Trips

  This entry doesn't have anything to do with some illegal substances I might have taken, when I was much younger.  I plead the 5th on that.  This is about some places I went while in Greenville.  The great thing about that area is that one can go to a variety of places within one to two hours.

 I love the mountains.  They are very calming for me.  I love the fact that it is not too terribly hot in the summer, and the winter has snow sometimes.  Of course, the fall leaves are amazing.  And, the spring flowers are breathtaking.  One of the places I went to was Hendersonville and Flat Rock in NC.  Downtown Hendersonville was having this Art Fair.  I went up there for that, and also found a cool record store there.  I was just passing through Flat Rock, where there is a world-class theatre.  I went there once, when I was little, because my cousin was working there.  Flat Rock was very congested, because it is only a two-lane road through there.  Also, there is the Robert Frost home.  I wanted to tour it, but I didn't have the time.  Back at Macy's, I worked with a woman named Peggy.  When she was younger, she was at a youth camp near Flat Rock.  One day, she and a friend went to Frost's home and knocked on the door.  He came to the door, and they chatted for a few minutes.  Pretty cool.

 Another place in the mountains is Pretty Place at Camp Greenville near Caesar's Head.  It is an outdoor chapel.  You can refer back to the story early on, where I had a vision of Heaven there as an attendee of the camp.  On this day, I arrived when a couple was getting married.  My two most beautiful places I have visited is Rheinfall in Switzerland and Pretty Place.  The latter doesn't cost as much to visit.

 One day, I wanted to find Mr. Vivian's gravesite.  He was my Speech and Drama teacher at Anderson College, and he believed that I had some acting and public speaking talents.  He was also the tour leader for our trip to Europe and Israel in 1973.  I set out to drive down to Anderson and found his grave next to his wife in a cemetery there.  I spent some time with him and thanking him for all he did for me.  I think it is important to thank those who have gone before you.  There was also a neat antique store I found coming back from Anderson.

 I had a friend who worked in Augusta, so I set out to go there.  I had a map of how to get there from Greenville.  It had me go through a lot of tiny towns.  When I got to Edgefield, the map had me go down a road and turn to the left.  When I did, I found myself on a dead end road with a lot of Confederate flags in the yards.  I had to turn around quickly.  Some of those places don't take kindly to strangers.  I found that out that night at White Oak, when we were on "Sherman's Road".  You can refer back to that story, too.  I found the road to take me to Augusta.  After visiting with my friend and going to another neat antique store, I headed back to Greenville.  I made that trip a few times.

 In between Greenville and Augusta is Greenwood.  The town where my father was born, and where my parents are buried.  I would stop at the small Magnolia Cemetery in downtown Greenwood to spend time with my parents.  I would clean the weeds from the stones surrounding the Durst family plot.  There is one spot left for me next to my Mother.  Please make sure they put me there one day.

 

Simpsonville

  I have a friend named Mary, and we have been friends since our days at Anderson College.  In 2008, she lived in Simpsonville, which is a town outside Greenville.  The city of Greenville would say it was a suburb, but the town would take exception to that.

 Mary lived in a gated community.  I would go over there to watch football on her cable TV or just to hang out.  She had a cat named Kit who I adored.  Mary would say that Kit would go hide when strangers came over, but she would just hop up on the couch and watch TV with me.  I guess I had a calming effect on her.  Mary was a teacher.  When she would leave for the day, she would put Animal Planet on the TV for Kit to watch and not be lonely.  She may even play classical music for her.  She seemed to like that.

 Mary also introduced me to shopping on a budget, including at Big Lots.  She was pretty frugal, and I became that way too.  It was all about what was on sale, generic items, and bargains.  She also knew that I was a big-time collector of pop culture.  A friend of hers was going to open up a craft and handmade jewelry store in downtown Simpsonville.  The downtown consisted of about three blocks with a railroad track running through the middle.  She needed a partner, so Mary went in with her.  I suggested that I could put in some of my autographed pictures of celebrities to bring in people.  They both agreed.

 The store had two rooms.  The main room had the crafts and jewelry.  The other room had my autographs.  It couldn't be seen easily from the main room, so I would have to show the customers where it was.  They were impressed with the selection from Dennis Hopper to Burt Lancaster to Gary Oldman and more.  I also had a section of college football coaches.  One was Mark Richt of Georgia.  A lady bought that.  The picture was inscribed to me.  After she left, she came back later and asked if I had an autographed picture without "To Walter".  I said no, and all sales were final.  She took it back.  Maybe she tried to erase the sharpie.  Another picture I had was Rep. Joe Wilson from the House of Representatives.  The mayor of Simpsonville came by and told me that he didn't know I was in Congress.  I had to tell him that the picture was of Joe Wilson.  He corrected his mistake.  Joe Wilson doesn't look a thing like me.

 The store was struggling, so we brought in artwork from a local painter.  The location of the store was great.  The people didn't come in.  I tried to tell them that they needed to run a sale to get people in the door, but the other owner (not Mary) was reluctant to do that.  The store eventually closed.  I had pulled my autographs out, and they used the space for other things.  I liked Simpsonville.  I like small towns like that, even though everybody knows about you, and there are no secrets.  I learned that, when I worked at White Oak.  "Did you hear about..."?

