Memory Lane

When Sekou Walker launched the Columbia nostalgia facebook page back on August 5^th he had no idea it would become this popular this fast. When he went to bed that night the page had five friends. When he woke up the next morning, that number had grown to 85. Today “You know you grew up in Columbia when” has 4,131 friends. As he put it “It’s outa control.”

Barbara Kellner, the Director of The Columbia Archives is one of those friends. As keeper of Columbia’s history, she has even reached out to some of those friends for copies of pictures that even she has never seen before. The personal histories from the facebook page provide a nice compliment to her work and has generated more interest in the archives.

Through all of the different generations that have grown up in Columbia the one constant has been Merriweather Post Pavilion. Merriweather opened in 1967 and its performances over forty four years have changed with each new wave of young audiences, earning the outdoor music venue a unique shared hometown experience. Consequently posts about Merriweather on Sekou’s page seem to attract comments from all age groups. Barbara told us she has copies of the playbills for every season since it opened.

We also talked about tot lots, race relations, and the challenge for young people to find affordable housing in Columbia. As a guy who grew up in Columbia it was a pretty fun show.

You can listen to the 47^th episode of “and there’s that…” here.