Coffee and conversation

McCormick diner losing ‘regulars,’ gossip almost gone

June 18, 2007

By LARRY SINGER
Index-Journal staff writer

McCORMICK — In a cozy restaurant conveniently situated on Augusta St. next to McCormick Town Hall, Brenda Lewis is perched on a vinyl-covered straight-back chair one morning watching “The View.”
Lewis, the owner of Edmunds Sandwich Shop, sat behind one of the six tables in the eatery, which was, at the time, devoid of any customers.
Once, Lewis recalled, the restaurant was one of the key places in town where residents, mostly men and on their way to work, regularly gathered to meet, greet, exchange news and gossip on a daily basis.
It was a ritual that harkened back to the days when unshaven men wearing red flannel shirts, well-worn faded denim coveralls, green John Deere hats and perhaps smoking corn cob pipes or spitting chewing tobacco into a paper cup, sat around a potbellied stove and traded words of wisdom in a tableau Norman Rockwell would happily immortalize with oil paint for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
Within the past year, Lewis said, after her stewardship of just more than a quarter of a century, those good old days began to fade into history.
In fact, Lewis said, she cannot even count on a noontime crowd to arrive, chow down and fill her cash register.
“The noon crowd varies,” she said.
Sometimes they show up and sometimes they don’t.
As to why the habits of her customers changed, Lewis is unclear.
“I don’t know,” Lewis said. “They’ve just gone their separate ways.”
One reason, she speculated, is their proximity to her diner.
“It might be the mileage they have to put on their cars to get here,” she said. “The cost of gas might have something to do with it. I think the decline began about six months ago.”
Before the price of gas negatively affected the cost of gossip, Edmunds Sandwich Shop was the place to see and be seen.
“We used to be about half full every morning,” Lewis said.
And most of those customers, she said, never went near the ladies room.
“They were mostly men,” Lewis said, “And most of the time they were on their way to work.”
Once the chatter started, Lewis said, the breadth of the conversations could branch out in any number of directions.
“They would talk about everything,” she said. “They would talk about their jobs, their home lives and the price of corn. They’d talk about everything. A couple of them raised cattle, and they’d talk about that.”
Another factor in the decline, Lewis speculated, is the lack of work in McCormick.
“Now, most of them work out of town,” Lewis said. “But some still work in the Milliken mill here.”
Although her customers sat around her restaurant most every day, the business they generated still was not enough to allow for an early retirement.
“They mostly just drank coffee,” Lewis said. “Some ate breakfast, but they mainly just drank coffee.”
When queried if she misses the old morning crowd, Lewis chuckled.
“I’m 64 years old,” she said, looking longingly at the 23 empty chairs surrounding her. “It gets rough.”
When asked how she manages to survive after her customers faded away, she quickly replied, “We might have a good day tomorrow.”

Model airplane club looks to take off soon

June 18, 2007

By JESSICA SMOAKE
Index-Journal intern

Founded in 1996 by a father-and-son team, Emerald City Radio Controlled Model Airplane Club offers something for every age.
A.C. and Stan Stockman created the club 11 years ago and membership has increased and remained steady since then. The club includes planes of all kinds. Members fly many different models from small electric to larger gas powered planes.
They pay dues of $60 a year and are members of the American Model Association. Membership to the AMA is required because the company supplies insurance in case a plane is damaged or damages something else.
The club has 20 members. Secretary and treasurer Jim Zanetti has been a member for nine years and he welcomes anyone who is interested to join.
“We’re happy to have anyone,” Zanetti said. “Flying these planes is a very open hobby.”
For anyone who would like to learn how to fly the planes, there is a special control box that is used. It is referred to as a “Buddy Box.” The control box has two places for controllers to hook up to. The box is helpful not only to the person learning, but to the plane itself. If the plane begins to go off course or loses control, an experienced flyer can take the controller and save the plane from being damaged or damaging something else.
Club members participate individually in different events across the Lakelands, but they all come together for the Festival of Flowers. This year, the club will begin its Festival fly-in at 9 a.m. Saturday on Siloam Church Road near the landfill.
Zanetti is excited about the event and hopes residents will try their hand at flying.
“The Festival of Flowers is our biggest event of the year,” he said. “We will have people there from other model airplane clubs, and we will be cooking out and taking donations for our club.
“We’ll have buddy boxes set up so kids and children can try to fly if they want to.”
The club should stop flying around 4 or 5 p.m.
For information about the Emerald City Radio Controlled Model Airplane Club, contact Zanetti at 223-5673.

