The Index-Journal from Greenwood, South Carolina • Page 13

There's more to Molly's Rock than meets mitt ifVHJtiWihW EtiQuTQTOS i 4 "3" i CnrrigMlM4 Tte Register ui Trikut Sywbcil -N-r ill tZX i I I Lewis Sl Grizzard 1 I I fx ii Sr. i. JFord's Fair bright, clean virtually free of sin Once Iuka School Coly Styron's house on Briarwood Road was once remembers eating lunch and playing during recess Iuka School which served students in and around under the big trees. (Staff photo by Jennifer Burke) Salak. T.B.

Anderson, who lived in Salak, said he DYSON. Small towns are almost gone, but far from being forgotten Honors Andersons A monument erected in 1944 honors John Anderson's seven sons who fought in the Civil War. The marker is across from Iuka School in Salak and was erected by the Anderson family. Only one of the seven sons didn't return from the war. (Staff photo by Jennifer Burke) railroad lines which used to meet at the little community near Maxwell Avenue where the Seaboard from Atlanta met the Augusta and Knox-ville.

The Augusta and Knoxville railroad line was later changed to the Charleston and Western. Briarwood Road used to be known as Salak Road. "The station sat in between where the two railroads met," Anderson said. Anderson attended Iuka School. "My granddaddy gave the land they built the school on.

When I was in school the teacher would board in the neighborhood," he said. Many of his teachers stayed with his parents. "We used to get water for the school from the well at our house," he said. "I remember eating lunch and playing during recess under the trees around the school. Dyson, Downs and Salak they are almost gone, but long time residents say they are not forgotten.

A sign still marks Dyson and a monument memorializes Civil War veterans in Salak. Trains travel the tracks that run through Downs, but they don't stop there any more. "My great-grandfather John Anderson first settled in Salak in the 1820s," said T.B. Anderson, who now lives a short distance from Salak. "John Anderson came from Scotland or Ireland." "Back in those days, they had land grants," Anderson explained, "he got half a square mile of land.

"His sons fought in the Civil War. After my grandfather came back from the war, he settled near the old homeplace." Until a few years ago the home-place was still standing. The barn still exists, it's hand-hewn lumber held together with pegs. Jennifer Burke Staff writer "People were shorter back then," Mrs. Anderson said.

"All the windows and doors were smaller." "My great-grandfather had seven boys and two girls. All seven boys fought in the Civil War and all but one came back," he said. The monument, erected in 1944, honors Robert, Edmund, William, James, John, Andrew and Nathaniel Anderson. Salak got its name from the two One of few remnants She remembers when the school bus used to get stuck. "Us kids would have to get out and break Dine tops to use to get the bus out." Reames was born in the same house she now lives.

"I've never lived anywhere else this is home," she said. A brick mill was also near the tracks in Dyson. "Mr. Leslie McMillan is the first I can remember that operated it. I can barely remember him." Godsey's is just down the road from Dyson.

A Boozer family used to run a store and a grist mill there. Downs is almost five miles from Greenwood by rail, said Mack Sanders, an engineer for Piedmont and Northern in 1934. It used to be known as Downs Siding because there was a pass track for trains going toward each other on the same track. "Otherwise the trains would meet head on," Sanders said. At one time Downs was a flag stop and a substation for Railroad.

The substation supplied power for overhead lines which ran the train. Mrs. Louise Westmoreland lives in one of the houses where the track foreman and crew for the substation stayed. "The house was empty when my husband came to rent it 21 years ago," Westmoreland said. "He rented it from the railroad." "There used to be two houses, the other was where I have my garden now," she said.

Westmoreland's house is on the corner of Downs and Lagrone Roads. The depot used to be across the railroad from this house, she said. "I keep thinking I'll move, this house is getting pretty old I've had some good times in this old house," Westmoreland said. Downs is a quiet neighborhood, there's not too much going on out here, she said. "We lived in one of the few houses in Downs before you got to Blake-dale," Mrs.

Sanders said. "There wasn't anything like a church for a center unless there was something in the 1860s," said Beth Adams, who has lived in Downs for 50 years. "This isn't a consolidated area," Adams said about Downs. It reaches from Dixie Drive to Highway 25. "Those of us who have lived here a long time think this is a nice community," said Mrs.

Sanders. NEWORLEANS-The French Quarter, America's home office for sin, has grown tired, worn and tatteredover. the years. Once the ruin of many a young man, as goes the legend, the quarter today is an overweight stripper with runs in her hose and bruises on her There is more sleaze than style on Bourbon Street now, and New Orleans needed something to recapture the magic that has made it a tourist mecca. And to its credit, New Orleans has found something -thel984World'sFaironthe Mississippi River front.

