Tour Private Gardens in historic Charleston

Charleston Tea Party Private Tour

This tour is for the discerning visitor who wishes to experience Old Charleston as a guest, not a tourist. Laura Wichmann Hipp is your knowledgeable and charming guide. A native who loves and knows well the city in which she was born, Laura takes discerning visitors to her friends’ private homes and gardens, in fact caters each tour to the special interests of her visitors. This is the ultimate insider experience and a rare chance for a visitor to see the “real Charleston.”

Tours week days  from 9:00 AM  to 12:00. The tour ends at lunchtime with an invitation to Tea at Laura’s home overlooking the Ashley River.

For reservations or more information: Laura Wichmann Hipp 843-577-5896.

Charleston: Ghosts, Gullah and Tea

The Charleston Tea Party Private Tour sounds about as genteel as it gets. The brochure features a photo of guide Laura Wichmann Hipp (“married to G. Preston Hipp of Charleston”) in a broad-brimmed hat, looking ready to snatch Rhett Butler away from an unsuspecting Scarlett O’Hara. It promises to emphasize architecture and preservation in the city’s historic district, with a grand finale of tea served in the guide’s private garden.

The Washington Post

Some Things in Life Really are Free

Yippee!  I am slow to catch on, but when I do, I am ON!  The downtown trolley really is free!  I had had the question put to me if it was true.  I could not imagine it was.  Today I went to the Meeting Street Visitors Information Center to get some Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Guidebooks.  The wonderful staff there told me the map has the route and the trolley stops of the FREE trolley bus service.  This service is a gift to Charleston residents and visitors.  I think that means we do not have to buy our teenagers a car!  Isn’t that right?

The other good news is that my vacation rental, which you can stay in this summer,  is a one minute walk from one of the stops on the corner of Ashley and Cannon Streets.  This service saves you either gas money, time, or your feet.  Save your feet for the streets you do not want to miss.  I tell you those on my tour that are musts,  where the streets of Charleston have something to give those who walk them in a receptive mood that will make life forever richer. 

Scroll down a few articles to read about my launching a vacation rental.  It has been booked solidly since I started it in March.  I do have openings this summer.  I have a big pot in the full kitchen for boiling up a mess of crabs.  We had some last night ourselves with our daughter home from college and a cousin graduating from the College of Charleston.  My vacation rental is also around the corner from a bakery called Sugar.  Warning!  It is addictive, heavenly,  and better than your imagination.  You can take tarts, etc back to your own home away from home and have a tea party!  I have a tea pot and tea and a tea strainer and of course cups and saucers.

Do not miss Spoleto in late May-early June when Charleston comes alive at this world renowned arts festival.  The buildings the oligarchy of Charleston built are still the landmarks used today to make this city have a sense of place and authenticity.  The trolley system will really help during Spoleto as there are not enough cabs for all going in different directions for the many cultural, visual, and performing arts events.

Our friend Mariana Ramsey Hay of Croghans Jewel Shop on King, whose picture welcomes all on the back of the trolley bus, says she hops on and off all the time, zipping up and down King St and to her home, which saves her time and money.  I love it!  Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life!

 

You Say Goodbye, and I Say Hello

Every day I feel like the first man on the moon with my guests.  This is it!  I have discovered the real people, the real tour group I have been searching for.  I am ready to plant my stake in the ground and claim this group combination for my own for all time.  Why must you say goodbye?  And then tomorrow I am destined to say hello to another new group.  Each day is a new adventure into the most wonderful people on the planet. Meeting so many nice people in small groups restores my faith in Americans in particular.

A READING LIST

This week I had Cynthia Van de Erve and her Book Lovers Travel group from the West Coast come on my tour.  She had asked me for a book list on making the reservation months ago.  I recommended Celia Garth, by Gwen Bristow set in Charleston during the British occupation; Peter Ashley, by Dubose Heyward set in Charleston starting the day South Carolina secedes from the Union, Dec 20, 1860; and Diary From Dixie, by Mary Boykin Chesnut a social history of The War from whose diary I quote extensively.  Imagine the lights going off in their brains as these books come into play in touring and hearing the history of the city.  Would that all would read these books before coming!  THAT is the way to absorb a place and appreciate where you are: you have to do your homework!  Think of traveling here as traveling to Europe, because Charleston is America’s most European city, chock full of layers of history.  You do not want a surface view alone, as if all we are is a city with the best restaurants, pretty historic houses and gardens, and a lot of partying.

