‘Corn Dog Cronies’

Group of men working to solve world’s problems
— all while getting exercise at Greenwood Mall

April 30, 2006

By JOANIE BAKER
Index-Journal staff writer

Long before the orange power light begins to glow from the bubbling coffee machine inside the dark Chick-Fil-A restaurant, the “Corn Dog Cronies” have already walked one mile and are working to solve the world’s problems while they wait for the machine to finish its brew.
The group of about 13 to 15 men are some of the early risers who begin doing laps past the 30 percent off signs and buy one get one free shoe sales at Greenwood Mall before many of the stores’ gates have been raised for customers.
Though diverse in backgrounds, at as early as 6 a.m., the retired lawyers, preachers, paint salesmen, electricians and postmasters all trickle in to take the average 1,100 steps in and out of the wings and around the circumference of the mall, to do the half-mile lap that many of them repeat like young kids at the skating rink.
Some of the men come for exercise whie others just come to sit with the regulars when they rest at the food court by Chick-Fil-A and discuss Dollywood vacations, recent health treatments and the “greats” from the old mill baseball teams.
The group of friends, who all agree it is the fellowship that they truly enjoy, used to rest at the benches by the old corn dog restaurant where they would receive free coffee. It wasn’t long before they were nicknamed “the Corn Dog Cronies.”
“I am benefiting physically, but I enjoy the fellowship of being with the people too,” said Bubba Spivey, who walks at the mall about five days a week. “There are all kinds of people with all kinds of occupations sitting here and talking everyday.”
Though they might not walk, the fellowship has helped some members physically in a different way. Mary Foxworth, who brings her husband Bill in from Ware Shoals five days a week to socialize while she walks, said the doctors have said Bill (a prisoner of war in Germany for two years) has benefited from the socialization.
“It helps keep his memory alive,” said Foxworth, who has been walking at the mall since it opened more than 20 years ago. “Everybody needs to be around people. At one time, he just sat around, and I said ‘you’ve got to get out and move or you’re just going to die here.’”
Foxworth said that the time they spend at the mall is like therapy for them.
“I think more people need to get out here,” she said.
And many more used to. Spivey said that when he first started walking in 1990, there used to be so many people doing laps that there almost wasn’t enough room to walk.
The bond that has formed among the members, some of whom come from Ware Shoals and Abbeville, has surpassed that of exercising buddies. Some days, members of the group will have Bible studies and will pray together. “The fellowship we have is far more valuable than the walk because this is genuine fellowship we have out here,” J.C. Sorrow, a retired preacher, said. “If something happens to any one of us, we make sure they’re OK. I don’t know of a time we wouldn’t pray for each other.”
And the family feeling extends to Senior Property Manager Rhonda Ervin. She said she receives daily hugs from several members of the group, who she said make her feel completely comfortable that the mall is safe all the time.
“They’re a very close bunch of people,” she said. “Any time one of them is sick, they let me know and tell me how they’re doing. They notice things if anything is out of place, they let me know as soon as I walk in the door.”
The group migrated from the corn dog store several years ago when the former manager at Chick-Fil-A offered them free coffee to relocate to the food court.
Brian Whitaker, the store owner and operator who bought the restaurant two years ago, said he enjoys seeing the guys out there every morning discussing politics and sipping their regular, not decaf, coffee.
“It’s like a men’s fraternity,” Whitaker said, adding that if the coffee isn’t ready by 9:15 a.m., they’re knocking on the door, making sure everything’s OK. “They get over there and laugh and joke, and really have a good time.”
After several thousand steps and laughs later, the group breaks up arbout 10 a.m. to head home and find more material for the next day’s conversations.
“It really keeps you going,” Spivey said. “That’s the best thing, the doctors say.”

