I'm back, thanks for the help, we didn't have a lot of surplus time but did get out some.
Lord Smoke, I tried to avoid "piggy park" but they fooled me and changed the name. It's Maurice's BBQ now. Hites was closed, found a place in Leesville called Shealy's that was great.
My report-
Well, we are back fromSC. Lissa proudly graduated from basic training at Ft. Jackson and is now at her AIT training in Virginia. I kind of liked South Carolina. The terrain was OK, plenty of vegitation-trees etc..., for the most part the people were friendly. Everyone seemed to get along ok. I was kind of leery of the bad racial vibes I got from Tennessee all those 26 years ago. One night we went to a Bar-B-Que House in Leesville called Shealy's.
Damn...
Talk about chowing down. We had a time finding it, somebody on a bike touring board had reccomended another place about 30 mi west of Columbia. After asking directions at a coffeehouse in Batesburg I found it, but it was closed. (the coffeehouse people thought my accent was cool...what accent?)
Lemme tell ya about the town of Batesburg South Carolina. It's one of those little towns you never heard of-pretty much three streets and a railroad depot. Not much to look at, but nice folks. One of the Carolina hippie girls at the coffeehouse suggested an Italian resturant in Leesville, thanks, but nope, I wanted some Bar-B-Que. We headed towards Leesville anyway figgering if theres an Italian resturant, there must be others. As we got into Leesville I saw a Triumph bike shop that was closing. I swooped in and said howdy to the owner as he was locking up. "Shillies" he said when I asked about getting some good food "take a right-then a left, it's on one" "One?" I ask. "Rt one" he says. "Thanks" I says. I always ask the motorcyclists were the food is, it's been a successful tactic so far.
Shealy's Bar-B-Que House was right where he said it'd be, it had a real big parking lot that was almost full on a thursday night. (good sign) There was a rather fat family on the way in who were passing another rather fat family on the way out. Another good sign. The building looked like it was built in stages and had lots of posters for yard sales/church suppers/boy scout car washes etc... stapled to it-another good sign IMHO.
We went in, got in line, paid our $8.95 and got our all you can eat buffet ticket. The food was awesome, no, wicked awesome. It was fish night so there was some fried fish along with the usual pork, rice beans, deep fried tater things and cream style corn. (with real cream!- never had it, loved it.) We sat at a big table next to a SC state trooper with a bright red high and tight haircut who looked about 17 yrs old and a big black family (dad looked like a trucker-chain drive wallet and all) We all chowed down, the truckers wife and the trooper telling us about the various foods and sauces we were eating. They all said we came at the right night cause the fish was excellent- they were right. We talked about the weather and Columbia and Boston (I had my Red Sox cap on- always a conversation starter) Went back for seconds, then dessert and the "sweet tea" kept coming. And oh my, it WAS sweet.
We left full. Another rather fat family waddling out of Shealy's
The next day Lissa got an off base pass and we took her and two friends (who had no family in attendance) out for whatever they wanted to do. They wanted resturant food, and they wanted to shop for shoes and bathing suits. (They may be soldiers, but they are still girls.)
We shopped, we ate, we swam at the hotel pool. They reported back to camp to be shipped out in the wee hours to their training camps. We had the next day to burn ourselves until our flight left at 4pm. So on the way back to the airport we decided to have some more bar-b-que. This time we stopped at a place called Maurice's BBQ. It's a chain of resturants, we saw a dozen of them in the Columbia area, mostly at highway junctions. Lot's of trucks in the parking lot, smelled good outside, looking good. We go inside there's some gift stuff for sale in the foyer but we walked right passed it. Paid $8.95 for our buffet ticket and headed for the buffet table. All this time there's some old fellow giving me the hairy eyeball (musta been the Red Sox cap) tables and booths here, no big picnic tables, but the waitress did keep bringing the sweet tea. And my, it was sweet here too. The food was ok, not as good as Shealy's. But something wasn't right. Took a while to get it, but we got it. Well, Hopie got it first. The place was decorated all done up with portraits of Confederate generals etc.. Lee, Jackson, Bedford Forrest, and Jefferson Davis hanging on the walls, watching us eat and be watched by the clientele. I headed for the bathroom and passed the gift table again, this time I looked at the books and gifts for sale. It was all the "south will rise again" type stuff. Books with titles like "The injustice of desegragation", "the dark side of Lincoln you won't hear in school" Lot's of confederate flag stickers, some plain, some pretty damn angry. I had walked right into the Old South and ate lunch with it. I looked around some more, the old guy was still staring at me, everyone in here was as white as could be, first place I had been in in SC like that. I guess the "gift shop" and the decor was a replacement for the "Whites Only" signs they wanted to hang on the door. Or so it seemed.
We split. Maybe that's why you have to pay first.
I felt oily for have eaten there. I figured there was probably a place like that around, but it was a CHAIN for Christ's sake, there were more of these Maurice's BBQs around than Wendy's.
Still bothers me. I suppose you can put whatever you want in your resturant, but it creeped me out. I didn't know it was a Bar-B-Ku Klux Klan. You'd think that they would put a big fiberglass Grand Wizard or something in the parking lot as a warning to wayward yankees and darkies.
I suppose the locals all know what's what.
I was really digging South Carolina up until lunchtime Friday. After that I didn't. Lot's of good people there, almost everyone we met was cool to the " folks from Boston" (never mind I tried to explain we were from a small town far from Boston) Maurice's was a drag. But, like I said everyone else was cool. At least they were cool to us white folks with money to spend. That's my report, make of it what you will.
Oh, and HOOO-AH to Pvt.'s Ireland, Johnson, Powell, and Wilson. And all the other Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Guardsmen and Coasties out there protecting us.
