<Narrator> Our Vanishing Americana South Carolina is made possible by generous support from Martin Sprock and T.C.

Calcote.

Additional funding provided by: The ETV Endowment of South Carolina, which through the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations is committed to telling South Carolina stories and is a proud sponsor of Our Vanishing Americana, South Carolina.

♪ opening music ♪ ♪ There's a reason people call Myrtle Beach, The Beach.

You can get away and find the perfect way to connect.

Welcome to 60 miles where you belong.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

♪ steady music ♪ ♪ <Mike> What I'm going to talk to you about I think everyone can relate to.

It's not limited to just the Carolinas.

I'm old enough to remember.

We'd go to the gas station, they'd come out and pump the gas for you.

I can remember stores that had old creaky wood floors and ceiling fans.

I can remember theaters that had single screens, not 12 or 18, and balconies.

I've always been fascinated looking at old books and magazines that showed old storefronts and streetscapes.

So I decided to venture out and try to capture, in photographs, the places that were still there while they were.

It was natural for me to want to come to South Carolina because I've spent my entire life criss-crossing on the back roads going to the beach with my family.

From Cherry Grove all the way down to Pawleys Island.

So, I started traveling the 46 counties of South Carolina.

♪ bluegrass music ♪ <William> Downtown Bennettsville was made very wealthy by cotton.

♪ We were very fortunate that our courthouse was not burned.

That was one of the great gifts the Union Army gave us, was it did not burn the courthouse.

♪ music ends ♪ (bell rings) <Cam> I grew up in here and my grandfather worked here.

I turned 16 and started working part time.

<Cindy> In 1988, my husband had recently graduated from college.

You know he was just kind of thinking about grad school and Pop wanted to retire and one thing led to another and he said well I'll give it five years.

(laughs) <William> Cindy and Cam Stone are just about the nicest people you'd ever run across.

<Cindy> What else, friend?

>> That's it.

>> All right.

<William> They do any and everything for everybody they can.

<Customer> I appreciate you.

>> Thank you a lot.

<William> Yes sir.

Hope y'all enjoy.

<Cindy> Our primary business is steaks and the sausage.

We keep it old school.

We use only good quality lean trimmings.

We don't add fillers or preservatives and we use good quality seasonings.

<Cam> Our spices are pepped up.

The mild is plenty warm enough.

Our hot is hot.

The flavor pops when, you taste it.

<Cindy> This is a receipt from 1976.

It's my grandpa's farm, selling eggs and cornmeal to my husband's grandpa, who owned Breeden's at the time.

It's a very sentimental piece for us, And what's even more interesting for us, egg prices are the same.

(laughing) <Cam> Gary, how old are you?

How old are you?

He's having to add it up, I think.

♪ <Cindy> We're conscious about who we buy from, how the meat's handled.

<Gary> He buys a good bit of everything.

He has a lot of items that you can't get, especially you can't get them in chain stores.

♪ <Cam> We got a six by eight walk in freezer, and then we've got additional smaller freezers scattered throughout.

<Gary> Let's see, I started when I was 27, and I'm 81 now.

How many is that?

<Cam> We make our sausage fresh every day.

Brady knows the process.

He knows what it takes.

The meat has to be cut up fine, so that you get the seasoning in it.

You need a good long mix on it, but yet it needs to be kept cold.

He's got the right feel to stuff it and he knows what our customers want.

When he hits the gas pedal, the meat begins to come out.

You have to have a certain feel, either you're going to get too much and it's going to blow up like a balloon, or you're not going to get enough and it's going to droop down.

He does a fantastic job.

<Michelle> When I started, I asked her if I had to work in the meat, doing all that.

She said, "No."

She goes, "all I want you to do is work at the register, be nice, smile and take their money."

Thank you so much.

<Cindy> I'm cutting my customer a couple of 16 ounce ribeyes.

The thing about Breeden's is you can get them to cut whatever size you want.

<William> There are a lot of people like I am who grew up on the products they sell.

They like home-grown sausage.

<Cam> People come and ask for cured or dried, hot or mild.

We have both of them.

My grandfather made it that way back here in the 40s and 50s and we've just carried it on.

<Cindy> There's generations of people that have shopped with us.

Generations of family, I mean, and they know generations of our family.

And it's real.

It's not made up.

<Michelle> Breeden's to Bennettsville means heritage.

It means history.

It's like coming home.

