Seafood

Charleston, SC is where some of the Geechee people live. We love rice but something else that we love just as much as we love rice is our seafood. Growing up I was surrounded by water so it was natural that we caught our own seafood or bought them from docks instead of the grocery store. I remember Friday's being flounder and red rice day. Flounder came fresh from the docks right from the waters we live around. There is nothing like fresh seafood and the taste is very different. Crab boils were a staple with corn and sausage mixed in and don't let me speak about the shrimp we use to eat like they were candy.

It's so hard to find good seafood if you live inland. I am now living right outside of Atlanta,GA and I can ever find that fresh seafood. Sure the stores have them but they just don't taste the same. I am so use to my seafood being fresh and from the coast that I just am not satisfied. The best place to find seafood when you live inland is the farmers market. They have the best blue crabs and they are the only place I can find flounder not the filet kind but the one with the skin on it.

Some of my favorite seafood dishes
Flounder and red rice
Seafood lasagna
Po Boys
Lowcountry Gumbo
Shrimp and Grits
Sardines with Grits

If you are ever in Charleston, SC make sure you visit one of the best restaurants that sell seafood. Hymans Seafood 

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Georgetown Ghosts

Georgetown is recognized as the third oldest city in South Carolina, though this is argued as the Spanish settled the area in the early 16^th century, thus making it one of the oldest cities in the New World. If you are from Charleston, SC you have know we refer to Georgetown as the Ghost town because there are many stories of Ghosts that still linger. I will tell you one of my favorites the rest you can find at http://southernspiritguide.blogspot.com/2011/08/ghosts-of-georgetown-south-carolina.html

Among the oldest homes in Georgetown, the Cleland House was built in 1737 and has seen a whole panoply of American history, some of it even passing over its thresholds. Among the notable visitors to this house are German Generals von Steuben and de Kalb; French General Gilbert de Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, who all aided the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and American Vice President Aaron Burr. The home was originally built facing the Sampit River, but later on the front door was placed facing Front Street.

The story behind this house reads very much like an old fashioned ghost story. Anne Withers, possibly related to John Withers who is listed on the historical marker in front of the house as one of the owners, had fallen in love with a dashing sea captain. After one of his voyages he returned to Georgetown and presented his fiancée, Anne, with a rare gift, an ancient Egyptian bracelet. The bracelet featured a series of scarabs, stylistic representations of dung beetles which symbolize the heavenly cycle of life. The blushing bride saved the bracelet to wear with her wedding dress. On her wedding day, she placed the bracelet on her wrist and carried on with her other preparations. Just as she was about to descend the staircase, the bride let out a scream and collapsed, dead.

When her family rushed to her side, blood was dripping from underneath the bracelet. When it was removed, the scarabs were found to have tiny legs that had dug into the bride’s pale flesh. The heartbroken sea captain left Georgetown soon after and in London had the bracelet examined by a chemist. The chemist discovered that the legs on the scarabs had been rigged to open by the warmth from human skin and each leg contained poison that would be injected into the hapless victim. He surmised the bracelet had been made to afflict the person who stole the artifact from a tomb. Ever since Anne Withers’ wedding day death, her form, still wearing nuptial white has been seen in the garden of the Cleland House. 

Do you believe in ghosts? Well if you want to see some I suggest taking a trip to Georgetown, SC.....Halloween would be ideal....*insert loud ghostly laugh*

Gullah/Geechee Folklore: Boo Hag

Geechee Folklore: Boo Hag

  The Geechee/Gullah people are full of beliefs and traditions. One of those beliefs is of the legend of the Boo Hag. The Boo Hag is an evil spirit that uses someone's skin to move among people unnoticed. Without the stolen skin, The Boo Hag is red,and is very warm to the touch. Once night falls, they shed, and hide the skin. Boo Hags are said to hide their skin under porch steps, and under beds. Boo Hags can enter a person's house through the smallest of openings. Once the Boo Hag is inside they sit on the victim's chest and steals their breath. This is known as "ridin'". Boo Hag doesn't kill the person that they ride, because it can come back over, and over again to steal the person's breath, which is how it sustains itself. The Boo Hag rides it's victim all night, and before the sun comes up the Boo Hag has to return to it's skin because it can't survive without skin in the daytime.


 Legend has it that there are warning signs that a Boo Hag might be near. The warning signs are the air will feel damp, and hot, and will smell as if something is rotting. There are a few ways to help prevent a visit from Boo Hag including putting a loaded gun across the head of the bed, as a Boo Hag doesn't like that smell of gunpowder. The Boo Hag is quite nosey so it stops and count things. You can use a brush, or put salt near the bed. The most commonly used way to prevent a Boo Hag from ridin' you is to place a broom by a door, or near you when you sleep so it stops and count the straws until dawn, when it needs to return to it's skin. Since it an evil spirit, using haint blue also helps. It's said that if you wake up in the morning, after having a full night's rest feeling exhausted, there is a chance that you have been visited by Boo Hag. 

