Savannah Stories

What is it?

Here are three hints attributed to this object in folklore:

     Saved by the bell

     Dead ringer

     Grave yard shift.

Note the bell to left of the monument in Bonaventure Cemetery

Give up? It is a grave bell. A string was tied to the supposedly deceased's finger down in the grave. If he/she was not really dead they could ring the bell and be saved by the bell. But, of course, someone had to be there to hear the bell. Hence, the graveyard shift. Then, if the recently deceased, but now resurrected, person was recognized walking down the street, well, what we have is a dead ringer. Great story even if it probably isn't true.

Up until the late Nineteenth Century it wasn't easy to know when a person was dead. They held a mirror under the nose to look for tell-tale vapors. Not the best indicator.  There were numerous documented cases of premature burial in the 18th and 19th Centuries.   And Edgar Allen Poe certainly didn't help things with his story, "The Cask of Amontillado." The fear of being buried alive was very real. Safety coffins were designed, patented and they sold. Back in "the day," lead piping, lead water cisterns, pewter cups and dishes with high lead contents were very common. The first "artificial sweetener" was lead powder mixed with vinegar and poured into sour wine. One of the symptoms of severe lead poisoning is deep coma not always ending in death.

One reason that wakes lasted three, four and even five days was to be as certain as possible that the dead person was, in fact, dead.  George Washington insisted that his servants observe him for two days before burying him to be sure he was dead.  And someone had to sit with the deceased in the parlor to observe if there was even a twitch -- and to keep the flies away.  In the 18th and 19th Century, houses of the affluent had two parlors and a removable door in between. When someone died he was layed out on the door in one of the parlors while the mourners gathered for the wake in the other. Embalming in America became prevalent during and after the Civil War and arsenic was the favored medium. Formaldehyde was first used in Germany in 1867.  The term "living room" was not coined until the late 19th early 20th century.  Make of that what you will.

Isn't it amazing what you can learn on a Cemetery Tour? Much more to come.

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A more or less typical Parkers

Parker's is a chain of gas stations/convenience stores in South Carolina and Georgia. They promise you "a premium shopping experience in a safe, friendly atmosphere." I suppose you could say they are like 7/11 with better lighting and a lower instance of armed robberies.  There is a Parker's on Drayton Street right in the middle of the Historic District of Savannah. Architecturally it has a little more character than your usual convenience store. And people still pull up to get gas. But once you open the door.......

The Drayton Street Parker's in Savannah

you are in one of, if not the best, gourmet markets in Savannah. Fresh, hot Southern food, salads, cheeses from everywhere. A person could easily live out of Parker's.  Our experience of the only Whole Foods in Savannah was most disappointing. Parker's puts them to shame.

Fran and I bought lunch: fried chicken, chicken tenders, fried okra, mac and cheese, seasoned greens and, of course, a Dr. Pepper. Then we walked over to Chippewa Square and had lunch under the Live Oaks. Save that if could have been hotter, it was pretty good and great value.

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Little Gracie Watson in Bonaventure Cemetery (note golf ball)

This is little Gracie Watson as depicted by John Walz, sculptor. She is wearing her new Easter dress and her new Easter boots. She died two days before Easter in 1889 at the age of six. You can read the memorial below. The Pulaski Hotel on Johnson Square across from City Hall and but a block away from the Cotton Exchange was both luxurious and very busy with business travelers.

She was a favorite of all Savannah. Her wake lasted five days and some 40,000 people attended her funeral. After her burial, her parents returned to New England leaving Gracie all alone in Bonaventure Cemetery. But not for long.

Note the teddy bear and the gray mound are the ashes of a family pet

Soon after Gracie's burial, people started leaving toys and trinkets at her grave. To this very day, 125 years later, entire Savannah families drive out to Bonaventure Cemetery, the kids get out of the car and place their toys through the fence of Gracie's grave. (There wasn't a fence until vandals....)

This is not litter. 

Gracie is reportedly one of the most seen ghosts in Savannah.

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You probably have used them. I know I have. They are cheap borders for flower beds, around trees, along walks.

Clay edgers from Home Depot

Edger with the Nine Square Mark

Look familiar?

These edgers go back to the Ante-Bellum South where they were manufactured by slaves on the plantations during slack time. The slaves dug the clay, stomped it into molds, imprinted an identifying mark and then fired the edgers. The plantation owners sold the edgers as grave borders to the multitude who could not afford granite or marble.

The nine square pattern on these edgers is particularly interesting as the nine square was the sign of a safe house for run-away slaves. Before the Civil War, quilters would make quilts with the nine square pattern and hang them on the clothes line.

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Hundreds of millions of people know this place

How about now?

Sorry, there never was a bench there. Hollywood brought one, a fiberglass one at that, and when the movie wrapped, they took it back to Holllywood. That really pissed the Savannahians off. The Mayor made Hollywood give it back. And now it is in the Savannah History Museum.

Forrest Gump's Bench

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As we so often say: "You can't make this s**t up!"

