Monthly Archives: May 2015

I have been told that South of the Border—the brainchild of my uncle Alan Schafer—began in 1951, the year that I was born. But the seeds had been planted two or three years before that, when neighboring Robeson County, in North Carolina, passed a law prohibiting the distribution of beer in stores and restaurants. Alan was […]

Above: Cohen Department Store in Latta, South Carolina, ca. 1930. Isadore Cohen’s son, Leonard, is sitting on the counter. Courtesy of Leonard and Mildred Cohen. 1850–1949 The town of Florence was founded in the mid-1850s as a crossroads depot for three railroad lines competing to provide service to the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. Ten […]

Above: Blue Star’s 1958 staff and CITs. Rosalie Popkin is at the left end of the 2nd row; Herman is behind her with a hand on her shoulder. Mona Popkin is at the right end of the 2nd row, with her husband, Harry, behind her. Courtesy of Gale Siegel Messerman. My childhood camping experience began […]

Above: Isadore Efron’s garage, Aiken, SC. Courtesy of Anne Thomasson. My parents, Minnie and Sam Shanker, both were born in St. Louis, Missouri, and in the mid-1930s came to Aiken where my grandparents Jake and Helen Efron had a grocery store. My parents opened their own grocery store and worked long hours seven days a […]

Above: Surasky Bros. Store, Laurens Street, Aiken, SC, circa 1914.  Interior: left to right, Ernestine Murrah, clerk; Solomon Surasky; H. C. Surasky; John Henry Holmes, employee; Sam Surasky; Mandle Surasky. Courtesy of Stephen K. Surasky. I am 67 years old and was born and raised in Aiken, as were both my parents, Harry Surasky and Evelyn […]

Above: Left to right: Raymond Kaplan, his mother, Ida Kamenoff Kaplan, and her good friend Sophie Rudnick return from the races, Aiken, circa 1937. Courtesy of Jeffrey Kaplan. My family’s story begins in the 1880s in that part of the Russian empire known as White Russia: Byelorussia as it was called. Today it is called […]