sugar refinery memories

I grew up in Port Wentworth, the site of the sugar refinery. I grew up in a house 1 block from the plant, back in those days, they had a company store in one of the houses on the site. There used to be people that lived right on the site at the mill.It was first built there in 1917. They brought a lot of folks from Louisiana to work in it and they provided housing and a company store. You know how they used to have a commissary and you practically owed your paycheck to the company store.
That's why the Our lady of Lord's Catholic Church is right there across from the gates.The Louisiana Cajuns were Catholic. We had lots of neighbors that were Catholic and also worked at the mill.
By the early 60's most of the mill housing on site was gone but the store was still operating and we would ride our bikes over to the store and buy penny candy.
You could ride all over the mill site until someone saw you and sent you home. We never thought there was any danger and I guess there wasn't any kind of security either.
There were tennis courts and a basketball court on the grounds and we'd play on there.Our neighborhood didn't have a park or green spaces to play, so we'd all go over to the mill to play baseball on a Sunday afternoon.
Funny how times change isn't it.
My grandad worked for Atlantic Creosote Company that was right next door, so we'd ride up the sugar refinery road to the cut off road to the creosote plant and see grandpa.
I'm sure that if mama ever thought there was any danger, we'd have never been allowed to do that.

Thank you all for your prayers and kind words. It was such a big shock. We had just got to my dad's house about 7:oo.He had appointments at the VA Hospital in Charleston. My son and I made sure they got in the house before we left. When we got to our house, my husband met us at the door, telling me that something was happening at the mill. The blast shook dad's house and mom thought a plane had crashed. We missed it by just a few minutes.

On the news tonight, they said that they have found the last 2 that were missing and that 2 of the 16 sent to the Augusta burn hospital had been upgraded from critical to seroius. Somehow, that still doesn't sound good.
Imperial Sugar is helping these families with housing while their loved one is being cared for and is paying the employees a weekly paycheck while the mill is down.That is not the kind of things you hear about companies in this day and age. I think that is very good of Imperial.
If you are a prayer warrior, please remember these families in your prayers as this will be a long journey for them.
Linda