Of Boils, Bubbas, and the Low Country

The sign at the Moon River Bridge

Yes, Virginia. There really is a Moon River. And we crossed it at least four times a day going to and from Savannah. We hardly crossed it in style in Charlotte, our 1994 Toyota Carolla with 200,000 miles on her. Hard to get the tune out of your head. Breakfast at Tiffany's,  Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote. WTF. So I'm old.

Looking down Moon River

Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics and won the 1962 Academy Award with Henry Mancini who wrote the music. Mercer is a favorite son of Savannah. There is the Mercer-Williams house in which no Mercer ever lived and Johnny Mercer Boulevard. There is a Johnny Mercer Theater at the Savannah Civic Center. The number of Mercer songs that will be familiar to people of a certain age is amazing. And the Mercer catalogue runs more  than 38 pages.

According to our guide, Susan, Mercer also wrote the lyrics for The Munsters theme song. When he finished, he told a friend that they were the worst lyrics he had ever written. The friend said, "Then don't put your name on them."  Some friend. (I can't validate this story but I still like it.)

The Mercer family tomb and Johnny Mercer bench in Bonaventure Cemetery

SPOILER ALERT. SKIP DOWN TO THE SHRIMP If YOU DON'T WANT TO BE DEVASTATED!

Family stone.

Moon River was named after the song. Bummer.

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There is something called a Low Country Boil which seems to be an institution here in the Low Country of South Carolina and Georgia. It's a mess of boiled shrimp, boiled sausage, boiled potatoes, boiled corn and, like a nugget at the bottom of a muddy stream, one crab cracked in half. And, according to Yelp and Urban Spoon, Bobo Seafood Market way the hell out on Montgomery Ave. in Savannah is the place to get it   I mean, even if you throw out the "this is the best I have ever had" and the "it made me vomit" BoBo still got 4 1/2 out of 5. ( What kind of dickwad writes, "It smells terrible. I'm not going in" and gives the place a 1?)

So after a lovely afternoon walking the squares of Savannah we headed out Montgomery Ave.,  a long way out. Now, I think I would know what to expect if it was Bubba's. And, in Savannah when you go from north to south you go from white to black. So I figured BoBo was going to be black. The last thing I expected to find when I parked Charlotte next to a Benz in front of a slightly down at the heals pastel stucco building was a group of S.E. Asian guys working conscientiously under a Buddhist shrine on the wall. Nor did we expect to see some of the local color in day glow orange polyester picking up apre-shift  dozen steamed crabs while we waited for our two Low Country Boils at $7.99 each.

A mess of shrimp, sausage, potato corn and crab

By weight it was a LOT of food. I am sorry to report that the shrimp were mushy, the corn was mushy, the sausage was leathery, the potatoes were meh. The crab, a small female, was okay. I won't review BoBo. If you can't say something nice....and all that.

Note from Fran: We should have listened to the "dickwad." He was 100% correct.  Not sure how the Health Department let's the place keep operating.

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There are a lot of ways to see Savannah, a lot:

Riverboat replicas on the Savannah River

Bike tours

Segway tours

Carriage tours

Trolley tours

But for me, the only way is walking. And next year it will be with Savannah Dan.

Savannah Dan

BTW, If you want to be a licensed tour guide in Historic Savannah,  here is what you need to know to pass the test. Then a criminal background check,  100 bucks, an ID photo and you're in. Of course, the best guides, like Susan, our Bonaventure Cemetery guide, use the manual as a skeleton and spend a lot of time in the Georgia Historical Society and the Historic Savannah Foundation fleshing out the skeleton.

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Southern Live Oak and Spanish Moss at Middleton Place. The Ashley River in the background

Nothing speaks to me of the Low Country of South Carolina and Georgia like Southern Live Oaks, Spanish Moss and Lindsey Graham. Now the Southern Live Oak is an oak and it is live in the sense that it is evergreen. Spanish Moss is neither Spanish nor moss. And Lindsey Graham -- who knows.

The Angel Oak outside of Charleston

The Southern Live Oak has been prized since earliest colonial time. The wood is heavy and strong but hard to work. The frames of the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides, are hewn of SLO. The
US Navy reportedly still owns stands of Southern Live Oaks. Nice to know they are ready for a post-apocolyptic rearmament program.

SLOs are very long lived. The Angel Oak on St. .John's Island near Charleston is over 500 years old. Perhaps the SLO is most prized for the shade it provides. While the tree tops out at 60-65 feet, its branches can span outward 85 feet or more. And the branches can be trained.  Hence those beautiful, shaded allees.

Entry to Skidaway Island State Park, Savannah, GA

Boone Hall Plantation Entrance Allee, Charleston, SC

Shade is kind of important in a place like Savannah. From May through September the temperatures range from 85 to 100 degrees about 30% of the time. And the humidity averages 70% annually. You need a permit to cut down a Live Oak even on your own property.) While the Spanish Moss limits the foliage on the lower boughs, the treetop foliage is very dense. Each of the 22 squares of Savannah is heavily shaded. Good thing, too, even in November.