We also had Judy and Wes Schott from Texas on my tour, celebrating her birthday, having been told by her neighbor about my tour.  To jog my memory and to bring them immediately to mind, the neighbor sent a note recalling the tour and pictures from it.  I had prayed at Tea for the baby her daughter was carrying and included was a picture of her bright smiling first grandson!  Thank you, Lord!   Birthday girl Judy’s late sister had loved Charleston; it was her favorite place.  In memory of her, they came to Charleston for the first time, going on my tour their first morning here on Judy’s actual birthday.  She had stayed up to midnight reading my articles here on my web site in preparation, also recommended reading.  I happened to ask her what they thought of the Bushes.  She said guardedly that they are all Republicans in Texas and that they see the Bush seniors every Sunday at church, that he is now in a wheelchair, but that Barbara is still charging around well.

 I took them by Ashley Hall girls school where Barbara Pierce Bush went to school and was a boarding student.  Ashley Hall was the urban plantation of George Trenholm, the real Rhett Butler, who had a monopoly on shipping cotton, with offices all over the world, who was asked consequently to be the secretary of the treasury for the Confederate States of America by President Jefferson Davis.  Our eldest daughter, Olivia, graduated from Ashley Hall (with honors) and learned to speak French fluently, as well as to translate whole pages in Latin and ancient Greek.  She is now sailing through Rhodes College, headed to study at Oxford this summer and France in the fall semester. (I am a proud mother of three teenage girls.)

Steve Tallman, president of Morell, manufacturing company in Michigan, brought the president of Hydac manufacturing from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and their right arm man and their wives on my tour this week, Hydac’s secretary having found my tour on line and having called to make the reservation.  Steve has all his employees read his latest favorite history book, all 700 of them!  He bought them all 1776, by David McCullough, and more recently Killing Lincoln, by Bill O’Riley.  I had just caught Chris Wilson, whose 1856 house we go into on my tour, reading this same book in her kitchen.   I recommended that his next book be Lafayette in America, 1824-25, translated by Allen Hoffman.  This newly published book is an American treasure that has been hidden, buried in the French language since the 19th century.  It is fluidly written as a travel diary by Lafayette’s secretary, describing America at our fiftieth anniversary celebrated by Lafayette’s return and final farewell to America.  He alone was left from the American Revolution, having been 19 when he came here from France to fight for The Cause of LIBERTY, which loomed large in minds oppressed by tyranny in Europe. Everywhere Lafayette went, tens of thousands came out to see him.  We have never seen anything like his fame.  He traveled to every State of These United States, back when each State was its own country.  He gives the history of each State as it was told to him by the many speeches and conversations.  It is pure, unadulterated history of the nation, State by State, including all the visuals of the banquets, balls, and illuminations.  It should be required reading to graduate from high school.  It is thick but not off putting, as it flows.

Imagine what Steve Tallman is doing for the morale and enlightenment of his employees and thus for America at the manufacturing level, crucial to our future!  He said you would be surprised how many of them read it and come with notes and highlighting to discuss it with him and each other. ” Quel la difference” he is making!  I am inspired.  What are you doing in your realm of influence to make a difference?  We were made to be courageous.  I love to hear these individual stories from the heart of America.  We are taking back the fight.

I want to keep each group of people with me, in my world of Charleston.  We were meant to be together. Always.  Why must we say goodbye?  There are a few have have become a permanent part of my life.  Take Hartley Watlington from Bermuda, who came on my tour by mistake.  He heard me discuss architecture and thought, this is it.  He builds and designs houses in Bermuda that look as if they have always been there.  He is a descendant of Governor William Sayle, governor in Bermuda and then our first governor here in Carolina.  Hartley is a return visitor who is now an integral part of my set of friends in Charleston.  He stays with the Hangers, some of our best friends.  (My husband, Preston has to draw the line somewhere.)  He is here now for our baby girl’s confirmation at St. Philip’s tomorrow and came here for her last Cotillion, ballroom dancing lessons a week ago.  

Where you come to Charleston again, look me up; knock on the door.  Pick up where we left off.  Each day with my guests is too short a time to learn all I want to learn from you after you have had to listen to me.