Indian Land makes Dixie get physical

April 30, 2006

By RON COX
Index-Journal sports writer

DUE WEST — The Dixie High School softball team had one of its most strenuous post-game cool-down sessions after Saturday’s opening game of the Class A Upper State tournament.
Since the Lady Hornets do a set of 10 sit ups or push ups for each error committed in the game, the Region I-A champions followed its 10-0 loss to defending state champion Indian Land with 70 sit ups.
“I really feel like our pitcher pitched fairly well, but most of the time, her defense let her down,” Dixie coach Steve Dunlap said.
“That is a quality team, and you’ve got to play your best to beat a team like that, and we were far from our best today.”
The Lady Warriors pounded 10 hits off Dixie starter Melinda Canfield. However, of the 10 runs allowed by the Lady Hornets senior hurler, only two were earned.
It was the first time Dixie had been shutout this season and the first time in a while the team had lost in a game called because of the mercy rule.
“You hate to lose, but you hate worse to be embarrassed, and I felt like we were embarrassed out there,” Dunlap said. “I can’t remember the last time (we lost because of the mercy rule). I’d have to go back in the old books. It wasn’t this year and it wasn’t last year and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in ’04. It’s been three or four years since it’s happened to us.
“If you can’t learn from that. It’s a slap in the face for us. This is the kind of stuff we’ve been doing to people. We definitely had our medicine turned on us today.”
The Lady Hornets host the McBee-Whitmire loser Monday, while Indian Land will host the winner of that contest. The results of that game were not known at press time.
While the defense struggle, the offense had trouble with Indian Land starter Samantha Rice. The Lady Hornets managed only hits off Rice, with both — a single and a double — coming from nine-hole hitter Jessie McMahan.
The other three Dixie base runners Rice allowed came on two hit batters and a walk.
Meanwhile, the southpaw Rice struck out 10 Dixie batters, including fanning the side in the fourth.
“That’s her senior leadership coming through for us,” Indian Land coach Monica Barfield said. “She’s what’s carrying us through the season.
“She had a good curve ball that I think threw the batters off.”
Trouble started for Dixie and Canfield from the first batter. Indian Land leadoff hitter Kristen Campbell reached on an error. Campbell, who reached safely in all four at bats (twice by errors), later scored when Kimber Coley reached on an error.
Rice, who followed Campbell with a single, gave the Lady Warriors a 2-0 lead when she scored on a wild pitch.
After a three-up three-down Dixie first, Indian Land score three more runs in the second, two of which came on a base-loaded single from Campbell — those being the only two earned runs of the game.
The error bug struck the Lady Hornets in the third. After three more miscues, including two on the same play with two outs, Dunlap called a team meeting in the pitching circle to attempt to calm his team down.
But Campbell ruined the moment by following the pow-wow with an RBI double to left to bring in Stephanie Vitek for an 8-0 lead.
Down 8-0 in the bottom of the third, and not even through the batting order for the first time, the Lady Hornets were dealt yet another blow when starting third baseman Madaline Milford was injured after grounding out to lead off the inning.
Milford was taken by off the field by ambulance and her availability for Monday’s game was not known at press time.
Indian Land scratched out one unearned run in fourth and fifth innings to total 10 runs.
Dixie threatened to force a longer game. Felicia Porter was hit by a pitch from Rice to lead off the fifth, moved to third on a ground out and a single from McMahan. But Rice quelled the threat by striking out the final two batters.

Opinion

Violence among youth can be traced to what?

April 30, 2006

A while back, we observed National Youth Violence Prevention Week and some communities around South Carolina held a variety of events as part of the observance.
Some communities experience more youth violence than others, of course, although almost all of them, including Greenwood and other towns in the Lakelands area have to deal with youth violence at times.
Is youth violence these days more prevalent than ever? No doubt it is in some places. Newspapers and television news shows are never without assaults, rapes, robberies and even murders that involve young people, both as victims and transgressors.

SOMETIMES IT’S WORSE than others, but it’s always there.
Then, as has been recently noted, gangs, with members who are illegally in this country, have grown to be serious problems from coast to coast.
Gangs apparently are, by their nature, violent. It comes with the territory. Most youths, though, have no gang connections, yet violence among them occurs, regularly, it seems. Are they learning and acting out the video games they play? Many of those games, as advertised on television, are based on pure violence ..... where killing is indeed the name of the game. Hours upon hours of watching this violence has to have a negative impact on youthful minds and personalities.

