The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show - Prater's Creek Gazette

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COMMUNITY NEWS	The Prater's Creek Gazette 6th Issue Summer 2005 Page #2

Decorating Guru Rebuilds Drovers' Farmhouse

Kitty Bartholomew, whom millions of Americans know through her show "Kitty Bartholomew: You’re Home" and it’s seven year run on HGTV and the "Win Your Dream" contests on ABC-TV’s" "The Home Show", was in Prater’s Creek last week rebuilding the Drover’s Old Time Medicine Show’s farm house. "I didn’t come here to South Carolina to rebuild some hillbilly’s house!" Ms. Bartholomew laughed and told The Gazette. "I was in town to promote my new book. Grandpa, of the Drovers Old Time Medicine Show, and I have been corresponding through emails, and he came to the book signing. He told me the saddest story of how lightning had hit the band’s house and started a fire." The fire investigators had first thought it was arson the way the fire had spread so easily. "Apparently, there were jugs of Grandpa’s elixir sitting about the house" Ms. Bartholomew related "and when the flames hit the house, the house was a goner!”

"Kitty said the story of our fire touched her heart and that she wanted to help" Grandpa said. "The lumberyard extended credit to us and with Kitty’s expertise we built a new house!" When asked how much the help the band was, Ms. Bartholomew demurely answered, "Well, they played a lot of nice tunes while me and my crew worked ten hours a day." But it paid off in more than a good feeling for Ms. Bartholomew when she discovered that Grandpa’s elixir was a better paint thinner than any of the name-brand products. She is now doing an endorsement deal for the elixir used as paint thinner. Grandpa says he has a huge crush on Ms. Bartholomew and that he wants to record a song about her.

Grandpa had this to say, " Y’all all need to go buy Kitty’s new book Decorating Style: A Hands-on Approach to Creating an Affordable, Beautiful and Comfortable Home."

Spitoono XXV To Be Held

It’s summertime and time for Spitoono XXV. The three-day festival filled with live music will be held August 25, 26 and 27 at the National Guard Armory’s baseball field on Pendleton Road in Clemson, SC.
The Festival was started in 1981 at The Esso Club in Clemson as a redneck spoof of the high brow Spoletto festival in Charleston, SC. The er, gentlemen called themselves the Redneck Performing Arts Association (RPAA). “We wanted a festival” one RPAA member recalled, ‘but we didn’t want one with men in tights singing in Latin. You can’t even clog to that music!” Spitoono is free to all ages and all of the money from beer and T-shirt sales goes to local charities. The T-shirts are a big part of Spitoono and they have a brilliant theme every year.

Spitoono outgrew the asphalt parking lot of the Esso Club in 1991 and moved to the present location on the nice cool green grass of the Board of Tourism Ad outfield at Armory’s baseball field.

Spitoono has changed a little over the years, evolving form a drunken event to a full-blown music festival. Alas, the tobacco spitting and beer chugging contests have fallen by the wayside. And the hard-core bingers now are upright, conscientious citizens (well sort of) who now attend with their children, who are now teenagers, or older.
Spitoono has been called a “redneck Woodstock”. Bring a blanket, pop open a cool one and enjoy. It’s all for a good cause. The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show will be on stage at 8:00 PM August 25th 2005.