Merry Christmas World!!

Well Gang, it's that time of year again!!!!  Yep, a time when many of the folks on our planet spend time reflecting on events that took place more than 2000 years ago and thinking about what it all meant.  This will not be a long post but I have been thinking about all of you a lot in recent weeks.  The folks who have tagged along with the SCTravelersX3 over the last few years have been from a pretty wide range of countries and we are deeply thankful that you have been with us.  You come from countries with varied philosophical and religious backgrounds and that is great.  But, here's the deal gang.  Regardless of what country you come from; no matter what the political or philosophical orientation of your leaders is; despite whether your country is wealthy or having difficult economic times, we are all fellow travelers on this little blue planet!!!  In order to have the best life possible, it is important to recognize that we need each other - even if we've never met or never will.  So - here is my prayer for all of us.  I pray that we will have the intelligence to see the crucial nature of the relationships between peoples, nations, and geographic locations;  .... that we will realize it is only through a cooperative, shared effort to make life better that we will fulfill our potential as a species; ..... that we can, somehow, acknowledge that treating others as we would like to be treated can create the potential for a world of peace and harmony.  Our lives are short but the wonders that lie at our fingertips when we take the time to look for them are miraculous.  Please look around, hold hands with each other, hug occasionally and recognize that, flawed as we are, we can be a pretty good bunch to hang out with!  Merry Christmas, everyone!!  We look forward to future travels together.  See ya.

The 20th Annual Boykin Christmas Parade!!

Let’s talk history – and – 'Americana,' gang!!  In the last few posts we’ve talked about some of the historical figures from South Carolina’s colorful past including two (General Thomas Sumter and Dr. Joel Poinsett) whose final resting places can be found just off S. C. Highway 261 in Kershaw County. (Our route home from the beach.)  The city of Camden, one of the most famous historical locations in our state and one we have mentioned before, is also nearby, in the same county.  Well, near graves of Sumter and Poinsett is the tiny town of Boykin, S. C., population 100 as of the 2010 census.  Think of that!!!  A town that is even smaller than our beautiful Ridgeway – by more than 200!!  Anyway – for the last twenty years, Boykin has celebrated the season with their own Christmas Parade.  Because of the quirky, tongue-in-cheek

Boykin Spaniel Eyes 'Queen'

nature of the event it has gained enormous popularity in the midlands area of our state and we knew it was going to be quite an event when we entered the huge parking area close to the parade route. One of the unique features of the parade is the presence, each year, of the “Fatback Queen”!!!  Although that celebrated beauty appears in female finery complete with ‘haute-redneck-couture’ with make-up and jewelry trimmings, it is played by a “chosen male” (usually a dedicated hunter) who is – to say the least ‘all man’, … uh .. with the exception of his/her appearance on this special day.   Well !!!! Turns out that one of the former “Fatback Queens” was none other than the son of SCTravelerX3 Sherwood!!!  Since this was the twentieth edition of the parade, all of the former beauties

Sherwood And Beautiful Grandkids

were invited back to participate in this year’s event.  So – how could we possibly NOT go???  So the SCTravelersX3, along with our great friend Libby, joined Sherwoods extended family to provide support for the 'Fatback Queens'.  But it also gives us the opportunity to show you a bit more about places to which we have introduced you and to share some more of our state’s interesting aspects - including the wonderful, fun-loving residents of rural South Carolina.  Boykin is perfect for this for many reasons – one of which is the fact that it is the home of the Boykin Spaniel, the “State Dog” of South Carolina; a breed which was developed in this tiny location by Mr. L. Whitaker Boykin.  Several rustic, historic and fascinating businesses and churches, several of which were founded in the late 1700s,  remain in operation in Boykin to this day.  Also of interest was the fact that although General Lee surrendered his Confederate Army at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, General Potter, the leader of Union troops in Kershaw County, did not get the word and he continued efforts to crush local troops.  On April 19^th, during a battle at Boykin Mill, Lt. Stevens of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment was killed - becoming the last known Federal officer to die in the War Between The States. The site of that battle was near Boykin Mill, which was established in 1792 and which was one of the key reasons a community developed in this area.  Located in space formerly occupied by the mill, the "Mill Pond Restaurant" offers very high-end dining and reservations need to be made well in advance. If one of the tables with a view of the mill pond is requested the wait could be weeks.  The grounds around the restaurant and mill are quaint and charming with the old dam site, the unique drive-wheel used for power, and the covered bridge over the millrace some of the special features.  It is easy to let your mind transport you back over the years to a time when grain milling and lumber sawing along with sales of all kinds of agriculture supplies and products were thriving here.  For now, though, let's rush forward in time to the Twentieth Boykin Parade.  As I said, it has gained a reputation for 'quirky' but - believe me - this is a serious parade too.  Of course there are always dignitaries and "VIPs" to be given preferential treatment - including parking for their pickups.  This is probably one of the most 'laid-back' events you could possibly imagine, folks, but - don't be misled.  The number of spectators for the parade in this tiny community of 100 was estimated to be nearly 14,000!!!!  Can you imagine that???  It would