 

 

Tours for Spring Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, and Graduations

First thing first: my mother, Marianne Wichmann, a Grand Dame of Charleston, who leads the Charleston Tea Party Walking Tour, (843-722-1779) is having her birthday in April.  EVERYBODY wants to know how old she is.  She is young enough still to be vain about her age and would murder me if I told anyone how old she is going to be this month.  (But if you promise not to tell and promise to go on her tour, I will tell you this much of this best kept international secret.  She soon will be celebrating the last year of her seventh decade.  Shhh!)

The reason I dare to share this much personal information on my beloved mother is because I want you to come on her tour A, to celebrate  her  and to cheer her on.  My English mother had the good sense to  marry a Charlestonian and to have me born here in Charleston, The Holy City By the Sea, over a half century ago,  one of the biggest blessings of my life.  As Mr. Willie McLeod of McLeod Plantation said, she was a brave woman to leave family, friends, and her native land of England to come here to the unknown.  My father had bought a classic wooden sailing yacht in England, a dime a dozen in the 1950′s, and met her at the  Burnham -on-Crouch Royal Yacht Club near where he was restoring his boat in dry dock.  She proved to be a tireless worker AND a match for Ingrid Bergman.  Never has she lost her essential beauty or her industrious spirit, though her speed has slowed to the pace of ordinary people now.

Why do I want you to come on my mother’s tour over my own private tour? Because  I do not want you to miss it!  I want to give her the gift of your company, because she feels MOST ALIVE when giving a tour to more than two people.  It is her raison d’etre.  I want these remaining years while she has the health, vigor, and  faculties to be her best years in her tour business.  She does not do computers.  Neither did I until Delia’s Godfather, Dr. Daniel Massi, went off to Honduras to be a missionary pathologist.  He said I would not be able to communicate with him without doing emails.  Then came friend King Midas Cooper Ray, who came over when I was dead in the water with only paper advertising and my over 20 yr old business name Tea Party suddenly having another connotation and said, “What!  You don’t have a web site?  Where’s your computer?”  Upstairs we went and emerged in no time with a wordpress website on which I have been writing ever since.

Where would we be without friends and family?  My mother is not of this world; consequently, it is up to me to tell you she is worth it!  Her tour is $25; (mine is $100).  Hers is a walking tour for small groups ending with an invitation to Tea in her little garden South of Broad.  She gives you the essential tour of the heart of the old walled city area.  EVERYONE SHOULD DO TOUR  A  WITH MY MOTHER  BEFORE MY TOUR B.

SPECIAL OFFER FOR COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON AND CITADEL STUDENTS:    (843-577-5896) I am very busy many days this spring with tours for special groups from those celebrating birthdays to weddings, anniversaries, and graduations, however,  I will take College of Charleston and Citadel students for free when accompanied by their parents or 2 paying adults.  Why?  Because I am a grateful, successful College of Charleston graduate, who wants to insure that the students GET the essentials about Charleston history before leaving college life.  I was blessed to work for Historic Charleston Foundation during college, thereby receiving a dual education and strong foundation from the ground up.   I breeze through the College of Charleston often on my private tour in my van.

I am grateful to my mother who has been there for me all my life as the most devoted mother,  friend, grandmother to my three teenagers,  and coworker.

Call Marianne Wichmann  for reservations for the Charleston Tea Party Walking Tour– 843-722-1779.

Charleston Tea Party Private Tour Launches a Weekly Vacation Rental in Historic Charleston

close up of rice bed with carved rice sheathes

Rice Bed, a  queen size,  in master bedroom  

twin beds

oriental rug in main room with day bed

A nice spot for tea.

Where:  Historic Charleston on Ashley Avenue  in Radcliffborough

Cost:  One thousand dollars a week,  for people who book my tour

How many does it sleep?  Up to seven people in three bedrooms, perfect for friends,  two to three couples,  or a family.

How many bathrooms?  There two full baths with original black and white tiled floors.

Is there a kitchen?  Yes, with a brand new refrigerator, an electric oven and stove,  pots and pans, and  vintage dishes with newly restored oak cabinets

Is there a dining room?  Yes and a table and chairs, and silver knives and forks.

Do we get breakfast?  Yes, when you come on my tour; otherwise, you are on your own as if you live here.  I will start you off with farm fresh eggs in the fridge from friends David and Becky’s  plantation, Live Oak.  Our God son, their little boy, sells them to us.  I will also leave you some of my  home made calamondin marmalade  with  home made bread.