<William> I think it's the quality of the goods and the quality of the people who are selling it.

♪ music ends ♪ <John> I grew up here and the thing I like about the town is it's a small, close-knit community, because of that people care about one another.

This theater is a place that holds a lot of memories for a lot of people.

♪ It was done in 1946, in the style, that's known as art moderne, And it's sort of a transitory style between art deco, which people usually think that it is and the international style, which we also known as the modern style.

<Heather> It's more than a movie, when you come here.

It's more than the concert that you come to see.

It's an experience.

Protecting places like this not only reminds us of our history, they give us a shared cultural identity that's really important.

<John> For me, it's been a strange kind of journey, because when I first came to this theater, it was actually segregated.

This space was reserved for Caucasians.

Up here, this area right here, where the balcony is, is where African Americans had to sit.

There was an actual door on the side there that African Americans had to go through.

So we couldn't come through the front, we had to go through the side entrance and come up to the balcony.

The thing that was interesting to me is the fact that the people down here didn't realize that we had the best seats in the house at the time, so.

The thing that makes the South unique is all of its history.

You can call it good and bad, but to me, it's what makes it unique and strong, and it gives it character.

If everything was all pleasant, it wouldn't be terribly interesting.

This building has a lot of history.

It has the history of segregation, but at the same time it also has a history post-segregation.

To preserve our identity, our history, we need historic preservation.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ upbeat music ♪ <Foster> Newberry in a lot of ways is a typical small southern town.

It was built largely on agriculture and textiles.

We have always wanted to keep our history and we've done a great job over the generations of preserving our buildings.

Our main building is the Newberry Opera House.

<Molly> The building was built in 1881.

To have the term Opera House meant that it was a sophisticated facility for a small town.

♪ It is a very intimate space.

It's 426 seats.

75 feet, actually from the center of the stage to the furthest seat in the balcony.

There really is no bad seat in the house.

♪ ♪ <Foster> C.T.

Summers is really a unique store.

It has been there forever and they have something of everything.

<Bill> I started working here in 1972.

I'm fourth generation, we had time to build it up since 1884.

Probably 100,000 different items.

♪ My father smoked a pipe.

So I picked it up in college, because I thought it looked distinguishing and I haven't put it down since.

<Foster> It's just kind of neat to walk through and you don't know what you'll see, and Bill is just an interesting character, and he's glad to show you around.

<Mike> What's this here?

<Bill> Well pulleys, to pull up your drinking water out of the well.

You wouldn't believe it.

I'm trying to downsize, and you'd never know it.

♪ <Foster> C.T.

Summers has stuff you're not going to see anywhere else, that sometimes it doesn't make any sense that it's there.

<Mike> When people meet their bitter end.

<Bill> Well, yeah, you know.

I have a photograph in my mind.

But age takes its toll.

So senility is right behind it.

So there are a few items I forgot where I put them, and I'll re-find them, and then it's windfall profits.

The most unique thing I have in my store is the Nobel Prize that my father received in 1994 for neutron scattering.

<Mike> <Bill> My son's in Houston, Texas.

I doubt it.

And my daughter, she has no interest.

I would like to be five generations.

♪ It's helping people.

It's not money.

I mean, money will come around.

But that's the name of the game.

Helping people.

<Mike> Yes, ma'am?

<Audience Member off screen> (audience laughs) <Audience Member off screen> >> No.

<Audience Member> <Mike> This is just driving, I'm looking around and I see something through the trees.

It's almost like a sandy road, that does like this, and I slammed on the brakes and turned in there and rolled right up to this store and a couple of other buildings.

One of the first photos I took on this journey.

She's still here.

I took that picture in 2007.

I knew when I took that picture that was going to be on the cover.

♪ <Mack> There's a lot of love here in Marion.

♪ <Maxcy> Francis Marion's nickname was "The Swamp Fox," named by the British because he was a wily character that would disappear into the swamps after an attack.

He did not actually live in this area, but a lot of his exploits were centered around the town of Marion.

♪ <Mack> I've been working here in Taylor's Barber Shop over the years.

I got a chance to really meet some good people here.

I started when I was a young age cutting on the back porch of my parent's house, cutting my friend's hair, and that's when I decided that I want to make a career out of it.

<Mike> How long have you been doing it?

<Mack> Oh man.

50 years, right?

This was a White shop.

That was my trade, cutting White hair.

<Maxcy> The barbers were all Black and the clientele were all White.

