It was a Wednesday . . .
I was born in a Navy hospital . . . surprise . . . along with about 80+ babies who were born that same week! Spent the first 3 years of my life in a tiny little house near Charleston, SC. Although I didn't live there very long, I've got this innate attachment to it . . . I don't know why . . . probably because it has such a rich history. . . amazing architecture . . . such a beautiful city! Of course, there's a history of piracy . . .
Charleston was named after England's King Charles II . . . initially known as Charles Town (or Towne if you're English . . . they're always adding that "e" to things . . . sometimes even doubling the consonant that comes before it as in shoppe) and was established in the late 1600's. Like most early settlements, Charles Towne has a very bloody past!
“Charleston has a landscape that encourages intimacy and partisanship. I have heard it said that an inoculation to the sights and smells of the Carolina lowcountry is an almost irreversible antidote to the charms of other landscapes, other alien geographies. You can be moved profoundly by other vistas, by other oceans, by soaring mountain ranges, but you can never be seduced. You can even forsake the lowcountry, renounce it for other climates, but you can never completely escape the sensuous, semitropical pull of Charleston and her marshes.” ~ Pat Conroy, The Lords of Discipline
I don't remember much from those early years . . . I know we went to the beach a lot, but my only real memory is sliding down the grassy hill behind our house on cardboard. It's hard to remember things from your first few years.
Weird thing . . . when I became the manager of a travel agency in Florida in the mid 80's, a girl came to work for me. We were talking one day about where we were born, and I mentioned Charleston. She told me her husband was also a Navy brat . . . born in a Naval hospital there! Turns out, he was born the same day I was!! What a strange coincidence. Our fathers didn't know each other though . . . mine spent his years in submarines . . . his was a surface skimmer.
Submariners and Surface Skimmers were always "friendly rivals" . . . the men that served on ships that floated on top of the water referred to Submarines "pig boats" (because the guys always smelled pretty bad, a mix of diesel fuel and lack of bathing made for a rather wretched smell) . . . the men in the submarines said that boats weren't the only thing that floated on top of the water . . . so did . . . to use the more dainty term . . . poop!
I've been back to the city a few times, and it's charm remains evident. Took the girls there for one of our Saturday Adventures . . . stayed in the coolest little Bed & Breakfast, The King's Courtyard Inn, right off Market Street so we could walk everywhere. It was built in 1853 and known as the Blum Building . . . built by a Colonel J. Charles Blum . . . whose vision it was to bring a more diverse business model to that area of Charleston . . . retail shops with hotel rooms just above. Over the following years it housed many different businesses . . . including a second story skating rink at one point. The B & B was opened in 1983 . . . filled with 18th Century reproduction furniture . . . restored to its antebellum heritage.
“Walking the streets of Charleston in the late afternoons of August was like walking through gauze or inhaling damaged silk.” ~ Pat Conroy (of course, Conroy is my favorite author . . . his books are mostly set in Charleston and the surrounding area)
No comments:
Post a Comment