Growing Up In Sparkle City

Spartanburg, South Carolina has had a definite impact on my family. My mother, Lynn Costine, was born in Asheville, North Carolina, but at a very young age her family moved to Spartanburg. Her parents chose to move their because her father, Luke Wilburn, was hired to work as a paton attorney for Milliken, one of the big European companies that Spartanburg attracted. My father, Andrew Costine, was born in Maine, but his family also moved to Spartanburg when he was very young. His family was also attracted to Spartanburg because his father worked as an engineer for several different companies, including Milliken. Because Spartanburg offered so many job options both my parents ended up growing up there. It is where they met, it is where they got married, and it is where I was born. Both of my parents attended Spartan High School, a huge school with several thousand students. They never knew each other in high school because my father is four years older than my mother, so he had graduated by the time she was a freshman. Still, the both remember the same teachers and the same traditions, Spartan High had a definite impact on their lives. My father attended the University of Tenessee for about a year and a half, before droping out because his parents would only pay for a business major. He moved back to Spartanburg, where he lived with his best friend from high school- and his best friend still today- Eli Frances. When my mom was a senior in high school she met my father through a mutual friend. She attended the College of Charleston, and then took a year off college to live in Spartanburg with my father. She finished her degree at the University of South Carolina at Columbia, and then moved to Spartanburg. Although both my parents left Spartanburg off and on while they were young, they always ended up coming back to Spartanburg. It was where they both grew up, and it is what brought them together. After working several odd jobs, my father settled into a job working with his best friend, Eli, at Stoeffurs, a large food company in Spartanburg. After my mom graduated from college, she and my father were married at the Piedmont Club of Spartanburg which her parents were members of. They lived and worked in Spartanburg for six years, during which I was born. When I was two years old my parents decided to move to North Carolina to the small town of Tryon, where I grew up. Although I was not raised in Spartanburg, it is still very important city to me. Tryon is just thirty minutes away from Spartanburg, and it is where the closest shopping center is, so I actually spend a lot of time together. My mother’s parents decided to stay in Spartanburg, and her mother still lives in the house that she grew up in. Both of my parents have very fond memories of growing up in Spartanburg. It is truly amazing how much a place can affect a person’s whole life. It is important for everyone to know and to understand their family and what affected them most in their lives. Personally, I have never liked Spartanburg that much, but learning more about it and realizing how much it affect my parents, and therefore my own, life has given me a greater appreciation for it. I am sure that I will want to share my experiences of Spartanburg with my own children- Sunday lunches at my grandmother’s house, Baskin Robbins ice cream, and the Unitarian church are just a few of my childhood memories that revolve around it. Spartanburg is a remarkable place that has made incredible leaps and bounds in the past fifty years, and it is only getting better. I know that I will always be proud to say that my family is from Spartanburg, South Carolina.