Sherman's Road

 One summer night at White Oak, John (the Eagle Scout) said he wanted to show us Sherman's Road.  Apparently, when General Sherman's Army left Columbia, they moved north past Winnsboro toward Chester.  Highway 321 had not been built yet, but this road sort of paralleled what is now 321.  It was a dirt road that had mostly disappeared over time, but there was still a portion left intact, which ran from White Oak to Blackstock.  It was history and some of us wanted to see it.
 Suzanne, Angela and I piled into the front seat of John's pickup truck with him behind the wheel, and off we went to Sherman's Road.  It was night, because it was the only free time we had from work.  We started out down this dirt road with no lighting other that the truck's headlights.  We came to a ravine that had two boards across it.  John lined up his truck to the boards and drove across.  A pretty easy task, except for one major problem.  The two girls and I were SCREAMING!  The boards sagged, as we drove across, and the ravine was deep.  What is the truck slid off?  We would all be killed.  John thought our fright was funny.  We got over the ravine and continued on our way.  Until we came to another ravine and another two boards.  We begged John to turn around.  The truck got over the ravine, and we kept going.
 It was getting darker, and we were afraid that John didn't really know where he was going.  After some choice words said to John, he finally agreed to turn around.  There was a house along the road, where we could turn around.  It was also obvious that the home owner did not expect anyone turning around in his front yard.  After all, there was probably a reason why he wanted to live way back from the main highway with no neighbors around.  As John was turning around, the man came out of his house holding a rifle.  If we hadn't been freaking out about the boards over the ravines, we were now.  This man was going to shoot us trespassers.  John sped off in the other direction .  We didn't care about him lining up the wheels to the boards.  We shot over the ravines.  I had never been in a flying pickup truck before, and hopefully will never again.
 My suggestion to anyone interested in going down Sherman's Road is:  DON'T.  Maybe look at it on an old map, or better yet--take Hwy 321 and imagine just off in the woods is where Sherman's Army was.  You don't want to be mistaken for a revenuer.