W.

  President George W. Bush was coming to Greenville in 2008 to speak at the Furman graduation.  There was a lot of hype over his visit, as well as protests.  Many students and faculty didn't want him to come.  Furman was a rather liberal school.  Since I had seen every President in my lifetime, except for JFK, I thought it would be perfect opportunity to continue my streak.

 The route was supposed to be secret.  He was either going to go by helicopter from the airport to Furman, or he was going to go by motorcade through downtown.  At the last minute, it was announced that it was going to be the motorcade.  I drove down to a corner near Furman to get my best look.  I found a group of spectators there with signs welcoming the President to Greenville.  I had heard that there would be a lot of protestors along the route, but this group was the only one with positive signs towards the President. They had been interviewed on TV as the only pro-Bush folks on the route.  I decided to hang out with them.

 There was a woman in the group whose husband was a police officer.  She was getting calls from him as to where the motorcade was.  There was also an officer with our group, and we could hear calls on his radio.  It was the group's goal to have him wave at us. We had heard that they were going 70mph through town.  The car would have to slow down at the intersection, because there was a dip in the road.

 We heard the sirens off in the distance.  Everyone got ready with their signs that greeted President Bush.  The motorcycles approached.  Then, the police cars came by.  Then, the two limos came toward the intersection.  The President would be in the second one.  They weren't slowing down.  We were waving.  We were waving our signs.  They weren't slowing down.  They took the dip in the road at 70mph.  Like a flash, they were gone.  I did get to see the President in his car for a split second.  He didn't wave at us. The group was disappointed.  If you blinked, you would have missed seeing him.

 They arrived at Furman.  Many of the students and faculty stood with their backs turned away from the President, as he was speaking.  I thought that was rude.  So did many others in town.  But, I did get to see Bush for a split second.  I can count that.

Grace

  My Aunt Grace died in 2008 in Atlanta.  It had been her home for many years.  Her husband was one of my father's brothers.  Aunt Grace lived in the social circles of Atlanta.  They lived in a nice part of town and had a log cabin in the backyard that they fixed up for guests.  She had shoulder length white hair, and I always thought she looked like George Washington, but I would never tell that to her face.  When she came to my father's funeral in Greenwood, she sat on the end of the front row.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw her and thought why is George Washington here.  Then, I saw it was Aunt Grace.

 She and Uncle Bill wanted to move out of Atlanta after he retired.  They found an old antebellum house that they said looked like "Gone With the Wind".  They were to sign the papers on a Monday.  The day before, it got hit by lightning and burned to the ground.  They saw that as a sign that they were meant to stay in Atlanta.

 After Uncle Bill died, she moved to Greenwood, SC.  We didn't know why, because she was kind of uppity, and Greenwood wasn't.  My grandmother had died, and there was no one from our direct family that still lived in Greenwood, so Aunt Grace wanted to make a statement that the Dursts were still in town.  We had been one of the founders of Greenwood.  The Durst name was to live on in Greenwood through Aunt Grace.  It was also strange, because she never really liked Greenwood.  She stayed there a while, but she missed Atlanta.  She moved back for good, and into an apartment building near downtown.

 When she was 94, she needed to renew her driver's license.  She drove a long Cadillac car.  She drove to the DMV in Atlanta traffic only to be told that she needed to get her glasses to pass the vision  test.  She drove back home and got her glasses.  This was who my Aunt Grace was.  Very feisty and self-reliant.  She was dying, and she told her pastor that only young people would come to her funeral, because she had outlived all of her friends.

 I got the news that she had died and planned to attend.  I rented a Kia to drive down from Greenville to Atlanta.  It was a good car.  She was being buried in an old and historic cemetery next to Uncle Bill.  The cemetery had been a Civil War battlefield.  Many of the elite were buried there including Uncle Remus.  Aunt Grace was right.  The ones that came were her relatives from south Georgia; some of her young neighbors from her apartment building; and me.  I represented the Durst side of the family.  

 Aunt Grace was one of a kind.  Every time that I see a picture of George Washington, I think of her.  

Bo

  One of the perks of living in Greenville was running into celebrities.  I had already run into George Clooney and Renee Zellweger, and I ran into another one--Bo Hopkins.  The name may not be as familiar as the other two, but he has had a long career as a character actor.  In fact, he was in the first episode of "Charlie's Angels" in 1976.  

 He was born in Greenville and had come back to his hometown to try and raise money for a movie project he was writing on Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Shoeless Joe was a disgraced professional baseball player from the early 1900's involved in a betting scheme.  Most people think now that he was innocent of the charges, and that was what the movie was going to be about.  So, Bo threw a party at Fluor Field in Greenville to drive interest for his project.

