"In this sticky web that we're all in, behaving decently is no small task." -- Novelist Stacey D'Erasmo

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Boy, Was I Wrong!

     Like everyone else, I was predicting a win by Hillary Clinton. So much for conventional wisdom. I think I'll retire again from the forecasting game, since I'm so bad at it. I just hope that Trump gets a prescription for Valium, calms down and becomes more reasonable (hoping there was method to his madness?) or, if not, that the Democrats and the Republicans who don't agree with him can shut down his more outlandish proposals.

     With that, I'm going back to what I was doing -- which is looking for a place to retire. For the past two weeks B and I have been in Charleston, SC., or more precisely, at the beach about ten miles outside the city.

     We've been enjoying the warm sunny days, soaking up the salt air, walking on the beach, and sampling local cuisine such as crab cakes, shrimp and grits, and fried green tomatoes. Last weekend we went to a jazz festival. The other day we rented bikes and rode down to the state park.

Looking down King Street.

     And we've also gone into downtown Charleston a couple of times, to walk around, go shopping, visit the art galleries.

Caviar and Bananas, a gourmet shop on George St. We know someone who works there.

     The main shopping area runs along King Street. Yesterday, while B was buying a couple of new items for her wardrobe, I found the nearby College of Charleston and walked around campus.

This used to be a bookstore in Charleston. Now it's a College of Charleston communications building.

     I came out on Calhoun Street, then continued on to Marion Square -- both named after historic South Carolina figures who were heroes to some, but judged more harshly by history.

     Francis Marion (1732 - 1795) better known as "The Swamp Fox" fought in the French and Indian War and later served as a military officer in the Continental army. He was hailed as a hero, pioneering guerrilla war tactics against the British in South Carolina, but he was also a slaveholder and found to have persecuted the Cherokee Indians.

Monument to John C. Calhoun, located in Marion Square.

     The nearby Francis Marion Hotel is also named after him, along with Francis Marion National Forest and Francis Marion University, as well as towns and cities in more than a dozen states.

     John C. Calhoun (1782 - 1850) was a U. S. congressman, Secretary of War, and later a U. S. senator. He ran for president in 1824, lost to John Adams and instead became vice president, first under Adams and then under Andrew Jackson. Calhoun was a slaveholder and a staunch defender of southern states rights against the federal government and perceived Northern threats.

Mother Emmanuel AME church.

     A little farther down Calhoun St. I came to another landmark, the Mother Emmanuel AME church. It was here that Dylann Roof shot and killed nine parishioners -- not sometime before the Civil War, but just last year on June 17, 2015. Roof is currently undergoing competency evaluation even as a jury is being selected for his trial.

     Yes, there is an ugly side to history, especially southern history, and to our current society as well. But we try not to dwell on that too much, and instead enjoy the more positive aspects of life. We did not take a carriage ride in Charleston, but a lot of people do.

Carriage ride down Queen St.

     We did patronize one of the popular restaurants in the city. And then what did we do?

Magnolias restaurant on East Bay St.

     We headed back to the beach.

Back home at the end of the day.

     

    

16 comments:

Snowbrush said...

I should think that Charleston would be a nice place to live

Dick Klade said...

Nice tour. Charleston is one city missed in my travels. Looks like a grand place.

stephen Hayes said...

Charleston is on our bucket list but so far we've yet to make a visit. It looks great in your pictures.

Tabor said...

I love that partof the world.

Friko said...

I suppose keeping calm and hoping for the best is all anyone can do.
Looking for a possible retirement place in a pretty town like Charleston is surely great fun.

Olga said...

I have not yet made it there although I would like to visit some day. Right now I am happy in my blue state of Vermont though!

tahoegirl.blog said...

it looks wonderful. Is it an expensive place to retire??

Tom said...

. . . and here I thought everybody had been to Charleston, at least once in their life. It's a good place to put on your bucket list, whether you'd want to live there or not. Christina, what we've found in all our travels is that there are a lot of inexpensive places to live in America, but anyplace you'd really want to live, including Charleston, is more expensive than you'd want or think. And so the search goes on.

Anonymous said...

I have been to Charleston, in the summer. Sweltering, but livable with a nice beach breeze. Lovely. The downtown market was wonderful. It is one of the places we considered.
Enjoy the hunt. Janette

DJan said...

I only passed through South Carolina once on my way elsewhere. I remember my dad and grandmother buying an enormous bucket of shelled oysters and eating their way through it. It would be too hot for me in the summer, but Charleston looks lovely today. :-)

Anonymous said...

An interstingp place. Pre 1990, I did some work for the Census Bureau in Charleston. Found the old slave market haunting.

Kathy @ SMART Living 365.com said...

Hi Tom! I was wrong as well....BUT, I have heard good things about Charleston. If you do move there my Thom and I might have to make a visit back east and drop in on you and B. Something tells me we'd have some great conversations! Enjoy your time there and the "hunting!' ~Kathy

Rosaria Williams said...

Ah, yes, beautiful places end up being the most expensive as everyone else wants a piece of the pie. When we moved, we knew the place nearby, Bandon, was home to world famous golf. So we moved twenty five miles south, enjoy the same beautiful views and climate, but none of the outrageous cost. In a few years this town will be out of reach too as number of places are being made into vacation homes.

joared said...

Don't fret about your prediction -- just about everybody got it wrong. My friends and I just couldn't let ourselves believe otherwise so we couldn't believe what happened either. I experienced southern living in the late forties, early fifties -- was a culture shock. Never been to S.C. but Calif. native friends visited there in recent years and loved the city. Sounds like you'll need beach access wherever, or maybe some body of water. Make the most of these years.

Anonymous said...

If you like the beach, come to Hawaii.

joared said...

FWIW I highly recommend reading this commentary I became aware of just today. She's a prominent highly respected 49 year old Russian and American Journalist Masha Gessen who has had first hand experience as a citizen in both countries:
http://www2.nybooks.com/daily/s3/nov/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival.html