I submitted a short article to the Summerville Journal Scene this afternoon about our meeting today at the festival. But then I thought about that it actually represents this group, so here it is, everyone please let me know if its OK. Its a little rough having written it in a hurry, but will be edited if excepted. Thanks. Springtime in Summerville is what I longed for since the many years I’ve spent away traveling, and living in Texas. My family moved from Charleston here into the Town of Summerville, behind what was then Shoney’s on North Main Street, in 1975. I was ten years old, and now edging my big 50, my hometown has grown into a place that I hardly recognized. That is, except for Summerville in the spring, and what we used to call the Azalea Festival. My Mother, Patricia Alexander Ahl Keeler, still lives in that same house, and I was welcomed home, not only by family, but also a social network of classmates I had grown up with. If not for the many online connections of those I had lost track with throughout the years, this special place, that we all love, may have swallowed my hometown feel that the people native to this area can give, no matter how much has grown up around us. To make it even more special, my classmates, using the miracle of this new social media, began a t-shirt campaign that uniquely tired us all together. In time for the Flowertown Festival, Roy Knight Sr. developed the idea of ‘I Grew Up In Summerville’ t-shirts. They were a hit, and many more were distributed than expected. As the date of the festival drew closer, nature seemed to be watching too, as this year the flowers couldn’t have been blooming in more grandeur. I heard so many comments of our beautiful town as I walked about the crowd on Friday. But it was Saturday that I was really looking forward to, when at 2:00 that afternoon, we had scheduled our place to meet together, all wearing our shirts. I don’t believe this kind of meeting of online friends happens often, certainly not often enough. I think you could even call this historical, at least for our town. The gathering for this event was everything, and so much more, that we had hoped. An unofficial count would be close to 50, ranging 30 years of graduating classes. The mood among all who came transcended the years, and was expressed in the joy of remembrance, meeting others for the first time, and a common appreciation that gripped us all with a certain hometown unity. It was appropriate, I think, to meet together at Summerville Town Square, in front of the old Guerin’s Pharmacy, where many of us talked of cruising as teenagers in our first cars. My classmates and I are a generation in its prime. We did not grow up with any kind of social media, but we have now, within the wisdom of our age, a unique opportunity to help shape this young and growing social networking phenomenon as an example for generations to come. To use it for the purpose of coming together and keeping a bond alive within our community, rather than another path that it also seems to be leading our children into, a way of loosing touch and becoming isolated within this expanding world of technology. I hope that next year, and the years to follow, this native Summervillian movement will reach beyond our generation, and even our town, and help hold together the essence of ‘small town’ deep within the hearts of this rapidly growing world.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 02:23:23 +0000
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