Boo Hag story from The Moonlit Road 

Who dat geechee uz

                                         

On the high of Barak Obama being relected I can't help but give a shout out to who I want to be THE GEECHEE of the week... Drum roll please....Ms. JOANNA JENKINS the 108 years old resident of SC, Beaufort county.  I'm not sure if she is geechee or have geechee ties but we gwine claim she because she from SC!   Mrs. Jenkins has never voted before partly because she was illiterate.  

(Side note) please see the importance of education.  Now ABSOLUTELY NO DISRESPECT to the wonderful  Ms. Jenkins she grew up in a much different time and her circumstances were on a level that the vast majority of us would not ever be able to understand.  However, a family member made it very clear that the lack of a basic education was a key component to her not EVER voting until now.   So def know how a lack of a basic education can hold you back from your privileges and/or rights!

Ok back to the good stuff...What a treat to be able to live your last days seeing the 1st AA president get voted in and contributing to his re-election!!!!!  That's what I'm talking about Ms. Jenkins I want to ride it out with a bang bang bang bang!  God has spared her a long life to vote, still has a smile on her face, and all her faculties at least as much as you are going to have at 108 years old.  My grandpa is 94years old and I love and handle him with so much TLC because of his journey and how it beat him up but never broke him.  That's something we will probably never see again in our people.  They just don't make them like that no more!  So kudos, prayer & blessings, horn blowers, hugs and kisses to all our elderly who have participated in our election process whether it's your 1st time or 80th you are the reason OBAMA is POTUS... 

Blowing you kisses Ms. Jenkins **muah**xoxoxos

Did ya knoh...

Hi geechie fam!  It's Pentherapee!  And I got some "did ya know" news today.

Ahhhh let's see...Charleston, SC, beautiful cobblestone streets, historical, stature, strong southern ties and of course the original home of the Gullah people in the unites states.  AND HOME TO ONE OF THE UGLIEST, BORING, UNEVENTFUL, SMALL AIRPORTS (sigh) LOL!

I have been through CHS airport enough to have a room there, but considering Charleston is one of the top tourist vacation spots and not too shabby on the ideal place to retire for some, also Charleston and most surrounding cities and counties have loot...you knoh moolah, slave money, that green, old money, chedda shall keep going or you got it?.  Our airport should be state of the art!  So needless to say I bun too happy when jet blue started flying there because they are truly a really nice airline and CHS deserves some upgrades and jet blue was a nice touch.  

Moving on, so how excited I bun when I read about the 150,000,000  well deserved airport renovations!!!!! Whoohooooo!!!!  They even had a groundbreaking ceremony and everyTing.  The State representative Chip Limehouse stated, and I quote "it's a final piece of the puzzle missing from a world class city" .  I mean come on...this long overdue.  This is not old sowt tis uz definitely NEW sowt.  And as air travel increases people are spending way more time and money in the sky,  and Americans are spoiled, cheap and bourgeois (even tho' bourgeois just means middle class) we want champagne travel on a beer budget lol!  I go into some airports and dang near don't want to leave.  I should've just bun an air waitress aka flight attendant because I love everyting bowt traveling especially flying.  I truly get a high soon as mi foots enter any airport.  And I'm not the only wun that shares that high, on any given day at any given airport it will reflect my belief.  

Now to bring luxury, beauty, amenities, organization to a well deserved city/county deserves an applause (and the crowd roarrrrrrrs).   ok, I'm not crazy enough to think that I will not be paying the cost somewhere in all of this but if I'm going to pay make it well worth it.  And my experience has always bun the bigger the airport like a LAX actually comes with lower fees.   I tend to believe it is a fact because it's no wonder big airports stay busier and my ticket is always 50-100$ cheaper so  driving an extra 20-30 min to LAX rather than paying for the convenience of going to the 2 smaller/private airports closer to me is worth it for me and mines.  Mr.  Limehouse went on to say "the goal is to be a #1 airport".  WOW so befitting for CHS.  

Now most my people are still down south, majority still in West Ashley, Mt. Pleasant and Charleston so they very well drive whenever they're going to GA, NC, NY etc. but the few of us that are spread out take enjoyment in flying coast to coast.  To be able to shop (and not just for a rusty coffee mug, overpriced t-shirt or an outdated dusty book) and to be able to dine from a sports bar to fine dining is so great, because let's face it layovers and delayed flights are apart of flying just like wudda and eh it will be so nice to make it an experience in mi own hometown.  So I vote yes!  I believe money well spent.  

Story by PT

Chip Limehouse exerts from abcnews4.com

Benne Wafers

 One of the many things that the Gullah/Geechee brought over with them from Africa was the benne seed, more commonly know as the sesame seed. Using this seed, slaves would often make a thin cookie called the benne wafer. The Gullah/Geechee people believe eating benne wafers bring good luck.

Recipe:  
Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter 
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar together. Then mix with other ingredients in the order given above. Drop with a teaspoon onto a well-greased cookie pan, far enough apart to allow spreading while baking. Bake in a 325 degree F oven for 7-10 minutes

 

-SB