Happy the Tiger was a constant media and "personal" presence when I was growing up. I see from her plaque that she arrived in Columbia when I was three years old, and passed away when I was 18. In between those times, I must have seen her dozens of times, either at Constan Carwash on Gervais Street (where these pictures were taken), or at any number of events at which she appeared.

My memory is that her cage was behind the car wash in the area where you pull your car around to put it on the wash tramline. Such a thing would never fly in today's hyper-correct environment and I think that's good in some ways, and bad in others. I have no way of knowing how truly "happy", "Happy" was, but at any rate her situation doesn't seem to have affected her lifespan, and she got "modern" quarters at Riverbanks.

The plaque says that Marlin Perkins handled Happy's acquisition, but I'll bet he was somewhere nice and cool while "Jim" did the dirty work!

UPDATE 15 October 2009: Added a picture of Happy I forgot.

I don't remember what the name of this place was, and I don't think even the building remains now, or at least where I recall it as being is a car lot with a pre-fab looking HQ.

Anyway, there is an odd little triangular lot where Augusta Road (US-1) and SC-12 come together. The join of the two highways makes the point of the lot, and Hook Avenue makes the base. I recall that for years when I was driving out US-1 towards I-26, I would see this little building with a sign that said (more or less) "Hardware & Groceries". Finally one day I thought to myself, That's rather odd, isn't it? and decided to stop.

It was exactly what the sign promised, groceries on one side of the store, and hardware on the other. I didn't need anything, but I was the only customer in the store, and I felt like I ought to buy something rather than either letting them think I a) was an idiot, or b) had stopped in just to gawk, so I looked around and picked up a package of spaghetti noodles like I had meant to do that.

My guess is that the place started when the area was "the boonies" and had just carried on as the surroundings developed. As I said, when I went in, I was the only customer so business even then can't have been good, and with the coming of Kroger, Bi-Lo, Wal-Mart & Lowes, both the grocery side and the hardware side would have taken a fatal hit. I'm not sure when the place closed, but I don't think it made it into the new millennium.

Anyone know what this place was called?

UPDATE 18 October 2009: OK, based on the comments, I was able to identify this from the 1997 phonebook as "Sharpe's Hardware & Grocery Inc" and get the street address. I have updated the post title to reflect that and that the closing date was later than I thought.

Sometime recently, I mentioned how odd I had always thought it was that Trenholm Plaza had (and has) two grocery stores at which point Dennis reminded me that both the original Richland Mall and Midlands Shopping Center also had two each.

With that in mind, the last time I was driving by Midlands Shopping Center (and googling suggests it is still called that, though there is no longer any signage to that effect), this building caught my eye. It is obviously the other (non-A&P) grocery building there, though it seems to be used by DSS for some sort of job training now.

In his comment, Dennis pegged this one as a Colonial/Big Star, but I'm not so sure. First of all, it's not in the list of stores on the bottom of the ad here, and second it looks more like an old Piggly Wiggly facade to me. (Which would make sense since Midlands started as a twin of Trenholm Plaza). Anyone know definitively? If so, I'll update the post title.

UPDATE 6 Oct 2009: OK, based on comments changed post title from "Grocery Store" to "Colonial Stores Grocery". Definitely not a Piggly Wiggly.

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- Here's some pictures with a better view of the murals described in the comments:

Bush River Mall was built as the twin of Decker Mall, and as far as Decker Mall has fallen, it has so far avoided Bush River Mall's fate.

Like DM, BRM was built as a long corridor with a Kroger Sav-On anchoring one end, and a Richway with the "TR7 Garage" roof anchoring the other. The central corridor was not all on one level, and as I recall it, moving from Kroger to Richway was a gradual uphill slope.

The mall also had a business mix similar to Decker Mall's, and I can recall in particular, a record store and a video arcade. One thing it had that Decker Mall did not have was movie theaters. I believe the Bush RIver Mall theaters were almost in the middle of the mall midway between Kroger and Richway. It was definitely a "plex" of some sort, I believe it was an eight-plex. I know I saw a fair number of movies there, but the one I recall best is Private Lessons in 1981 (the original one, not that Japanese version that used to come on cable all the time). I was living at USC in The Towers when my roomate and I decided we had to see a movie. He had a car, and I assured him I knew how to get to Bush River Mall, so we picked that venue. Well, I did know how to get there -- From Forest Acres! It turned out that the only way I could think of getting there from campus was the asinine route that involved going down Bull Street to Sunset Drive, taking Sunset to Broad River Road and then taking Bush River Road at Boozer. Needless to say we were 15 minutes late. Luckily, it's not a movie where the plot is paramount (or hard to figure out, come to that).