 I went to the party, because it was free.  He had grown up with the members of "The Swinging Medallions" band, and he invited them to play.  They were great.  Bo even got up on stage and sang with them.  It was a raucous Saturday afternoon.  During a break, I went up to Bo and introduced myself.  I then used the line I use on famous people, so they will listen to me:  "You and I have something in common."  He was listening.  I told him that we had both acted in movies and TV, and that we had both worked with Burt Reynolds.  I told him he had worked with Burt in "White Lightning", and I had worked with him in "Semi-Tough".  Then Bo said something that startled me.  He said, "Oh, I remember you."  I was shocked.  

 The only way he could have remembered me was if he had a photographic memory; freeze-framed the video to the part of 20 of us sitting in the stands; and remembered my red sport coat.  If you haven't read my story about that movie, they took 20 of us and moved us around the Cotton Bowl to be behind the actors on the sidelines for tight shots to make it look like there were fans in the stands.  I hope Bo was just being polite, but it really startled me.  We talked a bit about his project, and I asked him to write a part for me.  He said he would.

 I left the party with hopes of being in another film, but his project never got off of the ground.  He couldn't raise the money he needed to do the film.  Too bad.  I would have liked to have talked with him further about what else he remembered about me.  And I didn't even think to get his autograph.

Sunshine

  Paris Mountain State Park would have free concerts from time to time.  There was a small stage and an amphitheater made of stone.  So, it was announced that the folk singer Jonathan Edwards was going to play for free.  He had a hit called "Sunshine" back in 1971.  A lot of radio stations didn't play it at the time, because the word "damned" was in it.  Some stations bleeped the word.  That was the environment back then.  I was excited to see him for free.

 The show was to start around 7pm.  I got there early to get a good seat.  I even played around on the stage for a few minutes.  It's the performer in me.  People started coming into the area for the show.  A few "roadies" showed up to set up the sound and lights.  A man was introduced as Jonathan Edwards, and he began to sing.  I noticed he seemed younger than I would have thought for a guy who had a hit in 1971, but maybe he looked young for his age.  His music was pretty good as acoustic folk.  I noticed that some in the audience started looking puzzled at his song selection.  None of the songs were familiar.  He had just about finished his first set, when someone from the audience yelled out for him to play "Sunshine".  He stopped and said he wasn't THAT Jonathan Edwards.  They just had the same name.  He said THAT Jonathan Edwards was from Minnesota.  He was from Atlanta.

 Even the newspaper had advertised this singer as the one who had the hit "Sunshine".  So, most of us got up and left.  I don't know how many stayed for his second set, but I don't think there were many.  I kind of felt sorry for this guy.  I am sure that audiences had been confused like that before.  As we headed toward the parking lot, there was a lot of grumbling.  At least it was free.

Reunion

  We are not much on family reunions.  It is usually when someone dies.  To have a reunion just to be having one is not something our family does.  So, when I got an email from some cousins in Richmond, Virginia to have a reunion, I said okay.  One thing I found was I didn't fit into my dress pants anymore and had to buy new clothes.  I was no longer the same size I was in the 8th grade.  That was a surprise.

 As I was living in Greenville and having a questionable car, they told me that they would pay for my plane ticket and motel in Richmond.  The last time that I flew out of the Greenville/Spartanburg airport was in 1973 on the start of our trip to Europe.  The airport had changed some by 2008.  I am not the best kind of airplane passenger.  I loaded up on stomach medication and gum to tolerate the flight.  The trick of chewing gum upon takeoff and landing was something I learned during our Europe trip.  The plane did not go directly to Richmond.  We flew from Greenville to Cleveland, Ohio before flying to Richmond.  That didn't make much sense to me, but you just deal with it.

 I had not flown after 9/11, so I knew there would be extra security.  I knew to wear loafers for shoes, but I didn't know they wanted me to take off my belt, too.  So, I emptied out my pockets and held up my pants to keep them up.  The security was tight, and then I was put in a holding area before the plane was ready to board.  We left Greenville and flew over some beautiful farmland.  I had never been to Ohio before.  The farms turned into an industrial city of Cleveland.  It was kind of dirty looking from the air.  Maybe it was nicer on the ground.  We landed at the airport there, and I had just a few minutes to make my connection to Richmond.  

 When we got to Richmond, one of my cousins picked me up and took me to the motel.  I had never met him before, and I found that I didn't know many there.  The motel was nice, and I went exploring.  He would pick me up the next day and take me to his house for the start of the reunion.  The next day was Saturday, and we all got acquainted.  We talked about our families.  This was the Merrill side, which was my Mother's side of the family, but most of my cousins came from a branch that was related through my Grandfather who was married before he married my Grandmother.  

 One of the things I learned was about a goldmine we owned in Alabama.  I was shocked.  No one had ever mentioned anything about a goldmine.  I saw aerial pictures of it.  One of my cousins mentioned that they had gone through some papers that my Uncle Carl had.  We was an attorney.  After he died, they had found the deed to the goldmine.  It seemed to still be valid, although the mine had been tapped out of gold, so they said.  It is neat to have a goldmine in the family, but it doesn't seem to be worth anything anymore.  If I'm ever down that way, I might take a pick and shovel just to see if they got it all.