Will there be a coffee maker?  I ain’t know not’n about making coffee; I’m the Tea Lady!  But I will concede to a coffee maker,  as well as an essential tea pot and some of our best locally blended coffee and teas.  My first week has been rented this week.  The family of four have a 9 yr old daughter who said to be sure to say they love the mint iced tea I left in the fridge.

Does it have bed bugs?  Good question!  A resounding NO!  After my children came home with bed bug bites from a very special stay in the New York City Yacht Club a few years ago with a member friend, I realized they can be found in the best places!  These are brand new top quality mattresses and box springs with Old Charleston frames.  One is a Queen size four poster  ”rice bed”, another is a full Victorian white Jenny Lind or Spool styled wooden frame bed, and then there are twins with white servants – dorm style metal as seen  in Downton Abbey.  The rice bed was a gift from our groomsman George Kanellos for our honeymoon in his hand hewn log cabin, one of the oldest houses in South Carolina.  (That is where history was made)!  There are vintage linens and an oriental rug carefully chosen from Charleston antique shops.

Are there furniture and closets to put our things in so that we are not living out of a suitcase?  Yes.  Lots.  Do unpack and make that suitcase disappear!  It effects the psyche.

How did you decide to do this venture?

This apartment my husband owns just came vacant.  At the same time, Fodor voted Charleston their top destination in the continental United States.  This acclaim was after the same designation from Conde Naste.  I received a call for my tour from Sweden from Anika, coming for a week in spring with her family, considering a stay in North Charleston for a week for a thousand dollars.   I suggested some of my friends places closer in to the historic district, which they are coming all the way here to enjoy, but they were all booked  or too expensive for the week.  This vacation rentals by owner came up at City Council as well; what to do?  If we will serve it, they will come, said City Council!  It met with approval.

There is an alignment here.  My real estate father agrees my proposal is good.  My real estate investor husband agrees to let me have a go at it; consequently, I am launching our first vacation rental by owner.  My husband bought it the same year and month I bought  my first house, while we were still dating, in the late ’80′s.  He rented  in the historic house right across the street and looked out on this property.  We both knew it was time for a big step in life, so instead of stepping up to the marriage altar, we stepped up to our first real estate purchase.  I lived in mine on Legare Street.   He continued living cheaply in his apartment he was renting in the old Victorian house across the street, which enabled him to invest in this property in the first place, while working to restore it; as a result, this property is tied close to his heart and has received a lot of his manly attention.

Is it the most charming property  in Charleston?  No, to be honest.  I take you to those on my tour.    But I am adding my personal touch to what is there.

Does it have ANY Old Charleston charm?  Yes, the kind of thing you can pass by every day and not notice if your eye is not trained to look for beauty.

Like what?    Like the herring bone brick work on the  front stoop, with specs of green moss appliqued by time that makes that brick more than just building material.  A peace stills into ones heart; the very bricks speak  of being home at last in the way that only Old Charleston can.  There are deliberately exposed heart pine beams in the dining room off the kitchen, showing the age and construction  of this old  house, which my husband is proud to have exposed in restoration work himself.

Is there a room with a view?  Yes!  The windows look out on  historic Charleston houses, one next door of  18th century Old Charleston Carolina Gray Brick, as poet EVH said, “poetry in brick”, and an Old Charleston plum colored slate roof.  Another is the spacious  house and garden across the street where lived Robert and Irene Dixon, Irene having been born in that house over a hundred years ago. Husband Preston rented a room from them and was beloved by this childless couple, both tennis pros, now passed away.  Interestingly, two other tenants in our property are very nice tennis pros, who travel a lot.  Two others are medical students,  all four good looking young men and quiet.

Is there off street parking?  Yes, in back.  It is covered, too.

Is there internet access?  Yes.

Is smoking allowed?  Absolutely not.  Smokers will be fined $250 a day.

Are pets allowed.  I am sorry but no.  I love my dog, but he goes to doggy resort when we leave town.

What  is it near?  It is near the Orthodox synagogue, the Medical University of Charleston, and Ashley Hall, which was the urban plantation  home to George Trenholm, the real Rhett Butler, blockade runner and all.  It is also near some of our popular casual restaurants, Hominy Grill, Lana, Fuel, and Five Loaves.  Marion Square, home of the Farmer’s Market, is nearby, as well as Sugar, a great tiny bakery on Cannon St where you can get the tarts and scones for a picnic tea party!  I have a picnic basket ready for you.