No place like home

Abbeville native Ashley Ramey named assistant city manager

June 18, 2007

By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer

ABBEVILLE — Ashley Ramey has moving down to a science.
After leaving Abbeville following high school, she hasn’t slowed down since.
She’s been all over the place (and then some), and even left that behind.
So having lived in plenty of different places across the state — the list of cities reads like a guided tour of the Lowcountry — and even stopping over for a semester in Pamplona, Spain (the one with the running bulls), she thought her first job out of graduate school would prove no different.
Why should it be? It would be a moving day like all the others, to some new place where she would have to start all over — all over again.
It was just another stop along the way to wherever life was taking her.
Only Ashley Ramey never saw the road leading her right back home.
Now she’s glad to be back, and walking the familiar bricked streets of her hometown. And it’s a unique situation that she finds herself in, no doubt.
This Abbeville traveler is about to put her bags down — for a while anyway.
“I’ve had to move many, many times,” said Ramey, who was introduced last week as the new assistant city manager during the Abbeville City Council meeting. “So yes, I’m an expert. But it’s good to be back home. It feels good.”
Ramey earned an undergraduate degree in political science at the University of South Carolina, and her master’s degree in public administration from the College of Charleston before interning with the city of Mount Pleasant.
“I never thought this would ever happen,” Ramey said of the opportunity to work in her hometown. “I guess the job became available my last semester of graduate school. I had met (Abbeville City Manager Nolan Wiggins Jr.) before, and I saw him again.
“Nolan and (former Abbeville City Manager David Krumwiede) were at a conference and I talked with them about the job there. Then I had to shadow someone for one of my classes and I shadowed Nolan for a couple of days. After that I thought, why not?”
Once upon a time, city managers were almost always civil engineers. But the changing climate surrounding city administration has changed.
Now the position has been greatly diversified.
“Now, city managers need to have training in a wide variety of issues, such as finance, human resources, legal and zoning issues, planning, ethics, and public relations,” Ramey said.
Her many duties will include such items as helping to prepare the city budget, following up on insurance claims and writing grant proposals.
But the work changes from day to day, which she likes.
“It changes from day to day, and that’s why I wanted to go into this field I think, because there are so many things you get to deal with,” Ramey said. “I don’t think there is anything boring about the job. At first I wanted to work in coastal wetlands management, more and more I began to like the local government aspects of my classes.”
And her first two weeks on the job have not disappointed.
“I like it very much,” she said. “In just the first two weeks of being here everything (that’s happened) has let me know that I made the right decision. I couldn’t ask for better people to work with.
“This is a real unique experience that I can come back here and do what I want to do. There is already sort of a comfort factor there and I like that.”
Ramey sees Abbeville as a place on the move — only without the bags.
“There seems to be a revival going on here,” she said. “People are renovating homes and there are different things on the square. I definitely feel fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to come back under these circumstances. I could not be happier or more proud to return to Abbeville.
“Former city manager David Krumwiede accomplished many great things for the city, and I appreciate his encouragement and wisdom. Abbeville’s new city manager, Nolan Wiggins, is very knowledgeable. Under his leadership I’m confident I will learn much more of city management. It really is an exciting time to be a part of Abbeville’s future.”
Ramey is right about one thing.
Her situation is unique.
She is a part of the past (albeit, not all that long ago) returning to again aid and stake claim in that of her hometown’s future.
She has seen it all, or at least most of it — and has learned one important thing along the way — there really is no place like home.
“Abbeville is such a wonderful and unique town,” she said. “There just isn’t any place like it in the world.”

