Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2019

38 www.ReadMPM.com | www.BestOfMP.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com was born and raised in Hamlin, moved away, then returned for good in the 1980s. He said as a youngster, he lived in a “dirt-road community where everybody knew everybody,” and where children tended to live nearby, even after they reached adulthood. “If someone had 10 children, each of them had a spot to build a house,” Rouse pointed out. “Each kid had a place for a home. That’s the way we did it back then.” He said the closest place of any size to shop was the A.B. McConnell store on Highway 17, but he added that a man named Fred Swinton owned a combination barbershop/ store that was more convenient to the residents of Hamlin. Rouse remembered that on Saturday morning, John Bennett would traverse the community with his horse and buggy, selling fresh vegetables, cookies and candy. And, he remembered, there were three night clubs in Hamlin. In fact, according to Janette Lee, who has lived in the community for most of her 74 years, Boston Grill Road was cut in 1953 at the request of a man who owned a club by the same name. Lee, whose great-grandmother, Serena Jefferson Spann Linnen, was born a slave on Boone Hall Plantation in 1864, preferred to refer to the community as 7 Mile. “For some reason, people started saying Hamlin,” she commented. Erica Grate-Simmons, now an instructor at the Medical University of South Carolina Nursing School, has spent 35 years of her life in Hamlin and attended Jennie Moore Elementary School when its student body was 100 percent African-American. She spent her summers with relatives in New York City and lived there permanently for eight years before returning to Hamlin. Grate-Simmons reeled off the names of Hamlin’s Erica Grate-Simmons and C.J. Garrett-Roth enjoying an afternoon in Garret-Roth’s backyard. Photo by Brian Sherman. asianflavormtp.com 1145 Johnnie Dodds Blvd • Mt Pleasant SPECIALIZING IN HOUSE MADE THAI DISHES LUNCH SPECIALS $6.95 M-F 11-3 Try Our New Teriyaki Dishes Ginger Special Basil Leaves Pad Thai Green&RedCurry PanangCurry MassamanCurry Thai FriedRice Larb ...andmanymore! Thai & Chinese Take Out and Delivery 843.971.6868 songsforseeds.com/charleston 843.214.2337 charlestonsc@songsforseeds.com songsforseedscharleston live band interactive ages 0-6 the most fun 45-minutes you’ll have with your child all week feature