 That Sunday, we went to the Jefferson Hotel for lunch.  It was really swanky.  They told me that the grand staircase in the hotel was the model for the Tara staircase in "Gone With the Wind".  The stairs were steep, so one had to be extra careful not to tumble down them.  After lunch, we took a bus tour of downtown Richmond.  We saw a lot of historical things, and went by the First Baptist Church.  My father had been on staff there around 1950, before they moved to New Orleans.  One of my older cousins bragged that my father built the educational building of that church.  I know he designed some churches, when he got to South Carolina, but I don't know how true my cousin's story was.  It was interesting.  As an editorial comment now, I would like to say that I oppose the taking down of the monuments in Richmond.  I'm sorry if that offends anyone.  We also got to see where Edgar Allan Poe lived.  That was cool.

 On Monday, it was time to fly back to Greenville by way of Cleveland.  I thanked my cousins for their hospitality.  When the plane got to Cleveland, there was a little layover.  I explored the terminal and then got back for boarding.  An announcement was made that the plane had some mechanical issues that needed to be fixed before leaving.  We watched them work on an engine.  It probably would have been better to just bring up another plane, but they didn't have any.  When it was time to board, we all got on kind of reluctantly.  We eventually took off for Greenville.  As we approached the airport, off to our left were some hot air balloons floating around.  They had a festival that day.  We landed at the airport, and I was very glad to get my feet back on the ground.  It was good to see some family I never knew existed before.  

Boz

  One great thing about living in Greenville is that it is pretty much halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte, so a lot of artists would come to Greenville to do concerts.  When it was announced that Boz Scaggs was coming to the Peace Center in downtown Greenville, I got excited.  I loved his music, especially on his album "Silk Degrees" that came out when I was working in the Sanger-Harris record department in the late 1970's in Fort Worth. 

 When tickets went on sale, I went down to the box office to buy a ticket.  I told the girl in the box office that I wanted to buy a ticket for the Boz Scaggs concert.  She was rather young and said that she had never heard of Boz Scaggs.  She asked me if he was related to Ricky Scaggs.  I told her no and that it was different music.  She was confused.

 I couldn't afford a downstairs ticket, so I got one in the balcony.  The show was great.  He played all of his hit songs.  I sang along with them.  While I was enjoying the show, I felt a hand on my left knee that wasn't mine.  I looked next to me, and there was an elderly woman smiling.  I tried to move my knee away from her hand, but she kept it there on my knee.  I wondered if she didn't have feeling in her hand and didn't know it was on my knee, but then I guessed she did know and was just frisky.  At any rate, I was rather uncomfortable and found myself giving Boz standing ovations, even if no one else was.  When the show was over, she and I went our separate ways.  She could have been a lonely widow with a lot of money.  I'll never know.

 I had brought my album "Moments" with me, in hopes that Boz would autograph it.  "Silk Degrees" would have been better, but the dark background wouldn't show the signature with a black sharpie.  I went to the stage door to wait on everyone to come out.  A guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted a backstage pass to enter the building.  Of course, I said yes.  He ushered us into a hallway where the dressing rooms were.  One by one, the band members came out to head to their cars.  I got to see Greg Phillinganes, who played keyboards for the band.  That was a thrill for me.  He has played with Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and may more.  He said hello.  Then, our guide came to us and said that Boz was feeling bad after the show and was dehydrated, so we couldn't meet him.  I was disappointed, but it was still cool to get backstage.  And, despite an old lady grasping my knee, I had a great time.

Courier

  When I moved to Greenville, I wanted to do my Bible character monologues in local churches.  There are probably more churches per inch in Greenville than anywhere on the planet.  Maybe not, but you know what I mean.

 First, I started to see if anyone else was doing the same thing.  No need for competition.  I found a man in Easley, SC who did that sort of thing, so I contacted him and made an appointment to talk with him.  We met at the Barnes and Noble in Greenville.  He ordered coffee, and I ordered tea.  If you read my story about coffee and eating beans in the third grade, you know why I don't drink coffee.  We talked for about an hour about churches, and which ones liked Drama.  He said that his wife handled all of the promotion and booking.  Since I didn't have a wife, I would have to do that all myself.

 I started looking around at how I could promote myself.  When I graduated from seminary, there were only four of us in the Southern Baptist Convention to did Religious Drama.  Now it was 2008, and a lot more people were doing it, so I had to find a way to remind people who I was.  One saying in the Theatre is that you are only as good as your last performance.  I don't consider doing my monologues as "performances", because the focus is on me and not the message, but you get the point.  

 It dawned on me that the South Carolina Baptists have a monthly publication called "The Baptist Courier".  It goes out to individuals and churches in South Carolina and beyond.  I thought it would be a perfect avenue to promote me to those who might want me to come to their churches for my presentations.  It would consist of me doing a monologue and sharing my testimony.  I was also available for workshops to teach others how to do church drama.  

 I made an appointment to visit with the editor of the Courier.  I had known him since my days at Anderson College.  His name was Don, and he had been on the staff at the school.  When I walked into his office, we caught up on old times and then got down to business.  I told him what I wanted to do, and the interview went on for a couple of hours.  I told him about my experience, and about being the first person at my seminary to graduate with a degree in Communications.  I told him about the film and TV work that I had done, and the people I had worked with.  We talked about my doing puppet shows in other cities and towns related to Vacation Bible Schools.  We talked about my parents and their work in churches and the denomination.  I thought it couldn't hurt that my father had been in denominational work, because I knew there were some pastors who would have remembered him.  After the interview, Don asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with him.

 We left the office and headed to a nice restaurant.  When we got our food, he asked me a question that just about floored me.  He asked me if I was gay.  I immediately said no.  He said he didn't think I was, since he had seen me with girls at Anderson, but he said he had to ask.  He said that there would be pastors who would wonder why a 55 year old man had never married.  I told him that I had never married, because I was too focused on a career.  Also, because I never had found the right girl.  That last part was a lie.  I had found the right girl, but circumstances made it impossible to move forward.  At any rate, he asked the question I had been asked before throughout my life, and the answer was the same. 

 We got back to his office, and he asked if I would provide pictures of my work and a head shot to be used in the Courier.  I came back two days later and dropped off that material on a disc to be used in the article.  Don said the story would appear in the next issue.  The next month came and no article.  I called and was told it would be in the following month's issue.  I waited another month and then no article about me.  I went to Don's office to inquire why it hadn't run.  He told me that the editorial board felt that they shouldn't run an article promoting me, because if they did, they would have to have articles about all dramatists.  I told Don that they have articles about specific preachers or missionaries in the Courier.  What's the difference?  He then said that he was worried that if any conservative pastors questioned my marital status, rumors could start, and they could lose readership and advertisers.  So, because I was a 55 year old unmarried man, I could not get any article written about me in a Baptist publication.  I was stunned.  I had graduated from the largest seminary in the world.  I had done work around the Convention.  My father was a pioneer in the Southern Baptist Convention.  My mother had written Sunday School lessons for the Southern Baptist Convention.  I had an uncle who was the Director of the Florida Baptist Convention.  I personally knew many giants of the faith.  BUT, because I had never been married...

 This incident kind of put me off of church work.  I know I could have tried the Methodists or the Presbyterians, but my experience and love had been in the Baptist church.  I carry around a wedding ring on my keyring from the play "Blithe Spirit" that I did at Anderson in 1973.  I then wore that ring in Europe to ward off guys that wanted to mess with the girls on the trip.  Maybe, I should have worn that ring and lied that my wife had died in a horrible airplane crash.  But you know me?  Mr. Honesty.  I have never been willing to lie to get a job.  I guess that's why I have never taught Theatre in a Christian college.  I have never wanted to compromise my beliefs to get a job.  Instead of wanting to do church work in Greenville, I gave up and decided to hang out and watch TV.  Not very fulfilling, but at least no one was spreading rumors about me.  Their loss.

Joe Biden

  I was down at the State House in Columbia one day in 2008 to see Senator Joe Biden speak.  He was running for President and holding a press conference.  He made mention in his remarks that he had begun his political journey in 1972 and worked on McGovern's campaign for President.  After the press conference was over, I went up to the front and wanted to meet him.  We shook hands, and then I told him that we have something in common.  (Whenever I meet someone famous, I lead with that line so they will listen.)

 I told him that I started my political campaign work with McGovern for President in 1972.  He looked at me and with a wry smile said, "That was the loneliest time".  We had a good laugh over that, and I agreed with him that it was.  For those of you who don't know, McGovern lost to Nixon in a landslide.  

 Little did I know that Joe Biden would be the Vice President of the United States four years later and running for President in 2020.  And, for those of you who don't know, I am a political junkie.  I love politics.  I vote for the man, not the party.  

 

Recording

 The Cobbwebs had not officially recorded any new music for a few years, but it was time to get back in the studio.  Our first cd was "Magic Boat", and it did very well in some countries in Europe.  Not so much in the U.S., except on the west coast.  So, we wanted to try again.  I was living in Greenville; Del was living in Columbia; and Chris was outside Nashville.  Chris had a recording studio in his home, so we went there.  Del's father drove him up to Greenville to meet me.  I rented a car, and the two of us went to Tennessee.  

 The trip through the mountains was a long one, and we encountered snow and ice along the way.  I know how to drive in that stuff, but going along winding roads on an interstate was interesting.  Del was sure we were going to slide off and die, but I made sure we didn't.  We got to Chris's house late in the day and settled in for a good night's sleep and recording the next day.  We had about three days to make it work.  Del and Chris locked themselves in the studio, and I spent the time on the computer and watching TV, since I didn't play any instruments or sing.  I just wrote the lyrics.  When I got bored, I went upstairs to the studio and watched the recording.  Del and I slept in one of their kids' rooms.  The bed was small but okay.  It reminded me years before, when I slept in a small bed on a choir trip to Georgia.  

