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Stories

First, let me apologize for no blog last week. I was resting.  I went to the hospital Monday evening and was having severe reflux and a swollen esophagus.

 

This week I want to tell stories. Maybe it’s because I’m reading Grimms Fairy Tales, or maybe with the changing of the seasons- Who knows.  But I’m in the mood for something a little on the lighter side, and something for pure entertainment.  Who knows, you might even find some wisdom in my tales.  These are both from where I grew up in “upstate” South Carolina.  One was told to me by my grandmother, and one was an event that happened in my lifetime.  So gather ‘round children.  Grab a warm cup of tea and a blanket, it’s story time.

 

There is a road in my hometown called New Market Street.  It’s on the south side of town, and I say that in the proper southern way of saying not only is it directly south, but also…well, not the best area.  I sincerely hope that phrase doesn’t come from a racist origin; if it does please let me know so I can learn.  However, New Market Street is near a former middle school.  It’s where my parents had their first apartment together in the 60’s.  It leads from the hospital out toward the country.  And there’s a cemetery there that’s kind of infamous is local lore. 

First- do you know the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery?  A graveyard is attached to a church, and a cemetery stands alone.  This particular cemetery was bisected when New Market Street was built.  Leave it to old south developers to run a road directly through burial grounds.  They dug right into the hills to lay a flat thoroughfare, leaving graves on both sides of the street.  As Grandma told me when she took us by there to see it:

                                “Not long after we moved the went some time when it was raining a lot.

 It poured and poured, and washed away the dirt on the sides of the road. 

Even a couple coffins came out with it!  Could you imagine, driving down

the road in the rain and here comes a coffin!”

I don’t know what happened to those coffins, but I certainly can not imagine that scene.  It’s the 1940s, maybe early 50’s.  You’re driving down the road in your ol’ jalopy in the hard rain.  It’s a fairly new street, flooding, and there’s something in the road ahead.  Maybe it’s a tree, or looks like a big rock.  Nope.  It’s a coffin.  What do you do?  No cell phones.  Do you pull it out of the street and go to the police?  I have no clue but it’s a situation that has always brought a bit of amazement and humor to me.  I still drive past it sometimes when I visit. 

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When I was a kid the highway between my hometown and the next town that had anything more than a Walmart was a two lane highway.  48 miles of woods, with speed traps and four way stops.  A few traffic lights.  It was awful.  So when the plans came to widen the highway to 4 lanes everyone was really excited.  The project took literally the entirety of my childhood.  From my toddler years to my high-school career they worked on that road.  Just over halfway between the two cities stood a tree.  A grand old oak tree!  The largest or oldest or something for MILES AROUND! Truthfully, it was huge.  When the planning committee came to that part of the stretch the plan was to cut down the tree to widen the highway.  This aroused the citizens to stand up for their beloved tree.  They fought and they won!  Hurray for the people!  Hurray for the tree!  They actually got the committee to widen in the other direction sparing the tree.  And very shortly after the highway was widened the tree rotted and died on its own.  The effort was in vain.  Maybe the lesson here is sometimes things are going to happen anyway no matter what we do.  There’s a slight comfort in that I feel. 

 

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed my storytelling for this week’s blog.  I hope to have taken a little off of your mind, and maybe given you a smile or a giggle.  Maybe you learned a couple things.  Be well!