Visits to Rock Hill are visits to family. Only rarely is anything else involved. But every now and then, we go beyond the normal visit schedule. This week, we went downtown to visit the children’s museum. After the visit and a quick lunch, we went for a quick walk.

Like many old, small downtown areas, Rock Hill’s small main street is both heartening and depressing.

On the heartening side, it’s good to see so many beautiful, historic buildings renovated and put to new use. A Baptist church is now a community center.

Yet the renaissance is only partial, as it often is. Across the street from the restored church is an abandoned post office that stands empty. What are the possibilities? Certainly endless, but the economy places its own limitations, I suppose.

Just down the street, more evidence of a halting recovering for the downtown area.

Yet perhaps things are not as they seem. A quick search reveals that Penny Young still runs a studio by the name Photographic Designs. Perhaps she outgrew the space?

Still, one has to admire the effort and the little touches, like the music in the trees, initially confusing as one wanders about,

and the little cafes with outside tables that would be more inviting if it weren’t for the heat of a South Carolina summer.

As we walked, though, we weren’t as interested in what is happening in 2012; we were more interested in what was happening in the early 1950’s when Papa was a kid.

“Here’s where we had our high school Bucket of Lard sermon,” he explained, with typical sarcasm, pointing to a church just meters away from the renovated church/community center. Who knew there were so many churches in downtown Rock Hill?

Another church, just down the street, was the sight of a run-in with the police. “We were roaring down the street on our skates — and these were those skates you strapped onto the bottom of your shoes and tighten with the key you kept hung round your neck — and the officer comes running out to us, furious. ‘Don’t you boys know there’s a funeral going on in there?'” One can only imagine the noise several boys on metal-wheeled skates.

Still, it wasn’t all amusing stories. Some were touching.

At the coveted location of the prestigious Dee & Lee Unique Hair Design, there was once a jewelry store. The large display windows are now virtually empty, though one can imagine them filled with bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and rings of gold and silver, all glittering enticingly.

The significance is likely obvious: “This is where I bought Nana’s engagement ring,” he explained as we passed by. It was a photo op one couldn’t pass up: a happy couple standing in front of a hair salon — a picture that contains a secret history.