Choose Charleston

The importance of going green should be mentioned as often as possible.  I always enjoy sharing other local blogs with my readers so let me tell you about a blog I found recently, GoGreenCharleston.org.  GoGreenCharleston.org is a site dedicated to sharing the importance and benefits of going green within your community.  After all, if the efforts do not start local, where will they begin? Charleston is a beautiful place, I think we should all do everything in our power to preserve the beauty of Charleston, SC.  Please, do not put this off, visit GoGreenCharleston.org for valuable tips and quality discussion of green living within Charleston. 

This may not be about your quality of life, but it may be the future generations of your family. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!

      The relationship between the colonists and England deteriorated quickly. As a result, Charleston’s roll in the American Revolution was particularly important.

     Protesting the Tea Act of 1773, this personified the concept of taxation without representation; Charlestonians confiscated tea and stored it in the Exchange and Custom House. Soon after, representatives from the colony came to the Exchange to elect delegates to the Continental Congress. The Continental Congress was responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence and on the steps of the Exchange declared independence from the crown.

     On June 28, 1776 General Henry Clinton with around 2000 men tried to seize Charleston. Ultimately, it was a failed attempt as the Continental Army, specifically the 2nd South Carolina regiment fought off the attacks with success. The fleet fired cannon balls, but the explosives failed to penetrate Fort Moultrie’s thick palmetto log walls. Clinton returned in 1780 with14,000 soldiers and poised for success. American General Benjamin Lincoln had to surrender his 5,400 troops after a long night’s battle. This night would be known the “Siege of Charleston”, which was the greatest American defeat of the war. Eventually, Clinton decided to return to New York. This presented an opportunity to Charles Cornwallis to lead his 8000 Redcoats to rally loyalist and demand oaths of allegiance to the King. The British would retain control of the city until 1782. As the British left in1783, the city’s name was officially Charleston.

Want to know more about the history of Charleston, South Carolina?  If you are in the area, I strongly suggest visitng the Charleston Museum.  If you are just looking for information on the web, then read our other posts under “History” or visit Charleston History.

In the rainy seasons, flooding is never far from the minds of ladies and gentlemen of the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Because, of course, Lowcountry means low country, and coastal low country to boot.

Every a heavy day of rain, you can watch cars and trucks bravely attempting to slip through hood-high waters in especially low-lying areas of the peninsula. Quite often, they fail in the attempt and sit, steaming and in need of towing, in the slow rolling wake of other vehicles.

Sandbags in the storeroom. Stocking up on gallon jugs of fresh water, flashlights, batteries, and emergency food items.

All part of living in the potential path of tropical storms.

The South Carolina Aquarium does a fine job of portraying the natural diversity of the Palmetto State, all the way from the Blue Ridge escarpment upstate to the estuaries, beaches, and ocean way down here in the Lowcountry.

Through August, the aquarium might be your best bet for schlepping around to see some brownwater swamp. The building is air conditioned and harbors far fewer mosquitoes than the great outdoors, after all.

Of course, there being nothing like the real thing, the miles and miles of beaches between the Lowcountry and the Grand Strand are active as all get out as of late.

For beating the heat, beaches, barrier islands to kayak toward, and boating excursions all do the job well.

Local is the big buzz-word in food these days, outpacing organic by a long chalk.

The “old” food distribution system (which, of course, is still very much in effect and still moving the vast majority of food) always was a head-scratcher for me, personally.

How exactly is it more economical to ship shrimp from Southeast Asia all the way to South Carolina when we already have had shrimp fishermen aplenty harvesting local waters?

Crazy as it sounds, it is actually the truth of the situation: It’s cheaper to buy product that has been hauled halfway around the globe than to buy from the farmer who lives next door. Please explain the logic.

The simple answer is that the system is just set up that way. It’s all about planes, trains, boats, and big rigs, contracts and warehouses, economics and business as usual; you know - the system.

None of which has stopped a growing number of consumers from trying to draw attention to the fact that, in the United States, small farms and local producers have been slowly going the way of the Dodo for quite some time.

Some shrug it off as “just the way it is.”

Others choose to make it known that they support small farms and local producers. With the launch of the Certified South Carolina effort, there is now a way to at least know which apple is local and which is from far away.

The beginning of a new (well, really, a return to an old) way of thinking about food or a final show of support before the last few traditional family farmers are forced to retire the John Deere and take jobs in middle management like everyone else? We’ll see in time.

Far, far away, beyond Goose Creek and near the shore of Lake Moultrie, there is a quiet place of canals and woods…

If you want the inside scoop on the country charm of Moncks Corner, you could hardly go wrong with Moncks Corner Moments, a personal blog written by the ever adroit and charming Heather Solos. She also manages the local blog round-up, Lowcountry Blogs, for Charleston’s Post & Courier and, together with BigBadIvy, she pens the sassy and savvy Home Ec 101.

In the remaining hours of the day, or so I’ve heard, she also squeezes in a bit of eating, sleeping, and the raising of ch’urns.

