Charleston, South Carolina

Good morning, my friends. We're still in catch-up mode here at the Traveling Three Cats Ranch. This morning I want to back up to Friday and tell you about our trip into Charleston, SC. It was raining on this day, but the rain let up a little bit for our trip into the city. Charleston is a very old city, having been founded in the late 1700's, and there is a lot to see there. We had just one afternoon, and so we chose a couple of things that piqued our interest. Our first stop was the Charleston Visitor Center.

The visitor center itself is an interesting structure. It was built in 1856 as a South Carolina Railroad freight depot, and it is one of the oldest railroad structures in the United States.

It is a long structure, impossible to capture in a single frame on my camera. Inside one can see the original flooring.

Out back, it reminded me a little of the train station at Ellis Island. There are no trains there now, but tour buses were lined up to show visitors around the city.

It would have been nice to take one of the walking tours of the city, but the weather discouraged us. Instead, we chose just a couple of destinations and we drove our own truck. Along the way, we passed this cat cafe. I've heard of these before, but this is the first one I've actually seen. My image is blurred since our stoplight had just turned green, but I think you can get the idea.

Here's a little blurb I found about them on the internet, stating their mission and purpose:

Pounce Cat Cafe & Wine Bar is a place where you can hang out with furry felines, sip on boozy beverages, and indulge in delicious pastries.

We've teamed up with the Charleston Animal Society to provide our cats, so if at the end of your visit you've fallen in love with your new feline friend, you can take them home with you!

Best thing ever? We thought so, too. (Source)

I was kind of sorry we didn't have the time to stop in here for lunch, but in looking it up this morning, I discovered there is another one in Savannah. I'm hoping we'll find a way to stop in when we're there. Christmas hours might be an issue.

We were on our way to the Old Slave Mart Museum on Chalmers Street. It took us into an area of town where streets were very narrow, and eventually turned to a rough cobblestone.

Parking was difficult, but we were able to find a lot a few blocks from our destination where we could park all day for a flat rate of $10. Getting out of the truck, we found ourselves among some old churches and church steeples.

Also, some very old cemeteries. The cemetery here had a sign on the fence that said it was closed for repairs. We wondered what, in a cemetery, would cause it to be closed "for repairs."

It seemed to us that things here were long past needing repairs, but what do we know? Oh well. We were getting wet, and so we hurried along.

We were in Charleston's French Quarter, and the architecture was very interesting and charming. It was hard to get good pictures on these narrow streets. Even if I could have backed up for a better view, the streets were lined on both sides with parked cars.

Eventually we came to it, the Old Slave Mart Museum. What a grim place. There was no photography allowed inside, and so I don't have any pictures to show you other than the building's facade.

Here's what I know about it:  It once housed an antebellum slave auction gallery. The museum docent informed us that there was a time in Charleston when one could sell a slave anywhere...on the street, on a doorstep, and even in those days, this was giving Charleston a bad name. The city forefathers, in their wisdom, decided to take this whole affair behind closed doors. The Old Slave Mart was constructed in 1859 for this purpose. The building is believed to be the last surviving slave auction facility in South Carolina. In 1975, the Old Slave Mart was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its role in Charleston's African-American history. Today, the building houses the Old Slave Mart Museum.

The building was originally part of a slave market known as Ryan's Mart, which covered a large enclosed lot between Chalmers and Queen streets. The market was established in 1856 by Charleston City Councilman Thomas Ryan, after the citywide ban on public slave auctions made private facilities necessary. Slave auctions were held at the site until approximately 1863. In 1865, the Union Army occupied Charleston and closed Ryan's Mart.

It was mostly a walking and reading exhibit, although the upstairs included some artifacts from those days. Even knowing what I do about the institution of slavery, it was still sickening to be inside such a place and imagining the inhuman cruelty that occurred within its walls. We were glad we visited, and it was worth seeing, but we found ourselves wanting to leave after a time. One of my friends noted that the place seemed haunted, and it does.

From there we walked back to the truck and then realized we were just blocks from the other place we wanted to visit: The Open Air Market. Along the way we passed this blooming thing.

And I took some more pictures of the buildings in the area.

Eventually, we came to it.

Although it is called an "open air" market, it is actually housed under a roof. Some of the booths are indeed open to the outside, but the middle is all enclosed and heated...welcome on this chilly day.

It stretched on literally for blocks in each direction.

Inside one could find all sorts of things. Hats...

Christmas decorations...

Gourmet foods. We sampled this dried okra. It was surprisingly tasty.

Sauces, seasonings, and mixes of all kinds.

Anyone need your sinuses cleared?

I loved these Ball tumblers, but they were ridiculously expensive at $10 each.

Eventually, we came to a display that used some vintage quilts on its display tables. I knew you'd want to see the quilts.

Here a woman was selling "Topsy-Turvy Dolls," and I could not pass them up. This is her business card.

They appear like this. The woman at the market explained that these dolls were made by her mother who picked up the materials at antique shops. There were many different ones, but I chose one of the smaller ones, and I liked the embroidery on the apron.

Peeking under her dress, there is another doll.

Turning it "topsy-turvy" and pulling the dress down, the doll is now a white doll.

I have my doubts about the story there at the bottom of the business card, after consulting with my friend Google. It seems no one knows the story behind these dolls for sure, but I was kind of in agreement with Kimberly Wallace-Sanders who addressed the possible meanings and uses behind the doll's design in her social history of the image and myth of the Southern mammy figure. She writes:

African American slave women may have given dolls like these to their daughters as a preparation for a possibility of a life devoted to nurturing two babies: one black and one white. Topsy-turvy dolls are designed for children to play with one baby at a time, and this accurately reflects the division of caregiving that African American women encountered, having to care for white children during the day and their own children at night. These handmade dolls are important, creative expressions of those otherwise silent women we know only as "mammy."

Wallace-Sanders believes the "forbidden white doll" theory is wrong, arguing that the idea of a secret doll that would be forbidden to own makes Black mothers seem extremely irresponsible. When you think about it, the punishment for owning one would have been severe.

So that was our barely-scratching-the-tip-of-the-iceberg visit to Charleston. From there, we headed back to the campground.

I still have some things to tell you about our no-internet days, but let's move forward in time now to yesterday. See...when you travel with me, you can travel through space and time. It's kind of freaky when you think about it.

So there are squirrels living in trees just outside our RV. Imagine that. And yesterday morning one jumped right on top of the catio!!!!

Well, you can imagine the consternation this caused. We had to look out the back window.

And the side window.

And in between, Mike and I visited the Georgia Aquarium, but when we came back, cats were still atwitter about it.

Nothing would do until we got Smitty out for a walk and he could see what the heck was going on outside. Sadly...what do you think he's looking at?

It's a woofie! Mike was standing there, talking to some people, and they had with them a bad, bad, bad, woofie!

And the woofie saw Smitty, but wasn't the least bit interested. We went about our walk in peace until a small mop dog appeared and started yapping. That sent us back to the trailer in disgust. Woofies. Cretin woofies. Smitty has no love for them.

Okay, so I'm still woefully behind on my posts. I've been writing them in the morning when I get up, but then Mike is hungry for breakfast, and so time is limited. Just now he got back into bed, and so I have a little more time. I'll tell you about yesterday's visit to the Georgia Aquarium in a separate post. And, yes, I still owe you a quilt shop.

Today we're heading into Decatur, Georgia, where we found a listing for one of the country's best burgers. (More about the "listing" later.) As it so happens, there is also a quilt shop there. What a way to kill two birds with one stone, huh?