Reviewing Stand and Parade Route

take forever to properly describe the floats, tractors, animals and folks that make up the parade so I'm going to try to add a number of pictures of the sights we saw. 

S.C. National Guard

There were numerous men and women

Camden's Newest Anglican Priest

representing every branch of our
military forces - from every era of our history.  And - there were folks there to show that it was not only horses and mules that could provide outstanding transportation.

Llama Power

I mean - hey!  How often do you

Brahama's Love Christmas Too

Wateree Ramblers

get to see a man riding a Brahama Bull when the bull was not trying to completely dismember the rider?  Well - at the Boykin parade you got to see one who not onlly got along quite well with his human partner, he even took a 'bow' in front of the reviewing stand. There were musicians of all kinds - including a really good parody of the guys from the movie "Brother, Oh Brother Where Art Thou" by the "Soggy Bottom Boys" and some really excellent Bluegrass music by the "Wateree Ramblers."  There were individual singers, choral groups and gospel groups from civic clubs, schools and churches - including representatives from the Swift Creek Baptist Church (established 1787)

The King Lives!!!

who were awesome!  But - how can you have music and not expect "The King" to show up.  Yep, Elvis '...was in the building ..."  His entourage consisted of a whole contingent of the "Marching Mullets", each one sporting that 'interesting' hair style!!  And, of course, there was no shortage of floats with a "hunting" theme - including a fully functional "duck blind" created and added atop a float!!  And the hunting dogs were everywhere - only fitting in the home town of the "State Dog."  I'm not sure what the exact count was but I heard that there were approximately 100 floats entered in the parade.  If so, do you realize that would be one float for every resident of the town?  Is that amazing or what?  So much to see and so little space to write about it!!!  But we definitely have to make room for what was unquestionably the most popular float in the parade (not counting Santa, of course) - the "Fatback Queens" from the first twenty years of the parade!!  I'm here to tell you, folks, it was ... uh .. amazing?,  startling?, strange?  Yep, all of the above.  But, the guys who created the "lovely" (?) queens were some of the best sports you could hope to have for an occasion like this.  Their high-energy performances for the entire length of the parade (nearly two miles!!) delighted and amazed the throngs lining the route.  I can assure you - you are not going to be a "Fatback Queen" with any kind of 'ego deficiency!!'  (By the way - the ..ahem.. 'Lady in Red' to the right was 'Our Guy!'  Interestingly, as we were working on this post, the evening news broadcast on the state's largest television station had an extensive report about the parade.  The spectators included people from throughout South Carolina - and - from all over the globe.  There were people there from a number of other states and several young ladies from Madrid, Spain were effusive in their appreciation of the parade, the crowds and the genuinely warm atmosphere that permeated the crowds despite the cool temperatures.  We'll bring this post to a close with a few additional scenes from inside the "Company Store" and the Boykin Grill.  Folks, if you are in the neighborhood of Boykin, S. C. in December of next year you really owe it to yourself to take in this amazing Christmas Parade.  It is something you will talk about for a long time to come and something you will be happy you attended.  We hope you enjoy these scenes half as much as we did.  See ya.

