. He started bringing his friends over and meeting with my friends and Sunday afternoon drives started many 'relationships'. We called them the 'Berkeley Boys' and we had a wonderful time with them.
At the beginning of my senior year, I apparently broke up with my 'Berkeley Boyfriend' (based on a letter from him that I recently found) to start dating my current husband - Denny. Denny grabbed my heart and never let go - but it took us more than 30 years and several failed marriages to end up together. We are so different, but the magic is still there for us! We've been married for 7 years now.
Anyway, one evening was not nearly enough to catch up on 40 years – so we plan to meet again later this summer for some concerts in Greenville.
posted by Laurie | 7:38 AM
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