<Mack> I started cutting Black and White hair because things changed over the years, you know.

I enjoyed the 50 years I cut hair.

When I left, I carried my chair home with me because I loved it so much.

So I felt like when I retire with it, it will retire with me too.

The people was one of the things that really makes a difference in this type of business.

The people of Marion County, they've been real nice to me.

♪ ♪ <Mike> The oldest running clock tower in the country.

♪ ♪ <Elizabeth> Chester has an amazing history.

The city you see now is the third rendition of Chester, because the first two cities burned down.

They were wooden buildings.

The city of Chester absolutely prohibited any more building with wood.

That's why you see all the brick buildings.

♪ <Wanda> Ezell's is a staple in this community.

<Elizabeth> There is not a person in Chester that hasn't been in there.

♪ <Wanda> I like to go in there on Saturday mornings, and just look at what I call the antique culture of what used to be.

<Barry> When you walk into a hardware store.

It feels like a hardware store.

It smells like a hardware store.

You're in a hardware store.

<Mike> Barry, tell me a little bit about the history of this store.

<Barry> Well, it goes back to 1886, you can't get a collection like this in a large chain store.

<Lyles> There's everything in this store.

If you need it, it's here.

And that's the beauty of a place like this.

They have been here long enough just to know what people do need.

>> Can you buy as many as you want or as few as you want?

<Barry> You can buy no less than one.

(laughs) <Lyles> You don't have to buy a box or a bag.

They will sell you what you need.

<Barry> You said six of them?

<Lyles> And not only that, they can get you what you need if they don't have it.

I needed a bush axe handle about two or three weeks ago and two days later, they had it for me.

(machine whirring) <Barry> Back here is our shop area.

<Mike> Wow.

<Barry> We do a lot of work back here.

<Mike> Looks like it.

<Barry> - and down here's where they cut and thread pipe.

<Sharon> He provides every kind of service that you can think of, I mean, as far as pipe cutting, and glass cutting, cutting keys.

<Wanda> You're going to get that one-on-one and you're going to feel like you're the only customer that's in that store at the time because you are the most important.

<Lyles> They know the people.

They know the community and they're just happy to serve.

<Elizabeth> It's one of the last places in the world where I can call down there and say "Elizabeth, have you got fill in the blank?"

Elizabeth says "oh yeah, I've got one.

I'll put it on the counter for you."

I can send somebody.

They'll pick it up.

They don't care whether I have the money or anything.

They'll send me a bill.

You don't see that anymore.

<Barry> Being in hardware business is my pleasure.

It's my dream, It's what I've always wanted to do since I was a kid.

My dad was a hardware salesman.

I learned a lot from him and that dream came through.

♪ ♪ bluegrass music ♪ <Steve> The Beacon has been around since 1946.

It was started by John White and we are on John White Boulevard.

♪ Our menu is huge, you know, when someone asks me to "tell me about your menu" to give you the short answer, it's burgers, BBQ, chicken, and fish.

(grease sizzling) <Tommy> I'm a counter helper.

I call out the orders.

I started here in '72.

Give me four cheddar cheese a'plenty!

Make two of them a double.

Four hash a' plenty, four quarts of soup.

Cartwright, give me a gallon of tea, no lemon.

<Steve> We speak "Beacon-ise" here, it's just a different language.

<Tommy> We got a different station there and they know what they're listening for, we got somebody on this line and they listened to what they're supposed to listen for.

I want you to call out what I call out, okay?

Give me four cheeseburgers a'plenty!

<Mike> Give me four cheeseburgers a'plenty!

<Tommy> Make two of them with it all the way!

<Mike> Say that again?

<Tommy> Two of them with it all the way!

<Mike> Make two of them with it all the way!

That's it?

<Tommy> That's it.

<Mike> Called it.

<Tommy> Called it.

Right on!

That's all it is to it.

<Steve> We believe in big.

Our catchphrase is "and a'plenty" and we mean it.

You leave here hungry, it's your fault.

Chili Cheese A'plenty is the most popular and that's a good size burger patty with a lot of cheese and a lot of homemade chili.

And we're going to cover it with fries and onions.

<Cashier> We've got sweet tea, lemonade, water, Pepsi cola, 7-Up, Dr. Pepper, Sierra Mist, Mountain Dew, Cherry Coke, lemon tea, green tea, vanilla tea, peach tea, chocolate tea, chocolate milk, sweet milk, buttermilk, coffee, decaf or regular.

