Grist

  The First Baptist Seniors took two trips to Camden, SC.  The first was to a Grist Mill outside of town, and the other was to a Revolutionary War site closer into Camden.

 The Grist Mill was an old place that ground stuff into grits and other things.  I wasn't too clear on that, because it was cold, and I wanted to get inside.  Their gift shop had one space heater, and we had a bunch of people.  Did I mention that it was cold?  There was a wooden church at the site.  It was really just used for weddings now.  They had an old-timey organ in the church, but the keyboard was warped.  The best part of the trip there was the restaurant.  The food was great, and the restaurant was warm.  I ran into a friend there, who was a state senator.  We had a good laugh about South Carolina politics.  

 The second trip was to the Revolutionary War site.  It had several restored buildings and houses from those days.  The main house was used by both the British and the Americans.  There was a portrait of Andrew Jackson inside one of the rooms, and the guide said that Jackson had been sliced with a sword on the cheek and had left a scar.  He never allowed any portrait of the scar, so he is always portrayed looking to the right.  That particular house had steep steps and couldn't be accessed by disabled people.  I hope they fixed that.  We had a man from our church with us who was an historian.  He had written a book on Kershaw County history, and he had the Camden Museum to bring out copies for all of us.  

 This man was rather opinionated.  On our trip out to the site on I-20, he pointed out a place near the road that used to be an inn during the Revolution and beyond.  He said that George Washington had spent the night in Lexington County and then taken a carriage to this inn for breakfast.  There was no way he could have done that.  The inn was at least 30 miles away from where he had slept, and there weren't paved roads back then.  I called out the man for what he said.  He insisted that he was right.  He didn't speak to me for the rest of the trip.  

 Camden is a great place to visit.  History just oozes out of the area.  They also have some great antique shops in town.  I'd like to go back and just do antiquing.  Maybe one day.