The Big Adventure Begins in the Late 90’s

This blog is about JoAnn and Jesse’s “big adventure.” This first posting describes our past experiences in and around Savannah that led to our decision to take the plunge.
Back in 1998 (or maybe it was 1999), we made a visit to Savannah, GA while on vacation. We found downtown Savannah to be a beautiful walking city; with many small parks and (black) historical buildings, and many tourist attractions. Since that first time, we’ve made several more excursions to Savannah, and have really enjoyed our stay each time. Just a few examples: During our visits, we have done some interesting things: we took an African American tour the city; visited the Ralph M. Gilbert Civil Rights Museum to get a picture of the protests of the 60s and before; and we visited the Beach Institute, which served as a school for African-American children in the late 1800’s , and is now a gallery for visiting African American artists. . While there in the summer of 2002, we attended the annual Gullah Festival in Beaufort, S.C. During that same visit, we made “pilgrimages” to the Sea Islands of St. Helena and Sapelo. In some ways, that was like stepping back in time.
St. Helena Island is located off the coast of Beaufort, South Carolina. It is very picturesque, and is considered the home of the Gullah culture. While there, we spent some time at the Penn Center, which is an educational center intended to preserve the culture and history of the Sea Islands. (For teachers and parents of young children, there is a link to an animated introduction to Gullah music. Be sure to turn the sound up on your computer).
Sapelo Island, is located 55 miles south of Savannah, and except for the very tiny African American community of Hog Hammock, it is totally owned by the state of Georgia as a nature preserve and a marine research station. The only way to get there is by a boat which runs once or twice a day. The African American people living in Hog Hammock are the direct descendants of slaves who worked the rice plantations; and from what we were told, no one else is allowed to live on the island. We had been introduced to the island reading Cornelia Bailey‘s book God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man.
On December 31, 2005, we attended Watch Night service at the First African Baptist Church on Montgomery Street in Savannah (organized in 1788 by Andrew Bryan, a former slave, and is still going strong). But wouldn’t you know there that is another First African Baptist Church on Alfred Street which claims to be the original one? Oh well…’nuf said.

During one of our trips we were graciously welcomed Jerome Meadows, a sculptor that Ayo met through Tosha Grantham, her sister-friend, on an earlier visit in Savannah. He gave us a tour of his fabulous "studio" and told us about living in Savannah.
Anyway, after having visited Savannah a few times and sampling what it had to offer, we talked and figured that it might be a good place to retire to one day. Well, that “one day” has come. Last spring, we decided that we were going to move to Savannah and try it out for a few months to see if we would like it enough to relocate there permanently. So, Jo left her job (Jesse retired 6 years ago), we rented out our house (furnished), packed up our essentials in our two cars, and hit the road (that’s our “big adventure”). In our next posting, we’ll tell you all about our first week in Savannah.
Jesse and Jo

Additional Links:

Savannah Quarterly: http://www.ci.savannah.ga.us/cityweb/CulturalAffairsWeb.nsf/f1c9700ba3bbe51d85256af0006fdd6d/5a5566f21da67d56852571b50046c137/$FILE/Savannah%20Quarterly%20Winter%202009%20Web.pdf

The South Magazine: http://www.thesouthmag.com/