Local News

It still works. If you look just above the roof line of the Camp Creek Volunteer Fire Department, you’ll see it. It’s a metal cylinder with a louvered, triangular metal cap. The siren.

Bill Blackmon Jr., assistant fire chief, opened the cabinet door marked “CD.” He pressed a button then flipped the switch activating the siren.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, that’s how volunteer firefighters were notified when there was a fire in the community.

INDIAN LAND – Plans for the first S.C. Chili Championship are progressing as the cook-off date of Sept. 25 approaches.

Organized by the Indian Land Rotary Club, the cook-off will be held in conjunction with the fifth annual Indian Land Fall into Fun Festival at Indian Land Middle School.

The winner of the state championship qualifies for the international championship to be held at Terlingua, Texas, in November.

Many people remember seeing Anasue Love walking her beloved dog, Trooper, around town.

But many women in Lancaster will remember Love, retired owner of The Dianne Shop, for the role she played in the lives of girls competing in beauty pageants.

Love died Friday morning. She was 86.

Love was the owner and buyer of The Dianne Shop in Lancaster, having inherited the children’s clothing shop after the death of her mother, Beulah Mae Roddey, in 1992.

INDIAN LAND – Greg Nicholson remembers the ominous glow he saw as the fire from an Indian Land printing company lit up the sky for miles.

It was about 2 a.m. on a freezing-cold night in December 1993 when Nicholson, then assistant chief of Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Department, headed to the blaze at a plastic bag printing company.

“I remember seeing that glow when we turned onto Possum Hollow Road off of S.C. 160,” Nicholson said. “I knew we’d need help when I saw it light up that sky.”