Which do you want?

H2O?

<Mike> I'll just go with sweet tea.

<Cashier> Yes sir.

That's the world famous sweet tea, we known for tea.

♪ <Steve> In a world change is so fast and so much, we try to stay the same and our customers appreciate that.

♪ ♪ music ends ♪ ♪ serene music ♪ <Customer> Summerville is a quaint little hometown, with all the shops and just about everything.

♪ Guerin's has always been here and it's always a place to go.

<Barbara> Guerin's Pharmacy is 150 years old this year.

We had been owned by two families.

Two in the Guerin's family, and I'm the third generation in the Dunning family, and I've been here since 1994.

This is a picture of my father.

He started working here when he was 12.

<Customer> It's a hometown pharmacy that people in here know you.

They know your medicines, and we know them.

<Barbara> It is the customer.

It is - that's all it's about.

All right.

Thank you ma'am.

<Customer> See you next time!

<Barbara> See ya!

♪ <Customer> My children came up here a lot.

They would come up here and go to Guerin's and get an ice cream cone.

<Mike> I'd like a scoop of cookies and cream on a cake cone please.

<Barbara> Guerin's Pharmacy has had a fountain since 1927.

<Customer> It couldn't get any better with the ice cream.

It's almost like homemade ice cream.

You can always come and get hot dog and chili for lunch.

<Barbara> This is 25 years old.

So it was done on our 125th anniversary, and this is my dad.

That's right in front of the candy counter.

<Mike> Over here?

>> Yeah, right where I was standing.

He loved Guerin's.

He's been gone a little while and he'd be proud that it was still going.

In fact, he passed away on the sidewalk.

So, he was at work.

That's where he wanted to be.

That's the way it happened and it's nice.

♪ ♪ ♪ <Danny> My family has run the store for four or five generations and I can remember back in the 50s when my dad sold everything.

♪ But over time, with Walmart's and Dollar Generals people just don't need country stores anymore.

♪ As far as what it means in the community, it means a lot and people so used to coming here and they miss your store, they walk in here and what happened.

Rest is history.

♪ <Mike> Have you looked through the whole book?

<Danny> I have.

It documents the way it used to be.

People depended upon these general stores.

We didn't have what we have now.

This is where they got everything.

<Mike> Yep.

♪ music ends ♪ (crickets chirping) ♪ upbeat music ♪ <Ticket Clerk> Hi, what you watching tonight?

♪ <Movie Goer> We just love to fill up, we call it our "fuzzy heaven" with all of our blankets and pillows and snuggle up and watch a good movie.

♪ <Ticket Clerk> Pick up some martial arts moves tonight.

All right, cool.

Bruce Lee is the best among them, now.

Come on.

♪ upbeat music ♪ <Young Girl 1> It's really fun because you get to spend more time with family and it's outside.

<Young Girl 2>Instead of inside, where you're all in the dark.

<Young Girl 1>Yeah and then you're all cooped up with different people that you don't know.

♪ ♪ music ends ♪ <Ticket Clerk> Sound on screen three is on your ticket, 105.1 FM.

♪ movie soundtrack music ♪ ♪ upbeat music ♪ ♪ <Jack> Over the years I have photographed just about everything you can imagine.

♪ We jumped off the bus in downtown Myrtle Beach, and we ran to the Myrtle Beach Pavilion.

The Pavilion just kind of blew our mind.

I ran over to the photographic booth, and I thought, you know, I believe I could do that.

At that time, I was 13.

So, he gave me a job.

People ask me today, "How long have you been a professional?"

And I said, "my first 15 minutes in Myrtle Beach, I became a professional.

♪ music ends ♪ This wonderful four by five speed graphic camera was actually developed during World War II for use with the army.

Over the years, I have shot thousands of photographs and people are amazed at the resolution.

♪ steady music begins ♪ In the early 50s, Peaches Corner was the hotspot.

They were open 24 hours a day.

<Pam> I lived upstairs over Peaches Corner in the back corner here.

My dad ran the day shift and my mom ran the night shift.

Jack was here and he took pictures of not only Peaches, but of everything Myrtle Beach.

<Jack> The proprietor, he said we're going to refinish the 60 foot bar that we've got with your photographs.

<Pam> You have the history of Myrtle Beach right here in the bar.

<Jack> We came up with 50 or 60 photographs.