 One night, a friend of theirs named Kimber Manning came by.  She was a country and gospel artist.  She seemed nice.  After marathon recording sessions, the cd was complete.  We left Nashville (Antioch) without seeing much of the city.  We did go to a couple of used record stores while there.  It had snowed overnight there, and we left with ice on the road once again.  We came there on I-40, which was a pretty boring drive, so we decided to go back on I-75 to Atlanta and then up to Greenville.  I must say that I-75 is not my favorite drive.  The roads are winding around Chattanooga, and then there is a steep drive down toward Atlanta.  Thankfully, there wasn't ice on the drive down the mountain.  Had there been, they had places along the road that you could get off.  Mainly they were for trucks that lost brakes, but we didn't try to imitate "The Dukes of Hazzard" flying off of a ramp into some dirt.

 While we were making the trip back, Del and I were listening to the demo cd from the recording sessions.  We were picking out what could be the hits, or the singles for release.  Del is very critical of his work, much like I am, and he was very pleased with the vocals and arrangements.  The plan was for Chris to mix everything at his studio and come out with a final product in about a week.  Del's father met him in Greenville and took him back home to Columbia.  I turned in the rental car, and waited for the final cd.

 A few days later, Del emailed us to say that upon further listening that he was not pleased with the outcome.  He said it sounded too Country, and we were a Rock and Roll band.  As it turned out, he let his roommate listen to the cd, and those criticisms came from his roommate and not Del.  But, his roommate had convinced Del that the music wasn't good.  The Cobbwebs had an agreement early on that it had to be a unanimous vote to proceed, and the vote was 2-1 with Del voting no.  So, the cd was scrapped.  Some of the music has appeared online, but The Cobbwebs has never been a band since.  We made some good music, dare I say "great music".  Everyone has said they liked our work.  You might hear some of it on YouTube by typing in the name "Cobbwebs".  Be sure and spell it like that.  There might be some stuff on other music sites, too.  I hope you like it.  Just thinking about what might have been.

George & Renee

 Just before I moved to Greenville, a movie called "Leatherheads" was filmed there.  It was directed and starred George Clooney along with Renee Zellweger.  Around April 1st, the city announced that they would be giving the key to the city to those two and everyone should come out to welcome them.  They would also be doing autographs.
 I went to a local bookstore and found a magazine called "Creative Screenwriting", which I had never heard of, but it had a nice cover picture of the two from the movie.  I bought it with my intentions of getting them to sign it.
 The big day arrived, and I went downtown to the Poinsett Hotel for the celebration.  When I got there, many people had already arrived.  I got a place near a fence surrounding a fountain out front.  The mayor was there to do the honors.  After the presentation, the two stars began signing things.  The film company had passed out 11"x17" mini-posters of the movie for those getting autographs, but I wanted them to sign my magazine.  As George approached me, he was signing fast.  I stuck out my magazine for him to sign, and he did.  I said "Thank you", and he said "You're welcome".  He was very nice.  Then, it was Renee's turn to go through the gauntlet of fans.  She got about five along and stopped.  I was close to her and heard her tell her assistant that she couldn't get her high heels through the bricks that were in front of the hotel, so she would have to stop signing.  I yelled out at her assistant could she please just sign one more.  Her assistant handed my magazine to her, and she signed it.  I was the last person she signed for that day.  So, I had both autographs on my magazine.  Most people just got George's.
 After he had made the rounds through the crowd, they both went inside to have a little lunch.  Most of the crowd left, but there were a few of us who stayed around hoping for another glimpse or autographs.  We were told by their people that they would be coming out of a side door to get in their cars, and we should wait there.  About 15 of us waited.  Finally, they emerged through the side door.  We were yelling "Renee" and "George".  I had my black sharpie with me just in case, and I had my mini-poster to get signed.  Renee waived and got into her car.  George came over to us and said he was going to be late for his flight, but he signed a few in the front.  I was toward the back of our group, so I didn't get him to sign my poster, but a little chaos broke out, and a woman in front of me started jumping up and down to get an autograph.  My sharpie slipped, and I "signed" her arm.  I bet she thought George had signed her arm.  I wonder if she ever washed it off.  He waived to us and thanked us for coming.  He got in his car and they left.  George Clooney was extremely gracious.  Renee Zellweger I think was a bit overcome by the crowd, but at least I got them both to sign my magazine.  No one else could say that, and that is special to me.

