As mentioned when I first began writing this column, I grew up in my family’s (now-defunct) wholesale hardware business. Begun in 1896 by my paternal grandfather’s third cousin, over the years it grew to number 1,000 or so retail customers across eastern Georgia and South Carolina, and northern Florida.
I started work there during summers as a 16-year-old kid in high school, first as a stock clerk in our 50,000 square foot warehouse, learning what we carried; then as an order clerk, assembling orders from our customers. I then spent most of one summer as a truck driver’s helper, helping to deliver freight to customers in many small towns across GA and SC; and another as a bookkeeping assistant.
That was an education I will never forget, and it served me well in later years.
When I finished college and came back home, several years later, I was asked to take on new responsibilities as treasurer and credit manager, after my dad had died, halfway through my senior year, two years earlier.
I was quite surprised, but accepted the job, and learned a lot more over the next decade, before having to close the business in 1984, due to extreme economic difficulties across the region. Many of our retail customers closed during the same period, so we were not alone, by any means.
Hardware stores were an important part of local economies, in the days before “big-box” stores like Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and Home Depot came on the scene.
They also carried hunting and fishing supplies, building materials, heaters and fans, small appliances and even bicycles for kids.
We had many Western Auto, Ace and True Value stores in our customer base, as well as feed-andseed and farm supply businesses. This was before MasterCard and Visa credit cards were invented, so businesses were mostly on a cash basis.
Brunswick and neighboring towns were strong parts of our customer base, and that is how I got to learn area geography, by our customers. At one time I knew most all the Zip codes for towns across our three-state area.
In recent years, Brunswick has undergone a major downtown revitalization effort, and it shows. The old downtown section has a wonderful collection of Victorian homes, built in earlier times, and many renovated storefronts.
The Ritz Theatre on Newcastle Street hosts many different events these days.
New restaurants and other shops replaced the old mom-and-pop family businesses all across downtown, as the economy there continues to grow and change.
The Brunswick Library has a modern new building, at the corner of Gloucester and Bay Streets, across from Mary Ross Waterfront Park. My favorite place to visit there is the re-sale room in the back, which offers donated books, tapes & videos at low prices, and is staffed by volunteers, with proceeds given back to the library to support new purchases. I stop by every time I am in town, often bringing donations of my own.
(Richmond Hill has a similar place, Books on the Hill, in the Ways Station shopping center; I visit them often, too.)
Next door to the Brunswick Library is a wonderful little coffee shop, “Daddy Cate’s”, which recently re-opened after a yearlong closure caused by a burst pipe on the floor above, which flooded the place and took longer than expected to recover from. Around the corner on Newcastle Street is “Tipsy McSway’s Bar and Grill”, which offers lunch and dinner, and musical entertainment on weekends. I often go there for lunch when I am down that way.
When that car-carrier ship capsized in the Brunswick Sound, several years ago, I wound up signing up for an online subscription to the Brunswick News, basically to keep up with the ship issue; and have kept it since then, and enjoyed keeping up with area events and happenings. That paper does a great job, as does the Darien News just a few miles north, in McIntosh County, where I also have an online subscription.
We are fortunate to have as many opportunities as we do, living in the coastal Georgia area, many close to home.
Although I was born and raised in Savannah, I am thankful for the many opportunities I have had over the years, the many good people I have gotten to know through both business and Rotary Club, and hope I have many more.
As the old saying goes, “Count your blessings, not your sorrows!” For there will be many, “if we but have eyes to see, and then look.”
Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He and his wife are both long-time Rotarians, and live in eastern Liberty County with their changing passel of orphaned rescue cats. He writes on a variety of topics, and may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo. com.