I wish I was in Dixie

Hello again, fellow couch potatoes. The odyssey continues in the low country of Savannah GA and Charleston SC!

Both towns harken back to a bygone era. Some good, some bad. This area was settled back in the colonial times so have a lot of historic buildings. Also seems like a lot of influence in architecture from the Caribbean, which reminded me a bit of New Orleans and the gulf area. And I did notice that people tend to have better manners down in these parts---yes ma'ams, pleases, and thank you sirs aplenty. Southern gentility lives on.

But this area was also key cities for slavery in the south. Many slaves from Africa arrived at port in Savannah to work the plantations. South Carolina was also the first state to secede from the Union (mainly of states rights and slavery), and the shots fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor also started the Civil War.

I toured the historic district of both cities, and it was beautiful. The rest of both cities are like many others I've visited on this trip. A never-ending strip of strip malls, with lots of fast food joints and auto body shops. 


Forsyth Park in Savannah. Savannah is filled with squares, parks and streets, tree-lined and heavy with droopy Spanish moss.

St Michael's Church in Charleston SC.



Southern beaus, taking pictures before the big cotillion.

And their southern belles.

St.Phillip's Church in Charleston. There are a lot of churches in Charleston.

 

Soul food in Savannah from a place called Sisters of the New South. Fried chicken, corn bread, black eyed peas, collard greens and red rice.

 

Franklin Square. Savannah's old town is organized around a bunch of squares filled with monuments, statues and memorials. This is a memorial for the fighters from Haiti who came and fought alongside Americans during the Siege of Savannah in the Revolutionary War.

Fort Sumter in the middle of Charleston harbor. The secessionists from South Carolina fired the first shots of the Civil War at this U.S. fort in April 1861. Because of the heavy bombardment during the war, not much is left of the fort besides some of the outer walls.



I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times there are not forgotten;

Look away!  Look away!  Look away!  Dixie Land.

In Dixie’s Land where I was born in,

Early on one frosty mornin,

Look away!  Look away!  Look away!  Dixie Land.

I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray!  Hooray!

In Dixie’s Land I’ll take my stand

to live and die in Dixie.

Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

Away, away, away down south in Dixie.