In the late 80s or early 90s, Bush River Mall, like Decker Mall, started to go downhill. When Richway went bankrupt it was taken over at Decker and Woodhill Malls first by Gold Circle and then by Target. I'm not certain, but I don't think that happened at Bush River. At any rate, both Kroger and whatever was in the Richway slot pulled out, and that didn't leave much in the center to attract trade. A couple of also-ran stores tried the Kroger building. I think there was a Ben Franklin and then maybe some sort of clothes store. The theater didn't help much either, though I'm not entirely clear why. It may have been that the new Dutch Square multiplex started before the Bush River Mall theaters went under though I can't swear to that timing.

Whatever the causes, the mall finally ticked over from troubled to dead with no businesses left. This state of affairs lasted several years, and would have been an ideal time to get pictures of the old place if I had thought of it (and it used to be a real choice whether use up $20 shoting and printing a 24-exposure roll of Kodacolor..). After a while they knocked the whole place down, and the only remnants were a "now playing" sign for the theaters at the corner of Bush River Road and the mall north access road, and some down-at-the-heels beauty and etc shops in an outparcel in the same corner.

Now, of course, Wal-Mart has moved in, and has brought more businesses with it than ever were in the mall. For a new Wal-Mart, it was a bit odd when it opened in that it was not 24 hours, something unexpected that bit me once, but that may have changed by now.

UPDATE 8 June 2010: Several commenters send this link to a really great set of pictures from the last days of the mall. Check it out!

I've always liked Cornell Arms, the apartment building on the corner of Sumter and Pendleton Streets. I'm not sure why exactly, except that it has been there my entire life (that I can recall) and that the name with the antique "Arms" designation harkens back to the era of classic movies (and, admittedly, Hee-Haw). The section underneath the residences is retail space, and the tenants have come and gone through the years. I know that for decades, my father's barbers were there, and the restaurant space now housing Tio's has in the past had both McDonald's and Lizard's Thicket.

I can only vaguely remember the pharmacy, as our main drugstore was Campbell's. It was in the space now occupied by Carolina Cafe & Catering. I think we may have gone in a time or two if we were visiting my father's office, or if we were in the area taking the bus to the fairgrounds (which we used to do both to avoid the parking crowds there and to give us kids an 'adventure'). I am pretty sure it was fairly no-nonsense from a kid's point of view, except for the soda fountain, with few of the mini-department-store pretensions of modern big-box drugstores.

I don't really have a closing date for this place, but I started at USC in 1980, and I think I would recall it if it were still open then, and I don't, so I'm saying 1970s.

OK, today is an anniversary of sorts. Three years ago today was the final day of operation for the Myrtle Beach Pavilion. As it happens, I was there, and made a video essay to share with friends and family. The fact of doing that, and not really having any good forum for something like that was one of the things that started percolating around in my brain and eventually led to establishing Columbia Closings.

Below is the essay pretty much unchanged from how I wrote it then, followed by a lot of still pictures (too many, I'm sure) that I took on that day and earlier in the year:

We didn't actually go to the Pavilion that often as kids, so the closing
shouldn't be that big a deal, but we always knew that there was the
possibility that we might go, and that possibility loomed large in our minds.

In the end, Burroughs & Chapin is a business, and they made a business decision to shut the Pavilion down. That said, they actually did it in a classy way. For the Last Ride celebration on Saturday September 30 2006, they presold tickets, each of which came with park access from 3PM to 8PM, free parking, and unlimited free pizza, burgers, corndogs, funnel cake and ice cream.

As I happened to be at the beach at the time, I reserved a ticket and took a CVS disposable video camera (as well as my regular film camera, and a disposable film camera) to record some last memories.

This page is devoted to the short videos I shot that day. I have converted the DVD which CVS gives you into an AVI file for each scene. While these files are not huge (except for the all-in-one file), you may not be able to stream them unless you have a fast connection. If clicking your left button on a picture does not start your movie player, or if the clip plays jerkily, I recommend clicking your right button over each picture and selecting "save target as" or the equivalent to download the clips. They should be playable with Windows Media Player on Windows, or "mplayer" on Linux.

We start off on the roof of the Pavilion parking garage, looking out at the roller coaster and other rides:

Moving to the South side of the garage roof, we look down at the lines forming to get into the Pavilion:

Coming off the roof, I took a brief shot of foot traffic on Ocean Blvd, noting the fact that the Pavilion Arcade is already closed:

Collecting my ticket and stepping inside the park, we see some kiddie rides:

More kiddie rides:

The very first thing I ever remember from the Pavilion is this 1905 German Band organ. The second thing I remember is the blow dryer in the restroom. I had never seen such a thing! I only remember Daddy being there on that trip, probably because he would have been the one taking me to the bathroom (which is alongside the organ), but doubtless Momma & Sus were around.

I was disappointed that Sugarbug could not see the organ on her trip to the park, but it was closed for repair at the time. When you consider that it is 102 years old, I suppose that's not surprising. I'm not sure it comes across in these videos, but the organ is loud!

The placards describing the organ claim some of the original cardboard punched music sheets are still used. Somehow I doubt that "Ob La Di Ob La Da" was that popular in 1905!