How do we make inquiries and bookings?  By phone.  Call me at 843-577-5896; leave me a message with dates and I will call you back.  Do not ask me questions here .   I hope this offering  will induce people who love Charleston to  be able to stay as long as a week.  There is so much to explore.  We have something new for your eyes to see of an old city still left that time forgot and yet is full and vibrant, the Holy City of Charleston.  If you come in a receptive mood, you will leave us wiser than  when you came, for the streets of Charleston are full of delights, mellowed by time, which make life forever richer.

–Laura Wichmann Hipp  843-577-5896

Spring in January and February in Charleston

January and February are the best kept secret in Charleston.  The camellias are in bloom, cultivated for the social season when Charlestonians and plantation owners were in town for the races.  Magnolia Plantation is not to be missed with their world renowned collection of camellias in bloom now, which peak in February.  Those who wait til spring miss our spring like winter, especially refreshing if you live in environs where you see nothing green all winter.  Bulbs are coming up.   We are to ourselves again after the many visitors of autumn and Christmas.  It is quiet.  We have time get to know you better.

It is also the season of Lowcountry oyster roasts.  My family and I went to the SAVE THE LIGHT oyster roast for the Morris Island Lighthouse last Sunday.  I stood at the same spot for HOURS eating steamed oysters.  People would go away from our table and come back hours later to say, “You still here?!”  If anyone wants to have an oyster roast, my husband roasts some up for 6 or more.  He is renowned for doing it the old Charleston way.  He builds a fire in our old brick outside chimney; he puts a metal slab over the fire and piles on the Lowcountry oysters, ” locals” we call them.  Essential then is the wet burlap sack to put over the oysters so that they steam, roast, and smoke.  Where does one get a burlap sack these days?  Only those who are committed to LOCAL oysters know that secret!

Thank you to all who made 2011 a great year.   A young couple loitered after my last tour of the old year, waiting till everyone else left after Tea.  The young man had a guilty look.  Finally he  outed with it.  It was not my money of which he wanted to rob me;  it was another English Plum Pudding,  for the road.  He explained, “I’ve never had anything like this before.”

I also served  Hoppin’ John with a refreshing twist:  Field Peas with chopped Roasted Beets,  Ginger,  Meyer Lemon, and dried cranberries, inspiration from The Taylor Brothers, for whose cooking demonstration I first made it.  I made it it New Year’s Day for our family gathered at Aunt Dee’s.   I am using my home grown Meyer Lemons before a freeze comes along.  I was not as wise last year.  I am making Meyer Lemon Sorbet, my favorite, and Meyer Lemon Curd with scones.  Yesterday I baked two persimmon pies, which filled the house with their wonderful aroma.  You have to wait til the persimmons look soggy or they will taste like chalk.  We have a tree in back.  We have something new for the eyes to see, persimmons and calamondin oranges in my camellia flower arrangements.  Winter joys of life in Charleston keep us in good spirits until the full bloom of magic culminates in spring.

I am still up to my eyeballs in Calamondin Marmalade.  I cannot work in the front garden without a passerby wanting to know what that tree is with tiny oranges.   I gave tiny jars for party favors at a fabulous  New Year’s Eve dinner party with our friends at Cathy and Harry Gregorie’s, owners of GDC.  I ran out this morning of the marmalade jars I took with me to a citrus lecture at the Garden Club of Charleston.  Don’t worry; I am making more.

We are now in the 151st year since the War Between the States began at Ft. Sumter, April 12, 1861, in Charleston, “That Hellhole of Secession.”  One of the houses we visit is my friend, Francess Palmer’s, on East Battery with a dead on view of Ft. Sumter, where was fired the shot that was heard around the world.  I never tire of the sunlight on the water, the ever changing views of white caps or lazy glassiness where dolphins are jumping  and white sails are gliding by.  To add more value in these times to the tour and to highlight the history as seen from the Battery, I am offering a full, hot Southern breakfast in my friend Francess Palmer’s home and  B&B.  It has been in her family for three generations. I first went there for her debutant party when we were 18.  The Big Band from her grandparents era played on the lawn under a full moon.  There as we gaze at the view of Ft. Sumter,  I  talk about the history of this War of Northern Aggression!  You come to understand why Southerns had the audacity to call it that.