And we laid them out on the bar and they were covered with acrylic.

Great family operation.

I admire them very much.

<Pam> My parents bought Peaches Corner in 1937.

It's been family owned and operated every day since then.

Sometimes we didn't have enough help, and we went and got her out of school and she came to work.

She's at the booth taking orders and she couldn't even spell back then but she wrote down the best she could.

<Catherine> I was 11.

<Pam> Well, you could read when you were 11.

Maybe not real well.

<Catherine> I couldn't spell burger, right.

<Robert> I'm doing two cheeseburgers, all the way plus ketchup, mustard, onions, and pickles.

<Catherine> Probably our most popular item would be the burger basket.

It's double cheeseburger with fries.

>> I really like spicy chicken sandwich.

That's really good.

That's an underrated feature on the menu.

<Robert> Spicy chicken ready!

<Rivers> The chili is homemade, and it's been homemade for as long as I remember.

<Robert> We make the chili from an old family recipe of theirs and that's all I can tell you about it.

We can't give it out, we don't give that recipe out.

It's locked up in the safe.

<Catherine> My favorite thing would probably be the hot dog.

♪ music ♪ I really want to keep it going and I feel like my grandmother Mimi would be proud.

You know?

<Pam> She would've been proud.

>> Yeah.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ bluegrass music begins ♪ ♪ ♪ <Mike> In my experience, the real reward was the people that I met.

And I developed some wonderful friendships.

There was a North Carolina barber in Graham.

And when we went to shoot, he was 97 years old, and on his 100th birthday, I drove down to his barber shop and they were having a big party for him.

I even sat down and let him cut my hair, and I didn't need another one for at least six months.

(laughs) but those are the kinds of relationships that I've cherished during this journey.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ upbeat music ♪ ♪ <Customer> Ridgeway is like Mayberry.

♪ <Dan> I grew up here, born down by the stoplight there.

So it's just been great growing up in a small town.

You know everybody and everybody knows you.

Sometimes that's not good, but.

♪ <Customer> It's just good to shop in Ridgeway, and this is the place to get started.

♪ <Dan> You probably don't see a lot of these old mail bins and most of them, people sell them by the pound, or the five pound.

We sell them loose.

<Mike> How long have you been here?

<Dan> I've been here, well, I'm almost 65, so I think I've been here about 60 years.

It seemed like I started probably about five or six.

<Mike> With your dad?

<Dan> With my dad.

♪ <Daniel> My dad's a sixth generation and I'm the seventh generation and it's just been a running business ever since 1840.

<Dan> The original store of course is right next door.

It started around 1840.

So we're in the new store, which was built 1901.

<Daniel> The one memory I have of my grandfather is he'd take me and my dad and we'd go get in his old '‘74 Chevrolet that was parked out back and he'd give me a bottle of coke over there and a bag a bowl of peanuts, and I'd sit in the middle of him and my dad and we'd ride around the cow pasture and check cows, and I'd get out and pet the calves or whatever and that was our weekend thing to do.

♪ music ends ♪ <Dan> Let me show you this old ladder here.

This thing rolls up and down on this track, you see that?

It's pretty cool.

Still works.

You can climb up and down on it.

This thing works.

<Mike> How long has it been there?

<Dan> It's been here since 1901, I'm sure, when the store was built.

(conversations) I enjoy helping people.

There's so many rural people here that I've just been able to solve their problem and get them through whatever issue they had.

<Cashier> $26.70.

<Dan> One of my longtime real, real slow paying customers came in one day.

He said "Dan, I see you got horseshoes on those books.

Is that for good luck hoping you'll collect those accounts?"

He came in a few days later and I said, "you know, I thought about what you said so I put six of them on top of yours" and shortly after that he came and paid me $100 on his account.

♪ <Daniel> Working with my father is a blessing.

I get to see him almost every day.

<Dan> The one thing I don't want to do is put pressure on my son, to feel like he has to follow this, you know, because this is time consuming and you're strapped here pretty much.

Our last name is Ruff.

R-U-F-F, and we pronounce it "roof" but most people say "rough" because that's what it looks like, and some days are that.

That's what I say.

Some days are rough but most of them are good.

♪ ♪ <Bobby> Keep her short?

<Customer> Yeah.

<Bobby> Yeah, they doing a documentary on the shop here.

<Customer> (laughing) ♪ <Bobby> Parents, they didn't like that shag dancing, man.

