More Tales of Old Town Bluffton is my newest book about the South Carolina Lowcountry. It is now available on amazon.com, along with all my other books. The first 31 pages can be viewed by clicking on Amazon’s Look Inside feature on their website. The book can also be found at The Heyward House, the welcoming center for the town of Bluffton, SC.
My new book, Tales of Old Town Bluffton, The Complete Writings of Andrew Peeples, is now available in paperback from Amazon Books. The book can also be found at The Heyward House, the welcoming center at the town of Bluffton, SC. Andrew Peeples’ stories are full of early twentieth century small town local color. He was born in 1905 in Bluffton, SC, and raised on Calhoun Street (the main street) in the house shown below. He was the seventh son in a family of fourteen children. He graduated from Bluffton High School and later from the University of South Carolina. For many years he worked as the Health Education Director for the South Carolina State Board of Health.
All of the people in my new book, Testimony of the Infant Children, the Untold Story, were real people, not imaginary. (See The Real People in My New Book above.) Perhaps you knew some of them, or know about some of them. Perhaps you are related to some of them? One of the most important people in my book, besides my mother and father, was my father’s lawyer, W. Brantley Harvey, Sr. (1893-1981) He was a well known South Carolina lawyer and politician. He is often referred to as Senator Harvey in the book because he was a South Carolina senator for 24 years. Senator Harvey’s words are on almost every page of the court testimony recorded in my book. You can learn more about him at https://harveyandbattey.com/attorneys/firm-history/.
Included on the last page of my book is a reprint of the meditative article, Tombstone Thoughts, the Historic Bluffton Cemetery, by the Very Reverend Dr. Charles E. Owens, III, Rector of Church of the Cross, Bluffton, S. C. His reflections on memories of past lives, and how cemeteries remind us of the transitory nature of our lives, made a fitting ending to my book, which is primarily about the impact of lives now over on those of the living. Many of my relatives lie buried in the Bluffton Cemetery. The word cemetery comes from Latin and Greek words that mean “sleeping place.”
On April 4, 1951 at 3:30 P. M., my brothers and I experienced a trauma that marked us for life: our father took us by force on our way home from school in Philadelphia and brought us back 700 miles to his and our home: Bluffton, SC. My twin brother and I were nine and one-half years old, and my younger brother was only six. None of us, including our father and mother, ever fully recovered from that event and the subsequent custody battles that followed.
John Samuel Graves, Jr., my father, and Florence Rubert, my mother, married on June 25, 1939. After 11 years of marriage my mother decided she wanted to think things over. She and my father agreed to a trial 3 month separation, and on June 3, 1950, Mother took us north to stay with her sister, her mother, and her grandmother. After about 10 months had passed without our father being allowed to see us he became convinced that he had to take matters into his own hands: he would go get us and return us to our ancestral South Carolina home. The details of that story are presented in my new book, Testimony of the Infant Children, the Untold Story, a non-fictional account of those and previous times in the Lowcounty town of Bluffton, South Carolina. For more information about the people described in the book please visit The Real People in my New Book tab.
My book is now available in its Second Edition on Amazon Books. Amazon’s Look Inside feature allows a viewer to read substantial portions of the book’s text. Please take a look! The Second Edition in not primarily different from the first edition. It has been re-edited for spelling, grammatical and formatting issues. The Second Edition also contains photographs that were not in the earliest versions of the book. Some of these additions and corrections have been posted for quite some time on this site at Testimony Back Story & Photos.
The following article, I was just thinking…, is from the preface to the recent book, Tell it again, Desie, published in 2011 by Celeste Guilford Cobb. Celeste is the great granddaughter of George Sewell Guilford, the builder of the Graves House and the father of my grandmother, Cora Jane Guilford Graves, the original inhabitant of the Graves House. John Samuel Graves, III
I was just thinking…by Celeste Guilford Cobb.
In my younger days people cared about and cared for each other. Business was often transacted with a handshake, and we dealt with human beings rather than electronic devices. If we needed information, we talked to a knowledgeable person who took pride in helping us. We did not punch countless numbers and get a recorded message. And we called friends on the telephone and looked forward to hearing their voices; we did not communicate with our fingers.
We had dedicated teachers who conducted classes without the use of the internet. They forfeited their Saturdays “off” to attend meetings and conferences. There were no “work days” during the week.
When we started school we were taught to write in cursive and took pride in neat, legible handwriting. We had to learn grammar and spelling and did not have “spell-check” to find our errors. We memorized multiplication tables and were taught the principles of math for business and everyday use (interest, percentage, etc.). Businesses had hand-operated adding machines, but calculators were never used in school. Girls had Home Ec(onomics) classes in junior high school and were taught a few homemaking skills. Boys had Shop and learned how to use some basic tools.
Young children had simple toys and relied on creativity and imagination for playtime. Older children had school, homework and organized activities but found time for outdoor sports—no sitting for hours in front of a computer or television screen.
We ate fresh, home cooked food with all the family sitting together at mealtimes.
Growing up we respected and obeyed not only our parents but all adults, and adults were expected to set a good example. Parents accepted the rearing of children as their personal responsibility and taught us moral values and the rewards of education and work. They worked to be good providers. Public assistance and “entitlements” were unheard of.
We took great pride in our appearance and would never be seen at school or anywhere in public unkempt. Our clothes were the best we could afford—stylish but modest. When I was a teenager, short shorts, one piece bathing suits and strapless evening gowns were the most revealing things in our wardrobes. In my early 20’s I bought a two-piece bathing suit, but certainly not a bikini. The lack of good grooming and what I consider inappropriate dressing in public (even in church) nowadays is very hard for me to accept.
Widespread destruction of human lives and property happened only during declared wars. We went about our daily lives without fear of being the innocent victims of some emotionally unbalanced stranger who had a grievance to settle with society.
On the positive side, science has advanced beyond my comprehension. I am certainly grateful for the many inventions which make life easier for me, as well as the technology that provides education and entertainment. However, as we have already experienced, all too often good things can become lethal in the hands of the wrong people.
I grew up in a different time—an era which is gone forever.
Note: Celeste was born in 1925 and lives in Columbia, South Carolina. She is the great granddaughter of George Sewell Guilford, the builder of the Graves House, Bluffton, SC. She and John Samuel Graves, III are second cousins. His grandmother, Cora Jane Guilford Graves and Celeste’s grandfather, George William Guilford, were siblings. Celeste is the oldest living descendant of George Sewell Guilford.