Best Friends

We all look back and fondly remember our best friends from high school. These are the kids we learned about life together. We learned how to talk to and get dates. There are so many things that helped to develop and mold the rest of our lives that could not be done without best friends. I am just going to mention a little from my first years at Hillcrest.

Lake Wateree

I move to Shaw the summer between my 8th grade and freshman year. My folks bought a the third house built in Oakland Plantation, the first belonging to the Oakland's first realtor, Bobby Livingston's mother. Since no one lived there, it was hard to meet new friends. Luckily I had an older sister, Glenda, who was attractive and boys found our house in no time. So my first friends that summer and year were older for a while. Jerry Cox, a jr, was one of my first friends. A fun guy with a vw bus that would haul a bunch of us summer and weekend nights to Big Jims and Coles in Sumter. We went to the Base Lake Wateree site, Butches and the old Teen Club. Frank Davis was in that mix too as was Rusty Simenson. As school began I started hanging out with some more kids my age like John Kelly, Jim Crosson and Chris Conlon.

Holy Cross Episcopal in Stateburg

I was interested in girls my freshman year, but they were not really interested in me, mostly upperclassmen. So as a freshman, we just flirted, met up at the Teen Club, skate rink nights, the base movie and the pools. My sophomore year things picked up. I bought a Vespa scooter that gave me some mobility around the base and between HHS and home. I played football, basketball and ran track this year so I was with these guys the most. I tried to be with the cheerleaders as mush as possible. My folks joined Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Stateburg and I became close friends with the boys and girls there. Chappie McCown and Tim Gipe were going there and we became friends.

My junior year I became good friends with John Kelly and later Don Roberts and then George Woodsby. I helped John rebuild a old 1953 Jaguar that year that we later took to the beach. Don and George and I became best friends mid year and to this day Don and I are still best friends. Don's wife Mary Lynne and my wife Kim, moved to Shaw after we graduated from HHS, and we have been best friends as couples all of our adult lives.

My friendship with George and Don was great. Here we really learned about adolescence, girls, parents and cars.George and I both had 55 Chevys and Don had a 1962 MGA... very cool! We hung out at Big Jims, Teen Club, each other houses and on various jobs. George and I worked on the Gillespie farm together and Don and I worked at a steel mill in Columbia. We had many great times... too many to talk about in this blog... I will save some for later posts!