Yesterday was the state society meeting here in Sumter. I went and had a lovely time. The former mayor of Sumter, Mayor Bubba was the first speaker. As always, he had the audience smiling and chuckling right away. Brent Holcomb was there with a load of his books for sale. I didn't purchase any because our local society was getting some for the archives. I did buy a book that our local society brought in from the Sumter County Museum. The Museum has a few of Sumter District by Janie Reville left. They are only $5. They are quite small but well worth the $5. The reason for the price cut is that they are left overs from when Hurricane Hugo struck Sumter (it was very bad here, Charleston got the press but that hurricane picked it's speed back up over Lake Marion and just about swept Clarendon and Sumter Counties away too back in 1989). Anyway, they are nice little books and the only damage that can be seen is the paper cover which can just be removed. They do smell of the damp but for $5 they can't be beat. The museum address and phone number: Williams Brice House and Gardens 122 N. Washington St.P.O. Box 1456 Sumter, S.C. 29150 803-775-0908 I don't know how many they have left or what the shipping would be but they are a deal. Alan Thigpen of the Sumter Society spoke next. He has just completed a book about the Battle of Dingle's Mill. (See Sumter County History page on the Sumter page for a little about it) We can't wait for his book to come out. If he had had it from the printers yesterday he could have sold a good many. His book will be ready by the first of the year. (He wished for before Christmas but....) Then the main speaker spoke. She wrote a book about Julia Mood Peterkin. We were all just fascinated. (She had slides of old photos too.) Julia Peterkin was from Sumter. Her father was a Dr. and operated the Mood Infirmary (sort of a hospital). Her grandfather was Presbyterian minister. She married and moved over to Calhoun County. At the age of about 40 she became a writer. She won a Pulitzer Prize for one of her novels. She was the first woman to do so. They changed the rules so that a woman could receive the prize. (This was in the roaring twenties.) She wrote of plantation life in the South after the Civil War. She set her books in an imaginary plantation. The setting was really where Brook Green Gardens in Georgetown County is now. The Univeristy of Georgia Press is going to republish some of her work. (The last time any were in print was in the 1960s. She died in 1961). What amazed all of us is that we had never heard of Julia Peterkin and she was from Sumter. The lady who wrote the book is from Arkansas. She holds a Ph.D. in Southern Literature and teaches at Trident Tech in Charleston County. It took her 10 years to write the book. Anyway, it was just so interesting, that I had to share it. Maybe some of her books are in libraries. I will be checking the Sumter Library. I did buy the book about Julia Peterkin's life. I read the preface today. I am already hooked. Take care, Cindy