You've heard of the Camden Triple Crown? Three Saturdays in the spring with three different kinds of horse races? It used to be called the Aiken Triple Crown. No, it's true. Your grandmother and I went to those races in Aiken many times. In fact, Aiken County used to be called "Thoroughbred Country." Can you believe it? It was not all that long ago.

The Connector Highway used to be Chime Bell Church Road with beautiful horse farms on either side. There were barns and paddocks and racing stables as far as the eye could see. Every morning we could drive by and watch thoroughbreds being trained. Polo ponies were worked in groups in the afternoons. There was even a farm we loved with a herd of miniature horses owned by a breeder of national champions.

It was all part of the "horse country" of Aiken County. People from all over the United States and many parts of the world brought their horses to be trained in the "perfect" Aiken winters.

What happened? Well, you know the Wile E. Coyote Deathtrap Highway? You're right – where Woodside's south gate is. This highway used to be a dirt road called Anderson Pond Road. It would have been one of the most dangerous roads in the state except there was only slow farm traffic on it.

There was a crazy idea in those days that the Whiskey Road traffic jams from the city to the mall would be helped, not by widening Dougherty and timing the lights on Whiskey, but by hoping drivers would go miles out of their way on this lethal connector to Silver Bluff Road. It would have been quicker to have sat at the same light at the mall 25 times than to have driven practically to New Ellenton and risked your life on Wile E Coyote Hwy.

Who would have guessed that, since the city of Aiken couldn't plan its growth, the horse country outside the city would be ruined? Aiken was never willing to widen Whiskey Road in town from two to four lanes, but sure quick to sacrifice farms outside the city. Must have been the stables in town were more valuable than farms in the county.

Even the high-dollar consultants the city hired said that the connector road should have been much farther north – maybe even in the city! But that money was wasted. Those consultants were ignored.

No attention was paid to the idea that Aiken County had something unique in its horse districts. No one listened to the horse farm owners who said that valuable animals could not be kept so close to dangerous highways. No attention was paid to the fact that curving, blind-spot ridden Chime Bell Church Road was already totally unsuitable to the amount of traffic and high speeds it had even then.

No, on our watch, we sliced through Aiken County's Thoroughbred Country and developed it and paved it piece by piece into extinction.

So, kids – that was our generation's contribution to Aiken County. What will yours be?

Glenn and Katie Taylor, Aiken