Greer Memories by Jean Davis

Title

Greer Memories by Jean Davis

Accession Number

2023.72.1

Accession Date

11 April 2023

Accession Creator

David Lovegrove

Depositor

Found in Collection

Description

Newspaper clipping from Greer Citizen recounting nostalgic views of past Greer.

Date

1965 or 1966

Format

newspaper clipping

Storage Location

General Archive Box #1 Folder #15

Text

From House By Side Of Road

From the House By the Side of the Road:
Remember when --
Remember when we could walk down main street in Greer and know everyone we'd meet? I can.
Remember when parking was not a problem; the Greer parking lot behind the Library was just a big gully filled with weeds and vines? I was afraid to walk past it when I was little. I just knew it was filled with monsterous snakes.
The library building was just a small room behind Ballenger's Store. Mrs. Minus worked long and hard for a bigger, better library.
Remember when we didn't have a hospital? Dr. Marchant, Dr. Brockman, Dr. James and Dr. T. O. Walker Sr. dreamed of the day when we would no longer have to go several miles for hospital care. They planted the seeds that gave us the desire to have Allen Bennett for our own.
UNPAVED STREETS
Remember when many of our present main streets were just dirt roads? I do. We used to watch the road scrapper come and pile up the mounds of dirt as they would scrape Victor Avenue. It was really something when they paved "our" street.
And -- from Victor Avenue to high school. I still believe that it had to be more than a mile from my house to Davenport High. The way I measured it recently, however, it wasn't quite that far. We had an hour for lunch back in "those days". It was a long run home to lunch and back, but we made it.
In fact, we used to walk a lot. Remember when we thought nothing of walking to Arlington Rural Station and back, just for fun. Or did you ever walk to Frohawk Creek, or to Foster's Springs?
I said something to a real estate man recently about Foster's Springs and he didn't know what I was talking about.
ROLLER SKATING
Our favorite recreation in the good 'ole days was roller skating.
Anyone who wouldn't try skating down the hill on Line Street was a sissy. I tried it -- one time! I guess, if one of my children started down Line Street on roller skates today, you'd have to take me on out to Allen Bennett.
Remember when we used to have the big celebrations at Victor ball park? Everyone came from miles around. I know I must have been the ugliest five year-old little Miss Cotton Queen that they ever had. I still have the picture to prove it. About all I remember about it was the fact that I screamed all the way to the ball park and back.
Remember when one of our local characters went into a trance? She would come to long enough to make certain predictions. She said once that her cat would go out on the porch, take a drink of milk, then drop dead. He did.
Curiosity seekers from all over town went by to take a look at this poor woman. I couldn't sleep for weeks, waiting for the world to come to an end, as she said it would, by a certain date. It's funny, we're still here, but she isn't.

BIG ICE CREAM CONES
Remember Ponder's Ice Cream cones that were as big as a mountain? If we licked slow enough they'd last almost a mile.
Remember when the flying squadron hit our town? Those were scary days. Then the National Guard came and we felt safe again.
Remember the first moving picture show that we had in Greer? It was a silent movie shown outside the Victor Y.M.C.A.
One thing I remember about those movies is the fact that we went one Wednesday night instead of going to prayer meeting. One of the local ministers was so sure that we were all going straight to the bad place. He prayed that it would rain. It did.
Remembering the good 'ole days is supposed to be a sign of getting old. Perhaps I should get out my walking cane. I do feel too old sometimes.
SEEMS SO YOUNG
Then I go to visit my dad. He's almost twice as old as I am. Yet, he seems so young.
He can remember when the first house was built in Greer, when the blacksmith's shop stood where Dobson Hardware is now, when the first street lights were put in Greer. He can remember, too, the one room school house and the little church building that was shared by the Baptists and Methodists. It didn't matter then which church you belonged to, you just went every Sunday.
Yes, we have a wonderful town. Many " 'ole timers" like my Dad helped to build the City of "Greer" from the very beginning.
When I was in junior high school, our class had to write something about Greer. I wish I had kept that little article that I wrote. The title of my story was "Greer, the Largest City in the South", In my story, I said that one day you would be able to ride from Greer to Greenville, and from Greer to Spartanburg, without knowing when you left one town and entered the other. Then, I said, someday Greer will join forces with these two large towns, to become the largest city in the south.
I like to tease my friends in Greenville and Spartanburg about voting them "in" as annexes. But just between you and me, I really mean it.
So -- don't knock us -- Watch us. Because one of these days, we hope to become the biggest and best city in the south.