Editorial Handbook-2020

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Photo by Jess Wood.

W hen Tim Ascue opened Ascue’s Paint and Body Shop in 1968, it was one of the few — of three, as he recalled — black businesses in town. “We struggled for years because Mount Pleasant only had about 1,700 people here — only enough for one policeman,” Ascue remembered. “To succeed, we had to get our act together. We went to school to find out how to advance and make things better, and that’s what we did and what we continue to do.” Ascue’s dedication to his business indeed proved successful, and, now, over 40 years later, his son

runs the operation, which is still very much a family business. “I started this business with $180. Now we have 27 people working here, and every day we come to work, and we make this business work,” he grinned. Ascue said there’s nothing he doesn’t like about Mount Pleasant, though he wished that one day the town will annex the “donut areas” which are, by technicality, part of Charleston County but not part of the town, including where his business is on Highway 17. “I’ve been in Mount Pleasant for 40 years. Ain’t much was going on then, but I served the people. I still do today.” 150 words

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