Letter 6: Charleston, SC
Saturday, April 4 as we moved to Charleston we were stopped
by a draw bridge in Beaufort.After a 70 mile trip, we parked in an RV park (Lake Aire) about 15 miles west from downtown Charleston. They too had been hit by all the rain and their spots are all grass. We had a low spot in our place that is muddy, but mostly water free. It was ok and we hope it doesn’t rain again for a while. After setting up and visiting with a few neighbors, we decided to drive into town and get the lay of the land by riding a horse drawn carriage. Everyone was in Charleston. It seemed they had the 32nd 10K BRIDGE RUN that morning and had drawn a crowd to town. Over 31,000 runners finished the race. We finally found a place to park and walked a long way to the market. The main building of the market is the
“Daughters of the Confederacy” Museum. The market is several blocks long and the big building has carvings of animal heads around the top. This is because meat was sold in this building. The next had vegetables and fruits and the last one on the water side sold fish. The carriage ride taught us a lot about Charleston. The market is a lot like New Orleans, in fact the whole town reminded us of NO. The market is about 3 blocks long and skinny—50 feet wide. It is not where slaves were sold, but where the slaves went to buy for their masters. Currently the blacks are making
long grass baskets. It is a lost art and their prices are very high. We drove through 
the business district viewing the oldedst church in town to the residential area. 
This huge home had an interesting fence with spikes and rolls of spikes.We learned about the 
fire protection insurance signs on the houses. Until the 1900s there wasn’t a public fire department in Charleston For over 200 years, the only firemen and equipment were private companies. When you paid one of the private fire companies for fire protection, a cast metal medallion was placed on your structure indicating you were a member of the fire protection company. In case of a fire, first the private fire company inspected the structure for a medallion. If there wasn’t one, they offered on the spot membership…...at a price of all the contents of the structure! Otherwise they let it burn.
The houses are mostly small 
with very narrow walkways between the buildings. Charleston has a VERY strict preservation policy about what can be done to the buildings or a new building. This has been in place since the 1930’s.
We saw a few cobblestone streets 
made of the ballast from around the world offloaded from old ships and piled near the harbor.
At the point of the peninsula is the battery, a large park with big trees. On the street inland from the park was a row 
of huge homes. All built in the early 1800’s.
All around the town we saw 
bicycle taxi’s, like rickshaws. The carriage guide said that was the best way to get around town for short distances.
Sunday, April 5 Happy Birthday Lillian, we drove in to Charleston and attended the 
Trinity United Methodist Church which is the oldest Methodist congregation in Charleston. It is a beautiful church with pillars and 
blue and white interior (we would hate to have to paint). The balconys on the sides were built so the slaves could attend church. There was a 
beautiful window in the chapel. We had to drive all around to find parking a block away and paid $4. to park for church. After church we asked and were given permission to park in their small lot so we could be tourists. During the week they rent spaces to the public on a monthly basis. That’s a clever idea to make money. We were told we could have parked in Piggly Wigley’s parking lot for free, but it was about 10 blocks away. Guess we could have used a bicycle taxi?
It was interesting to see the 
huge double wooden doors on the front to protect the interior from hurricanes. Hurricane Hugo caused significant damage. It has since been repaired. They close the doors on a regular basis.
We walked around the slave market, to see all the interesting items for sale and were amused to see
how they decorate their power poles. Then headed home via grocery and WalMart stops.