A Brief Reflection on 'Coincidence'

Hi Gang.  I was reflecting on some of the stuff we shared last week and, particularly, my comments about "serendipity."  It seems as though we are always finding connections between people, places and events that take us very much by surprise.  When we were talking about the "Poinsettia Christmas Tree" we saw at Brookgreen Gardens we talked about the life of Dr. Joel Poinsett and the fact that he is buried not far from the grave of General Thomas Sumter.  (Which we visited on one of our 'geocaching' expeditions.)   I also mentioned that General Sumter was one of several individuals shown in a portrait of General Francis Marion which hangs on the Senate side of the U. S. Capitol Building.  I started thinking about that portrait and went back and studied it a bit more.  The picture - entitled "General Marion Inviting A British Officer To Share His Meal," - shows seven men standing around a table containing recently roasted sweet potatoes; one of whom is a young African-American man.  One of the things I found fascinating about the painting was that the young black man has been identified as Oscar Marion, a slave owned by the Marion family, but also reputed to be a close friend of Francis Marion since childhood.  Numerous accounts of Marion's military career record that he was steadfastly accompanied by Oscar throughout the Revolutionary War.  While the story of Crispus Attucks, the young man of both Native American and African American heritage, is fairly well known (he is generally felt to be the first American casualty in the Revolutionary War), not many other African-Americans have been recognized for their service during the revolution.  Well ... on December 15, 2006, President George W. Bush recognized this African-American Patriot in a proclamation expressing the thanks of a grateful nation.  Fascinating - and only a mere two hundred fourteen years late!!  There are lots of biographies of General Marion (The Swamp Fox) and therein lies yet one more 'coincidence.'  Perhaps one of the most popular early books about the general was one by the author and publisher Mason Locke ("Parson") Weems.  In addition to books about General Marion, Benjamin Franklin and William Penn, Weems also wrote one of the most popular biographies of George Washington.   It was Weems who reported (and many say 'created') the legend of Washington's famous "I can not tell a lie" confession to his father on chopping down a cherry tree.  But wait - we're just getting to the serendipity part!!!!  Weems was born in Maryland, made his home in Virgina and traveled throughout the colonies writing, publishing and selling books.  On May 23, 1825, however, he died of unknown causes in .......  ta da ..... Beaufort, South Carolina!!!!!  (A place you visited with us about a year ago!!)  How ironic that all of these historical threads seem to come together to form this incredible tapestry!!!  Is this an amazing world or what????  See ya.

The Ordinary Miracles of Our World

Wow, gang, it would be hard to top the "Night of a Thousand Candles" for wonderful things to do during

"Evening" by Paul Manship - 1938

December at the beach.  We walked in awe of the beauty of the art, the decorations and the commitment of the folks who keep Brookgreen Gardens forever fresh and new.  We saw so many things that took our breath away and we found ourselves using descriptive terms that you might think were 'over the top'; things like "miraculous" or "unbelievable" or "astonishing."  Were they miracles?  Y'know - I kinda think they were.  Yes, they were the products of humans with thought, planning, effort and anguish all going into the mix but what causes us to do all of that?  We often view our species as self-centered, frequently thoughtless and sometimes downright cruel.  Yet, periodically something inside of us makes us want to do things that are profoundly generous and thoughtful.  When something inexplicable causes us to act on the basis of pure love with no ulterior motive is that not a miracle?  I think it is.  And, you know what?  We are surrounded with other miracles that are so difficult to explain that it simply overwhelms us when we think deeply about them.  In our post the other day we talked about 'geocaching' and some of the treasures we found.  I forgot to mention one that was particularly interesting.  Our search on that occasion led us through the neighborhoods of Pawley's Island to an isolated patch of woods where we found the item you see over there on the left.  It was an actual carousel horse - right in the middle of nowhere!!!  No explanation, no reason.  In reading the comments about the cache we learned that no one knows how the horse came to reside in this unusual location but it has been here for many, many years.  Here's the thing ...  someone found it (or knew of it) and added it as a geocaching site.  Well, there is nothing of material value to be found when you solve the puzzle - but - I can absolutely guarantee that when you find it you will stop, look and break out in a big old grin!!!  Day after day people are given the gift of joy.  A miracle if I ever saw one.  And then - just as we returned from our adventures geocaching we walked out onto the deck and the scene above and to the right greeted us.  Whoa.  Tell me we weren't some of the luckiest folks around at that moment.  Later as we strolled along the serene, comforting beach I reflected on the miracle of the sea and the panoramic beauty that surrounded us.  And then - I paused and bent down to look at the beach surface beneath me.  What I saw was the scene on the right, above.  Look closely.  What at first seems to be just a mix of 'stuff' turns out to be hundreds, thousands of unique, exquisite shells.  And I thought - each one of those shells represents a living thing!!!!  How lucky we are to share our planet with them.  Those tiny things - and us??  Wow!  That led me to consider a sight we saw on the back roads we take when we make the trip down to the beach.  It is a heavily agricultural area and on our travels we saw a sight that was absolutely awesome; thousands - possibly millions - of Red-winged Blackbirds checking out the freshly mown fields for critters that had been uncovered.  When they landed, they turned the fields absolutely as black as night, from one end to the other.  And when they flew, they temporarily blotted out the sky.  Amazing!!!!  Driving through the farmland of the low-country we saw our old friend "King Cotton" being grown and harvested in gradually increasing amounts.  It was such a nostalgic sight.  The reason is - the fields of cotton we are showing here are but a tiny manifestation of the crops that were grown when we were children.  Then, you could ride for literally miles alongside continuous fields of this amazing crop!!!  And - in those early years you could see hundreds of people dragging their enormous 'cotton sacks' down the rows as they picked - by hand - that agricultural treasure.  Look at the cotton plants, folks.  From that little source will come the T-shirts, slacks, blouses, handkerchiefs and hundreds of other commodities we take for granted.  Miracles ... yeah, I think so!!!  But, here's the deal ... it is easy for all of us to look at the miracles of nature and kind of 'accept' them as part of the mystical universe that we never can get a really good handle on.  We tend to attribute a bit more natural 'goodness' to the living things that share our world with us and we put ourselves in a bit different category.  We tend to think that when we humans do something unique, or 'unnecessarily good' it is sort of an aberration.  Well, y'know what?  It might not be quite as simple as all that.  At the end of one of our busy days we headed over to that remarkable 'take out' store, "Get Carried Away", that we raved about so much during our last trip to Litchfield.  We decided to stop in at a coffee shop nearby, a place appropriately named the "Barefoot Barrista."  There we met some truly amazing people - people whose reason for being in business is unorthodox to say the least.  Shari and Blair (the actual 'barefoot' part of the team) have created a site where some of the most remarkable things you could imagine are happening.  I don't have the space or the time to cover everything in detail so I'll use a kind-of 'shorthand.' First - they are actually a "non-profit" corporation!!  Do you believe that?  Their reason for being in business is to promote sustainable resources, to help others promote their communities and to offer others a unique place to come together in friendship and support for each other.  From Native-American drum circles - to organizations that provide management support to churches throughout the country - to rock-music, jazz and folk music performers at every level.  You can find it all here - along with excellent meal offerings and virtually all the coffee drinks you could hope for.  Check out their web-site and, particularly, their calendar of events.  You'll be amazed.  The bottom line for us was, chalk up one more 'everyday miracle!!!'  We are so blessed to have met so many extraordinary people (... including you guys!) and that, in itself has to be yet another miracle!  So we'll close out this trip to the Carolina Coast and ask you to come back to join us for another adventure in the near future.  Hopefully, we'll be in touch before December 25th but, if not, we hope you have an absolutely spectacular Christmas!!!  See ya.

The Magic Continues!!

Welcome to an enchanted forest, gang!!!  We continue our visit to Brookgreen Gardens and the "Night of a Thousand Candles.  As we finished up our evening meal in the pavilion adjacent to the Arboretum we strolled toward the sculpture gardens, entering through a magical walkway guaranteed to get us in the mood for more lights.  As you will be able to tell from the photographs, we were joined on our stroll by a fairly large number of visitors but, according to the volunteers to whom we talked, we were very fortunate in our choice of nights to visit.  They have had as many as 14,000 guests on some nights and we were not even close to that tonight.  But even with large crowds, an event such as this generally causes us all to be a bit more considerate and we seem to get along remarkably well.  I know that was the case for us.  Interestingly, when someone spoke in a fairly normal volume it was somewhat surprising.  For the most part, conversations were muted and thoughtful.  In our first post about the 'Thousand Candles' display we talked about the number of candles that are used and the fact that there are over 500 floating candles in the ponds, lakes and fountains.  They are absolutely spellbinding and the fascinating thing is that when you look at the reflections in the water, they almost defy explanation.  It looks like you can see a reflection of a candle that should be obscured by the platform upon which it is floating.  Very strange!!!  We have also talked about the transformation that takes place when these sculptures are viewed at night, surrounded by candles and lights, as we saw with the stately Griffon to the right.  It was tremendous fun listening to the exclamations of the youngsters as they walked with their families, particularly the children of pre-school age.  They were absolutely enchanted by the displays and their squeals of pleasure and awe really made the evening special

While white candles and lights were the predominant color in the exhibit, there was also a tremendous display of vibrant color throughout the garden as well.  We did not see a single area that was not the ultimate in tastefulness and it was truly amazing that so many displays could be so artfully done.  Occasionally we just had to pause, sit down for a while and absorb the beauty surrounding us.  Even though it was December, the weather was delightful, the temperature just right for an evening stroll and the rain that had been forecast had the good sense to stay away!!  Some of our old friends among the sculptures and fountains were sources of wonderment for us - including the beautiful Diana (to the left) we talked so much about in some of our earlier posts.  Another major work you would have hardly recognized was the magnificent "Fountain of the Muses."  (On our right.) We won't spend a lot of time re-describing that exquisite work but we have added a photo that will probably be difficult to recognize.  Another work by one of our all-time favorite sculptors was transformed by the night skies and the twinkling lights into a dazzling juxtaposition of light and darkness.  Appropriately enough it was "Time and the Fates of Man" by Paul Manship.  Mr. Manship was a prolific sculptor and, fortunately for us, many of his works can be found at Brookgreen.  Look closely at this one; although we were seeing it at night, it is actually a sundial.  Sculpted for the 1939 World's Fair, at 80 feet in height it was the largest sundial in the world at that time.  (And may still be!!!) It shows the three daughters of Themis, the Goddess of Necessity:  Clotho (who weaves the 'thread of life), Lachesis (who measures it) and Atropos (who ultimately cuts the thread.)  This magnificent work - like so many of the others here - cause us to think about our time on this beautiful planet and reminds us how important it is to do whatever we can to make life more worthwhile and enjoyable for our fellow inhabitants of this, our island home.  I must tell you .... while I am writing this I am listening to an NPR special about Luciano Pavarotti and, at this moment, he is singing the exquisite "Panis Angelicus" a song written by Saint Thomas Aquinas and one which symbolizes our experience here.  The song tells of the "Bread of Angels" becoming the "Bread of Man" a reference in the Christian religion to the appearance on earth of Jesus of Nazareth.  But, tonight, it also reminds me that the presence of all of this heavenly beauty on the soil of South Carolina is, in its own way, a gift of the angels to all of us here on earth.  And - while we're talking "heavenly stuff" I'd like to close out this post by sharing something very, very special with you.  While we we were wandering through the grounds of Brookgreen Gardens we were serenaded by several groups of musicians.  They were all great in their different styles but the ones who really moved us were Michael Miller and David Rowe who perform under the name "The Miller - Rowe Consort."  With Michael playing the classical guitar and David playing the ancient "hammered dulcimer' their sounds were unique to say the least.  I am adding their rendition of "I Saw Three Ships" here so you can hear and see how remarkable they are.  Please do yourself a favor and visit their web site and, if possible, pick up one (or more) of their CDs.  They are great!!

With that we'll close for now and let you rest up from all this walking.  We'll be back shortly with more adventures from the beach so come back soon.  See ya.