Tuesday, February 24, 2026
We picked well again for our dinner restaurant. The Grumpy Mustache was full of locals, including a table of 21 from a local church. There was just one waitress who heroically attended to us all. Barbara was enticed by a fried bologna sandwich and I was swept away by the offer of Da KMart – a submarine sandwich made “exactly as you remember it”. I DID remember it VERY fondly. I have not ever tried to recreate it because it has never occurred to me. I don’t know what I loved about it so much (because I do have an inexplicably strong love for yellow mustard), but I suspect it was the sweet pepper rings. My meal arrived and it was just like it had been from KMart – except WWWAAAAAAYYYYY bigger. I ate half open faced and took the rest home.
We actually got up and did something today! We went on a History, Music, and Movies Trolley tour. It is done by a local woman who is really enthusiastic about her hometown. She is the creator and provider of the tour (along with a driver), and she knew her stuff. She talked (pretty rapidly) (that was okay because I can listen pretty rapidly) for the entire two hours. We saw the four stages of the “new historic” area where they are refurbishing historic buildings to hold new businesses. The old Five and Dime is now a brewhouse, but they saved the look of the outside of the building. A construction company headquarters in an old jewelry store, presenting hard hats instead of diamonds in the show case windows.
Another renovated and remade place we visited was Charlie’s Place, the home of music and dancing in the 50s. Charlie did not segregate and some white kids came to learn dances from Shag, a beautiful NY woman who worked at Charlie’s. The SC state dance (state dance? I didn’t even know that was a thing) is called the Shag. There was a 1988 movie called Shag, made locally, that we weren’t able to find streaming anywhere. Sad. The motel next door was actually completely rebuilt in 2020 from original plans to add to the Charlie’s Place museum. The four rooms on display showed what the rooms would have been like as well as featuring many display items.
We lunched at PF Chang’s because we are all fans and have limited access at home. It was delicious. We wandered a magnificent Barnes and Noble. I was interested that I had read all but two of the books on the Banned Books! table. I do not think I was damaged by reading any of them. There was a pink chair outside. I liked it.
