Memories of Charles Towne Landing

Charles Towne Landing was the first South Carolina State Park that we ever visited.  Years before we began our Ultimate Outsider journey and years before we had children, we had heard of and visited the old colonial site.  When Anchor and I had first moved to South Carolina from Tennessee, we were drawn to the history and natural wonder of Charleston.  Our difficulty was not a lack of culture as much as a lack of funds.  We were broke.  We had married just out of college and I was in graduate school.  Like many old school newly weds, we were time rich and money poor.  We scraped up just enough pennies to pay for gas to fuel the car to Charleston, grabbed the hotel coupon we had found in the free paper in the entryway of Shoney's and made plans for our weekend trip.  We made it down but soon discovered that most things to do in Charleston demanded a substantial remittance that we could not afford.  We kept looking.  We were down there after all and finally found a bargain at Charles Towne Landing.  It was a zoo, historical site, natural repository, and museum for one manageable fare.  We could also bring in sandwiches and save having to buy food.  Like I said, we were broke.

Exploring back through the ages on that day and then again and again on subsequent visits as our family grew filled us with a fondness of the place.  Adventures became sweet family memories.

There is where the puma eyed Thoreau a bit too closely as I carried my baby by the exhibit walkway.  There is where we saw the bear lumber over as if to say hello.  There is where we understood how very large bison were  and there is where we all laughed as we watched the river otters play.  There was where we explored the settlement and the garden.  There we saw the house and there is where we teased the children about the stocks.  There we explored the marsh point and there we ventured inside the colonial boat's hold.  Over there was where we saw the re enactors who showed us how muskets were fired.  There was where we first saw the Kiawah monument and found out what a great tribe once lived here.   Over there is the African American cemetery where we demanded quiet reverence from rambunctious toddlers.  There we heard silence.

There was a historical forest and over there we saw a pack of wolves.  There I held my children close. There we stepped past the palisade that barrier of sharp wooden beams.  There we walked into history and there was where we drove out.

Charles Towne Landing overwhelms its guests with history and relevance and power.  Ghosts speak freely of loneliness and fear but also of adventure and bravery.  So many voices grab for our ears.  We strain to bring order.  We strive to hear and to understand, to piece together and to learn, to build from the bravery and to learn from the mistakes.  There are so many stories here.  It is our job to keep traveling back and to listen.