WHEN YOU ADD THE violence portrayed on TV cartoons, various shows, in “music” videos and in general, can there be any doubt that violent “playtime” activities are brainwashing many youngsters? And, it’s done under the very noses of many parents.
It’s inexcusable for parents to allow their children to participate in such violent pursuits. It’s even worse, though, when they don’t care and pay no attention to what’s happening.
There’s another kind of parent, too, that should be singled out. They are the ones who blame others for their children’s’ shortcomings, when it’s their responsibility as parents to, well, be parents. And. of course, there are those who are quick to say leave my kid alone ..... and he is.

Obituaries

Irene Holloway

Irene W. Holloway, of 1101 Brannon St., widow of Macfield Holloway, died Friday, April 28, 2006 at National Healthcare.
Born in Ninety Six, she was a daughter of the late Lester and Willie Mae Williams. She was a homemaker and retired from Greenwood School District 50 after 23 years of service in the dietary department. A member of Morris Chapel Baptist Church, she was a former deaconess and Missionary Society member and Women’s Aide Society member.
Survivors include three sons, Mackfield Holloway of Taylors, Elester Holloway of Charlotte, N.C., and Clinton Holloway of Greenwood; three daughters, Willie M. Holloway and Pamela Holloway, both of Greenwood and Jacquelyn Holloway of Winston-Salem, N.C.; 12 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Percival-Tompkins Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at pertompfh1@earthlink.net

James Johnson

NINETY SIX — James Johnson, 78, of 115 Wingard Road, husband of Helen Bradley Addy Johnson, died Saturday, April 29, 2006 at Self Regional Medical Center.
The family is at the home of his wife, 218 Arrie Lane, Saluda.
Services will be announced by Harley Funeral Home, Greenwood.

Rev. Seyvelle Parks

Rev. Seyvelle Parks, 58, of 111 Oakland Ave., died Friday, April 28, 2006 at his home.
Born in Greenwood County, he was a son of the late Nathaniel Childs and Annie Bell Parks. He was pastor of St. John CME Church, Batesburg and former member of Dunham Temple CME Church. A member of District 50 School Board, he was a former caseworker with GLEAMNS Human Resources Center and an honorably discharged Air Force sergeant.
Survivors include two sons, Briant Parks of Dayton, Ohio, and Seyvelle Parks Jr. of Springfield, Ohio; two daughters, Terri Lynn Parks of Columbus, Ohio, and Deborah Kidd of Springfield; two brothers, Wilbur Parks of Virginia and Ronnie Childs of Mauldin; a sister, Sandra Green of Anderson; nine grandchildren.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Percival-Tompkins Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at pertompfh1@earthlink.net

Ernest Quarles

WARE SHOALS — Ernest Lacossitt Quarles, 51, of 97 Green Acres Drive, died Friday, April 28, 2006 at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Robinson-Walker Funeral Service.

Craig Wells

WARE SHOALS — Craig Curtis Wells, 45, died Tuesday, April 25, 2006 in Gainesville, Fla. Born in Greenwood County, S.C., he was a son of Curtis and Carol McCurry Wells. He was a self-employed contractor and a member of Harmony United Methodist Church.
Survivors include his parents of Ware Shoals; four sons, Corey Brett Wells of Greenwood, Dylan Trace Wells, Tristan Lake Wells and Noah Raine Wells of Gainesville; a daughter, Whitney Elizabeth Wells of Greenwood; a brother, Ken Wells of Ware Shoals; two sisters, Wanda W. Simmons of Hodges and Kimberly W. Webster of Sarasota, Fla.
Services are 2 p.m. today at Oakbrook Memorial Park Mausoleum Chapel, Greenwood, conducted by the Rev. Chris Hudson.
Visitation is at the chapel after the service.
The family is at the home.
Parker-White Funeral Home is in charge.