Greenville

 Back in April 2007, my friend Jimmy invited me to come to Greenville for the weekend.  He knew I was unhappy in my job, and he proposed that I move there.  When I arrived there, it was on Saturday.  I was blown away by how vibrant the downtown was.  I had remembered Greenville as being dark and dreary, but I found it to be bustling with excitement.  It was clean with a lot of green parks.  It was the exact opposite of Columbia, and I knew that this was the place I wanted to live in.  I had always loved the mountains from the time I was 3, and we lived briefly in Knoxville.  I had spent summers at Ridgecrest in North Carolina.  I felt at home in Greenville.
 When I came back home, I made plans to move.  By December, I had put in my notice at work that I wanted to be transferred to the Macy's store in Greenville.  We did the paperwork, and I moved to Greenville.  Jimmy said I could stay in his condo for free.  That was another exciting thing, since I was having a hard time paying my rent in Columbia.  The condo was on Pelham Road near East Church Street.  It was in a great location.
 The second day in Greenville, I went to Hayward Mall to the Macy's store to find out what my schedule would be.  I walked into the store and the manager walked up to me.  He knew me from my years in Columbia.  He knew of my success in Luggage.  He asked me what I was doing there.  I told him I was showing up for work, and his response was "What are you talking about?"  I told him that I was transferring to their store.  He told me that he didn't know anything about it.  We went to his office, and he called the Columbia store.  He said that they never sent the paperwork for transfer.  I was devastated.  Macy's Columbia had screwed me over.  I knew the HR person didn't like me, but I never thought she would stoop that low.  Greenville didn't have any openings, so I was out of a job.  I decided to cash in my 401k to live.
 Living in Greenville was exciting.  There was always something to do.  Arts fairs were almost every weekend.  Museums were free.  There were concerts all the time.  The stress of work went away.  It was almost like Heaven.  And the people were very friendly.  People would pass you on the sidewalk and say hello.  If you did that in Columbia, they would look at you funny.  It was common practice in Greenville.  I went to one McDonald's on Augusta Road for breakfast, and the woman there would charge me less than other places, just because she liked me.  I knew this is where I needed to be.  I rediscovered happiness.

Postal

 After Macy's had been in charge of our store for a few years, they decided to cut the hours of the employees.  Those of us who were full-time got more responsibilities.  I still had an award-winning Luggage Department, but now I was expected to learn all I could about Housewares, Small Electrics, China, and Bed Linens.  The ironic thing was I had no clue how to cook, so that area was very challenging.
 So now, I had five departments to work in.  Not just one.  I didn't mind China, because there were fun people to work with.  I also had to learn the Bridal Consulting job.  I registered brides for gifts.  With Housewares, Small Electrics and Bedding, I hoped they knew what they wanted already.  After all, I didn't know what a sham or a duvet was.  Maybe they did.  I did learn something about China, and I could work a computer, so that was a big help.  However, there were times when I had to work all five departments at once.  I wished that the management would give us skates to get around.  Customer service suffered during this time, and I am afraid that some people took some things out of the door without paying.  It was impossible to watch everything.  Sometimes I would hear these words from a customer, "Isn't there anyone to wait on me?"  I would then come running.  Consequently, I would walk from place to place on the floor and not stop anywhere unless I was ringing something up for a customer.
 By 2007, the stress of having to make the rounds was wearing on me.  I was coming home exhausted every day.  And to top it off, I had not had a raise in 4 years.  The raises were based on your yearly review.  30% of the review was whether or not you had made your quota in opening credit cards for customers.  I didn't want to do that.  When I filed for bankruptcy in 2006, I was overextended with credit cards.  I knew that people that would open cards would also get overextended.  These were the people that would want Macy's charge cards, so in good conscience, I wouldn't do it.  So, I would not get a raise.  It didn't matter that my Luggage Department was in the top 5 of the entire Macy's company.  It didn't matter that I had very high customer service reviews.  I didn't open credit cards, so I didn't get a raise.
 With the cost of living going up, and me making the same thing for four years, I could no longer make ends meet.  I started asking friends for money just so I could pay my rent.  Some people suggested I should get food stamps, but I didn't think I was poor enough for them.  I should have done it.  I was eating cheap food.  I could no longer afford to live, which sunk me into depression.  I tried everything to get some money, short of robbing a bank.  A friend, who lived in Greenville, offered me a free place to stay up there, if I would move.  I said yes.
 Right before Christmas 2007, I turned in my resignation at Macy's.  It sent shockwaves through the store.  The store manager asked why, and I told her that I had not had a raise in 4 years and could no longer afford to live.  She offered me a 25-cent raise, if I would stay.  There was no way I could do that.  I was getting angry at everything and everyone.  I knew that if I stayed any longer there, that I would go "postal" either on customers or employees or both.  Then, I would be fired, so I took the only out I could.
 Two days before my last day, our store's maintenance man died.  He had a bad heart.  He was a big fan of Big Brother as I was.  I would tell him what had happened on the show before it aired having seen it online, and he would bet his wife that one person would win the veto or was about to be voted off of the show.  He would win the bets, and his wife was never the wiser.  He was much beloved in the store.  I went to his funeral, which was a day after my last day at Macy's.  There was a lot of crying.  Unfortunately, there was a going away party planned for me that night.  Instead of it being a happy time, the mood was rather somber.  I didn't like leaving that way.
 I really liked working at Rich's.  When Macy's took over, the mood changed.  I adapted the best I could, but in the end the demands were just too much.  I had asked to transfer to the Macy's store in Greenville if I could work in Luggage up there.  I knew all of the people there in the Home Store and management.  Our personnel manager filled out the paperwork.  I was ready to move to a better place.