Obituaries

Donald ‘Ronnie’ Brown

NINETY SIX — Donald “Ronnie” Brown, 62, of 2402 Tillman Territory Road, died Sunday, June 10, 2007 at his home. Born in Greenwood County, he was the son of the late James Wesley Brown and the late Gertrude Howard Brown. He was a member of Old Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Epworth.
Survivors include one brother, David (Polly) Brown of Columbia, SC; four sisters, Susan Malone of Dallas, TX, Lizzie Brown of Baltimore, MD, Rebekah Abney Brown of Temple Hill, MD and Katherine Brown of Columbia, SC.
Services are 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at Old Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Epworth, conducted by Rev. Clyde Cannon. Burial will be in the church cemetery. The family is at the home.
Online condloences may be sent to robson@nctv.com.
Robinson & Son Mortuary, Inc. is in charge of arrangements.

Edrick ‘Eddie’ Shealy

NINETY SIX — Edrick L. “Eddie” Shealy, 65, of 500 S. Cambridge St., died Saturday, June 16, 2007, at Hospice House of HospiceCare of the Piedmont in Greenwood.
Born in Orangeburg County and a son of the late Carlisle Homer and Ida Glenn Shealy, he was the husband of Peggy Ruff Shealy. Mr. Shealy was the former owner of Shealy’s Printing Service and was a member of Temple Baptist Church.
Surviving is his wife, Peggy Ruff Shealy, a step-daughter and step-son-in-law, Donna and Stephen Carter of Ninety Six; three sisters and brothers-in-law, Helena and Ralph Meetze of Columbia, Hayden and Jake Rauch of Johns Island and Bluffton, Mary Lynn and Tom Scott of Gilbert; and two step-grandchildren, Brittany and John Carter.
Mr. Shealy was preceded in death by two brothers, Glenn and Tyrone Shealy.
Funeral services will be 5 p.m. Monday, June 18, 2007, at Salem Baptist Church in Saluda County with Rev. Dan Gardner and Rev. Johnny McDaniel officiating. Interment will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 4 until 5 p.m. Monday in the church Social Hall prior to the service.
Memorials may be made to HospiceCare of the Piedmont, 408 W. Alexander Ave., Greenwood, SC 29646.
Ramey Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Elsie Horne Smith

Elsie Horne Smith, resident of 111 Devon Park in Greenwood, South Carolina, widow of Emory Angelo Smith, died at Hospice House on June 15, 2007.
Born in Greenup, Kentucky, March 4, 1924, she was a daughter of the late Joseph Smith Horne and Sabra Elizabeth Potter Horne. She was a graduate of the Portsmouth General Hospital School of Nursing in Portsmouth, Ohio which included an affiliate program of extra studies at the Cleveland City Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. After a diverse career and years of dedication to the nursing profession, she retired in 1990 as nurse manager on the Medical Surgical Floor at Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth, Ohio. She was a member of the Ohio District and National Nurses Association and volunteered as a Registered Nurse at the Portsmouth Blood Bank.
She and her husband Emory A. Smith, a retired scientist, relocated to Greenwood, South Carolina.
A Presbyterian for fifty-two years, Mrs. Smith was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, Ohio and attended the First Presbyterian Church of Greenwood in Greenwood, South Carolina. She served as a Sunday school teacher and Girl Scout leader for several years. She was a member of the Greenwood Woman’s Club and an avid supporter of the Portsmouth Community Musical Association, the Lander music and athletics programs, the Lander/Greenwood Fine Arts Series and the Sunday at Four musical programs at the First Presbyterian Church.
Surviving are a daughter, Cathy Elaine Smith Bauer; son-in-law, Karl-Heinz Bauer; grandson, Karl Emory Bauer, all of Salzburg, Austria; two sisters, Dixie Crosno of San Luis Obispo, California and Delsie Horne of Greenwood, South Carolina and two brothers, Earl S. Horne of Amarillo Texas and Finis Horne of Greenwood, South Carolina. Mrs. Smith was predeceased by three sisters and five brothers.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 24 at Second Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, Ohio with burial in Siloam Cemetery in Kentucky. A memorial service will be held in Greenwood, South Carolina at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice Care of the Piedmont, 408 West Alexander Avenue, Greenwood, SC, Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina or Second Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, Ohio.
Blyth Funeral Home of Greenwood, SC and Morton Funeral Home of South Shore KY are assisting the family.