The only actual ride I remember from that (presumed) first trip to the Pavilion is this boat ride, which I thought was possibly the neatest thing in the world:

No trip to any amusement park would be complete without the Bumper Cars:

My attempt to film while driving a Bumper Car ended quickly when the
attendant stopped the ride. I thought I had broken a rule, but he was
after a kid who was old enough to ride, but not drive:

The swings is a nice ride because it goes around, but not enough to make middle aged stomachs queasy:

I hopped aboard a wooden pig for a ride on the carrousel. While not as old as the band organ, it is pretty old. I noticed that the carrousel music was coming from a sound system and not the antique music box. Perhaps they didn't feel it was worth repairing for the time left. I have no idea what will happen to the carrousel or band organ. It would be a shame if they were left to rot:

The Log Flume is the park's intermediate water ride. More wet than the
"boats", less soaking than the "river ride":

There was a pretty good beach band playing at the amphitheatre. The name escapes me, but they had just finished a very good version of "Carolina Girls" when I started filming. This song was well done, but not one I would call a classic:

I wrestled with whether to ride the big coaster or not. On the one hand, I was coming down with a cold and had something of a headache, on the other hand, I'd never have the chance again. Riding the intermediate coaster "The Mad mouse" decided me I wasn't ready for the big one, but here are some people who were:

Here's another shot of the Carrousel, which was strikingly pretty with
the setting sun glinting off the mirror panels. I like this one a lot; there's so much going on in this shot and some appropriately elegiac music for the last sunset on the working park:

Finally, we finish with the band organ again to take us out:

This is the whole video in one 306 megabyte, 20 minute lump:

After running out of video, I stayed until the end of the day, and rode
the final run of the Bumper Cars. It was somewhat of a melancholy experience, but I'm glad I did it.

Still pix after the jump..

Read the rest of this entry »

I remember three events coming to The Coliseum with some regularity when I was growing up. They were the The World Famous Royal Lipizzaner Stallions, Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus and Holiday On Ice.

I think I saw the Stallions, though I can remember nothing about it, and I saw the circus at least twice. I'm pretty sure I saw Holiday On Ice only once, and am also pretty sure (through the 'Green Giant' connection) that this was the year I saw it.

Ice skating was (and is!) pretty exotic in Columbia. I think Rockbridge club has had the only rink in town for ages, and it's private (though I did get to go there once with scouts -- unfortunately I hadn't mastered even roller skating at that point, and ice skating was a total debacle). Also, there weren't sports channels where you could see it every day as there are now. Pretty much, you saw it if you watched the Olympics, and that was about it -- Unless you saw Holiday On Ice.

I can actually only remember one thing about the show though. One segment was called "The Age of Asparagus" which 12-year-old-I thought was just astoundingly clever, and featured skating vegetables. That's the part where "The Jolly Green Giant" made his appearance.

It appears from Wikipedia and Holiday On Ice's own web site that they have exited the North American market, and now tour in Europe, Asia & Latin America -- I guess for us, The Age of Asparagus has passed.

This Quonset hut is on the corner of Blossom & Pulaski Streets, off to the side of the overpass that the main stretch of Blossom takes. I know I have seen it in business in the past, but I can't recall as what. I think someone on another post suggested that it was an auto battery store. If that be the case, I could find no evidence of it. Indeed there doesn't seem to be any signage at all from any former lives.

This building, now a Monterrey Mexican was once a Denny's. The chain has fallen on hard times in Columbia, losing stores on Two Notch, Wilson Boulevard and Airport Boulevard. They seem to be down to one store on Harbison at the current time. I believe the last time I ate in a Denny's was after a disasterous software demo somewhere in Texas when were were too beaten-down to even leave the hotel parking lot, and the time before that was at 3am after working 18 hours straight and the time before that was at 2am after spending all day preparing for another iffy demo, so even aside from the chain's checkered reputation, the place holds no draw for me. Give me IHOP or even Waffle House instead!

I suspect from the placement of this building that the Denny's may have been the "house restaurant" for the adjacent motel, but I don't know that for sure.

UPDATE 26 September 2009: Added 1976 Southern Bell Yellow Pages ad

I wrote about Chappy's and Cedric's here, and wondered how popular an English fish & chips theme was ever going to be in Columbia South Carolina. As it turns out, more popular than I expected. In addition to Cedric's & Chappy's, there was Aurthur Treacher and this chain, H. Salt.

The ad from the 1970 Southern Bell phonebook lists two Columbia locations for the chain. As far as I can tell, there is currently no 1212 August Street in West Columbia. If there were a building there, it would be in the parking lot of the former Triangle Safe & Lock at 1210 Augusta Road. (And yes the issue of "Augusta Road" vs "Agusta Street" is fraught at 12th Street!)

2529 Millwood Avenue however, still exists, and I can imagine the building on that lot being a fast food place at one time (though not a modern one as there is no space for a drive-through). I don't know when the Columbia stores closed, though I don't recall ever noticing them. I'm guessing the later 1970s. It appears the chain still exists though these days, it is confined to California where it started in 1965.