May 7,2012 Anne Springs Close Greenway

After seeing Liza perform in her school's production of Cinderella Friday night in Charlotte, I drove home down Hwy 21 to the outskirts of Ft Mill, through the peach orchards and into the greenway.
(There is a $3.00 fee for hickers), park the car near the restrooms and showers, the Rush Pavilion.
The restrooms have that summer camp in the woods smell.  At the beginning of the path, a sign tells you that you are on the Nations Ford (Occaweechi Path), one of the oldest and most historic routes in North America.
It was traveled by the Catawbas and the Cherokee from Virginia to Augusta before the Europeans came. In the Revolution, General Sumter camped his troups here along the path.  In the Civil War, the Conferate army marched through here to Virginia and Gettysburg.  Jefferson Davis came back this way in defeat.  The ford of the Catawba River is nearby and today, Nations Ford Road is a highly commercial byway in Charlotte where probably few people realize the significance of its name.
I hike around the lake named for King Haigler (Nopkehe, Artoswa, Oroloswa) chief of the Catawbas in the 1700's and down the Blue Star Path, back around the lake.  There is a tiny island in the lake with a big tree growing on it.  Three Canadian Geese have claimed it, honking.  When I was a child, the geese came south to the Carolinas in Winter and flew back to Canada in the spring.  Now they stay here all year long.  There are daisies and Queen Anne's Lace in the sunny places along the banks of the lake.
Driving down 21 again I stop at the Springs Peach Shed where my mother would take us to buy a bushel of peaches. We would eat them on cereal, on vanilla ice cream and even make homemade peach ice cream.  Now it is a bustling gourmet shop and restaurant, where there is a butcher stop, artisan breads and condiments from the world over.  The parking lot is jammed. The restaurant is full of people eating breakfast. There are lines to the cash register.
Generations ago, my great, great grandparents had a general store out in the country in Lancaster County where the orginal Springs Mills founder bought goods and paid for them in Springs stock
(his name was Springsteen then).  When my great grandfather died, he left his daughter the Springs stock and my grandfather the land.  The stock was quite valuable and Papa's sister and her family made trips to Europe. The children wore fine clothes which were handed down to my mother and her sisters.