M System Grocery flourished in downtown Florence

Selma Miller, 90, has witnessed a lifetime of change.

She was part and parcel of Miller’s M System grocery – a grocery and meat market situated at 138 North Dargan Street -- for 45 years. It was there, in 1940, she met her husband, C.H. Miller Jr.

“We had a good business when downtown Florence was thriving,” Selma said during a recent interview at her home in Darlington. “C. H. and the rest of us in the store used to be so busy on Saturdays that we could hardly keep up.”

Selma said Miller’s was robbed several times, once while she was at the cash register.

“This big old man just reached over me and pulled the tray out of the cash register,” she said. “He ran out the back door and I ran after him. I would have caught him if I hadn’t fallen down. I wasn’t afraid of anything back then.”

Times changed. The business changed. Downtown Florence changed.

First came Food Stamps, she said.

“Saturdays were no longer busy days after all this government stuff came along,” Selma said. “Food Stamps allowed people to buy groceries any day of the week they wanted to.”

Miller’s and other businesses suffered as big retailers left downtown for the malls – Florence and Magnolia.

“Belk and Sears left the downtown and moved to the mall,” Selma said. “Then other smaller businesses started to leave. Things went down hill from there.”

The Millers sold the store in 1985. The new owner ran a business there until Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989 and “messed the building up,” Selma said.

What was left of Miller’s later burned.

Selma and C. H. raised a family of four in their house on Oak Street in Darlington.

Selma said she thought she was raising five children when C. H. decided to build a carpet golf course in their side yard in the 1950s.

“We entertained a lot of young people with that carpet golf course,” she said. “They came from everywhere to play with our children and C. H.”

Next door to the Miller’s house was the stately Bright Williamson mansion. Selma said it had beautiful hardwood floors and sliding doors in the living and dining rooms that formed a great hall when opened.

That’s gone now, too. It was torn down and now a nursing home sits on the lot.

Selma grew up on a farm in Turbeville – one of seven girls and three boys in the family. All of them worked in the fields growing up.

Selma’s grandfather founded the community of Seloc in southern . It’s gone now.

Selma still drives her 1995 Buick to the grocery store and to Central Baptist Church. The rest of the time it relaxes in her carport.

She attributes her longevity and sharp mind to several things.

“Working hard all my life for the necessities of life,” she said. “I’ve never asked for more.”

Selma said her children, grandchildren, church and “Jeopardy!” also keep her young.

“I can usually answer the questions on ‘Jeopardy!’ that those on the show can’t answer,” she said. ‘“Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’ are about all I watch on TV.”