Author: Mark Shaffer

The Backyard Tourist has a list of suggestions to help you make the most of the season  Southerners have an inborn appreciation of the autumnal equinox. Those of us who can still recollect a time before the ubiquity of “conditioned air” appreciate the change of seasons even more. This is why some of us are good churchgoers: by the middle of July we are all aware of what Hell must be like. Fall means the end of summer’s stifling tyranny, a time when our primary occupation is staying cool and moving as little as possible. By the end of August we are practically motionless.

“You haven’t heard Shakespeare until you’ve heard it in the original Klingon.”...

We love the smell of barbecue in the morning…. S.C. Barbeque Association aims to make competition fair, consistent.

“I can’t think of a single artistic medium we don’t have represented.” Gale Doggette leads me on the nickel tour of the main gallery at the South Carolina Artisans Center, a campus of historic buildings near the heart of downtown Walterboro. This is the official folk art and craft center for the entire state and the collection is truly inspiring. The work of nearly 300 artists is on display and available for purchase. This is a vast and diverse universe of photographers, sculptors, painters, carvers, weavers, and much, much more.

Casual observations from Main Street USA “I’ve been on this street 58 years,” says Cindy Corley. She’s helping to mind her mom’s store while her mother (Helen) runs an errand. Infinger’s Jewelry is one of the few businesses relatively unchanged this last half century in downtown Walterboro. A few blocks away on Washington Street you can still sip a Coke float at the soda fountain in Hiott’s Pharmacy while your prescription is filled. Otherwise much is different. “My mom actually moved into this store when I was two weeks old. I grew up on this street,” says Corley. As a girl she remembers emptying ashtrays (“yes, you could smoke in stores back then”) and cleaning up around the store for the dollar price of a Saturday matinee at the local movie house around the corner.

  “You can tell it’s a friendly town because they’ve got all these rocking chairs out on the street and nobody’s stolen them.” – Unidentified woman commenting on the abundance of bright red rocking chairs (the town symbol) lining the downtown shops   It’s after five o’clock on a weekday afternoon and The Blarney Stone in downtown Walterboro is beginning to fill up with hot, thirsty people in search of cool respite from the hammer stroke of another blistering August day. Gary Davis takes time out from our conversation to greet his regulars and welcome the newcomers, mostly day-tripping antique hunters and “halfbacks” taking a break from interstate traffic.