Spanish moss in not Spanish or moss. It is an epiphyte, a plant that takes it's nourishment directly from the air. Folklore has it that an early, heavily bearded Spaniard chased an Indian maiden, of whom he was enamored, up a tree.  Only his beard remained there and, he didn't get the maiden. Alternatively, the Indian chief, father of the girl, imprisoned the Spaniard in a Southern Live Oak until he recanted of his love. He refused to do so. The end was the same; he perished leaving only his beard and draping SLOs forever.

Early settlers of Savannah used the moss for their bedding. And Henry Ford used it for the seats of his first Model T's. Unfortunately, the moss, especially, if it is collected from  the ground,  is home to red chiggers and jumping spiders. Hence: sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite. Long before the settlers, the Indians used moss for baby diapers, pain relief poultices and medicinal teas. Surprise, scientists are finding the moss to have anti-bacterial uses, to lower blood sugar in mice, and, perhaps, to be an estrogen replacement. This is one very useful epiphyte. Have I mentioned Yellow Fever?

Savannah was devastated at least half a dozen times by Yellow Fever. The first time was within the very first year that the settlers arrived. (The first Jews were allowed to stay in Savannah because they arrived during an epidemic and had a doctor among them. More later.) Back in the day the people thought miasmas, bad air, caused the disease. And they thought that the moss helped clean the air. They even shot cannon balls down the streets to try to disturb and dislodge the miasmas. On the off chance that a cannon balls hit a mosquito I suppose it could be called a prophylactic measure.

I love the Oak and the moss. The campsite on Skidaway Island reminded me of Yoda's home planet, Dagoba.

Yoda on Dagoba as imagined by Irvin Kershner

Skidaway Island

Skidaway Island

Dagoba

Of course, if the light is right, a cypress swamp is the perfect home for The Creature From The Black Lagoon. I was 8 years old and I had gone to the Saturday movies by myself. This was my first scary  movie. I spent most of the time huddled behind the seat back in front of me. I still don't know how it turned out.

Cypress Swamp at Middleton Hall 

Cypress roots regenerating at Middleton Plantation

Bet he had a heart of gold

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Finally, there is Lindsey Graham. What can you say?

Ceptin' "What's a nice little fella like you doin' comin' from a place like that?  I just can't see him in a pickup with a Stars and Bars license plate, a gun rack and a dead deer in the back. Ole Lindsey might just be in trouble back home after his vote to re-open the guvment. We saw the first raggedy-ass "Lose Lindsey" sign within days of the vote. And one homeowner on Ashley River Road outside Charleston had a big sign in his front yard: 

Come out of the closet Lindsey and admit you're a Democrat.

On the hierarchy of lowlife, I guess Democrat is about as low as you can go in The South these days. I'll take that as historic progress.

I am so excited

I am so excited and proud I just can't hold it in. Yesterday, Fran and I become residents of Florida. To be more specific, of Clay County, Florida by way of Green Cove Springs, the county seat of Clay County. Clay County and Green Cove Springs are on the very impressive St. John's River which flows due north then east through Jacksonville into the Atlantic.

We are currently in St. Augustine Beach

Clay County is the orange one next to St. John's

Clay is cattle and horse country

Why Clay County? Why Green Cove Springs? Because that is where St. Brendan's Isle is located. We heard about St. Brendan's from some folks up in Prince Edward Island on the Brudenell River. They spend half the year traveling on land in their fifth-wheel and half the year sailing on their yacht. St. Brendan's Isle keeps them connected wherever they are in the world. St. Brendan's receives their mail and packages, notifies them of receipt and will even open and read selected pieces upon request (and for an additional charge).  Hundreds, if not thousands of people on the move use them. This outfit is named after St. Brendan The Navigator. Sounds romantic, doesn't it?

Not exactly....

Well, not really. St. Brendan's Isle is a store front at the end of a strip on the outskirts of Green Cove Springs.

It's the one on the right

But they are very efficient. They helped us fill out the forms and directed us to the two buildings where we: swore to an affidavit attesting to our fervent desire to become Florida and Clay County residents, obtained Florida Drivers Licenses, registered both Wilbur and Charlotte and registered to vote; Fran registered as a Democrat and I as a Republican. I just had to. There is something so perverse about this entire episode. One lady did it all. She was friendly and efficient and she cut all the little corners necessary to get us thru. Save for a GEICO screwup, we would  have been in and out of Green Cove Springs in two hours.

Wilbur in his new attire

We had the choice of two license plate mottos: Sunshine State or In God We Trust. Guess which one we chose?

Charlotte's new accessory

I awoke this morning thinking that perhaps we should have chosen In God We Trust for poor Charlotte. With her 20 years and 200,000 miles she definitely is traveling on a wing and a prayer.

His father had a girl in every port?

So here we are, a day later, freshly minted, fine upstanding, no income tax paying, no emission test taking, no vehicle inspection required, no helmut wearing citizens of The State of Florida. Need you ask why Florida?

Marco Rubio is one of my Senators (don't know the other one). Rick Scott is our Governor. I got the radio turned to 99.9 Gator Country. If I can get up early enough next Saturday, I can drive up to Shooters, Florida's largest and one of the nation's largest firearms stores, and take the Saturday morning concealed weapon licensing course from a genuine NRA certified instructor.  Life is good.

You got to check out their website