Taking a trip and never leaving the county
I must have driven a 1,000 miles this weekend and never left Clarendon County.
Friday night I was off to the far reaches of East Clarendon County. The Turbeville Community Association and Cheryl Wingard hosted the kick off for a major fund raising initiative scheduled for August.
Leaders from all over Clarendon County and the region were on hand for the introduction of the “Dancing with the Clarendon Stars” participants. Kevin Johnson, Ed Frye, Cathy Harvin, Pat Goodwin, Annelle Powell, Matt Evans, Melissa Wingard, and many more will be practicing hard over the next couple of months to show off their dancing skills in a gala type event scheduled for this August.
It is sure to be a great time and you’ll learn more about the details of this event in this paper and in future editions of the Clarendon Citizen.
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Saturday, I spent my day as a shuttle bus driver for visitors to Clarendon County for a little known local event, called Birdfest. People from all over the state and nation (and probably the world) descend on southwest Clarendon County for a bluegrass festival.
My route began at my friend Cathy Ridgeway’s Hampton Inn in Manning. It then continued on 30-minute journey to the deepest, darkest recesses of the greater Panola area of Clarendon County. The Manning hotel was full of Birdfest attendees.
Birdfest sounds like an event designed to bring attention to our feathered friends that grace the countryside. That would not be the case at all.
Bird was the late, beloved mule of Mac Stidham and Toddy Smith, owners of the Pineland Farm where the event is held (now completing the eighth year).
When Bird passed, the boys from Charleston decided that a taxidermist would preserve Bird and a festival would be created in his honor. Bird’s mounted head is prominently displayed on stage to preside over the festival.
You drive through the gates of the remote preserve and after a quarter mile or so you enter a Clarendon County-sized modern-day Woodstock. Tents, cars, campers, RVs, golf carts and people everywhere.
Music starts around noon and goes way into the late, late night (it might have even been the crack of dawn). I took my last load of Bird festers back to the Hampton Inn about midnight and the fest was still going strong.
I saw a few familiar faces throughout the day: C.D. and Rebecca Rhodes, Scherrie and Kenny Cogdill, Will Coffey, Fuzzy and Laurie Furse, and a few others. But by far, the overwhelming majority of faces I saw, I had never seen before.
For the second year running, one of my favorite actors has been a Birdfest fixture. Bill Murray, famous in my mind for Saturday Night Live and his roles in the movies Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, and more, was hanging out like a regular guy. He makes me laugh.
I didn’t get the chance to talk to him as my shuttle duties kept me steady moving until the evening. By the time I got a chance to slow down and spend some time with my friends, Louis and Dawn Griffith, Badge Baker and Will Buyck, Bill was on stage with the band playing a rather impressive scrub board/cymbal/horn instrument.
Every time I saw him throughout the day, he was having a good time with everyone just like a regular guy. During one of my trips he was walking back from the porta-facilities and there was a group of folks who had just arrived with coolers, chairs, etc. He stopped and grabbed a load and helped them carry it to their destination near the stage.
I’m sure Bill has his moments just like we all do, but the glimpses I witnessed throughout the day was of a genuine nice guy having a great time in the middle of somewhere Clarendon County.
It was a long day and my brain was numb from sitting on it all day, but I met some very nice visitors from as far away as Seattle and Portland, the Midwest and all over the Southeast. For my efforts, the Cypress Foundation of Clarendon Memorial is getting a donation from Mac and Toddy and my $78 in tips is going to Clarendon Habitat For Humanity.
The majority of Clarendon County had no clue that there was a minor economic boon going on in Greater Panola. I got to witness it like no one else did.
