We bought a beautiful 2 story colonial home at 2408 Mosswood Dr in west Florence, just a short distance from I-95. There was snow on the ground and moss hanging in the big oak trees was covered with snow. James thought the house looked haunted and called it a witch house and wouldn't get out of the car to go inside to check it out! Three bedrooms and 2 baths were upstairs and downstairs we had a big family room with fireplace, dining room, study, small den with TV, kitchen and breakfast room, laundry and half bath, and attached to the double carport a long storage room and workshop.
We bought the house from some people from Maine. They didn't rake the leaves; just spread them all over the yard and planted vegetables everywhere in little gardens. It took us a long time to get the leaves raked up and grass planted.
The summer after we moved there, I decided to go to Frances Marion University and work on my Master's Degree and get a teaching certificate. I was surprised to pass the Graduate Exam to enter college. I did my practice teaching at South Florence High School in the spring of 1989. I started teaching 7-8 grades in September 1989 at Moore Middle School.
The second week of school, we were dismissed early one day so the school could be converted to a hurricane shelter - Hurricane Hugo was coming! It was a beautiful day and we just couldn't believe bad weather was headed our way. But it came late at night. We brought mattresses downstairs to sleep in the hallway in the center of the house. Jim and James went to bed and went to sleep. I stayed up to watch for the storm and when it struck, I have never been so terrified. The big oak trees were bending over and our neighbor lost many trees in his yard. We were lucky just losing some roofing over the carport. Our house was plastered with green leaves, looking as if we tried to camoflauge it. Florence was hit hard and we were without electricity and water for about a week. Trees were down everywhere and we couldn't get out on the streets. Nobody had phone service so we had no contact with the outside world for a few days. Our TV station was off the air but we had battery radios.
We enjoyed going to our condo at Myrtle Beach, just 69 miles east. We also had relatives in NC and SC that we enjoyed being with. The Amtrak train came through Florence and James enjoyed going to the train station to see the train when it stopped to load and unload pssengers.
In the spring of 1990 Jim learned that Gilligan O'Malley was going to close their plant and he started looking for a job close to our farm in Alabama. He got a job with Sero Shirt Co. in Cordelle, GA and we chose to live in Albany, GA and moved there in the summer of 1990.
