Charleston, #1...

One of the main reasons why I think people go to Charleston is to look at the gardens, the homes, the old churches and the cemeteries, and to take in the charm and "sense of the South" about all of it.  Sure, there are beaches and golf courses, and all sorts of displays and museums, but I'm of the opinion that without all the Southern Charm of it all, the rest could just as well be in Iowa somewhere.

We began our exploration of tghe area in probably the most typical way -- the narrated carriage ride.  This way, we get an overall feel of the area and get a feeling for where the best gardens, churches and other such places are.  We also picked out a couple of eating places we would visit and made note of the Market and added it to the list of intended stops.  So off we went.

OK.  So now that we have taken the carriage ride, which, by the way, was very informative, we know where we want to go to see the things on our list.

First, let's look at the churches and graveyards.  There were several really old churches in Charleston (by the way, it was originally called Charlestown but that was changed after the Revolution because the residents didn't want to have anything else to do with the crown) and it was really neat to go inside them.  The one in particular had individually owned pews which were sectioned off with wooden sides and fronts.  They were purchased when the church was built and passed down through the families for centuries. I think they said any new families or guests to the church would sit in the balcony area until one became available to purchase or they stopped coming to the church.  All the little pews had brass plates on them with the family name on it and some had several generations of family names listed.  I'm not sure how I felt about this, but it sure gave me the sense of history and sure would have been of benefit to anyone doing a family genealogy.

Of course all these churches had grand old cemeteries  on the grounds.
One church said they didn't discriminate against new and "old" Charlestonians when it came to burials.  However, they did point out that all the "old family" Charlestonians were buried in the grave yard by the church, and anyone new to town (I assume any family who came since the Civil War) was buried on the other side of the street in the "new" cemetery.

In any event, on both sides of the street there were headstones dating back to the late 1600s and a whole bunch (obviously) dated around the time of the Civil War.  It was really interesting seeing tombstones of  signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the articles of cessation from the US.  What a trip back thru history.  We were there somewhat toward the end of the day and at 5:00 the bells would ring in the church towers -- what a sombre sound.  We also were in the area after dark as we took one of the local "ghost tours" which had to include a walk-thru of a cemetery.  After all, where else would the ghosts of Old Charleston hang out.


The second big thing on our list was the canvasing of the city's houses and gardens.  This was not only very educational, but also informative of the style of life some in this town lived in the late 1800s before the War.  Many of these houses are for sale today because, I imagine, they are so expensive to maintain and there are so many regulations ranging from how to cut the grass, trim the bushes, and what colors and type of paint can be used, inside or out.  But one of the things we learned on the carriage ride was that the homes of the VERY wealthy (or wanna-be wealthy) all had a big granite slab in front of the house which would allow the ladies to get out of the carriage without getting their nice shoes in the clay of the road or the horse poop which was such a problem back then.  After all, as was pointed out by the tour guide, no self-respecting lady of wealth in the south would be able to attract a gentleman suitor with horse poop on her shoes and the bottom of her dress!

Here are some of the nicer gardens.  The pictures don't do them justice and you don't get a real good look because of the gates, but these will give you the idea.

One other area I really enjoyed was the Battery Park area.  Unfortunately I do not have a picture of this huge Southern Oak which took up most of the whole end of the park.  I had to borrow this from the internet so you would have an idea of the size of these trees and how they spread out a canopy over this whole park area.  This really looked like "Old South."

So those were the main things on our tour of Charleston.  There were the multicolored houses and some of the historical buildings of the Old Charleston area (dating back to the times after the Revolution), but I will have to put them in another entry as this one is getting to the limit of my fingers to type and your seat to sit and read.

Being Southern isn't talking with an accent...or rocking on a porch while drinking sweet tea, or knowing how to tell a good story. It's how you're brought up -- with Southerners, family (blood kin or not) is sacred; you respect others and are polite nearly to a fault; you always know your place but are fierce about your beliefs. And food along with college football -- is darn near a religion. (Jan Norris)

Hooah