Chapter I The Early Years

I was born on December 22, 1936 in Spartanburg SC. My parents were Fred Lee and Joanna I had one sister and one brother , Peggy( 1932-2001) and Harry 1934-1990) they will be mention through out this blog. I guess I am like most people my first 4-5 years I remember bits and pieces of the time , nothing continuous until my first year in school from then till now I remember. I came from a broken home , my parents were separated and divorced before I can remember at different times lived with each parent.
The time is 1943 the place is Columbia,SC I and my brother Harry are living with our Dad and his wife ( later I discovered was just a girlfriend). Don't know how or why but in the next short period of time Harry and I were living with foster parents in Horrell Hill , SC on highway 378 just southeast of Columbia. As well as I remember we were happy there . They had an old mule that they let us ride . Years later around the early 60's my wife and two children and I were traveling to the beach when we passed the school that I attended while staying in the foster home. To my surprise and don't know why I looked off the road and saw the school house. I told the family "I went to that school when I was young" . I turned the car around and went down the road a short distant to the school , It has since been demolished and a new school built, but at the time it was still as it was in 1943. It had an auditorium in the center and two classrooms , one on each side . Oh how it brought back memories . I drove down the road knowing the house that I lived in was just a short distance . There it was just as I remembered , a little more age ,not as big as it seemed years before, the trees and bushes were bigger , that old mule barn was still there but falling in. Well I was not going to let this go by without knowing if the people that shared their home for me were still there or not , so I knocked on the door and a lady answered and said they rented the house from a lady whose family had owned the house since it was built and that she now lived in Baltimore Md. I guess I should have got her address and wrote to her and thanked her for the kindness that she gave me during that time of my youth. Well that is hind sight and now it is too late. That is one reason for this website is to keep the record for members of my family . A short time later there was a hearing in Spartanburg where it was decided that my brother , sister and I should be place in care of the state. Now my sister had for the most part been care for by an aunt and our grandmother , but she said she was going where her brothers went . That was the way my big sister was , tho we didn't live with each other in the early years she always was there when she could. The courts place us in a state run school. (John dela Howe School) in McCormick , SC. which as it turned out was one of the best blessing of my life.
I attended school there for 5 or 6 years , while there though love and care and understanding and sometimes discipline the lessons of life, faith , courage , love of other, and loving others was instilled in my core and fiber that was to serve me through out my life time. (See the John dela Howe Days in another part of the blog)

The John dela Howe Years Lethe Cottage

In January 1944 the three of us arrived at John dela Howe late in the day and were placed in the old infirmary just inside of the campus next to the Branch House for the first night . Sometime during the night I guess I may have been crying and maybe scared being in a strange place and not knowing what was going on and what was going to happen to me. Peggy my big sister must have heard me and came from her room and sat on the edge of my bed , I remember it like it was just night before last, said " baby brother it will be all right ,because I am here with you and always will be." Just a few years ago at the cemetery sixty-five years later as the people gather around to hear the preacher say some last words as my big sister was laid to rest those words were all that I could hear and think about " Baby Brother it will be all right , because I am here with you and always will be." So all through the years she was there for me to give advise , to help me anyway she could , I always knew that I could call on Peggy my Big Sister. Never a day goes by that I don't think of her. The next day Harry and I were placed in Lethe Cottage . The matron was named Miss Morrow. Stayed there for I don't know how long I know I was there through the summer because I did not go home that summer and the kids that stayed on campus that summer went to Cherry Grove for a week . It was some kind of camp( found out years later as my wife and children and I were vacationing at Myrtle Beach for some reason we rode up to Cherry Grove and sure enough the camp was still there, of course this was just about 20 years later. The camp was owned by the 4H club of Florence , SC. It has been demolished now I guess to make room for progress. On the way back to John dela Howe there were two buses full of children . I was on the bus in the rear and the bus developed trouble , I remember we pull the bus into a church yard . The bus in front had no way of knowing our predicament continued on. What ever was wrong with the bus what not a speedy repair. So there we were about 30 or so kids and several adults sitting in a church with no food or accommodations . Some how the powers that be got in touch with the right people and the church was opened for our use and some very nice people brought in sandwiches and refreshments. I have often wonder who those nice people were so I could thank them . The bus was repaired hours later and we traveled on to the school , got back after dark the other bus had gotten back in time for the afternoon swim. So sometime after that summer I was placed in Palmetto Cottage . I think Harry had been placed in Carolina Cottage sometime earlier...