Mike Southard

WATERLOO — Mike Southard, age 54 of 158 Log Circle, Waterloo, SC died at his home Saturday, June 16, 2007, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was the loving husband of Deborah Smith Southard of the home.
Mr. Southard was born in Union, SC June 20, 1952, a son of the late Ernest Southard and Dorothy Hollingsworth Southard. He was a graduate of Union High School and attended Business College.
He retired from Cone Mills, Carlisle Finishing Plant where he was employed for 28 years in management. Mr. Southard was a member of New Prospect Baptist Church of Laurens, SC, a Shriner in Greenwood and Laurens, a life member of Union Masonic Lodge No.75, a member of Classic Car Club, and Good Guys Antique Car Club.
He was the loving father of Gene Smith of the home, Brandy Smith of Buffalo, Latrisha Beyers of Union, and Wayne Southard of Union. He is also survived by a grandson, Phillip Southard of Union, his mother-in-law, Jean Smith Stewart and husband, Rufus of Pauline, SC. Mr. Southard was predeceased by his father-in-law, Bobby Smith.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, June 18, 2007 at New Prospect Baptist Church, 4996 Hwy. 221 South, Laurens, conducted by Rev. J.B. Abercormbie and Rev. John Huckaby. Burial with Masonic Rite will be held at 4 p.m. at Putman Baptist Church Cemetery, Hwy. 215, Buffalo, SC.
Active pallbearers will be Kenneth Sprouse, Rick Sanders, Charles Craig, John Britt, Furman Coker, Thomas Crowder, Michael Smith, and Arron Gamble. The following are asked to assemble at the Church at 1:45 p.m. to form the Honorary escort Carolyn Sprouse, Betty Pinson, Lena Sanders, Judy Britt, Wanda Coker, Dr. Steven Corso, Paige Turner, Amy McAlister, Shirley Browing and Staff at Palmetto Hematology, Oncology Associates, Dr. Paul Moore, Jennifer Allen, and the staff of Laurens Family Practice.
Memorials maybe made to Shriners Childerns Hospital, in care of Hejaz Temple, P.O. Box 667, Mauldin SC 29662.
The family is at the home, 158 Log Circle, Waterloo, SC where they will receive friends. S.R. Holcombe Funeral Home is in charge. (www.holcombefuneralhomes.com.)

Correction

Information provided to The Index-Journal in the obituary for James E. Worsley stated the service was 2 p.m. Sunday. The service is today, June 18 at 2 p.m. at the Robinson & Son Mortuary Chapel.

Opinion

Our education problems: Where are the answers?

June 18, 2007

A new report in “Education Week” says South Carolina is last among all states in the percentage of students that graduate from high school. That should not surprise anyone. Being last in that category is nothing new.
All South Carolinians should be aware that problems exist in public schools. If they aren’t they must be hiding under a rock somewhere. After all, the pros and cons have been publicly debated for years.
That doesn’t mean nothing’s being done to address those problems, though. A lot of people have been engaged in seeking answers, from state lawmakers to educators to just about everyone else.
At the same time, a lot of money has been spent.
That being the case, then, still being last in graduating students should generate a lot more debate, and probably more funding.

CONSIDERING WHAT HAS GONE before, it seems obvious that business as usual won’t improve anything. Any new studies/debate should begin with open minds. There have been improvements, to be sure. Nevertheless, it’s obvious problems remain, and that should dictate considerations of all possibilities, regardless of what they are.
Vouchers? Look at what they would mean overall. School choice? Same thing. Other suggestions?
Of course. There should be no recriminations, either. Look at everything. Weigh everything.
What’s obviously productive should be considered against what’s failing ..... then take it from there.
The overriding consideration, however, must be that the public education system will not suffer if any changes are made. That would be contrary to any reform idea. That might be difficult, but not impossible.

THERE SHOULD BE ANOTHER consideration, too. Every school problem has been reviewed as an education problem. That’s logical, perhaps. Is there something else, though? Maybe we should be looking at our education/school problems as problems created more by what goes on in society in general than in the education system.
Perhaps the number one concern in that respect is discipline ..... or the lack of it. Put discipline back in society and it’s likely to return to schools.
On, yes. The state with the highest percentage of high school graduates is Utah. For what it’s worth, Utah is mostly a Mormon state and Mormons put a lot of stock in discipline.
Open minds will consider all possibilities. In fact, maybe one of the biggest problems to overcome in our schools is to get around those with closed minds.