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.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Clemson Orientation
Whew! Orientation has started! We're running around trying to help all of the parents and students with selecting and setting up new laptops.
One thing I am trying hard to get going is Computrace. This is a product that students have already installed in their bios (with the recommended Thinkpads and many other models) or that they can install in their software. Once it is active, if their laptop is stolen and used anywhere on the internet, there is a 80% chance it can be recovered! If it is not recovered, the company (Absolute.com) will give them $1000 or the value of their computer (the lower of the two).
The current 'hitch' is they want us to take in the fees from the students, then send them one big check. We're trying to figure out how to do that. It will be around $67 for three years (no one wants to steal a four year old laptop, right?).
One thing I am trying hard to get going is Computrace. This is a product that students have already installed in their bios (with the recommended Thinkpads and many other models) or that they can install in their software. Once it is active, if their laptop is stolen and used anywhere on the internet, there is a 80% chance it can be recovered! If it is not recovered, the company (Absolute.com) will give them $1000 or the value of their computer (the lower of the two).
The current 'hitch' is they want us to take in the fees from the students, then send them one big check. We're trying to figure out how to do that. It will be around $67 for three years (no one wants to steal a four year old laptop, right?).
Monday, June 12, 2006
Thinktank and trip home
On Tuesday, June 6 we headed for Orange New Jersey for the 2006 Thinktank at Seton Hall. The trip went pretty well - but it was a bit of a shock to see how rough the area was after all of the quaint places we had seen.
After the experience with the hotel in Portland, I went in and asked to see the room at the Grand Wilshire Hotel (the only hotel I saw in Orange). What a shock when it was beautiful! It was easily the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in. My ideal bedroom at home would be decorated just like it was. When I went back out to the front desk to sign in, two men had come in. They were Swiss and having problems with their reservation - so I waited behind them for quite a while. I noticed one had an Educause backpack - so I asked if they were there for the Thinktank. They said they were and we exchanged cards. One was taller - Immo - and he said he remembered me from a previous Thinktank - and he looked familiar to me too. He said he had a similar job to mine. The smaller man was Wolfgang - and his English was more difficult to understand - but he had a warm friendly look and said he was an administrator at their school. They had no car, so they ended up driving back and forth with us for the rest of the Thinktank. Denny and I both enjoyed getting to know them.
The actual Thinktank was wonderful. It's getting to be almost like a reunion as you see so many of the same people each year. I enjoyed all of the sessions and had a nice tour of the helpdesk area. The weather was still miserable until the last day - cold and wet. The Seton Hall campus is not attractive like Clemson - but it's a bit better than the rest of Orange.
The first night there was a band, drinks, and dinner. The band and drinks were nice - but the dinner was just 'okay'. It was one of my favorites - lamb chops - but a bit overcooked. They had posted a price of $75 for a guest so I was expecting something really fabulous. Denny was supposed to come - but it was cold and wet and too far for him to walk to get from the parking garage. After the dinner, we did meet the Swiss guys in the bar at the hotel for a drink.
The second night we all boarded buses for New York. We went on a harbor cruise. It was so beautiful! We saw the Statue of Liberty from up close. They had dinner and drinks on the boat too. It was really fun.
I did my presentation on Friday and then we left for home.
On the way, we stopped at Hershey, Pennsylvania and did a little ride-tour. That was fun! That night we stayed near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. The next morning we drove through Harper's Ferry - very interesting - and Antiedam. Denny loved all of the Civil War stuff... We made it home late on Sunday night.
After the experience with the hotel in Portland, I went in and asked to see the room at the Grand Wilshire Hotel (the only hotel I saw in Orange). What a shock when it was beautiful! It was easily the nicest hotel room I have ever stayed in. My ideal bedroom at home would be decorated just like it was. When I went back out to the front desk to sign in, two men had come in. They were Swiss and having problems with their reservation - so I waited behind them for quite a while. I noticed one had an Educause backpack - so I asked if they were there for the Thinktank. They said they were and we exchanged cards. One was taller - Immo - and he said he remembered me from a previous Thinktank - and he looked familiar to me too. He said he had a similar job to mine. The smaller man was Wolfgang - and his English was more difficult to understand - but he had a warm friendly look and said he was an administrator at their school. They had no car, so they ended up driving back and forth with us for the rest of the Thinktank. Denny and I both enjoyed getting to know them.
The actual Thinktank was wonderful. It's getting to be almost like a reunion as you see so many of the same people each year. I enjoyed all of the sessions and had a nice tour of the helpdesk area. The weather was still miserable until the last day - cold and wet. The Seton Hall campus is not attractive like Clemson - but it's a bit better than the rest of Orange.
The first night there was a band, drinks, and dinner. The band and drinks were nice - but the dinner was just 'okay'. It was one of my favorites - lamb chops - but a bit overcooked. They had posted a price of $75 for a guest so I was expecting something really fabulous. Denny was supposed to come - but it was cold and wet and too far for him to walk to get from the parking garage. After the dinner, we did meet the Swiss guys in the bar at the hotel for a drink.
The second night we all boarded buses for New York. We went on a harbor cruise. It was so beautiful! We saw the Statue of Liberty from up close. They had dinner and drinks on the boat too. It was really fun.
I did my presentation on Friday and then we left for home.
On the way, we stopped at Hershey, Pennsylvania and did a little ride-tour. That was fun! That night we stayed near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. The next morning we drove through Harper's Ferry - very interesting - and Antiedam. Denny loved all of the Civil War stuff... We made it home late on Sunday night.
New England Trip
Denny and I left for New England on Thursday, June 1.We drove 12 hours and stayed at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington DC on the first night. The traffic in DC was horrible! The accomodations at Bolling were fine - a living room, bathroom, and bedroom.
On Friday we drove to Boston up I-95. Traffic outside of New York was even worse than DC - it took 13 hours to get to Hanscom AFB! The room there was really nice - like a nice hotel. We crashed that night. While there, we accidentally ended up in some interesting places - like Concord, Massachusetts. We drove by the home of Louisa May Alcott and several others.
On Saturday we drove to Newport, Rhode Island. I went to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It was so beautiful! There were grass courts - and a red clay court. The museum was wonderful. It was raining and cold so I did not get to see any grass court tennis - but it was a really special place.
On Sunday we drove to Portland, Maine. It was a bit of a bust. We stayed in a lousy Motel 6. We were not too impressed with the city. We had planned to go on a lighthouse cruise - but it was cold and raining, so we did not go. But on the way back we saw a beautiful light house in York, Maine and stopped in Kennebunkport - really quaint.
On Monday night we stayed in Boston again. That night Denny wanted to go to the club next door for a drink - but it was closed - so someone suggested a nearby restaurant in Lexington. We could not find the restaurant, but ran in to a VFW. Denny had been looking for American Legions to trade license tags - so we decided to go in. It was very small and rugged - but we met some nice people. On Tuesday morning for Orange, NJ for the Thinktank. More on that in the next post...
Welcome
Welcome t0 my new blog! I'm likely to discuss laptops and tennis here - and maybe some Clemson politics...
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