That was kind of like that movie.

Dirty Dancing.

<Customer> Dirty Dancing, right.

(laughing) <Bobby> Oh, me.

♪ music ♪ ♪ <Jack> We do have to be careful with the term "shag."

It's a different term in other parts of the world.

♪ The Jitterbug was popular in the late 40s, but then the guys kind of got a little embarrassed.

So they just did a halftime, so they started moving real slow, and the girls were still doing dancing, but the guys wanted to dance as if they weren't paying attention.

♪ music continues ♪ <Bobby> I'm an old shagger myself but I'm having a little trouble with my feet and legs.

I can't shag much anymore.

I'll wait till the song is about half over to get up and do about a half a dance.

(laughs) That's about it for me.

(laughs) ♪ music ends ♪ <DJ> Ladies and Gentlemen, I've got time for one more song.

I've enjoyed playing for you this afternoon.

I'm going to turn it over to my friend... <Mike> Bobby, tell me a little bit about the history of this barber shop.

<Bobby> Well, we go back to 1952.

(register dings) My father he built the shop then.

And he was a barber also.

I started cutting hair when I was 18.

Of course, I been cutting hair here 61 years now.

Been looking out that window there, seeing a lot of changes made.

♪ steady music ♪ A lot of growths.

♪ People haven't changed that much.

(laughs) I love the people down here.

(laughs) <Customer> I nicknamed him Jelly.

(laughs) <Mike> You've been cutting hair for 60 years, I guess you've seen some changes in hairstyles.

<Bobby> Oh my goodness, have I.

You know, I almost got out of the barber business when the Beatles kicked in, you know, because everybody started growing hair long.

I mean shops were closing left and right.

<Mike> What do you like most about being a barber?

♪ <Bobby> Barbing's been good to me.

I raised a family of four here, cutting hair.

Sent them off to school.

It's hard work but I just enjoy being around people.

I still come down here and work because the good Lord has blessed me.

I'm not going to just sit around the house and do nothing.

<Jackie> You go by the interstate, you see all these signs up and down the east coast.

How can you not stop and see what's going on there?

♪ music ♪ <Ryan> South of the Border was started around 1949.

My grandfather saw that the interstate was an opportunity.

♪ The original building was behind us.

It's been added on to several times, but that's where it started.

<Jackie> When I was 13-years-old, I started working out here at South of the Border.

I worked here all the way till I graduated from college.

This was the place to be especially halfway between Miami and New York and this place would be packed every week.

Couldn't even hardly move around.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ techno music ♪ <Ryan> For people up north, the fireworks stores are unusual.

They can't believe that you can buy stuff like that legally.

♪ <Lola> Believe it or not they come here to buy fireworks from all over.

Even though their states may not permit it.

But they buy them and I say "I don't know anything about your laws" but, you know, we're not going to turn them down.

I have been working here since 1970.

So many people, they want the stuff that go boom!

Big.

My favorite firework is called Out of Control.

It does so many different effects and stuff.

I'm out of control most of the time.

♪ music ends ♪ <Ryan> The reptile lagoon is definitely unique and unusual.

It is the largest indoor reptile display in North America.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ >> In the 70s, I came out and it wasn't long until I was promoted.

Working with Mr. Schafer, I appreciated what he had done in the community and everything and Mr. Schafer allowed me to go into management.

He would talk to you.

He would speak to you and always treated you like you was somebody.

♪ <Jackie> I think thing that makes South of the Border unique is I can go pretty much anywhere in the world and they say, "where you live?"

I say, "I live close to the South of the Border," "Oh yeah, I've been by there before."

They either passed by it on the interstate or stopped and got fireworks.

<Lutherine> Just stop, give it a try.

Don't say no when you're on the interstate, stop in and see what you're missing.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ bluegrass music begins ♪ <Kelley> My grandfather built this store in 1937.

My mother and her three sisters were raised up on the store.

♪ <Russell> It started off as a ESSO service station.

I started working here in like '78, '79.

We pumped everybody's gas.

We checked everybody's oil.

♪ music ends ♪ <Levern> We specialize in country ham.

And that's the whole smoked country ham.

The old-time way.

These are cured and smoked.

It takes about a 90-day process to smoke that country ham.

About 90 days.

<Jay> I started working here in 1976.

I'm a meat cutter, from cleaning chicken to anything that comes along.

(laughs) <Levern> Born and raised right around the corner.

