I walked and I walked and I walked

Charleston, SC

Yesterday I had an absolutely thrilling day. Not. It had rained over night and the forecast was for rain so I designated it to be a clean and organize day. I need to get things organized because when I leave here I’ll be heading straight to drop off my trailer in St Jerome and then on to Ottawa. It turned out to be a really nice day which was great for getting things organized and cleaned but there are so many other interesting things I could have been doing!

With as much done as I could before I actually pack up, I was back to touring today. I started with a bus tour focused on the Gullah language and culture with a Gullah guide, not surprisingly called Gullah Tours. It was incredibly interesting and the guide was hilarious. Not only that, but he was a great entrepreneur. The tour costs $18 which is very reasonable and he said you don’t pay until the end and if you’re not happy with the tour, you don’t have to pay. I watched and almost everyone gave him $25 netting him a $7 tip. And he sells his book on the bus and points out all the locations throughout the city that sell his book.

I can’t for the life of me remember any of the Gullah that he spoke or told us. It originated in West Africa and is similar to Creole. It’s spoken very quickly and they use a lot of euphemisms. For instance, to describe someone that is a thief they would say “she has busy hands” and instead of telling someone to be quiet they say, “Quit cracking your teeth”. They have no “th” sounds in their language so when they are saying English words “dey” end up dropping “dem”. They seem to be very superstitious. They believe blue wards off evil spirits so often they will paint the roof of their porch or door frames blue, or they wear something blue. (origin of the saying, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue).

One of the characteristic architectural elements of Charleston homes is the ironwork, both forged and cast and one man’s name keeps coming up associated with the best of the 20th century work. More than 500 of the forged iron gates, fences, balconies and window grills in Charleston were done by a blacksmith by the name of Philip Simmons. One of his gates is on permanent display in one of the Smithsonian Museums in Washington and he has received many tributes both local and nationally for his work.

He died in 2009 and his home and workshop were turned over to a foundation to be turned into a museum. We visited it with our Gullah guide and were able to watch one of the blacksmiths that he mentored, his nephew, work on some plant hangers he was making.

After the tour, I finally got in to see the movie about Charleston a the visitor’s centre that Marsha had suggested I see, and I’m glad she did because it’s kind of tucked away in a corner and I would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking. It did a good job of putting things in context as these films always do, and the pride Charlestonians (?) feel about their city shone through.

Then I walked and I walked and I walked, until I could walk no more. I wandered down King Street, the main shopping area, where you’ll find locally owned shops along with the usual higher end national retailers all housed in magnificent historic buildings. Then over to East Bay Street and along the east side of the peninsula, through Waterfront Park, and then zig zagged back north. I stopped for an iced tea because I needed to rest my poor feet and legs and then headed back to the Visitors Centre to head for home. I took some pictures, but everywhere you look is another beautiful garden or cute little alleyway, or neat architectural detail. One of the guides said that even after walking down these streets all their life they still notice new little things all the time, there’s just so much to take in. I get that.

Charleston is another of the places that I can’t remove from my bucket list because I’ll want to come back and I haven’t even left yet.