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I was a guest of the Sun City Hilton Head Luncheon Group V, delightful ladies enjoying their monthly gathering over delicious food at Sigler's restaurant in Bluffton.
I say "new appreciation" because the Lowcountry apparently has not lost all of its eccentricities.
One of the ladies at my table has learned since moving here to whisper to her husband as they go into drop-ins not to bring up the Civil War.
"They talk about the Civil War like it was last week," she said.
She was asked if her people had fought in the "wah." She said yes, they did. That made her Lowcountry hosts happy, until she mentioned that her people were from New York.
"It got very quiet," she said.
And then there's this food issue.
Did you realize that "down here" we fry everything we eat? I guess I'd forgotten that. Maybe Prilosec does something to the memory. It doesn't help that state fairs offer deep fried butter and deep fried Twinkies. Or that Savannah's Paula Deen puts a stick of butter or a cup of mayonnaise -- or both -- in everything she fries.
Here's something else I'd forgotten about the Lowcountry. It's dark. And to add to the sport, we have no lights and no signs. It's no wonder we have mole problems in our yards. The moles are simply coming over to visit their two-legged cousins.
As Beaufort County has grown over the last half century, the great debate has been: "When does one become an old-timer, authorized to dispense advice to newcomers on such matters as how to kill moles or how to spell 'Ribaut'?"
The late Garry Moore of television fame wrote a column for us during a portion of his retirement on Hilton Head Island. It was his experience that one becomes an old-timer the minute the car cools off upon arrival.
Luckily, we have some new advice from someone whose people arrived in the 1600s. Nancy Chandler Ricker Rhett, a Beaufort native and one of our prized artists, shares the advice in a new book by Gloria E. Singleton called "Beaufort Through the Ages."
"I remind newcomers," Rhett says, "that we have '120' minutes in an hour. Don't hurry. What's the rush? The repairman WILL come. The bridge WILL open to traffic as soon as the one sailboat lazes through. So have a good book, binoculars or a sketch pad handy and enjoy the moment. Slow down to meet our pace; you'll live longer -- to enjoy Beaufort and the Lowcountry."
