Memories of old Graniteville lead to historic crusade

Kirk Bennett has idyllic memories of growing up in Graniteville in the 1950s.

"My mind always travels back to my childhood memories. It was a simple life, a lot less complex than today," said Mr. Bennett, who is working to preserve some of those memories for generations to come.

A 1965 graduate of Leavelle McCampbell High School, Mr. Bennett, who has lived in Columbia since 1970, started a personal quest about a year ago. He contacted some friends in Graniteville who had old 8 mm films and asked who "would have movies containing my family," he said.

He wanted to save the items to DVD and tried preserving them on his own; however, he eventually took them to a professional company to get the best results.

The films held treasured memories.

"There was Flat Rock in the 1950s, street scenes of people enjoying Christmas," he said.

Flat Rock was the place to go during the summer, he said. Without modern water parks, children used the rocks as water slides.

When he viewed the restored films, he realized what he had.

"This was too valuable of a project. The story really is about these families and keeping these films," he said.

The films depict scenes with Christian Heritage Church and the families of Dud Cook, Bill Conaway, Virgil Conaway, Gerald Boyd and Lonnie Barton, but they also capture a piece of Graniteville's history that is gone.

Mr. Bennett's parents were employed at Graniteville Co., as were many of the town's residents.

"The company oversaw everything," including building homes and schools, he said.

There was a sense of paternalism, he said.

He made DVD copies of the films for himself and each of the families and donated copies to the University of South Carolina Aiken's Gregg-Graniteville Library. A reception was held at the library in October.

Mr. Bennett said he knows that others probably have film stored away, and he would like to preserve as much of it as possible.

He can be reached through the Web site, www.ghscentral.org.

Reach Charmain Brackett at charmain.brackett@ augustachronicle.com.