Preface
Have you ever heard of ‘Spur-of the-Moment’ road trip? If you have, yes, this is it. We, three retired ladies, all golden girls - Mimi, a successful property manager, Jen-Jen, a respected Air Force nurse and me, the senior IT specialist from Montgomery County Government definitely found the excitement from the trip. It’s thrilled to be enjoying our second childhood field trip again. You would probably think our teachers used to plan our trip when we were in elementary schools days. So our husband should have helped us and offered some advises for this seemed to be a swift and impulsive decision. No, this trip is only for us - "Retired Ladies Only" to experience the freshness and pleasure of visiting the backdrop of Gone With The Wind and vestige of The American Civil War - Charleston, S. Carolina.
With the calling of warm weather down south - Maryland has been frigid cold without having major snow storms since November. Mimi, the cabin fever gone mad, did have something in her mind that she would like to get her money back on TV, high-speed and video Comcast Cable services from her son’s property in Charleston, S. Carolina. That White Tara - a spacious mansion has been in the market waiting for prospective owners. So we just packed up and headed out of town for a few days to get away.
Jen-Jen was so stressed out lately from overseeing of all the minutiae of Taiwanese Americans Association’s annual meeting and the mess from renting venue contract. She accepted our invitation right away and showed up at my house Monday morning 7:00 a.m. sharp. Don’t forget, she is a well-documented night owl. Other folks (golden boys or golden girls) we invited were either wishy washy or flat out afraid of being with these three BRAVE and CRAZY women. We understand the inconvenience of separating the family. How lucky Mimi and I have a husband - Our Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind, the rare breed that allows us have fun without any worries.
Mimi and I were old tennis friends for the past decade. We have lost touch due to our lives got busy and took different directions. She found me eventually through the mutual tennis pal who had informed Mimi that I was recently retired and just came back from California as a new grandmother.
Vowed to retire happy and enjoy my life to its fullest, I have been reading books after books, since I came back from California in July 2014. I have been so suppressed for years by the structure of a job, reading leisurely became impossible. Now the reading lists are partly from two of my college on-line students’ reading assignments and partly from my life-long hobby. It so happened I just finished reading 1. Gone With The Wind (by Margaret Mitchell) 2. Rhett Butler’s People (by Donald McCaig) 3. Scarlett (by Alexandra Ripley). So the rest is our journey together as good friends who you can always reconnect where it’s left off. Amazing!
I promised to tell a good story about the American Civil War history with three books written in chronicles the life and times of Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) from the preceding Civil War, the first shot on Fort Sumter, through to Reconstruction.
The Backdrop of History Event and "Gone With The Wind" Territory
Let the Journey Begin
Monday, Martin Luther King’s Birthday - 1/19/2015 – 7:45 a.m. – freezing cold with light flurries and piled up snow since January in Maryland – Major Jen-Jen, an Air Force retired nurse and a free-spirited successful property manager – with our heavy coats posted with my car - 2005 Acura MDX. Ben, my husband did inspect my car and okayed it. I had only typed Charleston Visitor Center, 375 Meeting Street on my GPS and a few copies of road maps from Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Inside we had our personal comfy pillows, food/munchies, and CD songs that Jen-Jen and I would practice for our upcoming concert on 4/25/2015. The most precious is the three adventurous minds ready to tread the road (I-95) that the Civil War soldiers, either the Unions or the Confederates who had tramped along the road from 1861 - 1865.
I - 95 & Civil War Trails
I remembered passing Richmond, Virginia - the capital of the Confederate State of America. The city has definitely changed since the Civil War time described in the books, where across the broad expanse of field, practically nothing could be seen but row upon row of tents or the soldiers bivouacked on the open. On the highway 95, I saw the industry flourished and downtown bustled. The smoke billowed from the factory’s chimney was the sign of 21st century polluted atmosphere. Too bad, we did not have time to take the pictures.
