From Cotton Field to Golf

In the summer between my Jr and Sr year I decided I was too old to just be cutting grass as I had been doing for a couple of years to earn my spending money. I had been cutting grasses at Shaw and around Oakland Plantation, but was bored and needed more money. I did work a while at the Peach Packing Plant of Barnett's farm. Several of us HHS folks worked there for a dollar and hour! Bad thing about it was we were only paid when we were running peaches. While waiting for the peaches to come from the field we sat around, slept on mattresses and told stories. Sometimes we waited till 2 am for peaches to come in. If we left we were fired!

I learned about how manufacturing worked. Many of the women packed the bushels so that the good peaches were always on top and others loaded. It was hot and itchy with all the peach fuzz. The peaches were still hard and not yet ripe, so there was little eating of them! I had a good job for a while of putting the bushels full of peaches in the water cooler machine. It was cool on those hot days. I quit after a few weeks and went to the farm job. I do remember the song Satisfaction was out this summer and it was our work song about little money and hard work.

My next job that summer was working on a tractor, spraying cotton on the Claremont Farms for Sam Gillespie, father of Weezie and Sambo. I had to learn how to drive a big tractor and get around on a farm. It was boring sometimes going up and down long rows of cotton spraying those boll weavels, but I learned much about farming and that was good. Much of the farm I sprayed is now the golf course in Stateburg, Beech Creek Golf Course. We play here during out reunions.

It is a gas to walk up and down this course with my classmates. Years ago we had about thirty classmates out for a round. 2006 we were smaller and only '66 folks showed up. These are all somewhat serious golfers, especially Don and Rusty. Nancy is the best female of the Hillcrest golfers.... and this may be a challenge for the next reunion in Myrtle Beach in 2010.

Don Roberts, Chappie McCowan, Rusty Atkinson, Nancy Bradshaw Atkinson, John McTamney

Photo by, Sometime Golfer too... Bob Noe

2006 Reunion at Beach Creek Golf Course

Two A Days Summer Football Practice

Football practice for high school students begins today in SC. This bring back terrible memories... the smell, the heat, the yelling, sweating, heavy breathing and again... the smell.

We always wondered if this was the year we would win. Hillcrest did not have a great record of winning!

I can so remember these hot days on the scruffy fields of HHS. I had been working out to prepare by running, lifting weights and tossing the ball around. But no one told me of that running on all fours and pushing that damn sled.

I can hear Coaches Bradham, Pringles and Kolb just yelling over and over to quick lollygagging and be a man. Coach Pringles was telling us to forget our social lives...forget girls! He said, " there are as many girls in the world as there are pebbles on the beach." Amazing how we remember these little things 40 years or so later!

Guys like Don Roberts, Clarence Hodge, Charlie Stubbs, George Woodsby, Chappie McCowan, Kris Shekitka and Bruce Shelton were with me as members of my class just struggling, yelling, sweating and cussing ( under our breath) every one of those two a days.

I know some of you girls may be reading this and are thinking how crazy this was and they are glad they did not have to go through this. YOu are damn right.

As I write this I am also reminded of the smell of cut grass and my face in it! The smell of BO and that salve we put on ourselves for all the sore muscles we had permeated the air.

Best of all was the little store we had on the corner of 521 and 441 across from the school. They had the best, coldest drinks! What was the name of this place. What happened to it? I do not think it was there in '65 when I was whipped after practice.
Any other memories>
Bob

Lunch with Mrs Freeman

I was at a bakery today and when seeing the cinnamon buns, I could not help but think of Mrs. Freeman and some of those good foods. Some folks brought their lunch, but for the price of ours...maybe 25 cents what a deal.

Now I would like to just talk about some of the highlights of our lunches. Fried Chicken... Now that was good food. Am I right to think it was on Wednesdays? Cookies.. now I loved the peanut butter cookies that weighted about a pound. Many folks did not like the cooked tomatoes and rice, but it was one of my favorites... let's see... spaghetti, collards, yeast rolls and of course, cinnamon buns.

One of the unique things of Hillcrest in the 60's was having the K-5 kids in the hall waiting for lunch in the morning. Those kids ate about 10:00!! I remember walking the halls and seeing those kids lined up with their teachers scared to talk knowing their teacher would slap them if they talked to a teenager or anyone!

My daughter would love the green trays we used. Even at 30 she still does not like her food to touch. The sectioned trays would be great for her. I do remember that the athelites were given extra food in the line. This was good.

I taught school for a few years after college. I always made a habit of quickly knowing the cafeteria manager and the head custodian of the new schools. Having a good relationship with them could really make life better at any school.

I also remember that little bus that Ms Freeman drove.It was the first one and no one could move their bus, until she did. As a bus driver, I remembered that we sat their gunning our engines and just waiting. When she started for the gate entrance, everyone took off to be number two... We were crazy!

Charlie the Custodian

Many of you remember Charlie, but most do not remember his last name. I don't. I talked to him often and once or twice I took him home to a little house just north of HHS on 521. He never really complained and he had reason to!! He had to clean the boys and girls bathrooms with all the smoke, butts and junk in there!  I do not even have a idea how old he was. Heck, he was probably as old as I am now, but he did look old and did move slowly.

Did anyone ever see him run, or move quickly. Maybe some of the HHS folks who started first grade at Hillcrest remembered a young Charlie.

I want to offer a toast to him. He never complained, kept a clean school, was always friendly to all students and teachers... yet we called him by his first name and did not know his last. Maybe it was just me. My memories are of him wearing a long sleeve green shirt with dark pants and suspenders. He always had papers folded in his pocket and I think he smelled of chewing tobacco or snuff. It was not distracting... Just a Charlie smell!

  

Please write your memories of Charlie too!

One of the things we can never shake from our lives is the school we grew up with. Well, actually it is the kids you grew up with while you were at your high school. HIllcrest HS will always be with us right there in Dalzell.

Now most of us have never really been to Dalzell, nor really know where it is. We never walked the streets, went to the post office, police department, fire department or even the movie theater. ( was there really a movie theater?)

Most of the folks we've worked with always have known the town where they went to high school. Many of us with dads in the air force only knew Shaw as our town. Many students lived in Wedgefield, Rembert, Hagood, Horatio, Stateburg or Cherryville and really never visited Dalzell. Back in the 60s, Highway 521 took you directly to Sumter from Hillcrest, and it passed right through Dalzell. Today, our fair city is bypassed on the way to Sumter.  . So... where is Dalzell. I want to see some folks give some stories about Dalzell