Heaven Is a Beautiful Place

Genevieve C. Peterkin

Description

Born in 1928 in the small coastal town of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, Genevieve "Sister" Peterkin grew up with World War II bombing practice in her front yard, deep-sea fishing expeditions, and youthful rambles through the lowcountry. She shared her bedroom with a famous ghost and an impatient older sister. But most of all she listened. She absorbed the tales of her talented mother and her beloved friend, listened to the stories of the region's older residents, some of them former slaves, who were her friends, neighbors, and teachers.

In this new edition she once again shares with readers her insider's knowledge of the lowcountry plantations, gardens, and beaches that today draw so many visitors. Beneath the humor, hauntings, and treasures of local history, she tells another, deeper story—one that deals with the struggle for racial equality in the South, with the sometimes painful adventures of marriage and parenthood, and with inner struggles for faith and acceptance. This edition includes a new foreword by coastal writer and researcher Lee G. Brockington and a new afterword by coauthor and lowcountry novelist William P. Baldwin.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Murrells Inlet
• State
• Memoir
• Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
• South
• History of the Americas
• United States
• FL
• Local
• KY
• LA
• TN
• MS
• SC
• NC
• AR
• VA
• GA

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 13 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611175240
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Heaven Is a Beautiful Place
Heaven Is a Beautiful Place
A M EMOIR OF THE S OUTH C AROLINA C OAST
Genevieve C.Peterkin
I N CONVERSATION WITH
W ILLIAM P . B ALDWIN
NEW FOREWORD BY
Lee G. Brockington
NEW AFTERWORD BY
William P. Baldwin