Our own  house had been Francess Palmer’s uncle’s.  We have owned it for 14 years this winter, having bought it from the Edmonds, who lived in it for 30 years after the Palmers.  I cried when we moved in.   I did not want to give up my home I had bought before marriage on Legare Street, where my tours had ended with tea in the garden.   I said I was only moving here because I loved my husband.  Preston in my face said, “Mark my words.  You’re gonna love it!”  And HE WAS RIGHT!  Sunlight and moisture for a citrus grove and flower garden, a view of the water, open air circulation and good sea breezes, SPACE for family living and for entertaining you, my guests,  all contribute to my love for our home.  Though it is old enough to have problems, its assets outweigh the responsibilities…so far anyway.  Your one hundred dollars each goes to the preservation of this historic Charleston house, be it ever so humble.

I realize I am living the life of my gregarious father, Fred Wichmann.  He is the epitome of Charleston hospitality, inviting strangers in who he meets often through sailing or through real estate.   Despite all the “strangers” I have had in my house, when I put everything back in their proper place, they are all there.   No one has taken from me yet after six years of my private tours.  I use old things for my enjoyment and that of of my guests as they were used in 18th and 19th century Charleston.   Thank you for being the people to whom  this Holy City of Charleston was meant to be hospitable.  Lafayette was amazed at Charleston hospitality when he visited here in 1825, saying there were so few inns or hotels because Charlestonians were so hospitable, “they would take you into their homes be you prominent or indigent.”  Read the first translation ever published of “Lafayette in America, 1824-25″, until now hidden in the French language.

I meet some of America’s nicest people on my tour.  I don’t want to let them go.  And so, I invite them in!   I learn from them.  Jump in and tell me something if it is on your mind.  I learned from Johnny Kicklighter that a scene I show of an old print of Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, was on a South Carolina dollar bill and a Confederate bill.  I did not know that connection.  It is a scene of him loving his enemy, doing good to those who mistreat you.  Marion is sharing with hated but lost Redcoat Tarleton hot sweet potatoes just pulled from the fire. That picture tells the story of the heart of Charleston hospitality.  This value is an aspect of Charleston that once understood completes the picture of who we are.  Until newcomers get this understanding that it is more blessed to give than  to receive, they are not going to be regarded as belonging.  We are not a gated community of arrogant rich people trying to keep everybody else out.  We are an open city with a heritage and culture that is still alive,  to be shared,  and which has defined us for centuries.  This sentiment I learned growing up in Charleston and from Elizabeth Verner Hamilton, poet, gardener,  and daughter of Charleston artist Elizabeth O’Neill Verner.  I am sharing my larkspur seedlings, which came from ones she shared with me decades ago.

I do my best in my humble efforts to give you that experience of Charleston that has persisted from generation to generation.  My tours are once a day at 9 a.m. with entrance into private homes and gardens. At the end of my tour I invite you in to my home.   After my last tour of the old year, a man moaned, “A hundred dollars!”  “Y-es”, I replied holding my breath.  “This tour is worth MUCH more than a hundred dollars a person! ” he exclaimed,  to my relief.  May God bless us, every one.–Laura Wichmann Hipp– Call 843-577-5896 for reservations.

Christmas in Charleston

“The advantage of doing ones own praising is that you can lay it on just so thick and in all the right places.”  I am the biggest fan of my food, Christmas dishes at my house.  It is midnight.  I served duck today that my 16 year old friend Richard Hanger shared with me from his shoot at Coosaw Plantation with his friend, Bolton Sanford.  A true Charleston man loves the land, being one with God and nature, and showing he is a provider.  I sauteed the duck in butter and Madeira with shallots and then added my calamondin marmalade from our home grown citrus grove in the front garden.  Wow!  I invited Richard’s family over tonight for the remains of the day and the kill, since it was his offering.  His mother, Monti, did not know what to do with it; I got lucky as it was passed on to me.  I served it with Carolina Gold Rice, which sells for its weight in gold,  precious stuff, grown on a limited scale on only a few plantations in the Lowcountry more as a hobby.

After dinner and our family friends helped me reset the table for tomorrow.  I made Lobster Newberg and more Carolina Gold Rice.  This dish is a Christmas special with cream, vermouth, and brandy combined with a lobster broth reduction.  If you are not coming at Christmas time, don’t get your hopes up.  I do not cook this rich a luncheon every day.  I am using the Doubleday Cookbook receipt, the second one, which is richer.  I cannot tell you how good it is.  You will have to try it for yourself.