The drive to charming Moncks Corner from gentle Charleston can take the better part of an hour so it is best to have your itinerary well planned. There is natural beauty in abundance: Cypress Gardens, Old Santee Canal Park, and the gardens of Mepkin Abbey, as well as opportunities for boating, fishing, or just wandering down a good old-fashioned Main Street.

Now, some folks will claim that Moncks Corner is named for the Trappists who live simple lives of labor and contemplation at Mepkin Abbey. This is actually not true. Moncks Corner is named for George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, who was one of the Lords Proprietors.

The Lords Proprietors, of course, were a group of English gentlemen who helped Charles II regain his throne from the scurrilous Oliver Cromwell. Charles II was very, very happy about having his throne back (wouldn’t you be?) and rewarded the men with land grants in the Carolinas.

Now, all this talk of history makes one hungry.

Luckily, when it comes time to feast, be it midday or ’round about suppertime, there are ample diner-style eateries available in the center of town.

Of course, fair is fair, last time I was Moncks Corner, I was pressed for time so I took the Sonic Drive-In option: BLT and a Tropical Mango Iced Tea, yum yum.

The young lady at the window provided the friendliest service I’ve seen in a good long while.

With the fourth annual South Carolina Governor’s Cup of Surfing only a little more than 6 weeks away, competition is heating up at the Washout on Folly Beach.

Despite less than spectacular waves this Saturday, local surfers continued to perfect their techniques and accumulate points while preparing for the Governor’s Cup and other major Eastern Surfing Association events.

Wind and water have, over time, washed much of Morris Island away. Once it had been stripped bare of vegetation during the Civil War, the sea island had no defense left against erosion.

If we, as a people, really did learn from the past, there might be a hint and a half for us in that.

Morris Island, as we all know, is where the Battle of Battery Wagner took place on July 18, 1863. The 54th Massachusetts regiment led that assault (this was the famous battle depicted in the 1989 movie Glory starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick).

The memory of the soldiers who fought and died there should be sufficient reason for us to protect and preserve what is left of the island. But between over-ambitious developers and the constant action of the currents, it has been an uphill battle.

The Morris Island Lighthouse in particular is in special need of care. There was a time when a combination of structural damage and lost sand nearly put paid to the 130-plus year old monument.

Just as with anything else that we value, there is no one-time-fix or permanent remedy for Morris Island and its lighthouse. Preserving the past requires the efforts of both the present and the future.

Are we up to the challenge?

Now in its fourth year, the Folly Festival Film Festival supports, encourages, and acts as a showcase for filmmakers, in particular for local talent from South Carolina.

The Folly Felder is a beautiful fit for Piccolo Spoleto, a local arts extravaganza that runs alongside the more internationally flavored Spoleto Festival each year.

Short film has become an increasingly accesible art form, thanks in large part to digital technology and new ways and means of distribution now possible.

A well-made short can be a special delight. Time constraints force artists to make full use of their talents, to snip away unneeded bits and keep the story in tight focus throughout.

This year’s festival paid special recognition to three extraordinary shorts. The bronze went to local filmmaker Richard Almes of Mt. Pleasant, the silver to Merrill Weekley, just up the coast in Surfside Beach, and a well-deserved gold to Barry Battles and Griffin Hood of Alabama.

The major film industry, as we all know, has had more than a few flirtations with Charleston and other South Carolina locations. While this is an obvious choice for films about the American Civil War, it is also becoming recognized that the spectacular landscapes and beauty of the South Carolina Lowcountry make it outstanding for other features as well.

Hey, here in Charleston, we’re always ready for our close-up.

Introduction 

There is a distinction in the local parlance between the come’yuhs and the bin’yuhs. Should you be a bin’yuh, your ancestry may well stretch back to the time of the original walled city of Charles Towne, fortified against attacks by the Spanish, to the time of Northern Aggression, or perhaps only to the early to middle years of the twentieth century. Come’yuhs did exactly that: they came here after being born somewhere else.

I am a come’yuh, just so you know.

This is fine by me because it has, over the last 17 years, allowed me the joy of discovery.

The American South exerts a powerful, at least cinematic if not outright mythic, pull on the imagination. Is it any wonder that brides consistently choose Charleston as one of the most popular destination wedding sites? The semi-tropical coast, barrier islands scattered along its length, is a place of salt marshes and live oaks, Spanish moss slung from the languid dark branches like a lingering image from a half-remembered dream.

Travelers from around the world are drawn to the architectural grandeur and hand-detailed craftsmanship of Southern mansions. Fascination with the history of the plantation system and the war between North and South grabs hold of them and then wild-caught shrimp from local waters, Carolina Gold rice, and sweet tea does the rest.

Little wonder that many a new resident to Charleston, Beaufort, Savannah, or the islands in-between tells a tale of having visited many times, each time lingering a little longer, until finally deciding to pack up their belongings and come here to stay.

Each time you visit, you find a little more to savor.

And I’ll be sharing exactly that, post by post, with you in the days ahead.