I'm no expert at World's Fairs I know much more about sin but the New Orleans production does seem bigger and better than the other World's Fair I saw, Knoxvil-. le's attempt in 1982. The crowds are still smaller than what New Orleans expected for the fair and there have been a few financial problems in getting the fair off to a successful start, but let us leave that to the news columns. What should be said here is that what we always thought New Orleans was the city where "care" is a four-letter word never to be uttered is what it most certainly is with the fair in town. At the fair, there is music.

All sorts. Pete Fountain plays his jazz clarinet at the fair and an orchestra strings "Arrivederci Roma" in the Italian village where a visitor may pig out on pasta and sit in outdoor cafes and watch jugglers and mimes entertain the children. In another spot, a band does all that Chuck Berry used to do, and around another corner the crowd dances outdoors to beach music. The food at the fair plump raw oysters every few steps, a soul food section with fried catfish and collards to eat amongst the break dancers, and the smell of Creole cooking abounds. There is also "MART" Mississippi Aerial River Transit a fancy name for a breathtaking gondola ride over the river, made even more exciting, perhaps, by the fact that it has had a few stalls.

Nothing serious, of course, but it is something to think about high above 01 Muddy And there is an outdoor amphitheater on the river front, featuring entertainment that ranges from the Tokyo Ballet to Willie Nelson. (And why didn't somebody think to put the two together? I'd pay double to hear Willie sing "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies, etc." wearing a pair of tight leotards.) One evening, which is how long my stay at the fair lasted, is not nearly enough. For instance, I was not able to see any of the international exhibits, but bow much do you really want to know about Korean rivers? The 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans may be a bit expensive, but it also is bright and it is clean and it is exciting and virtually free of sin. As somebody told me, "It's really been quiet in the French Quarter since the fair opened. At least as long as the fair is in town it runs until November let the French Quarter rest in peace.

Even sin needs to take a little time off. "I used to fish in the branch across from the school," he said. Salak never was a big place, he said. "My parents had a little store there about 60 years ago." There also used to be a post office in Salak. "Many communities don't have a store now," Anderson said.

Anderson has been married to his wife, Lois, for 52 years. Her father used to have a store "a couple of miles up the road." Anderson followed in his father's footsteps and operated a store on Maxwell Avenue until he retired. 'Way back in the old days this was cotton country and farmland now it's growing up," Anderson said. Dyson is a community where in the spring and summer most of the noise is made by crickets, tree frogs and passing cars. "The first I remember of it there was a store on a hill.

It was on the left as you come into Dyson from Highway 34," said Pearl Reames. Dyson is on Highway 702 about two and one-half miles from the Saluda County line. There was a post office up there too, she said. "The depot was on the right after the railroad. I believe flag is still there." Two Southern Railroad trains ran from Greenville to Columbia each day.

"You could go from here to Greenwood for IS cents or maybe a quarter," she said. As to how Dyson got it's name, she said, "I have always been told that Jeff Dyson owned the property joining mine down to the railroad. "He ran the store that was up on the hill. It burned around 40-45 years ago." "Jim George and Tom Lyles built a brick building near the tracks in the early 20s. They had moved to Dyson from Mayo.

When their building was first built, it was a grocery store which carried mainly dry goods," Reames said. There were about seven families from Mayo who moved to Dyson one fall, they included the Turners, Llyes and Georges, she said. "They all had big families." A house built by Railroad around 1911 is one of the few remnants showing that Downs was a flag station and electrical substation for the railroad. Mrs. Louise Westmoreland has lived in the house for 21 years.

"I've had a lot of good times in that house," she said. (Staff photo by Jennifer Burke) A school was built in 1916. It is built I 5 across the field from my house, she said. In the fall of 1924, students started going to school in Ninety Six. I I "The old school building was used It i as a church on several occasions," I sne sa'd.

"My first school days were I in that building after 1924 1 went to I school in Ninety Six." II Tt 'I iWlairf ill Lifetime Dvson rpsulpnt Old school Pearl Reames of Dyson looks around the building where she first attended school. "I went to school there until 1924, then we started going to school in Ninety Six," she said. The building was most recently used aS a house. (Staff photo by Jennifer Burke) from Jeff Dyson, who owned land from Reames property line to the railroad tracks, she said. (Staff photo by Jennifer Burke) Pearl Reames has lived in Dyson all of her life.

She said there used to be a store, depot, post office and brick company by the railroad tracks in the community on Highway 702. Dyson got its name.