AP

 There was a meeting called in the breakroom of all those Belk employees present.  The announcement was that the Belk store at Columbia Mall would be closing in three months.  We had already closed the downtown Belk store, and all of the offices and warehouse had moved to Columbia Mall.  The reason for the closing was that we were not making enough money to stay open.  Because of that, we had been holding invoices to be paid for over a year, and we were not paying any of our vendors, so they had stopped sending us merchandise.  Belk had given a three-month notice so that employees could find other jobs.  Some did, including one woman in Accounts Payable.  I was promoted to her job.
 Each Monday, I would go into the manager's office, and he would give me a list of lies to tell vendors when they called asking about their money.  I kept the lies on a yellow pad.  When a vendor would call Accounts Payable, I would read a lie off of the pad, such as we had an issue with the plumbing that took some money to fix.  Or, your money will be coming as soon as we reconcile the receipts.  Sometimes, the vendor would call more than once a week.  They would say that I told them something when they called last, so then I would go down the list and pick out another lie.  I was not proud of this task, but it kept the vendors at bay for at least a few days.
 When the Columbia Mall store closed, the operation moved to Columbiana Centre.  By this time, there were two of us in Accounts Payable that moved there.  It was a girl named Ginger (no not the same as a previous story) and me.  We had been able to get some money together by closing of the two stores, and turning the Batesburg store over to another branch of Belk, so we were able to cut checks to some vendors.  Ginger's job was to check invoices against receipts, and my job was to put forth those invoices for payment.  Our "office" was in an old stockroom on the "second" floor of the store.  There was little ventilation, so it got very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.  We had to take breaks during the day, so we could go downstairs and breathe.  We had a radio in the room to help with the boredom.  Ginger was forever calling a song request into a radio station to play "Mother-in-Law".  I got very sick of that song.
 Speaking of songs, one of the cuts that Belk made was to cut out the Muzak in the store.  The employees and some customers complained about the dead air.  I went home to my extensive record collection and recorded 20 90-minute cassette tapes with instrumental music.  We played those in the store over the PA system.  That worked well.  When Christmas came, I recorded another 20 tapes with Christmas music.  Yes, I had enough records to do that, too.  When the store finally closed in 1995, those 40 cassettes disappeared.
 Ginger and I would go to lunch in the mall's food court.  In the winter, it was fun to see the high school kids come to the mall wearing shorts, and seeing their blue skin.  It was their fashion statement.  One day, we watched a guy from WIS TV try to eat more ice cream than someone else.  We got on the news that night cheering them on.
 When the announcement was made in 1995 that Belk was closing the Columbiana Centre store, we liquidated all of the merchandise still there.  There were just a few employees left, including me, our warehouse manager, and our store manager.  As we were about to lock up the store for the last time, the three of us went into the Men's Department area and turned on a big screen TV that was still there.  We watched the verdict in the OJ Simpson trial.  We couldn't believe our ears, when they said "Not Guilty".  It is kind of funny how you remember where you were when events happen.  During the Bronco chase, I was closing up my parents' house for the last time in 1994.  Now, we were closing up the last Belk store in Columbia for the final time in 1995.  It was a very sad day.  I still have on my key ring the key to the warehouse at Columbiana Centre from Belk.  It doesn't open anything now.

American Eagle

 During the latter days of Belk in the mid-1990's, they had a travel agency in the Columbia Mall store.  I used that agency to book a flight from Columbia to Nashville to visit Del and Chris who had moved there.  The only direct flight was on American, so I took it.
 When I got to the airport, I found that the plane was a small prop plane that was actually American Eagle.  The plane sat around 28 people.  It had two pilots and one flight attendant.  The cockpit was separated from the cabin by a curtain, and you could see the pilots easily.  Because the plane was so small, it could not be attached to the walkway from the terminal to the plane, so we had to walk out onto the tarmac to board the plane and load our luggage.  This whole experience made me nervous.  Primarily because a plane like this one had crashed in Alabama a week before and had killed everyone on board.  Our plane was about half filled with passengers.
 Apparently, my nervousness was seen by most everyone in the plane, because the flight attendant asked if I wanted to sit by her at the front of the seating area.  I agreed, and she held my hand as we took off.  She gave me a Sprite, and I had a window seat to look out at the scenery.  I started getting nervous again, when we started flying over the mountains.  The plane seemed to be just above the trees.  I could look down and see a person mowing his grass.
 After drinking the Sprite, I had to go to the restroom.  It was at the front of the plane and very small.  The ceiling was lower than I was tall.  It also was made of metal.  While I was in there, the plane hit an air pocket, and my head hit the ceiling.  I saw stars.  When I came out, I had a big bump on my head.
 We got to Nashville, and we were all thankful we landed safely.  I stayed in Nashville with my friends for a few days and got to see the city.  We went to a couple of record stores, and I found some cool test pressings.  Then, it was time to board the American Eagle back to Columbia.  I knew better what to expect with the flight.  All of the seats were filled this time around.  A guy had brought his guitar on board.  Liquor was served.  Although I didn't drink, enough people did.  We had a party on the plane with singing and guitar playing.  I forgot all about being scared.