Close

somewhere between a handshake and two kisses

new houses

Town Hall in Reidville, SC

townhall-07-13web.jpg

This is Sandra Gowan, the town clerk, and Mayor Gene Snow. And in Reidville, the fight is on and they are begrudgingly leading the fight because the fight involves the “Z” word…..zoning.

townhall-07-06web.jpg

Reidville as it has been known for over 200 years is on the brink of being swallowed by subdivisions. Countryside lost. People are upset. No one wants change but no one wants zoning laws. In this county people want to be left alone. Do not try and tell someone what to do with their land…..but don’t put a subdivision next to my house either…..we want to keep the cows……but we want the right to claim the money that we can get for selling our land. The nation is in a housing crisis, but not in Spartanburg County. Developments are popping up on every corner. The old people are dying and the kids are selling.

new-developments-01-07web.jpg

It is a common story but in Reidville, the fight is on.

my weekend

byrnes-football-07-01.jpg

five hours at a high school football game….and not much to show for it…..other than this shot of the Byrnes’ visitor seating an hour before the game. I am going to another one tonight to try and do better.

bmw-07-01.jpg

BMW Z3 and Z4 Homecoming weekend. 500-600 cars return to their birth place with their owners.

40120003-web.jpg

This is one of the owners, Peter from Pennsylvania. He has been coming down for seven years for the BMW Homecoming weekend and is known as the guy with the hat. “It is a family event.”

40140013web.jpg

This is Reall from Anderson, SC which is 1 hour and 17 minutes away from the BMW plant in Spartanburg. The Anderson Housing Authority thought the BMW Homecoming would be a fun outing for the community to go and look at people with cars that cost over $30,000.

huntclub-03web.jpg

From the BMW Homecoming I went to a local hunting club’s opening day of dove season.

huntclub-web-07-01.jpg

A group of 15 men return each year for food, stories and hunting. “It’s like Christmas,” I was told.

40170013.jpg

And Sunday morning, back to Walker’s Chapel church for Sunday school and service. I was amazed by the condition of the well loved Bibles.

jones-family-07-01web.jpg

Then Monday with the Jones family. He works at BMW, she works at Reidville Elementary, Sam Jones is the Byrnes High School field goal kicker and Nick Jones is an aspiring minister and football star. They are the all star Reidville Family.

40190008.jpg

And this is the new Reidville family. They are moving from North Carolina to live here, in a subdivision that was once a peach orchard. The family includes five home-schooled children who are named after people in the Bible.

As you can see, I am having a tough time with focus but I am hoping all these encounters and adventures will come together in the end.

today’s farms

apple-valley-08-01web.jpg

Today we are farming houses in America and we are farming grass to put in the yards of our houses…..

beachgolf-07-01web.jpg

and to put on our golf courses that surround our really fancy houses.

horses ignoring king george’s house

once upon a time there was a man who thought he was so important that he built his house on top of a beautiful hill for all the little people to look up at him….so now the people call him king george. these horses three miles away don’t mind looking at king george’s house but….

%d bloggers like this: