chuckography

Now, my OLDER brother....

OK, I've written about my younger brother - and he denies everything - so here's a tidbit on my older brother, the first born of the Boyd Brothers.

We're sitting (he's on the right) on a chain at an entryway to Marion Square on a Sunday outing during WWII. We lived a few blocks away in Ansonborough on Society Street.

Spread out about 4 years apart, all three of us attended St. Joseph's grade school on Anson Street and the best summer of my life was 5th grade, the year I had a growth spurt and became taller than he was. What a difference it meant to be a BIGGER little brother! There was a definite power shift.

We still hung out together and that summer on Folly Beach, we wanted to surprise our grandmother with a fancy, smancy fried chicken dinner at Tommy Wienges' News Stand on Center Street. The sumptuous meal would cost $1.25.

We roamed Folly all day, collecting empty pop bottles and lugging them to Tommy's restaurant to collect the deposit. Naturally we had to have 125 and we were short about 15 as the afternoon waned.

Big, er, older, brother said "wait here" and darted away.

He returned quickly with 6 bottles and said "we still have time," and ran off again. He came back balancing 8 empties and Tommy laughed and said "close enough."

Grandma was a little leery when we insisted she come with us that evening and, after she was seated, the ladies brought out her dinner and she truly was surprised and pleased.

As we watched her eat, I whispered to my brother "how did you get so many bottles so quickly?" He smiled and said "from Tommy's back porch."

Labels: chicken dinner, Marion Square, pop bottles, summer at the beach, WWII

posted by chucker @ 5:03 PM