T HE U NIVERSITY OF S OUTH C AROLINA P RESS
2000 Genevieve C. Peterkin and William P. Baldwin Foreword by Lee G. Brockington 2015 University of South Carolina Afterword 2015William P. Baldwin
Published by the University of South Carolina Press Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-602-5 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-61117-523-3 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-61117-524-0 (ebook)
This book contains excerpts from interviews conducted by Genevieve Willcox Chandler for the Federal Writer s Project of the Works Progress Administration. The interviews are among the collections of the Library of Congress and the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina.
Jacket illustration: Morning Coffee, watercolor by Ellen Fishburne Triplett
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
T WO W ORLDS
Little Red Horses
Mama
Daddy
TheWriter s Project
Lillie-in-the-Valley
The Garden of Eden
Lillie sWorld
Mrs. Floyd
Bubba Dick
Christmas
New Year s Eve
Brookgreen Gardens
1941
O THER W ORLDS
Cousin Sam
The Crash Boat Crew
People Mama Brought Home
The Gray Man
Alice Flagg
School
Communism
Germany
Library Problems
M ARRIAGE
Bill Peterkin
Marriage and a Child
Bill Hickman
Captain Peterkin
Aunt Hagar
A Light
Civil Rights
Doubts
Fish Stories
Troubles
Julia Peterkin
Courage
M ODERN T IMES
Buck
Skin
Zacky Knox
Politics
Hurricanes
A Communion
Another Communion
J IM
Mourning
If You Follow Me
Anger
An Afterlife
Mother s Day
A F INAL W ORD
Dogs and Flowers
Afterword
Foreword
Hey, you re new, aren t you? Sister Peterkin asked as the rain poured down outside a little cottage on the grounds of Holy Cross Faith Memorial Church at Pawleys Island. We were scheduled to work a shift together at the community clothes closet and her warm welcome made me glad I d braved the wet weather. As I hung my raincoat on a nail, I told her I had moved down from Columbia and begun work at Hobcaw Barony. She told me her sister June Chandler Hora had worked there in the past and when I told her I had a part-time job at Murrells Inlet s Anchor Inn Restaurant, she told me her brother Tommy had been co-owner at one time.
Right away, I shared that my first visit to the restaurant was in July 1969 and the patrons had been excited about the moonwalk that night. I told her we had watched it from one of two TVs at the Sea Ranch Motel on Highway 17. She couldn t wait to tell me that both her other brothers, Joe and Bill Chandler, were NASA engineers and present in Houston for the landing and I realized that explained the locals excitement. Two men who d made good were once mere boys during World War II, sitting in boats and dodging shots fired from B-25 bomber pilots in training over the inlet.
Immediately, Sister Peterkin had established a rapport and exhibited a willingness to accept me as a newcomer to her community. Few customers walked in that day due to the rain and she intrigued me with stories of local families both black and white, of events past and future, and fish markets and restaurants to visit. It certainly is nice to have new people. I hope you will get involved in the community.
At my first Georgetown County League of Women Voters meeting, there sat Sister Peterkin, on the board and speaking passionately about voting rights and equal access to a good education. She mentioned the first woman ever elected to the South Carolina General Assembly, Mary Gordon Ellis, who ran on the issue of buses being provided for black students in the late 1920s and 30s. I quietly added that state senator Ellis was my great-aunt. Sister Peterkin recommended that I serve on the education committee.
As an activist for racial equality, Sister Peterkin served as head librarian in Georgetown and fought the library board s unwillingness to comply with new federal laws to make libraries accessible to all members of the community. During her two contentious years of employment, she kept track of each black patron denied service at the desk. I admired Sister Peterkin and wanted to get to know her better.
I was a newcomer and noticed that some of the crowd didn t make overtures to an outsider. Even though I d vacationed at a relative s beach house on Pawleys Island each August, I had many things to learn about my new life in the lowcountry. I was full of questions and she talked to me as if no one or no other task existed for her that day. Historian Charles Joyner describes the muted music and calm rhythms of her warm southern voice and I felt blessed indeed to talk with her.
Sister Peterkin was a recent widow when I met her in 1984 and when I began to date a man twenty years my senior, she reminded me that her husband Bill Peterkin was twenty-four years older than she. She shared some of her painful memories of marriage and parenthood. It was her honesty and encouragement which led to my acceptance of an engagement ring from Bill Shehan in 1988.
She had a goal to help others acclimate to the environment of Murrells Inlet, to be educated on its history and ecology, to appreciate its beauty and uniqueness, and furthermore, to be good stewards of the Waccamaw Neck. In September 1989, Hurricane Hugo brought destruction to her world, and she admits in these pages a storm of that nature can affect people on the inside in the same way it wrecks their world on the outside (203). She saw the odd tricks nature plays during a storm, but also how neighbors responded to and helped one another during the disaster. She felt that the nearest we get to understanding [God s] love for us is by considering our love for others (233).
Murrells Inlet s history is woven into the fabric of her memoir, Heaven Is a Beautiful Place . For those blessed to be born on the coast, her stories and accounts of life ring true. For those new to the community, this book guides you through the people, places, sorrows, and pleasures of a life led by the marsh. If you moved here wanting to know more and to assimilate into the community, Sister Peterkin s words will reassure that you have chosen well.
Sister Peterkin had a way of reaching out to the underdog. In many cases, a newcomer s goal is to fit in, to take part, to know what the natives know. Sister Peterkin understood this longing of others, and through the words on these pages, includes you and allows you belong to this coastal community.
Lee G. Brockington April 2014
Introduction
T HIS IS A WONDERFUL BOOK . But I can t claim that was my original intention. At the start I approached seventy-year-old Genevieve Chandler Peterkin (known to most as Sister ) to suggest we collaborate on a story collection. I had in mind assorted tales, ghost stories, and what-not mixed with some bits of her own life-a glimpse of the South Carolina seacoast and, in particular, of the Murrells Inlet community where she was born and raised.
Murrells Inlet was an entertaining enough little corner of the world, and Sister had a reputation as a storyteller, one which I knew from experience was well deserved. I had known her for at least fifteen years, and we enjoyed each other s company. A quick book project seemed simple enough. I planned to visit her handsome old home and tape-record her for two hours each week. I would eat pound cake and drink coffee and keep my back to the window and its distracting marsh vista. She would speak into the microphone. That would be the book.
But at the end of the second session she said, Billy, I want this to be about my son. Her son, Jim, had been killed in a boating accident when he was twenty. I knew that much. She still wanted to entertain people-which she does here and does handily. But at the same time she wanted to say something that mattered-and not just about her son. She wanted to say something about the South-the beautiful, romantic, friendly, and self-reliant South and also the other South, the warts-and-all South, and she wanted to talk about striving to serve the common good and about loving people and losing the people you love. She wanted to say that this is what it means to be a caring human being. The result is what you hold in your hand.
Two-thirds of the way into the project Patty Fulcher, who was transcribing the tapes, asked to join us in the two-hour recording sessions. She had lost a child under similar circumstances and understood far better than I what Sister was attempting. Though I was in the room, that section of the conversation entitled Jim was spoken directly to Patty. Thank you, Patty.
And now, reader, I present to you a life-a warm, funny, sad, rich and raw and honest account. Each time I read through this manuscript I m staggered by its power. God bless Sister.
William Baldwin
T WO W ORLDS
Little Red Horses
L ILLIE K NOX FRIED CORN BREADS she called her Little Red Horses, and the hush puppies of this present time don t compare in any way. She fried them on a flat iron griddle with not much grease. They were an inch thick and she d flip them like pancakes, and when they were golden red brown they went on our plate