Broad St., Charleston, S.C.
When the Smithsonian Magazine asked authors to write essays about their hometowns, they wisely picked writer Josephine Humphreys to write about Charleston. A few years ago I went to Ashley Hall School to hear her read her essay out loud. I think you will enjoy it as well:
Novelist Josephine Humphreys says the city is more than just her hometown, it's her life.
Josephine Humphreys is the author of four novels: Dreams of Sleep (winner of the 1985 PEN/Hemingway Award), Rich in Love, The Fireman’s Fair and Nowhere Else on Earth, an historical novel based on the true story of the Lumbee Indian outlaw Henry Lowrie. A former Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the Lyndhurst Prize, she lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she was born.
Charleston's old ladies ruled the town, and if you misbehaved within the hawkish eyesight of one...
ReplyDeleteThis is true all through the South, it was hard for a group of boys to have any fun at all without one of those ladies burning up the phone lines back to our parents and grandparents.
I grew up in Baltimore where the ladies seemed to always be facing the other way. It was easy to get into trouble.
ReplyDeleteThe old "it take a Village to raise a child" really works.
ReplyDeleteI find this fellow and his companion intriguing landmarks along Broad St. They seem a quiet witness to how much the city has changed over the years.
ReplyDeleteDoug - I agree. I like them too :)
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