Think we “wasted” a perfectly lovely day on Thursday after the Andersons departed doing laundry and cleaning the boat. We had a super time with them, especially enjoying Brahms German Requiem, but needed a little down time.
All that luggage for a three day stay? Oh yes, Mary brings LOTS of snacks in coolers that need to go back to Asheville! P.S. Mary, we have your frozen cooler inserts:-(
On Friday we managed (barely!) to get in a walking tour by the Charleston Preservation Society (the last stop was rained out) that focused on Catfish Row….the setting for Porgy and Bess. The tour guide literally walked us through the history of the creation of DuBose Heyward’s novel, the subsequent play and Gershwin opera.
Tour leader for the Catfish Row/Porgy & Bess tour. An interesting and different way to look at the city of Charleston.This building was the setting for “Catfish Row” in Porgy & Bess, tho’ the real name was Cabbage Row. The arched entry leads to a courtyard around which tenement like housing formed three sides. The Italian wrought iron decorating the arch is the original as described in DeBose Heyward’s 1926 book “Porgy.”The Porgy & Bess settings are all in the historic district which has been preserved thanks to the efforts of Charleston preservationists from the 1920’s to today. The cobblestone streets in the area are picturesque, but very difficult to walk on!Also in the historic district is probably the most photographed scene in Charleston, the rainbow houses on East Bay Street. Owners throughout the district must submit all plans for any exterior changes including paint color to a Preservation Committee. If your neighbor already has a pink house, too bad for you if you had your heart set on a pink paint job. You may be stuck with lilac.The scourge of slavery, of course, weaves in an out of the Porgy & Bess story and in Charleston’s history. Slave auctions were originally held right at the port, but the city fathers later required slave sellers to move to buildings because the sight of the sales was unseemly to city visitors…..perhaps the first instance of tourism’s influence. This building, a few blocks away from the port area, was one of many slave auction warehouses. Today it is a museum.
There wasn’t a hint of rain in the weather forecast for Friday. Weather Bug showed sunny skies for the whole day. One of Cliff’s weather apps said there was a 30% chance of thunderstorms, but they would be very intermittent. I skipped bringing my newly purchased raincoat — which was very unfortunate. It started raining at the end of our walking tour — around noon — and was still coming down in buckets an hour and a half later. We finally got a ride back to the marina and were happy to to make the quarter mile trek to the boat in “just” a light rain. We were soaked through by the time we got to the boat.
And, boy did it rain. Our tour wrapped up one stop short and we dashed to 82 Queen for lunch hoping the rain would stop by the time we finished. Two glasses of wine later….no let up!Renovation is booming in Charleston and I thiink the main reason is that you cannot tear down any building that is more than 75 years old. This house is not only being renovated but also being lifted to eliminate the nearly constant flooding. It floods in heavy rains, high tides, coastal storm surge and maybe from broken water mains too.Note all the bracing on this house from the chimneys to the porches.
Thursday night we went to a local theater group’s comedy (The Bible: The Complete Word of God— Abridged). The humor was hit and miss, but one of the three characters had an absolutely first rate voice (they needed to have more songs!!) and another had great comedic timing. But, a lot of the jokes were lame and the audience participation part (playing animals on Noah’s ark) was lamer. And….do water pistols aimed at the audience really add to the flood experience?
The set for “The Bible” comedy show.
Flood experience was REAL on Friday. We learned that Charleston does, indeed, flood rather easily. It was a lot of rain, but the chaos it created in flooded streets and traffic seemed out of proportion. The driver of the marina’s courtesy van assured me that it gets a lot worse.