I think we all let our imagination roam free while I kept both of them captivated with Rhett Butler’s dashing dark eyes and swarthy face mocking or jeering Scarlett O’Hara’s spoiled, self-centered but iron-willed personalities. The conversations shared with our personal accounts of stories. It may not have the exact drama depicted in the novel, Gone with the Wind, we were able to relate the main theme that the character traits from these two unyielding brats were so much in common. They clashed like flint and steel. She was so determined to survive after the South Confederates were defeated by the North Unions. She vowed that her Tara Planation was what she needed to protect and re-build even if she had to lie, cheat and kill. Indeed, she had killed one deserted Yankee while she had the burden of Tara Planation on her shoulder. “What a woman, I have a deep impersonal admiration for your endurance!”, "My dear, I don't give it a damn!" That was Rhett Butler’s comment on Scarlett O’Hara and hers, "Fiddle de dee, tomorrow is another day!”
We had lunch break at Kenly 95 BP, North Carolina and another one at Ridgeville, South Carolina. Before we knew it, we had travelled with four wheels almost 600 miles and covered the twelve years span (1861 - 1873) of the stories. And it’s not quite completed yet! We had arrived the final destination - Mimi and her son’s "White Tara Mansion” at Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina around 4:30 p.m.
See Wee Restaurant
We ate like a local - This ramshackle roadside place was a gathering spot for the early European settlers in 17th Century. The See Wee name was actually a small Indian tribe settled in the region. They often hunted and fished on the offshore islands. It brought back some of the descriptions from Rhett Butler’s People (by Donald McCaig) that the young Rhett’s love of marshes and tidewaters of Low Country as a boy. We ate the fried green tomatoes and She-Crab soup- both are famous Low Country staples. The Sherry Wine sauce on the side tasted salty and a slight bitter. We were not the fan, however, Rhett Butler’s mother, Elizabeth Butler loved it a lot.
Charleston Waterfront Park
This was Rhett Butler’s playing field before, during and after the Civil War. Use your imagination to picture Rhett Butler’s illegal and brave pirate’s behavior - maneuvering dirty tricks to haggle and bargain the arms and merchandises during the civil war time (4/12/1861 – 4/9/1865) at this harbor. The furious protagonist of Scarlett (by Alexandra Ripley) Scarlett O'Hara, suffered a heartbreak loss of everything - her Tara plantation and Beau Ashley) - in Georgia, desperately wanted to use her charms to woo Rhett Butler back in his home territory. She convinced Rhett to take her for a sail on this harbor. The story hit its height when the storm came and their boat capsized. Back in Charleston, Scarlett was near death at Rhett’s mother's house. Rhett Buttler was nursing his internal pain and turmoil and gone until...... reuited in Ireland - their roots by by Alexandra Ripley's account in Scarlett.
Interesting, but it actually gave me a lot of goosebumps driving on the high bridge with Cooper River underneath me. The architectural design was quite unique though. We also visited the local shrimp dock - CA Magwood Jr. and Son’s - Unfortunately we did not come at the right shrimp season. But, we still bought the freshest shrimps from the girl she caught them a few days ago with the shrimp boat in the picture.
Market St.
Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett’s Butler’s mother’s carriage ruts were everywhere – It’s Rhett’s mother trying to cultivate the tough and spoiled Georgia gal, Scarlett, into Charleston’s old Low Country aristocratic society where her son’s making his fortunes – running the blockade for the Confederates and Unions and expanding the rice plantation and phosphate mining. Imagine how much a mother loved her own son. She perfectly exemplified grace and dignity to honor her son in her face. Mimi, Jen-Jen, did you see yourself in her? I do!
