Charlie and Delle Ratcliff Rivers House
Delle Rivers House
T. F. and Margaret Sowell House
Laura Ballard Sheperd House
Dr. Rupert Blanton: Remembrances of Chesterfield School and Chesterfield in the early 1950’s Dr. Rupert Blanton In the summer of 1951, I went down to Chesterfield to interview with a Mr. Mertin Hersey concerning a teaching vacancy. Lo and behold! Mr. Hersey was a Miss Hersey. I had assumed as most would that the superintendent would be man. In those days women school administrators were as rare as women CEO’s, doctors, ministers and politicians. You’ve come a long way baby! Nevertheless, Miss Hersey turned out to be an excellent superintendent who ran a tight “ship”. I remember calling the roll in my first Spanish class in September 1951 (the class of ‘53). I was going down the roll making an extra special effort to pronounce every name clearly and correctly. Now I came to the name Elizabeth McLeod. I had seen the name in print but never heard it pronounced. Of course I couldn’t let the students think I had no idea of the correct pronunciation. I hesitated a second and then blurted out ELIZABETH MAC-LE-OD. It brought down the house. Sometimes I was called on to do a job for which I had little training. One spring day Coach J. O. Teal told me he wanted me to umpire a baseball game that afternoon between Pageland and Chesterfield. I tried to beg off, but to no avail. “You’ll do fine,” I remember him saying. I was a bit concerned about a conflict of interest. Here I was a Chesterfield teacher umpiring a game between rivals Chesterfield and Pageland. That afternoon I showed up and after a few instructions from the coach, walked out to take my place behind the pitcher’s mound. That’s the way I remembered seeing it done at my elementary school. “No! Get behind the catcher and put on this mask and chest protector,” Coach Teal instructed. Finally I was ready to call balls and strikes. I noticed on many pitches, just a split second before I yelled out my call, I would hear Coach Teal yell out “Strike!!!” if a Pageland batter was up or “Ball!!!” if a Chesterfield batter was at bat. I could have sworn that Coach Teal was trying to influence my calls. I roomed in Miss Delle Rivers’ home. I remember her calling and telling friends upon my arrival, “he looks like the star of the football team.” It is funny how I can remember that after all these years. She always invited me to watch The Jackie Gleason Show and I Love Lucy, which we both really enjoyed. One localism that I enjoyed hearing Miss Delle and other townspeople say was “Yes’um” to an older woman. I was accustomed to saying “Yes mam.” I liked the big wide mains street of the town, its historical importance noted by the sign near the courthouse telling that General Sherman had burned the original one during the Civil War. I remember that Chesterfield was bridge card crazy town with some expert players--M. A. Kay and Mertin Hersey among them. One thing I didn’t particularly like about Chesterfield, and this would apply to many small towns, was that everyone seemed to know your business. Often, students and townspeople would tell me where they had seen me on nights and weekend—OUCH!!!