Phase I - The Last Week

Hello again folks. We hope everybody is doing well wherever you are. As we wind up our stay here, in Savannah, we just want to give you all a final salute. This will be our final blog -- we’re heading north to Amherst on Tuesday. In fact we’ve already started packing what we intend to take with us, and are figuring out what we’ll leave here. If you’ve been following our postings (and we hope you have), you know we have experienced some interesting things here. Again, transitions.

Life has been going at a pretty slow pace since Juneteenth, but we do have some things to tell you about. On Saturday the 27th, we went over to Daufuskie Island, SC.

It was the 30th annual Daufuskie Day. It was really a homecoming for people who descended from African American families that are still there. Our across-the-street- neighbor, Joe Bennett told us about it on the 26th. His grandmother is from this island.

We took a ferry from the dock on River Street over to Daufuskie, which is one of the beautiful sea islands located between Hilton Head, S.C. and Savannah. It is only 3 miles by 5 miles in size, and you can only get there by boat. If you don’t know the waters, you’ll get lost getting there. The atmosphere was very much like a big homecoming with food, music and games.

We also took a narrated tour of the island by bus. It appears that most of the islanders get around by golf cart, one of the few trucks or cars, or by walking. Not surprisingly, it is very gradually being taken over by developers, so you know what that means. But the good thing is that the “been yeahs” are very protective of their beach and have not allowed it to be privatized.

Sunday we went to service at Connor’s Temple Baptist Church in Savannah. They had a traditionally uplifting service, and the Church presented awards to high school and college graduates for their academic achievement, church participation and community service. The 3 graduating high school seniors were male. That was good to see.

You may recall that Heshima and Yun Chi got married on May 15th. Well, they had been wanting to come down to see us and Savannah, and they were finally able to make the trek this past Thursday. It was wonderful to see them so happy. We wanted to cram in as much sightseeing with them as we could, but they were content to just take things easy – to visit with us and get a feel for the city. So on Friday, we went to Mrs. Wilkes’ House for home-style lunch/brunch. You know… that southern food that makes you pat your foot and hum while you’re eating. They ate. ‘Nuf said. Yun Chi and Jo even had the audacity to stuff a few pieces of fried chicken and some biscuits into Yun Chi’s pocketbook before we left --a perfect snack for the beach. After lunch we took them to Tybee Beach and enjoyed the sun and sea. We had already packed our beach chairs and a cooler before hitting the beach. So when we got the munchies by late afternoon we pulled out the fried chicken and watermelon, along with a Heiny or two. Now you know that’s good. We wound up staying there ‘til nightfall to see the pre-4th fireworks. We were all very contented.

Saturday the 4th, we visited the Telfair Museum of Art as well as the Jepson Center, and the City Market. Then it was back to the house for an early dinner. Our friend Sara came over to join us, and we pigged out, literally, on smoked delicacies topped off with peach cobbler. Of course, there was good conversation and laughter that afternoon into the evening. Since we hadn’t had our fill of fireworks, and it was the 4th, we drove downtown to see the fireworks on the Savannah River in honor of Independence Day (but remember Frederick Douglass’ 4th of July speech). The traffic was so bad afterward that it took us more than an hour and a half to get back to the house when it usually takes about 20 minutes. At least we had fun and the finale was fantastic.. Heshima and Yun Chi left this morning (Sunday) and took some good memories with them. They said they really enjoyed themselves, and we enjoyed having them with us.

That’s it for our last blog before we return to the Grand Am. We plan to head out Tuesday morning and stop in Maryland for a few days, stop by Rufus and Nycki’s, and then go on to Amherst on the 12th. By the way, if you haven’t already heard, we have a new grand-niece. Dabe and Audra were blessed with a healthy, beautiful baby girl, Christa Akila, born on July 3rd. Well, we’ll see you soon.

JoAnn and Jesse