Waterfront Mansion Ball Room
Mimi’s husband’s 80th birthday party will be held here. It will be a big fanfare, all are invited! – Mimi’s is planning the celebration as grand as Twelve Oaks Plantation’s Ball before the start of Civil War – 4/12/1861
Shopping Spree (Here at Market St. and Tanger Outlets)
What fun to browse the local merchandise - Jen-Jen marveled at fitting $160.00 red shoes. Mimi’s extravagant gifts for her family and herself at Coach Store (Tanger Outlets - 15 miles from Charleston) made everyone happy. Three of us had our shares of giddiness window shopping and trying different girls items. We bought local peanuts, pecan tea cookies to savior the Charleston’s treats.
Sweet Grass Weaving
Jen-Jen and Mimi learned from the locals about how to make the pretty roses with different colors. This handicraft was actually brought to South Carolina Low Country by slaves who came from West Africa in the 17th century. It reminds me of Taichung Da-Jia’s weaving hat 台中 - 大甲帽 - I got very nostalgic when I watched his skillful hands weaved in and out for a basket.
Whole Food Lunch With the Local Folk
Mimi’s easy going and free-spirited personality – meeting the new friend – a heart pacemaker from Biotectronic. This was the most expensive lunch we had - $50.00. It ripped off our “whole Paycheck”, but, it’s worth it.
Boone Hall Planation
It’s closed for planning Saturday’s Annual Oyster Festival – we came too early, otherwise, Rhett Butler’s father - Langston Butler’s Dunmore Landing Plantation in the book Rhett Butler’s People (by Donald McCaig) boasted fourteen thousand acres, three hundred and fifty negroes, sixty horses, including five of the finest Thoroughbreds. Rhett’s own stallion - Tecumseh - was his best toy. No one could ride him. I thought about my son who would not let me drink in his car. He made me finish it before I could get in. Are men all alike?
Charles Pinckney National Historic Site
This is a 715 acres plantation (Snee Farm) where Charles Pinckney – S. Carolina’s three-terms governor and U.S. Senator - one of the signers of the United States Constitution inherited from his father, Colonel Charles Pinckney in 1728. Fort Sumter is only 10 minutes drive from here according to the park ranger. I bought some coloring books and children’s Civil War figures for my grandson - I would be on-call Saturday to baby-sit him in California.
. Mimi’s in front of Camellia garden at Snee Farm
. Moss-hung live-oak tree – three care-free retired Maryland gals posed for memory at the plantation
. See the Hawk on top of the tree branch?
. An old dried-up well at National park - Charles Pinckney’s rice plantation
. Rice -trunk to control the water levels during the rice planting/harvesting season - I need to take my grandson for a trip here one day. His great grandfather - my father was a good rice farmer in Hsinchu (新竹)
Home-bound - Mission Accomplished
. We left 6:30 a.m. in the dark to beat the traffic going to Columbia’s direction (S. Carolina’s capital city)
Comcast Cables were returned and $500.00 credit was all take care of. But, it’s not what you thought without any drama. WE COULD NOT FIND ANY TOOLS IN THE WHITE TARA - NO PLIER WRENCH, NO SCISSOR, NO NOTHING! Ladies hands were not helpful to unscrew the 10 screws on those cables. Finally, I missed my husband badly at that moment! He was giving me the "unscrew lessons" on the phone. Those darn things were mighty tight. Thanks, Ben. Mimi’s retrieved the kitchen knives at the last minute - we cut right into the inner wires for all of them! How ironic! Scarlett O’Hara could plant and dig the carrots and potatoes with her bare hands at her Tara Plantation. Mimi and I could not unscrew the screws with our bare hands in her son’s White Tara Mansion!
. The last lunch at Duncan Doughnut – Rocky Mount, N. Carolina
. Reunited with our Rhett Butler finally in Maryland at En Bistro and Sushi Restaurant - Potomac Village, Maryland
. Three retired seniors celebrate and fancy for another trip to somewhere warmer - swap the chilly Maryland for warmer exotic places – any ideas?
. We will do it again - Cheers! - Three Marvelous and Courageous Ladies at White Tara Mansion - Charleston, S. Carolina!