Safety

 One day in 2007, Macy's corporate announced a contest to produce a one-minute video on safety.  The winning entry would be used in all the stores in the company to promote safety.  There would also be a cash prize for the winner.  Our store manager knew I had theatrical experience, so she asked me to write a script and film it.  I had a camcorder.
 I wrote a story about a couple of customers who bought some comforters and headed to the escalator.  The comforters were so big that they caused the two to lose their balance and fall on the escalator.  A sales associate would scream out for "Super Macy" who would show up and save the day.  I cast two associates in the Bedding Dept. to play the two customers.  An associate from Housewares played the screaming associate, and "Super Macy" was played by the head of our security office.
 We had to film the video before the store opened, so we wouldn't have any distractions.  The first shot was the two customers paying for their items and dragging them to the escalator.  I followed them with the camera.  I had never shot video like this before, but I just channeled the times I had done film work to do the directing and technical end.  We went through several takes of them walking down the aisle.  The shooting also went on for a few days.  It had to be perfect.  Each night, I would take home the video I shot and put into my VCR to edit.  I noticed that the audio wasn't coming through, and a weird noise replaced the sound.  I came back into the store the next day and asked around if anyone else had a camcorder.  An associate in Furniture let me borrow hers.
 I started back from scratch.  Over two days, I was able to shoot everything.  When we got to the scene where the customers fall on the escalator, we had to do that a few times to get the fall right.  The first woman had to lean back and fall into the second woman behind her who was supposed to grab the rail and fall down.  On one take, one of the women fell on the escalator step and cut her leg.  After we patched it up, we went back to filming.  She was a trooper.  Then came the scene for "Super Macy" to arrive at the top of the escalator.  She was wear a tight body leotard with an "SM" on her chest and a cape behind her.  She came down the steps and helped the two fallen women.  Her line was something like "take the elevator with heavy items like these".  The women said they would.  The End.
 I took the video home and edited it down to a minute.  I brought the dvd into the store for the management to see it.  They loved it and sent it into corporate.  The requirements included creativity and getting the safety message out.  I thought I had accomplished both criteria.  So, when it came time for the decision, we lost.  I think we might have come in third.  I never saw the winning entry, but they kept our video, so maybe they used in in some of their stores.  At least, I was able to put on my resume director and cinematographer of a video.

S&L

 Back in the early 2000's, I wanted to do my series of Bible-character monologues in churches around South Carolina.  I had been doing them since 1979.  What better place to get advice than the South Carolina Baptist Convention headquarters, aka the "Baptist Building".
 The head of the education division was a guy I went to seminary with and was in our drama group there.  In fact, he had played "Satan" in the play I directed for my thesis called "The Harrowing of Hell".  My father had been head of the Sunday School department at the "building" until is retirement in 1976.  When I got there, I made mention to some of the workers about my father.  Most said they had no idea that he had worked there.  I was floored.  My father was a pioneer in the Southern Baptist Convention.  I realized that some people aren't interested in history.  You need history to know where you are going.
 I talked with my friend there, and he suggested I speak with a man who worked in the Music/Worship Arts Department.  I knew the head of that department.  His children had seen me in the play "The Butterfly That Blushed" at Columbia College some 20 years before and still thought of me as "Worm".  I talked to this guy, whose name was Tom.  He asked me what church I went to, and I said that it was St. Andrews Baptist in Columbia.  His face lit up and said that was his church.  He had been looking to put together a Drama group at the church and wanted to know if I would be interested.  It was a volunteer position, and I said yes.
 We got a few others interested in the project and then tried to get a name for our group.  We finally settled on The Salt and Light Players.  Tom used his library to find scripts for us to do.  Our pastor at the time wanted us to do skits before his sermons to preview what he was going to preach on.  He would tell us a week or two in advance, and then we would work on something to do.  I wrote most of those skits.  My favorite was one about explaining baseball to someone with no concept of the game.  Our pastor was a big Atlanta Braves fan, so I was able to weave that into the skit.
 The church had two morning services.  The first was around 10am, which was a contemporary service.  The second was at 11am, and that was the more traditional service.  We would do the skits at both.  The earlier service was a bit more relaxed, and the reception we got was also a bit different than the traditional.  Years later, I met a woman at my current church who told me that she did the music at St. Andrews in the contemporary service, when I was there.  She remembered my work.  Small world.
 We also did more formal presentations for Easter and Christmas which were scripted from other sources.  We were in Biblical costume for one.  I knelt down, and my robe caught on my sandal.  As I tried to stand up, I couldn't.  One of the other actors got me up.  We covered it with throw away dialogue.  The congregation never knew.
 When I was in seminary, I wrote a Reader's Theatre one-act for Christmas.  I found that reading a script could be done in a church setting.  The other folks in our group like reading rather than memorizing, so we did that.  I directed and helped in those works.  The church also let me do some of my original Bible character monologues from time to time.  We also hosted a statewide Drama conference at our church.
 By 2007, we got another pastor who didn't want the same emphasis on Drama as our previous pastor, so the Salt and Light Players fell away.  When I graduated from seminary, I had offers to go to individual churches to do Drama.  I had declined those offers, because I wanted to teach Drama in a college.  That didn't work out, so I started doing stuff on my own as a guest at a church or other venues.  I ended up doing Drama for my local church, after all.  A friend told me something profound once.  It was about something else, but I think it fits here.  Sometimes, you get on a detour, but eventually you will get back to the main road.  My "main road" was Church Drama, at least for 5 years.