A TOWN THAT KNOWS ITS PLACE Pickens, South Carolina Named after Revolutionary War hero General Andrew Pickens and chartered in 1868, the small Upstate city of Pickens is blooming. PICKENS SC BY JOAN VANNORSDALL A 16 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM few days before I arrived in Pickens, the 40th annual Azalea Festival brought thousands to the city for two days of good food and music, cruise-in cars and arts and crafts, a pie contest and carnival rides. So things were pretty quiet in Pickens when I walked Main Street . . . the perfect time to look and listen and learn the essence of this little city of 3,374. City Administrator Tim O'Briant brings both economic development and journalism skills to the town he now calls home. " The mountains drew us here, " he says. " Pickens is an oasis in Pickens County-it sits right at the foot of the state parks. It's only 60 miles from Asheville, just 20 miles from Greenville and Clemson. Easley is 15 minutes up the road. " O'Briant is determined that his new home will maintain its character. " We don't want long highways with subdivisions. We want to maintain the feel and appearance of a beautiful small town. We want the right kind of growth and development to fit our character. The growth around Pickens has gone crazy- but Pickens has not. We have the gracious gift of having time to appreciate what we have. " So I set off to learn the character of Pickens, the little city with big dreams. What I found was in turn surprising (a downtown with a century-old hardware store as well as a thriving creperie and the Bee Well Honey Natural Market); fascinating (a 1902 jail turned into an art and history museum); surprising (three massive flea markets milling with eager shoppers); historically illuminating (the Hagood Mill andhttp://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM