The Gullah Geechee heritage is deeply rooted in the SC and Ga Sea Islands, and is a tradition amongst several generations of black folks. When I lived in Beaufort SC, I got very used to and exposed to the culture, with its strange to me language, its culture, and its traditions, one of which is the ring shout, a form of singing and dancing in and out of church. It owes its tradition partly in fact that the Gullah Geechee folk were desperately poor, and could not generally afford instruments- so their primary accompaniments were a stick and board for "drums" and a washboard for emphasis. They would make up songs and laments and perform them. In Beaufort, there is the world renowned Hallelujah Singers group, and here in the Ga Sea Islands, there is the McIntosh singers, who performed today. It was a great treat to go back to my high school days, and hear the language and the beautiful singing melodies they performed.
You can google ring shout or look it up on You Tube, since my videos I took are way too big to embed here.
On the way home, I stopped in at a local oddity, a Bulldog embedded with pennies, which is actually a statue for the local ASPCA chapter: Actually a bit of disappointment, since several of the pennies have fallen off- and the statue is in bad need of cleaning and restoration:
Next stop was the old Coast Guard Life Saving Station, which today is a museum: Checked out the gift shop, but didn't see anything exciting:
Right down the street was the historic St Simons Island Lighthouse, which got a drive by today, since we've done this one twice before...
On the way out, I stopped in at a National Register Site, an old home- then left the area on the historic new Brunswick Bridge, which allows the auto carrier ships to dock and unload their BMWs and Hondas and Kias and such. Quite the operation! There were three ships in port today. Business must be good!
All in all a great day!
Tomorrow is a longish Fort day, weather is finally supposed to be Florida like.
Bette has gotten bad news about her older brother Jimmy- he is apparently near death and is about to be moved to a hospice to finish the job. Looks like we'll head down tomorrow to Zephyrhills area about 155 miles down the coast to look after his move and clean up his property. I'll report more on that as we get more information. He has not been moved as yet.
Also had a great plate sighting day today:
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