Lauderdale: Will our 'Angry People' march in the streets?

Where have all the protesters gone?

A black-and-white newspaper photograph of a local protest tickled one of my colleagues so much last week that she posted it on Facebook.

"This sign, from a 1984 protest on Hilton Head Island against cutting down trees, needs to be at every protest, everywhere," Rachel Damgen wrote.

The sign blared "Angry People" beneath a drawing of a frowning woman.

We still have a lot of angry people, or so it seems, from reading letters to the editor and online comments.

But do we have people with enough passion to march in the streets?

Do we have people who love the place so much they will stand in front of bulldozers, carry humorous signs and get involved?

Actually, the protest with the "Angry People" sign began with a letter to the editor.

Dorothea Griffin wrote to The Island Packet that too many trees were being cut down on Hilton Head. The island had recently incorporated, and growth was hitting gears never seen before. She wanted someone to do something before it was too late.

So did several hundred other people, who marched in the July heat behind Dorothea and Katie Callahan holding a sign that said: "Bulldoze Us Not Our Trees."

'Chiggers, Ticks and Fleas'

Griffin was 76 years old. She was better known as a leading lady in Community Playhouse productions, a sparkling stage presence she brought with her when she moved to the island in 1979.

Callahan was better known for two decades of banging out Packet stories and columns on her Underwood manual typewriter. She was a long, tall Texas Democrat who published four books of columns, including "Toads on the Porch and Lizards in the House" and "Fat Cats, Fire Ants, Chiggers, Ticks and Fleas -- Unmasking the Glamour of Posh Hilton Head Island."

"Katie Q," as we called her, was 66 when she and Griffin formed the "Save Our Trees" organization that led the Save Our Trees march down Pope Avenue.

Some of the marching women in white skirts and green blouses pushed baby strollers. One carried a caged bird, another a potted plant. Most carried signs:

"I Think That I Shall Never See a Condo That is as Lovely as a Tree."

"Down With Paul Bunyan Tactics."

"Who Needs an Asphalt Jungle?"

Developers also marched. Bob Onorato pointed out that Greenwood Development saved a stand of beautiful oaks in the median in front of Palmetto Dunes when U.S. 278 was widened to four lanes.

Gen. Howard Davis of Hilton Head Plantation carried a placard reading: "In the past 8 years, Hilton Head Plantation has planted 213,768 trees." On the other side, it said, "In the next 8 months, Hilton Head Plantation will plant 52,300 trees."

'Tree Lady'

People don't think of Hilton Head as a hotbed of protest.

But when BASF, one of the world's largest chemical companies, announced plans in late 1969 to build a $100 million industrial complex on the Colleton River, locals protested with a sign that played on the BASF name. "Bad Air Sick Fish," it said.

Twenty years later, Bluffton protested a boat plant in the same area. They put a protest float in the Bluffton Christmas Parade, and the mayor handed out "jobs" on little cards.

When the NAACP chose Hilton Head to protest the Confederate flag at the Statehouse, it attracted a bunch of flag-waving yahoos marching for "heritage."

When a union attempted to organize workers at a Daufuskie Island resort, it depicted management with a huge blow-up rat that had "blood" running from its teeth.

When a miniature golf course was proposed for Sea Pines, a protest featured signs that said:

"Artificial Greens Are Not Natural Beauty."

"Down With The Greedery."

"no no no No No No NO!"

BASF didn't happen. The boat plant didn't happen. Neither did putt-putt in Sea Pines. The Confederate flag was at least taken off the top of the capitol dome.

And a week after the "Angry People" marched in the street to save our trees, Griffin was appearing before the new Town Council.

She planted seeds for a strict tree ordinance. More importantly, it resulted in the hiring of a town staff member whose faithful enforcement of it over the years earned her the name of the "Tree Lady."

Griffin died a year after the march. Callahan also is gone.

Will our legacy rise above being merely "Angry People"?

Follow columnist David Lauderdale at twitter.com/ThatsLauderdale.

This story was originally published February 1, 2015 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Lauderdale: Will our 'Angry People' march in the streets?."