Post #10: "Hello, Hello, Hello"

The Andy Griffith Show, the embodiment of a small town

I didn't know the man, only met him once, but his son is a friend who married my first cousin. This past weekend I went to the funeral service for Judge "Rock" Rankin in Conway, and despite the pending bad weather, it was a beautiful funeral service.

That term almost sounds like an oxymoron, and it probably is in most places, but not here in South Carolina. Hymns are sung, stories are shared and a preacher, if the departed was pretty active in the church, is going to try his best to make one final plea to the Lord for his former parishioner. That was the case here..

As great a service as it was to Judge Rankin, the stories shed light on the man himself. For years, I have heard the term "people person," and this man may have had few rivals for that title. He embodied what I remember of my earliest years in Small Town, South Carolina-- before my view was jaded by politics, before everyone was classified as "supporter" or "non-supporter."

Judge Rankin greeted everyone he met with a hearty, "Hello, Hello, Hello." He may have been on the Conway Riverwalk or in chambers, but if you went to see Rock Rankin, that's the greeting you got.

What happened to those days? I'm just as guilty as the next person, that when it comes to time, I'm too consumed with my own to worry about how you're doing.

Not to sound like the crazies who constantly gripe about America's best days being behind us (I vehemently disagree with that notion), but what the Hell happened? Was it losing Cronkite? Opie Taylor grew up? Johnny Carson quit appearing through a curtain? People don't sit on front porches anymore. We don't greet one another in passing. Doors are no longer held open. I've long talked about the "dumbing down of America" due to the reality shows and cable news, but there is a self-absorption problem that exceeds even that. Even in business, phone calls and messages don't get returned. Who outside of the 20001 ZIP code is so important that they can't return a phone call?

I remember walking into the Economy Drug Store on Congress Street in Winnsboro with my parents. While Dr. Teal filled prescriptions, someone was going to give me a scoop of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, butter pecan or Superman ice cream. Why? Because that's what you did in a small town. It was as common as smelling like an ash tray when you left Gary Brown's barber shop, or feeding the chickens at Cedar Creek Feed-n-Seed. But that wasn't all-- we also respected one another. I don't care if you were the local banker or if you were from the rough side of town, you and your point of view were respected. There were very few raised voices, because there were more raised glasses. The smallest achievements were celebrated and the greatest insults were forgiven.

Maybe it was WalMart's arrival in Winnsboro that changed that way of life. Maybe it was just my growing up and seeing things as they always were, I don't know. But this I do know-- we need more "Hello, Hello, Hello's" and less Facebook rants and "selfies."