THE OLD LEXINGTON GYM

By: Michael A. Aun, FIC, LUTCF, CSP, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame

Back before Lexington, SC was invaded by the north for the second time in history, there existed an old gym on North Lake Drive in about two blocks from Main Street.

All the Wildcat basketball teams played their games there in those days. It was little more than a matchbox and the seating capacity was meager.

My fondest thoughts of that old gym were not at all basketball related. When I was in the seventh grade, we used to have dances at the gym on the weekends. The older kids would go to Gibson's Pond to shag the night away. The pre-teens went to the old gym where we saddled with the supervision of adults.

You couldn't get into too much trouble when your dancing partner's parents were watching their precious daughter like a hawk. I recall I learned how to dance in the arms of a sweet young thing named Genie. For her protection, her last name will remain anonymous.

Genie was a year younger than I and about a half a head taller, but that never slowed me down. My older sister, Mary, had taken the time to teach me how to dance, so I came into the game with some experience.

Genie was my first infatuation, for the lack of a better description. Though taller, she managed to shrink her body in such a way that I didn't feel too inferior. I noted that she avoided using her mom's pumps and went with the flattest heels possible, much to my appreciation.

Another dancing partner was a girl named Sherry. Since there was only one Sherry in Lexington, everyone knows I'm talking about Sherry Shealy, who went on to a measure of acclaim in politics, following in the footsteps of her father, Ryan Shealy, and her uncles, Lucius Porth and Larry Koon. Later in my life, I actually ran against Larry for the House of Representatives, but that's another story.

There was a great song in the sixties that immortalized the name "Sherry." I occasionally hear it on the oldies channel at my local gym, bringing back memories of another gym almost a half century earlier.

I was in over my head with Sherry too, but not in the same manner as Genie. She wasn't taller, just more aggressive. Sherry sat behind me in some of my classes and amused herself by tearing paper into small bits and placing it on top of my head. While this was certainly a source of entertainment for all those sitting behind me, it was clearly embarrassing to me.

I already felt inferior enough, wearing hand-me-down clothes that rarely fitted and shoes whose soles were revitalized daily with pages from the Sears catalogue.

We were poor, but my parents never let us know it. Now, to be fair, there were occasions in which I suspected it. They encouraged us to be social, to go to dances, to play ball and to work after school.

There were lots of good memories from that old gym. I remember smoking my first cigarette out back. It nearly killed me and I thought, "who would take up such a nasty habit?" True to nature, I later did but finally gave it up when I reached four packs a day, giving my lungs and my life a second chance. Smoking was cool, so we thought.

They had a wonderful old juke box at the Lexington gym that supplied us with all the dance music. Later as a teenager, some of the local bands would play there. Jim Barfield, a local attorney, asked me to head up a project for March of Dimes one year, so I thought… "let's host a Battle of the Bands," which we did at the old Lexington gym.

The gym is long gone today but the pleasant memories of the good times are still firmly embedded in my memory bank nearly a half century later.

Those were the good old days.