BOY WILL BE BOYS AT JOHN dela HOWE___

As the old says goes “Boys will be Boys” and was never more true than with the boys at John dela Howe. There was never a day that went by that we were not doing something not necessary bad thing or wrong things just endeavors that left memories and thoughts of the fleeting days of our youth. We played, worked and I mean some hard work, we went to school, we went to church, we ate and we slept. There is a story in each one of these activities and they will be told at a later time. The story for this writing is about a cabin that we built in the woods and the camaraderie the bond between friends that I still remember to this day and the good times that we had as we played and explored the woods just like the early settlers had done before. I hope that the boys that came after us had the same life and bond as the band of brothers of our youth.
THE CABIN
Abbeville, the name of a town also the name that was given to one of ten cottages that were space around a circle campus, Abbeville cottage is on the right side of the road that leads to highway #81 toward the dairy. Some of us boys during one of our excursions in the woods which was about every day ,but more so on those Saturday mornings that we were free to do our own thing ,decided to build a log cabin. We had gone into the woods behind the cottage and crossed over highway #81 in to the woods on the far side. I don’t remember who or what made us have the brain storm to come up with the idea to build a log cabin but it was a great project for about 5 or 6 eager house builders. We picked a spot in a ravine and started to work I am sure we had some saws or hatchets. The plan was to make it two stories (now that shows we were ambitious ) but we lived in the world that taught us to do the undo able , dream big nothing was too hard for us to do.
The plan was, as I said to build it two stories. The first story would be completely in the ravine with the top room being at ground level. You would enter the top room and go to the bottom chamber through a hole in the floor. I hope you get the picture. Even to this day I can close my eyes and the image of our cabin is seared in my brain. One day if possible I would like to return to that part of the woods and see if I can locate the site. I am sure it is not there, but if by chance I could stand in that old ditch where we as boys built our mansion so many years ago.
We got the cabin built, don’t remember how long it took several weeks I am sure. Now don’t get the impression that this was a cabin built with foot thick logs. No this was build with pine saplings about 3-4 inches diameter. The cabinwas built we set out to outfit it with the comforts of home our stove and coffee pot consisted of a couple of gallon cans that we got at the kitchen. We bought coffee and bread at Cades grocery store. The dairy supplied us with butter and some cream and also some molasses. This molasses was used at the dairy to pour over the cows feed they said to sweeten the milk. All this was done of course without Mr. Blake the dairy boss knowledge. With our booty in hand and our cabin in all its splendor waiting we were ready for a feast. A campfire was started and the coffee was poured in the can with water, now don’t asked where we got the water, I don’t remember, but I guess we took in into the woods from the cottage. The coffee boiling we then wait for the grounds to settle to the bottom. Sitting there in the woods drinking coffee from cans eating butter and molasses sandwiches with the trees swaying in the breeze and nature all around us we felt like kings and I guess we were because, we were rulers over our domain. Our Cabin in the Woods.


THE LAST DAY WE RODE THE TREES DOWN
Trees, one of God’s great and wise gifts to man. We use them for about all of our needs , the build shelters , to burn for warmth, in some cases for food that they bear, for wood to build all sort of things such as furniture , we use them for shade, and they are necessary to filter and replenish the oxygen that we breath but the boys at John dela Howe used them for another purpose. We would climb up to the top of the young saplings and swing them over. Some times they would bend all the way to the ground and you would drop off. Some times they would just bend so far and you would have to drop the rest of the way to the ground. Sometimes they would bend so far and then break and down you would come to ground. So you learned to expect about any of these things to happen as you were in the top of the tree swinging it to a fro to get it swaying so that it would go over with you and once it started you maneuvered to the ground side as extra weight to carry the tree on over and hopefully to the ground.
This was how we would spend time, usually on Saturdays and days when we had some spare time and were not working or in school. At the time I was in Palmetto cottage and the wood that this story is about lies between the cottage and the dairy. There was a path which was a shortcut as opposed to the road when we had to go to the dairy. This patch of wood is the setting or stage if you prefer of the story.
We were in the woods swinging the trees over and having a good time as we always did, shouting and yelling “Ride em over boys”. Well as I said before sometimes the sapling would break so all through the wood were these stumps of popular trees protruding into the air, some 8 or 10 feet high and some with sharp spikes on them where they had broken off. If you are getting ahead of the story you probably realize what was about to happen. One of the boys as he was riding to the ground his tree broke and as he was falling he hit one of these spike on one of the previous broke tree and the spike luckily broke off and he fell to the ground. As we rush to him the shiver of tree had entered his back and was close to exiting the front of his body. Not sure if we carried him out of the woods or went to get help. Either way he was taken to the infirmary of course it was not equipped to handle anything like this so he was rushed to the hospital in the near by town. His injury was serious but not life threading . There was no damage to any of his vital organs and as I remember he was back at the school in a few days..
To my knowledge that ended the sport of tree riding. Not sure if it was not allowed after that or whether we just did not see the fun of it any more. All though we never rode the Trees over again I for one thought of that day each time I walked through that patch of woods. More than 60 years have passed and I can’t remember the name of the boy that got injured or for sure the other boys that were with me that day. I do though remember the events of that day crystal clear. I recall them often , On that The Last Day We Rode the Trees Down.

..Gaines