My dad worked here 30 years before I did.

And I've been here 46.

Mmm hmm.

<Kelley> I run the cash register.

I put up groceries, I order groceries.

Just great people around here.

<Russ> We have a wide range of customers.

You know we got locals.

We got people from out of town who come through here to see us.

<William> We're brothers, me and Russ are 13 months apart actually.

I think we both can say, deep down, we kind of always figured we'd come back here.

<Russell> Over time, we've had to change.

We've got an ATM machine now.

Probably the biggest change that I've seen since my boys got out of school and came back and they put these computers in.

I can still do a lot but I'm not a computerized person.

I reckon I missed something.

I just got caught in the wrong time.

Sometimes the way I do things and the way they do things is different but I can't hold them back.

A lot of things that they say, "we need to do this, we need to do that, "I agreed with it, as long as it's continuing to do well.

♪ Bluegrass music ♪ ♪ <Mike> It's cold ♪ <Pink> I do not take it for granted.

It is beautiful.

♪ It's nice to live here.

The beach is about four and a half miles from right here.

♪ George is my father and I'm Pink, his daughter.

We are what you call local farmers.

Native Edistonian.

♪ It's a hard real life, yes.

Yes, but it's most better now since we have tractors and planters and all different stuff.

So it's better than it used to be but it's still is a hard job.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ vibrant music ♪ ♪ <Anja> Charleston has a very vibrant art scene and we're definitely a big part of that.

It was built in the 1920s, opened in 1927 as a movie house.

Originally called The Gloria Theater.

All the decorative elements that you see, the murals, the dome, the plaster ceiling, that's all original to the space.

Albert Sottile built the space.

>> It's really hard to summarize somebody like he was.

Papa would be there.

You can see him walk down the aisles.

You could sometimes see him sit behind you and your date.

He was wonderful.

<Anja> It was one of many theaters that he had built and that were in operations at that time in and around King Street, Downtown Charleston.

♪ <Eric> The Riviera Theatre is located in the heart of downtown Charleston, on the corner of King and Market Street, which is arguably the best address in the city.

It opened in 1939, and operated as a single screen theater.

Then in 1977, it stopped operating as a theater.

It came under disrepair, it was neglected.

In the late 80s, there was a massive fire in the building.

So a lot of this theater was destroyed.

♪ People have a lot of memories in this building, and we didn't want that to go away with Charleston.

We embarked on the mission in the late 80s, through the 90s, restoring it to its original glory.

We made some adjustments.

♪ The lobby of the Riviera theatre, it's original, and there's some great little details within it.

♪ You feel like you're getting ready for a show back in 1939.

♪ <Mary Ellen> It's been part of Charleston for so long.

And we, you know, we tend to hold on to that sort of thing.

<Anja> We value those things because there are so few of them.

So if you can hold on to these historic spaces, your family, your children, your children's children are going to be sitting in the same seat looking at the same things that your grandparents were 100 years before that.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ calming music ♪ ♪ <Bro> In 1924, my grandfather started this business with the help of my father.

I came in full time in 1962.

And before that, I had worked in high school and college and that was kind of expected of the Wiggins family.

You could stay out all night and party but you had to be to work the next morning and that was just a way of life for our family.

♪ <Bob> When I first started working with my father, it was a little rocky.

We was kind of like two rams butting heads.

I actually threw a clipboard through a glass case one day and then I figured out hey, this guy's a lot smarter than I think.

♪ <Bro> Believe it or not, this old brick building is three brick thick on the outside, which is real unusual.

The timbers are 3 x 14, 28 feet long, and there's over 50 of them.

♪ <Bob> It's all original, the whole building.

<Bro> This was the original tin ceiling.

Anytime we used to try to put anything on the ceiling my father would get real irritated.

He said "no, you leave it just like it is."

<Customer> It's just a unique place that has kind of stood still in time.

Got a Coca Cola machine sitting right here.

Still drink glass bottle Cokes.

(phone rings) <Bro> I'm 82 years old and I come to work every morning at seven o'clock, and I would feel guilty if I didn't get here till 7:30.

<Bob> The guys that work here are knowledgeable of what we sell, and when you walk in our door, we're on top of you.

We're not crowding you, but we know what we're selling and how to use this.

<Brian> ...Maybe like a house that you put a padlock on?

<Customer> Yeah, sure.

