Barbecue at LaMotte's Drive-In

LaMotte's Drive-In Restaurant - West Main Street - Spartanburg, SC

I found the picture up above a long time ago somewhere on the internet and grabbed it for my memories. I have no idea of when that photo was taken, nor do I know who to give credit to for it, but whoever you are...Thanks a bunch!

You can't tell it with black & white pictures, but LaMotte's building exterior was Art Deco with light pink-ish colored stucco. Very cool! 
  

LaMotte's was located on West Main St. between Forest and Walker Streets. The above picture is from the September 16, 1972 edition of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal newspaper. According to the caption on this photo LaMotte's was "A brief but popular landmark in Spartanburg in the 1940s and 1950s" and was "one of the forerunners of today's short order sandwich houses".

I remember going to LaMotte's with my parents in the early 1950s. They ordered me a pimento cheese sandwich “lightly toasted” and we ate in the car. Although I know that pimento cheese is what they ordered me many times, I mostly remember the BBQ sandwich....minced pork with a delicious red sauced, finely minced slaw on it and a toasted bun. I remember my mother saying, “It's cool weather now, we can go to LaMotte's and get the BBQ” because she was afraid of spoiled meat, pork in particular, in the summertime. LaMotte's is long gone. I wish I could find a BBQ like this again. 

Above is a composite pic of both the front & back of an advertising matchbook cover from LaMotte's which my husband found on eBay and bought for me as a surprise. That was so great of him to do! And look! On the matchbook cover is proof..."LaMotte's For Better Barbecue Sandwiches".....so the barbecue WAS special at LaMotte's!

Whether the BBQ was as good as I remember is probably something I'll never know for sure. I do know that going to LaMotte's with my parents is forever embedded in my fondest childhood memories. 

Blithe Spirit 1964 Play at Greenville Little Theater

My first time attending a play, Noel Cowards' Blithe Spirit, was in December 1964 at the Greenville Little Theater. Julia, my very best friend (still to this very day) invited me to go with her. As well as I can remember, her father dropped us off & picked us back up afterwards. I am grateful to her for that experience because it opened up a whole new world for me. 

Back in 1964, the "Little Theater", as every one called it, was located a building that was previously an old Air Force Glider Base movie theatre on Lowndes Hill Road in Greenville, SC. The old movie theater had been vacant since the end of the war and was purchased in 1946 for the purpose of a permanent and larger location for the Greenville Little Theater, which had previously staged plays in the auditorium at Greenville Senior High School. Below is a photo of how the Greenville Little Theater looked in the 1950s and in 1964, it didn't look much different. As a 15 year old at her first "real" stage play, this was a grand theater.

Blithe Spirit was not only my first "real" stage play, it boasted a star, Murray Matheson! This was especially exciting to me as I was going to see someone I had seen on TV! Oh, he had been in stage plays in London, Paris and Berlin, but I wasn't familiar with all that. He had been in TV shows I had watched, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Omnibus, Peter Gunn, Adventures in Paradise, and he was coming directly to Greenville from Hollywood where he had been filming for the TV show A Man From U.N.C.L.E.!!! And he was so handsome too, for an old guy...remember, I was 15 and he was all of 52!

I really cannot say that I remember much about Blithe Spirit as a play, but I know I enjoyed it and treasure the experience. I also am still thrilled that I got to see Murray Matheson! I remember being fascinated with watching a professional actor. I still think he was a handsome man, too. 

Taylors, South Carolina - 1984 Shopping Map

Taylors, South Carolina

1984 Souvenir - Shopping Map

Where to dine, worship, 

shop and find every 

service you need.

(click picture to enlarge)

This map, I believe, was actually a placemat I got at a Taylors restaurant back in 1984. It contains an area road map and lists various facts and trivia about Taylors, SC. Locations of various places of business and restaurants that were in operation in 1984 are indicated on this map, and those businesses were the "sponsors" of the map. Some of them are still in operation in 2013, though they may or may not be in the same location as on the 1984 map, and others are just a memory.

Some facts from the map:

• This region was Indian Territory until 1777 when the Cherokee ceded land in the Treaty of DeWitt's Corner.
• Greenville County was formed in 1784.
• Population of Greenville County in 1980 was 286,370.
• The population of Taylors, SC, [as listed on this map] was unknown!
• Taylors is an unincorporated "city" with undefined boundaries.
• Taylors used to be known as Chick Springs, named for Dr. Burrell Chick.
• Taylors was famous for its excellent drinking water.
• Elevation approx. 900 Ft. above sea level.