I Feel … OLD!

Despite the seemingly obvious implication of the title, you are not about to read a dreaded list of whining and gripping from some old lady who is having a bad day (though I COULD tell you about my popping knees, my stiff back, and aching joints ect., if you want to give me a minute or 10 – just kidding!). No, I am talking about the ancient feel of my latest excursion with the kiddos.


After much debate and the flip of a coin, this hen and her brood of two, along with a friend and her daughter, decided we would head east to the lovely coastal town of Charleston, South Carolina. Why there? Well, when you have two extreme kids, one being a very busy, imaginative child interested in “what’s next”, and the other who only wants to relax at the beach and is so laid back you have to check their pulse occasionally to make sure they’re still alive, you learn to plan around two very different ends of the spectrum when attempting to entertain individual interests. Charleston, however, proved to be the perfect place for both!

After a 9 ½ hour drive, two sudden, hail-pounding thunderstorms (and a beautiful double rainbow – wow – which excited us, but not as extremely as the guy on You Tube!), the 4,000th answer to “where are we now” followed by the standard “how much longer”, and a bout of extreme quizzical musing over the time zones and why our phones hadn’t changed yet and then suddenly they did, we finally arrived at the hotel. We unloaded, checked in, then ATTEMPTED to grab supper (story w/in itself). Once settled, we crafted a somewhat casual itinerary for the days ahead. One day at the beach, the next downtown, another at a military site.

Beach day – PERFECT!! Town exploration day– (wore my butt out walking, but) BEAUTIFUL AND SO COOL! Military appreciation day – EXTREMELY EDUCATIONAL AND HUMBLING!

That evening, while making our way down the moonlit lane back to our car from the picturesque lighthouse we had just visited (which was a little disappointing simply because we thought we’d be able to walk right up to it – nope – it was out in the middle of the water – AND it was dark!), I made an observation, “Is it just me, or does this place feel OLD?” Surely, our earlier trek through historic downtown had oozed into my brain and set the tone for the feeling that seemed to pervade the present air. (Or was it just old, musty, ocean
air.)

Told you it was a LONG WAY out there!  (Sorry for the dates on the pics - dufus, here, tried something new with the camera - yep, she knows how to remove it, just thought for some "old lady" moment that it would be nice to have the date printed on there!  Lesson learned!)

This was in no way made with disrespect, but simply out of the awareness of the history that ran deep along the beaches, the buildings, the streets, the stories we had experienced throughout the day. My friend must’ve understood my cognizance – she nodded with the same look on her face that twisted mine. Though there was a breeze, the night was strangely stale, in a very inexplicable way.

I have been to both the coast of Florida and Mississippi. I have seen those beaches and the cities and life that surround and pulse throughout them (not to an extensive degree, but enough to make an intelligent comparison). Having now experienced a day or two on this coast, there were palpable differences. As I looked around the palmetto-lined, sandy path, I wondered how many other people had walked this beach before us. Pirates who may have landed on the very beaches we had just strolled, couples who may have snuck here to steal a little time listening to the moonlit music of the tide, soldiers who had occupied ships sailing around this very shoreline – all these flash-bulbed through my mind. The tale of Blackbeard having stayed in the dungeon that we toured earlier in the day must’ve gone to my head (and stuck in my imagination like pepper on the front tooth of a first date).

Have you ever been to a place like that? A place that you could literally FEEL, where you could BREATH IN the history, the surroundings? Having a pretty vivid imagination can sometimes prove to be negative; but in cases like this, it can prove to create a beautiful landscape for the actual past that helped shape our early history. How fortunate I am to have been able to take my children to such a place and learn with them about some of the people, places, and events that painted the history of our land, our nation.  I guess that's the kind of "agedness"  I don't mind "feeling".