We had a great day in Charleston today, in spite of locking my keys in the truck. Here is Teressa’s detailed account of the day from her journal:Kids were up by 8 and studying by 8:30. Gary and I walked Rocky and prepared to go into town. It was short sleeve weather from the get-go and very humid. Around 10, we drove the 10 miles or so into Charleston. Along the way we passed many little, shabby stands where ladies were selling their West African baskets.
Our first stop was the visitor’s center in the historic district. We signed up for a 90 minute greyhound minibus tour of Charleston. Our guide was a native Charleston man with a very thick southern drawl and some strange and quirky mannerisms. Boy, did he know his history. He took us through the college of Charlestown which was a beautiful old campus. Their common area, where graduations take place, is a large grassy park with a pavilion at one end. At graduation, only the professors wear caps and gowns. The graduating girls wear white dresses and carry half a dozen roses and the men wear white tuxedos. The tradition began when the first girl to attend the school graduated and received roses from her father.
We cruised down King Street, past shops and churches. Charleston is known as the “holy city” because pre-revolutionary war they would allow anyone with 7 members to start their own church. Many people moved to Charleston to escape religious persecution by the Puritans and Evangelicals of the Northeast and elsewhere. We saw all of the main tourist attractions in historic Charleston. Cabbage Row, later named “Catfish Row” was the location of the Dubose Heyward story “Porgy”. This story later became the basis for George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess”, a fictionalized glimpse of black life in Charleston during the 1920’s. The Battery is the area where many shipping businessmen lived and where Charlestonians watched the attack on Fort Sumter. Rainbow Row is a block of historical houses that were preserved but painted with bright colors. One thing we found interesting was that many of the homes had two front staircases—one going up from the right and one from the left, meeting at the top center. The ladies in their hoop skirts would walk up the right and the men went to the left so that they would not see the ladies’ ankles when they lifted their hoop skirts. These same women wore very low cut dresses with lots of bosom showing, but the ankles remained covered!
At the end of the tour, we walked to a Thai restaurant on King Street called Basil. It was just what we needed—healthy, great-tasting food. We then drove to a parking spot near the market area and Laura and I wandered through the multitude of vendor booths. A craft/art that comes from this area is coiled sweetgrass baskets. After talking with one of the black ladies who weaves the baskets, Laura and I learned what to look for in a quality basket. The skill has been passed down from Africa to the slaves and now to African American descendents of slaves. They are woven only in West Africa and South Carolina with most of the basket work being done in Mount Pleasant (which is where our KOA is). This is because the materials are only available in those locations. The baskets are made of sweetgrass, bulrush, pine needles and palmetto. After shopping around, we found a pretty basket that we liked and purchased it. Brian bought a crystal paperweight with the South Carolina palmetto tree etched inside of it.
Our last stop was the visitor center for Fort Sumter. We read the displays in the museum and Brian and Laura got their passports stamped. From the deck, we admired the bridge between Charleston and Mount Pleasant and looked out at Fort Sumter. When we arrived back at the truck, we discovered that the keys were inside. I had left my set of keys home to lighten the load of my purse. Fortunately AAA was able to send someone out in about 25 minutes. Laura and I took about a 12 block round trip walk and got a closeup look at some of the homes. The houses are built sideways. The side facing the street is very narrow and has just a few windows. The British used to tax people based on how many windows they had on the street side of their home. So, the southerners would build the house narrow but deep. Along the south side there was a porch the length of the house downstairs and a balcony the length of the house upstairs. Windows had shutters and could be opened up to allow the ocean breezes in during the summer time. Many of these homes fell into disrepair after an earthquake they had after the Civil War. To restore them so they could be used (since people didn’t have much money to rebuild) they inserted metal rods the length and width of the homes. At the end of the rod on the outsides of the home, they would place decorative end pieces. So we took some photos of those on our walk.
Our first stop was the visitor’s center in the historic district. We signed up for a 90 minute greyhound minibus tour of Charleston. Our guide was a native Charleston man with a very thick southern drawl and some strange and quirky mannerisms. Boy, did he know his history. He took us through the college of Charlestown which was a beautiful old campus. Their common area, where graduations take place, is a large grassy park with a pavilion at one end. At graduation, only the professors wear caps and gowns. The graduating girls wear white dresses and carry half a dozen roses and the men wear white tuxedos. The tradition began when the first girl to attend the school graduated and received roses from her father.
We cruised down King Street, past shops and churches. Charleston is known as the “holy city” because pre-revolutionary war they would allow anyone with 7 members to start their own church. Many people moved to Charleston to escape religious persecution by the Puritans and Evangelicals of the Northeast and elsewhere. We saw all of the main tourist attractions in historic Charleston. Cabbage Row, later named “Catfish Row” was the location of the Dubose Heyward story “Porgy”. This story later became the basis for George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess”, a fictionalized glimpse of black life in Charleston during the 1920’s. The Battery is the area where many shipping businessmen lived and where Charlestonians watched the attack on Fort Sumter. Rainbow Row is a block of historical houses that were preserved but painted with bright colors. One thing we found interesting was that many of the homes had two front staircases—one going up from the right and one from the left, meeting at the top center. The ladies in their hoop skirts would walk up the right and the men went to the left so that they would not see the ladies’ ankles when they lifted their hoop skirts. These same women wore very low cut dresses with lots of bosom showing, but the ankles remained covered!
At the end of the tour, we walked to a Thai restaurant on King Street called Basil. It was just what we needed—healthy, great-tasting food. We then drove to a parking spot near the market area and Laura and I wandered through the multitude of vendor booths. A craft/art that comes from this area is coiled sweetgrass baskets. After talking with one of the black ladies who weaves the baskets, Laura and I learned what to look for in a quality basket. The skill has been passed down from Africa to the slaves and now to African American descendents of slaves. They are woven only in West Africa and South Carolina with most of the basket work being done in Mount Pleasant (which is where our KOA is). This is because the materials are only available in those locations. The baskets are made of sweetgrass, bulrush, pine needles and palmetto. After shopping around, we found a pretty basket that we liked and purchased it. Brian bought a crystal paperweight with the South Carolina palmetto tree etched inside of it.Our last stop was the visitor center for Fort Sumter. We read the displays in the museum and Brian and Laura got their passports stamped. From the deck, we admired the bridge between Charleston and Mount Pleasant and looked out at Fort Sumter. When we arrived back at the truck, we discovered that the keys were inside. I had left my set of keys home to lighten the load of my purse. Fortunately AAA was able to send someone out in about 25 minutes. Laura and I took about a 12 block round trip walk and got a closeup look at some of the homes. The houses are built sideways. The side facing the street is very narrow and has just a few windows. The British used to tax people based on how many windows they had on the street side of their home. So, the southerners would build the house narrow but deep. Along the south side there was a porch the length of the house downstairs and a balcony the length of the house upstairs. Windows had shutters and could be opened up to allow the ocean breezes in during the summer time. Many of these homes fell into disrepair after an earthquake they had after the Civil War. To restore them so they could be used (since people didn’t have much money to rebuild) they inserted metal rods the length and width of the homes. At the end of the rod on the outsides of the home, they would place decorative end pieces. So we took some photos of those on our walk.
Back in the trailer we ate up our meatballs and potatoes and watched the first episode of the miniseries “North and South”. In the movie, the Mains’ home was actually the Boone Hall Plantation which is right down the road from the KOA. The Hazzard home was one of the mansions we saw today in Charleston.
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