That library over in Bishopville

A beautiful place for book lovers

Posted 5/1/19

Once known as Singleton’s Crossroads, Bishopville sits between Camden and Florence.

When you enter this region, you drive past and through cotton fields.

The land here, flat and framed by …

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That library over in Bishopville

A beautiful place for book lovers

Posted

Once known as Singleton’s Crossroads, Bishopville sits between Camden and Florence.
When you enter this region, you drive past and through cotton fields.
The land here, flat and framed by wide horizons, was sea bottom once. When I drive here I imagine sharks, dolphins, and whales cruising alongside me. Imagination will sometimes make you a tad crazy.
Instead, I see tractors, horses, cattle, and old tobacco barns, ashen ghosts of themselves.
The sky seems bigger here, something folks from Montana would appreciate. Blue and spacious, it floods this flat land with a light that’s different, paler, but altogether the effect is one of pastoral beauty. Thank Heavens, we’ve yet to pave over the world entirely.
An author-friend and I drove into this pleasant setting on a balmy April afternoon.
For Tammy Davis, it was a return to her hometown. For me, it was a return to a town I drive through on my way to Hartsville and North Carolina. For both of us, it was a chance to meet people talk about books, and sign more than a few books at this beautiful library.
Tammy and I mingled with folks at the Bishopville Public Library. The hometown girl has a book out, Chin Up, Buttercup. It’s a collection of essays on the power of faith, perseverance, and a positive attitude.
The local folks showed up big for the hometown girl. We all had a splendid time.
Bishopville takes its name from Jacques Bishop. At Main and Council Streets, you will find the public library, once a furniture store. Tammy and I signed books there, and I talked about the back roads of South Carolina. The people were wonderful, the setting unique.
Within the red brick interior of this one-time furniture store, you’ll find track lighting, floral arrangements, and colorful comfy seats. Banks of flatscreen computers sit beneath lights that cast reflections onto the polished floor. And books. Lots of books. 
Up front, where Tammy and I sat is a sight that fits nicely with that furniture store past, an old card catalog turned into a piece of furniture. The old and new, peacefully co-existing.
As for old things, the Lee County Public Library goes back to 1901 when it was a small building next to the opera house “down on Main Street,” as Bob Seger sang. 
The little library struggled and moved many times. Throughout the years, however, the people of Lee County worked hard to advance their library. Today it has grown “from humble beginnings as a tiny library society to become an asset to the Lee County community as a host and participant in diverse neighborhood events and cultural happenings.” Indeed it has.
The furniture store is no more, but furniture waits for you and me. That library over in Bishopville is a cozy place perfect for book lovers, and a welcoming place for those who write books. We’ll be back. 
Books, readers, libraries, and writers – that’s what you’ll find down on Main.

Bishopville

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