Monday, April 6 was a lazy morning with wind and scattered showers. It was nice not to be moving in this weather. During the afternoon we drove up the Ashley river road and saw the
Middleton Equestrian farm and 
Magnolia gardens.Tuesday April 7 was a very diverse day. First on the agenda was to take a very interesting Cullinary Tour. We
walked, talked and tasted our way through Charleston. It immersed us in the history and culture of the Lowcountry. We found out how their cusine has evolved over the past 300+ years while sampling delicious specialties from the local places. We first went to a bakery for coffee, stone ground grits and Charleston bars. All were very good. Then to a very fancy chocolate shop. It was mostly real and bitter chocolate. From there we visited the 
Gullah Basket lady at the market and watched her making the 
Sweet grass baskets. More on the baskets later. We went to a candy shop where they had lots of samples including a whole praline when we left. The candy maker showed us 
how he made one of the candies, by spreading chopped nuts into a pan, then pouring spoons of caramel in circles and toping those with chocolate. Then he lifted the candies out of the pan. Very ingenious. The guide took us through Charleston Place and we read the menu at the Thoroughbred Bar in the 
Charleston Place hotel. She also educated us about the Lowland cooking and how it came about by the slaves cooking what was available for their masters. The white women weren’t allowed in the kitchen except to make desserts. After the Civil War the ex-slaves had to teach the white women how to cook. And she told us about the various restaurants in Charleston. If we could stay a week and eat at one a day we would not be able to get into our clothes! Our last stop was to a 
Barbecue restaurant for a sample of pulled pork with a slice of pickle, greens and their specialty corn muffins that were very much like a soufflé. When the tour was over about noon we were stuffed! This was a very good way to learn about the city and we recommend it highly.Now back to the sweet grass baskets. The slaves that were brought to this area were from Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa. That area was chosen because they grew a lot of rice and South Carolina had the right climate and land for it. Therefore they could immediately start working knowledgeably in the rice fields. The coiled sweetgrass basket is a historically significant example of African cultural heritage that was transported across the Atlantic by enslaved African people. Africans from the Windward or Rice coast of West Africa had knowledge and experience with rice cultivation and were, thus particularly sought after in the Atlantic Slave Trade to the Lowcountry. The first known baskets in the Lowcountry were fanner baskets used for winnowing rice. Originally designed as a tool of rice production and processing, baskets had a very real and significant cultural connection for the displaced Africans. Later we saw these baskets being sold along the highway and there is an Historical Marker stating, “Sweetgrass Baskets, Coil baskets of native sweetgrass and pine needles sewn with strips of palmetto leaf have been displayed for sale on stands along Highway 17 near Mount Pleasant (just east of Charleston) since the 1930’s. This craft, handed down in certain families since the 1700’s. Originally was used on plantations in rice production. Unique to the lowcountry it represents one of the oldest West African art forms in America.”
We also learned there is a Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival where a colorful showcase of diversified sweetgrass baskets, quilts, painting and crafts are displayed. This annual festival includes a variety of Gullah Geechee skits, gospel groups, storytelling, folklore, music, dance and young performers, along with demonstrations and lectures on the history of the baskets. And delicious Lowcountry Gullah Geechee foods. This festival is the first of June each year in Mount Pleasant.
Gullah was a new term for us and the best we could find out is
“The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Historically, the Gullah region once extended north to the Cape Fear area on the coast of North Carolina and south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on the coast of Florida; but today the Gullah area is confined to the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country. The Gullah people are also called Geechee, after the Ogeechee River near Savannah, Georgia. The term Geechee is more common in Georgia than in South Carolina.
The Gullah are known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. They speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and significant influences from African languages in grammar and sentence structure. The Gullah language is related to Jamaican Creole, Bahamian Dialect, and the Krio language of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Gullah storytelling, foodways, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions, etc. all exhibit strong influences from West and Central African cultures.”
From the tour we scouted out a trailer supply to see about a new microwave. All of a sudden the MW just stopped. Like no power, but we tried everything and power was not the problem, so guess we will have to find a new one. We will shop some more.
Every year about the first of April, Olivia has a mammogram and it is that time of year. Last year we were in Las Vegas and Jo Ann Wilmoth Clark was so nice to tell us a good place to go. But Olivia didn’t have her past records and it was a big hassle to get them to read the xrays and give a report. Finally we were able to have Charlton Methodist to send all to Vegas, then finally they sent everything to Waxahachie. So this year Olivia had all the past records with us. Olivia chose the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston this year. We took them into the screening and they were soooooooo nice to help out. The doctor read, compared and gave us back all the x-rays including the new ones and told Olivia she was good to go for another year. They will mail those results in a letter and Olivia can call and request the written report. We call that southern hospitality in a big way on top of good news. Sorry no picture to go along with this story! by now it was 5 pm and
By prior arrangement we met up with Tom & Betty Howard’s son Darby and Renee at the Yacht Landing for drinks and appetizers. We enjoyed our visit with them very much. They are a very refreshing young couple.
WHAT A DAY!CHARLESTON YOU DID WELL, WE HAD A GOOD TIME AND ARE NOW READY TO HEAD ON UP THE COAST.
For comments please email olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com
