On a recent trip to Aiken, South Carolina (just over an hour south of state capital Columbia and a half hour from Augusta, Georgia), I received as a gift a book titled When I think of Aiken, written by Michael Gibbons and illustrated by Betsy Wilson-Mahoney, two long-time residents of Aiken who shared in words and drawings their memories of growing up and living much of their lives in this beautiful southern charmer of a city.

The book gave me pause to try and remember what I thought of Aiken before visiting for the first time.  I realized quite quickly, not much, other than erroneously thinking the city was named for the great southern writer Conrad Aiken for some mysterious reason. It’s actually named for William Aiken, a man who never visited the city named after hi -, but more on that later.