Re: This is easily one of the best posts I've ever read on this

I'm writing this in memory of my Mom. She passed away twenty years ago and I think she was about the greatest Clemson fan that ever lived. She was born on the Clemson Campus in 1919. Then there was on campus housing for Department heads and her father, Baylis Gordon , was the head of what they then called the Physical Plant. My Grandfather and Coach Frank Howard were good friends and I have several stories handed down that maybe I can write one day. Anyway, the house she lived in with her folks was in a row of two story wood frame houses on a street that paralled Sirrene Hall ( Textile Blg. ). The houses are long gone and the parking lot across the street from the southeast corner of the stadium now occupies the space. She liked to tell about watching DEATH VALLEY being built from her back bedroom window. Many of the football players helped with tree cutting and driving the mule drawn scrapers to move dirt. They would often go cool off in the small creek that ran down the middle of the valley. (And still does in an underground pipe). A story she liked to tell was that as a teenager she and her friends would go to the football games that were then on what is now the soccer field behind the YMCA. They would look for the gate where ASSISTANT Coach Howard was known to be there greeting Alumni. He would take off his hat and bend over where each girl in turn would kiss him on top of his bald head and get in free. She said at one game his hat blew off . Coach Neely saw all the red lipstick and thought he had been injured and thought he was bleeding.
In Mom's later years after my Dad passed away she still listened religiously to every game. There was a joke among family and neighbors that you could drive by her house and tell who won the game after it was over even if you did not know. When listening to the game she usually got nervous and would go to the front porch, grab a broom which hung on the wall, and start sweeping. When driving by and the porch still had leaves on it and the broom was hung on the wall in its place, then Clemson had won easily. If the porch was clean and the broom was hanging in its place Clemson had won a close game. If the porch was clean and the broom was laying in the front yard where she had thrown it then Clemson had lost.
Rest in peace MOM. The family and the Clemson Tigers miss you. ( Written by her Son David Rankin ) Class of 1970 )

Message was edited by: Buz66®

Message was edited by: Buz66®

Message was edited by: Buz66®

Message was edited by: Buz66®

Buz66®

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Re: ULTIMATE CLEMSON FAN/NEW STORY

Jun 8, 2023, 2:42 PM

I promised another story from my MOM so here it is. I'm not the story teller she was but I will do my best. This is one of those "You had to be there stories." I'm going to try and tell the story without, I hope, offending anyone. First to clarify a definition. In the old south the word "haint" was a word used for ghost or spirit and for a place to be "hainted" meant haunted.
When I was growing up, when we walked or drove near the old smoke stack ( now there are two), older family members or friends would laughingly refer to the area behind the smoke stack as being "hainted" Never quite understood what that meant until my Mom told me this story about My Grandad, Baylis Gordon ( Bayl ) and Coach Howard and how the "hainting" started. My Grandad had a desk in the PHYSICAL PLANT where the smoke stack was located. His desk was next to a window (smoked glass, excuse the pun). Outside the window, the bottom of the window was at ground level and outside there was a little cul-de-sac type area with a bush in it. Okay, you have the setting and keep in mind that this probably happened in the 40's. My Grandad died in 1950 when I was about three.
In the summer he would open the window and use a fan to draw in some air ( no air conditioning then ) when he began to notice a putrid, urine smell coming in. He soon discovered that 3 guys on the custodial staff would go there on breaks and rather than standing in line to urinate in the small bathroom at the other end of the building, they would use the area behind the bush and right outside Grandads window. He would ask them to stop and did for a while, but would start again. Of the three custodians the only name I remember my Mom using was "Old Bob" whose place of work was Fike Field House where Coach Howards office was located but was on loan that day to the Physical Plant. The other two I will call Mike and Jim.
My Grandad decided to solve the problem and being Clemson's chief electrician only he would come up with this idea. Coming to work early one day he went to the "urine" problem area and placed a piece of chicken wire under the leaves, attached and old lamp cord, and ran the wire through the window. Later that morning he saw the culprits leave together out the side door and knew where they were heading. He plugged in the cord and waited. He could hear them outside his window talking. After a short time things got quiet. Following the silence there were several blood curdling screams followed by a lot of cursing and running footsteps. Of course what had happened was when the urine stream hit the chicken wire the electricity followed the stream back to its source. Jim came running in the door with his pants down to his knees and cradling his privates in both hands, eyes as big as saucers, screaming, " Mr Gordon, Mr Gordon, There's a haint behind that bush and he done bit my %$#@." He took off with his pants still down and didn't show up the rest of the day. A few minutes later Granpa's phone rang. It was Coach Howard. "Baylis, what the h$!!s going on up there. Old Bob just came in my office scarred to death. He peed all over himself and is crying begging me not to send him back up there to work because the place was hainted" When Grandad explained what he did Coach Howard explained to him later that he had to go outside4 till he could stop laughing. As for Mike, he had only been on the job a couple of days but he never came back.
Thus the story of the "hainted" smoke stack. If any of you are thinking going there when you are at the next game and checking it out remember the "haints" might still be there so be sure and use one of the portables before you go.

Message was edited by: Buz66®

Message was edited by: Buz66®

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ULTIMATE CLEMSON FAN

Re: ULTIMATE CLEMSON FAN

Re: Love this.

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This is easily one of the best posts I've ever read on this