I had thought the Starbucks on Gervais was a happening place, but I dropped by the one in Five Points a little while ago to get me a cup to get me ready for the mayoral forum tonight, and ran into:
- Lobbyist Larry Marchant was getting into his vehicle and driving off as I got there; we didn’t speak.
- Former city councilwoman Anne Sinclair was at a table in the shop. I asked her if she was coming to the forum tonight, and she said no way (she’s had enough of city politics, I think).
- Dick Harpootlian, who was with some other high-roller types. I asked him how Dwight’s campaign was doing. Fine, according to Dick.
- Scott Winburn, who is apparently going up against Seth Rose for Kit Smith’s seat on Richland County Council. This creates a conflict for me if I choose my preferred candidates by granfalloon: Seth’s in my Rotary (as is Anne), and Scott’s from my hometown of Bennettsville — although I had not met him until Anne introduced him just now.
It was Scott who reminded me that I had started the day meaning to write about the passing of my friend Doug Jennings‘ father. (Scott said he expected to see my Uncle Woody at the funeral in Bennettsville.) I am remiss in not having done so already.
Dr. "Dougie" Jennings
This has been quite a week for losing fathers. First my wife’s, now Doug’s. While I certainly wasn’t nearly as close to Dr. Jennings as to Mr. Phelan, I did know him slightly, many years ago — long before I knew Doug, in fact.
He was my doctor, back during the year that I lived in Bennettsville while my Dad was in Vietnam, 1967-68. Among other things, he treated me for the flu, which was about as sick as I can ever remember being. I’m grateful for his care, and his long years of service to the community.
My thoughts and prayers are with Doug and the whole Jennings family in this time of their loss.
As long as I’m filing a contact report and dropping names, I ran into Samuel Tenenbaum and former Fritz Hollings aide Trip King this morning when I was meeting Joel Lourie for breakfast, and guess whom Samuel and Trip were eating with?
None other than Ashley Cooper, the lieutenant governor candidate with the perfect South Carolina name. He seemed a nice young man — not stuck up about the perfection of his name or anything.
He’s apparently eating out a lot. The day after I wrote about him here, Lanier Jones and other colleagues from ADCO were at lunch and Lanier got a feeling he’d seen that guy at the next table before — and it was Ashley Cooper, whom he had seen on the video on my blog.
This is a very small state. Everybody runs into everybody.
And then, of course, I ran into Scott’s opponent Seth Rose at the mayoral candidate forum Thursday night. Scott had said he might be there, too, but I didn’t see him…