"Roughhouse" hot dogs and more....

I'll start with a few photos that should have a accompanied the previous post - the part about Helen, GA:

Here is a photo of Skylake and one of the slave cabin in Clarksville, GA, where we ate at the Attic and visited some historical buildings and the surrounding gardens.  The amazing thing to me is the inherent beauty in some of these old and supposedly "primitive" quilts, made from scraps of clothing that had reached the point where they could no longer be re-purposed for other utilitarian uses.  Today's quilters have so many tools and materials and shortcuts available to them, and yet while their quilts may be more detailed and artistic, there is a soul and voice to these old quilts that mean so much to me (obviously, this is LMG speaking, of the LMG/JCG creating this blog   : ).

The Clemson Botanical Gardens were beautiful; we only explored a small portion of them, because it is still early in the season and not much is in full bloom, but the Camillia's are nearing their peak, and that portion of the garden was glorious even now, though it will be even more beautiful in a few weeks:

There is a tiny cabin within the Gardens, that was home to the former owners; remarkably these people owned and farmed 8000 acres of the surrounding land, and to those of us used to todays' home standards - even more remarkably - they raise 12 children in this cabin:












That was all yesterday - a lovely, sunny day!

Today we drove into Abbeville, SC. The county of Abbeville is really important in so many aspects of America's early years. Both the county and its county seat, the town of Abbeville, were named for the French town of the same name.  The county was settled primarily by Scots-Irish and French Huguenot farmers in the mid-eighteenth century. Abbeville was known as a hotbed of secession, and at the end of the Civil War the last Confederate council of war was held there. Abbeville's most famous native son was John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), United States Vice President, Secretary of War and of State, and US Senator.  From Wikipedia: "Abbeville has the unique distinction of being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the Confederacy. On November 22, 1860, a meeting was held at Abbeville, at a site since dubbed "Secession Hill", to launch South Carolina's secession from the Union; one month later, the state of South Carolina became the first state to secede.It was also the birthplace of noted states rights advocate John C. Calhoun. At the end of the Civil War, with the Confederacy in shambles, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Richmond, Virginia and headed south, stopping for a night in Abbeville at the home of his friend Armistead Burt. It was on May 2, 1865, in the front parlor of what is now known as the Burt-Stark Mansion that Jefferson Davis officially acknowledged the dissolution of the Confederate government. "     
We tried to visit the Burt-Stark Mansion, which supposedly was open at 1:30 each day...except for when it was not, which is when we timed our arrival.  


Another key note of historical interest: we had lunch in Abbeville at Roughhouse; Roughhouse has a menu consisting of hot dogs and/or hot dogs with chili and onions and mustard (JH and MRG - think Mr. Desa with stuffed animals on the walls).   According to the owner, the business has been in town for 75 years; he has been the owner for the last 24.  Also according to the owner, Rachel Ray has designated this the home of the best hot dogs in America - check it out folks, I don't have enough internet signal to do so at this time.  Regardless of Rachel Ray, the dogs were great and the ambience was unduplicated, I guarantee it! Roughhouse included: poolroom in the back, photos of local baseball players on the wall (many named Bubba, several Bo's, and a Chigger), a shoe-shine station that appears not to have been used for awhile...and a photo of Ronald Reagan in his movie cowboy days!