South Of The Border

I use this blog as kind of a memory exercise.   When ever I write a post I recall past posts that relate and I include their links.  But apparently I am heading into dementia.  I could have sworn that I had never posted about going to South of the Border.  I even wrote up this entire post about it.  When I neared the end of the post I recalled having an old post featuring a thrifted SOB souvenir.  I typed in "South of the border" in my blog search and oh my word.  I had wrote a full post already and had even published it during the year it actually happened! 2012!
Well...I am just going to put this one up too.  Some of the photos are different so....enjoy, again.

I can't believe I have never posted about our trip to the mecca of concrete kitsch!

One of the seven wonders of Roadside America:

South of the Border

Dillon, South Carolina

We took a summer trip in 2012 to visit Pedro and all of the over sized critters and confections that take up residency at the South of the Border complex.

This place is simply amazing!

Pun heavy billboards beckon travelers from miles away.

"You never sausage a place!  You're always a wiener at Pedro's!"

  

This 97 foot Pedro sign welcoming travelers is classic gorgeous mid-century roadside! 

So what is South of the Border?  One would think it's a town since it's over 300 acres.  It has gas stations, restaurants, lodging, shops, attractions, and even a bank and fire station... and happens to also be filled with loads of colorful over-sized ''perfect for photo-op'' concrete sculptures.  It is basically a classic tourist trap.

There are so many shops and attractions, we didn't get to see everything.  There is a huge firework shop, perfect to grab some illegal bottle rockets not allowed in North Carolina.  A shop that only sells hats from around the world, which is where PB picked up the fez seen in all the pics.  The place is so big they have a map for guests to navigate the complex!

For a mere 2 bucks you can ride to the top of the 200 foot observation sombrero. Who can pass up a deal like that?

The day we went it was sweltering, so we had to pass on doing some stuff like the train ride and the miniature golf. We had a nice Mexican dinner, did some tacky souvenir shopping, and danced around the brim of the observation sombrero tower.  But the best was taking photos with all the fun concrete horses, gorillas, chickens, flamingos, alligators, ice cream cones, dolphins, dinosaurs, elephants, tortoises, zebras, giraffes, and a jackolope!

I'll let the photos take over.  Here is only a fraction of the ones we took.

Sombrero headed boy.

There isn't a bunch of history out there about South of the Border but here is a bit I picked up:
South of the Border started out as a small beer stand in 1949, conveniently located south of the border of the dry counties of North Carolina in South Carolina, not down Mexico way.  It was a highly visited destination as you can imagine.  It grew from there to include a grill then motel (gotta have some place to sleep it off!).  The owner was one of very few people in the region at the time who employed people of other races and cultures.  He apparently had a stand off involving a rifle when the KKK tried to harm one of his African American employees.  He also invited two immigrants he met during a trip to Mexico to work for him.  They became his right and left hands helping to build up the complex even more.  One of them was named Pedro and the name stuck as the mascot.  Over the decades the complex has grown and at one time was the primary employment of the region of Dillon.

Here a few small souvenirs we picked up while shopping there: a set of ceramic siesta sleeping salt and pepper shakers, postcards, a button, a bumper sticker, and a brochure.  The wooden book stand on the right I picked up from a thrift store several years ago.

One of the best little jokes we now say on a regular basis came out of this trip to South of the Border.  As we were leaving, getting gas, and grabbing a drink from one of the several convenience stores, my mom asks the clerk "Do you only have Pepsi in this town?"  He replied deadpanned with "Well ma'am...it really isn't a town."
From then on if we go to a restaurant that only serves Pepsi we say
"They only have Pepsi in this town." 


Past SOB links, including the one I forgot ever happened:
SOB thrifted stuff and music video
SOB Etch-a-Sketch Frame
SOB 2012