For those who read my Thanksgiving entry, the Mars Hill College football player and family DID come on my tour.  It was a joy to treat them to the gift I had offered.  Mills Adams is a sickle cell carrier and was in the paper for “playing with fire”.  His team made it to regional championship games for the first time in 20 years.  Before the words were out of my mouth on South Carolina’s history, Mills would be saying it for me.  It is incredible how much he loves his State’s history.  He is a history major and had NEVER been in Historic Charleston houses.  ”You have no idea what this means to me,” he kept saying.  His mom, a former history teacher, and teenage brother came, too.  They are descendants of Robert Mills, Charleston architect of the first Fire Proof Building and the Washington Monument in DC, among others.

Husband Preston this afternoon cut HUGE branches of calamondin oranges–JUST what I need before Christmas–more projects!  I will be up to my eyeballs in making calamondin marmalade, as if I have not made enough already!  Everybody wants some though;  it goes out the door as fast as I can make it.  I bought  baler jars from Italy, which add to the beauty of this locally grown golden product.

Our Christmas baby daughter is turning 14 December 22, with a family birthday tea party here, followed by Christmas Eve Dinner here two days later before she sings in St. Philip’s choir  for Midnight Mass.  Sleep time now!  I can’t wait to meet the next group of people tomorrow–oops this morning!

May your days be Merry and Bright–Laura

Opportunities to Make Others Thankful

Yesterday I broke routine to receive a phone call from someone to whom I had written a letter because of an article in the Post and Courier.  Later his mother called to thank me for my letter her son had just read to her.  I am thankful for the boundless opportunities provided by our reporters to step into someone else’s shoes and not only to be thankful for what we have in contrast but to make a difference in the lives of those in our Charleston community we read about in our newspaper.

 Everyone feels compassion, the kindness of a stranger for victims of tragedy and life’s sudden reversals.  Feeling compassion does not make you a compassionate person; it is acting on that heart tug that can make the difference.  We think, how can I make a difference with my little mite, but if we follow through with that urge and mustard seed of an idea, we can change the course of someone’s day, and perhaps someone’s life.

 I read the article on Mills Adams at Mars Hill College in the Sports section, to which I rarely turn.  It was lying open on the kitchen counter when I came down to cook breakfast for the family and caught my eye with its title of “It Feels Like I’m Playing with Fire”.  I learned that whites as well as blacks can carry the sickle cell trait as Mills does.  He is living his dream of playing football for college, despite playing with fire with the risks associated with being a carrier of sickle cell.

 I wrote him that I had a heart for those with this ailment from my association with the late Albertha Stokes, the beloved Gullah Flower Lady on the corner of St. Michael’s Alley and Meeting.  Though her baskets were not the most impressive, I always encouraged my tours to buy from her because her heart was always in songs and spirituals.  We loved each other so. She would bake me lemon cream cheese pound cake for my teas parties in appreciation, telling me after many years, that my support made a difference in the care she was able to provide for her daughter, who she said had “the sickle cellemia”.  This daughter would eventual pass away before her mother and father. 

 I also wrote Mills that I would like to offer him and his family a complimentary tour of Charleston, enclosing a signed gift card for my tour business, which has always been my career.   

He said I had no idea how much this letter and offer meant to him, that he was a history major, and though from the Charleston area, he had NEVER been in ANY historic houses of Charleston.  He had always wanted to see inside some and learn the history, but he dared not even mention it to his mom, because as a single mom, he says, she trys so hard to make ends meet for her two boys, sacrificing her own needs. 

 When his mother called, she gave me a fleshed out picture of their challenges, struggles, and reversals.  Just an encouraging word to let them know that there are those who care in Charleston meant the world.  The Post and Courier article is what made this connection between us possible.

 I want give money to  either the Coastal Community Foundation or to St. Philip’s and designate that money  be given to help this family this Christmas.  The mom needs to buy a car as she does not have one at the moment.  She also needs help with presents for her boys, one still home in highschool.  There are no life’s extras for them.  It will be a challenge for them to get to Charleston for my tour and for her son to get home from the North Carolina mountains for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But with this mom, where there is a will, there is a way.  She has moved mountains already for her children.

 I do not pat myself on the back.  There are many opportunities I intend to take and miss.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.  The important thing, I tell myself,  is to act on the little that is on our heart to do and not to delay a day.  Respond to that still, small voice only our heart can hear.  We each can make a difference in being a city on a hill, whose light cannot be hidden, the best city in America.  Carpe Diem!

Happy Thanksgiving!