>> Okay <Bro> I don't like to go to any of these big chains because a lot of times you can't find anybody that seems to want to wait on you.

They tell you to go in the back, "it's back yonder."

We take them to it or either we get it for them, bring it up, and that's a big difference.

<Brian> It's not flush, so you might need something.

Estill, has got something very special about it, and I pray that it never goes away, and that Wiggins and Son continues for another 100 years.

<Bro> We're still here and sometimes I wonder how much longer but we're still here.

♪ music ends ♪ ♪ upbeat bluegrass music ♪ <Kim> The Old Village is the heart of Mount Pleasant.

This little area right here is where everything started.

I live right across the street.

My gym is right across the street.

My church is two blocks up the street.

Everything I need is right here in this little area of the Old Village.

♪ Owning an old time soda fountain pharmacy like this, it's all about the commitment that you have to service.

♪ In this profession with the unique products that we are making and dispensing, it's awfully important to have a good relationship with that patient or customer and as well as with his or her physicians.

We're primarily known as a compounding pharmacy, which is making actual prescriptions like they used to do in the old days before commercialized and you can create such tailor made products.

When Dr. Washington Ziegler opened Pitt Street Pharmacy in 1937, he had to compound or make every prescription that a doctor wrote a prescription for.

So here I am making a living and doing exactly the same thing that Dr. Ziegler did in 1937.

Almost never a week goes by that I don't see somebody walk in the front door and they just stop and they look around the entire pharmacy, and the next thing out of their mouth is, "I grew up in a place just like this."

♪ <Mike> This reminds me so much of home.

When I was a kid, I grew up in Statesville, North of Charlotte.

And we had two corner drugstores.

You know, both of them had soda fountains.

They're both gone.

♪ I understand you collect some old pharmaceuticals.

<Kim> We collect things I've collected a lot of things, people have given me a lot of things and I've been collecting old pharmacy and medical antiques for 40 years.

A couple of the neatest things I have probably one of the original opium pipes that was made in England in 1898.

Got an old Confederate pouch, that has the medication bottles and the little tablets are still in the bottles, that the medic actually wore on their belt during the Civil War.

<Mike> Alright Kim, this is my book.

<Kim> Looka there.

That is neat.

<Mike> Two page spread.

<Kim> Look at that.

That is really neat.

<Mike> That's my son.

<Kim> Is it really?

Awesome.

<Mike> He's now 23.

<Kim> 23.

I love it ♪ <Mike> Michael, I've been doing this since you were a baby.

<Michael> That's crazy.

♪ <Mike> This is the old town of Walterboro.

♪ It's got a kind of cool downtown.

♪ Here's the pharmacy on the left.

There's a pretty cool barber shop right up here.

♪ There's old chairs.

<Michael> Yeah, that's cool.

<Mike> - and a line of chairs for the waiting.

♪ Looka there, see?

<Michael> "The Vanishing American Barber Shop."

♪ <Mike> That's true.

♪ Since I've started this journey in the Carolinas, I've driven probably 50,000 miles or more.

♪ The thing about these places, they're all unique.

There's no other place like them anywhere.

♪ What type of places interest you the most?

<Michael> I think barber shops are really interesting because the camaraderie within the barber shop and the conversations and the people that are, <Mike> The old stories they tell.

<Michael> Yeah.

♪ I've been fortunate enough to come to a couple of places and check them out with you.

It's definitely interesting to see the character and identity that they all share.

And you get to meet some interesting people which is really special.

<Mike> I've always liked the old storefronts and signs and so forth and neon and that kind of thing.

<Michael> Yeah But you know really once you go inside and meet the people that's really what it's all about.

<Michael> Yeah, that's the best part.

♪ (laughs) ♪ <Mike> I'm just fortunate to be able to travel like this and capture some of these places.

♪ It's been a wonderful experience, wonderful journey.

♪ ♪ <Narrator> There's a reason people call Myrtle Beach, The Beach.

Families get closer ♪ and have those special moments that make lifelong memories.

Welcome to 60 miles made for families.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Support for Our Vanishing Americana is provided by The Pastime Amusement Company.

Established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1908, Pastime operated Vaudeville and movie theaters and now operates as a commercial real estate management company.

And the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, which through the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations, is a proud sponsor of Our Vanishing Americana, South Carolina.

Our Vanishing Americana, South Carolina is made possible by generous support from Martin Sprock and T.C.

Calcote.

Additional funding provided by