Scaleybark Trees and Skinned Knees

I grew up along with my two brothers in the small town of Bennettsville, SC at 105 South Cook Street in the 1970s in a 100 year old house shaded by two huge Live Oak Trees and two Scaleybark Hickory trees. The previous residents of our house on South Cook Street was the Chamness family, and they occupied that house for nearly 50 years. The youngest, William Bethea "Boo" Chamness wrote a book called "The China Berry Tree" and it chronicles his time spent growing up in that house and this blog "Army Lunches" is a continuation of Boo's story of 105 South Cook Street.

It was a beautiful town to grow up in, and our front door was never locked. There were a bunch of kids our age in the neighborhood which offered an endless supply of companionship, fights and opportunity for mischief. The Hamers (Ronald,Karen, Ervin and Arthur) lived a few houses down from us before they moved around the corner to Fayetteville Avenue, and the Carmichaels (Mary, Mike, Denise and Lee) moved in after they relocated. Osmond Ross "Buddy" Brown lived down close to the end of S Cook Street, as did Raymond and Betsy Howe. Next door to the Howe's was "Engine Jim" Dudley, whom always had dirty fingernails from piddling with lawn mowers and tinkering on small engines, hence the name "Engine Jim"; sometimes we called him "Dirty Dudley"for the obvious reason of his appearance. Across the street from the Howe's were the Hill kids (Tim, Diana and Matt) with the Hartness twins (Robert and Edward) beside them. The Ratliffs (Bill and Chris) lived in the next house and Raymond Crouse was across the street from the Ratliffs. Ronnie "Raunchy" Meachum lived across from us with his parents Gertrude and Roy Lee Meachum. Behind our house were the Taylors (Robert, Frankie, Suzanne and Twiggy) and Chris Cudd. The Townsend kids lived on Main Street, our back yards were adjoining. Sadly, the Townsend house burned to the ground about a year after we moved in, claiming the lives of Johnny and Ellen, two of the five Townsend kids. Jamie, Keith and Martha Grant lived around the corner on Newton Street a couple houses down from "Tootsie", Bo and Charles Deese. Scott and Debbie Shelton lived on South Everett Street and the Hamer's Grandmother lived in a small apartment attached to the Shelton's house where she taught piano lessons. The Easterlings (Harry and Catherine) lived on the corner of Newton Lane and South Everette Street, right beside the Taylors.

Our house had the two Live Oak trees which were massive and topped out nearly sixty feet from the ground. Daddy wisely trimmed the lower branches when we moved in to prevent us from climbing them and falling to a certain death. He didn't trim the Scaleybark Hickory tree branches and we spent many hours scaling those trees to enjoy a view of South Cook Street from 30 to 40 feet up. The China Berry tree that "Boo" Chamness named his book for still stood in the corner of the back yard and I disliked that tree, as the "Chinney Balls" as we called them would drop from it and accumulate on the ground; and squish up between your toes if you walked barefoot under it. There was a Chestnut tree beside it that was equally disliked by me, for the husks that surrounded the Chestnuts were thorny and would tear your feet up barefooted! There was a big Magnolia tree in the front yard of Mrs. Jennie Belle McCrae's house which was an endless supply of Magnolia blossom "grenades" for our wild games of "Army", one of our favorite pastimes. Daddy had mounted the bell from a locomotive on a post by our back door and the folks used it to summon us home. One "Ding!" for Wallace, two for me and three for Matt. Four dings meant "Everybody home now!" and you could hear that bell for six or seven blocks from our house.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I enjoy relating them to you, as Bennettsville was a magical place to grow up in. It was a quiet, small southern town full of surprises and interesting characters; a place where everybody knew each other and a time where your world ended at the town limits sign. It was a time of innocence yet also a time of discovery that the outside world was much bigger than the neighborhood we grew up in. Have a "rice" day, y'all!