Hubby and I met Roger, this beautiful horse, on the last day of our trip. There were about 10 of us on the carriage ride that we took with Old South Carriage Company. When the guide started the tour, everyone wanted to know the horse’s name. Andrew, the guide, seemed used to not having people ask him his name. He told us anyway! The horses are bought at auctions and most are from Amish farms. It was Roger’s third week giving rides and he did a wonderful job! The carriage traveled a block to pick up our route. The City regulates where the tours go. There are three different companies, and it’s the best way for each to have a fair chance and to also spread out the tours. The guides don’t know which tour they will be leading until they stop at the stand.
One of Andrew’s first lines was, “History is a buzzkill.” Then he told us the nitty gritty details of how things were when the immigrants first arrived. Only a third of the immigrants from England survived the trip. Some were so relieved to make it, that they drank too much liquor and died. They didn’t have family close by, so they got buried in a mass grave. At one point, we rode over that mass grave, which contained corpses of thousands of people. The mass grave happened to be close to the prison and insane asylum. Andrew talked about how people didn’t last a year in the prison. Now it’s being renovated and will become an office building. I don’t think I’d want to work there! If you’d like to see photos of the prison, click here.
Andrew explained why the front yards are small. Since there wasn’t indoor plumbing like we have today, a lot of the homes stored rain water on top of the roofs. They used that as a sort of plumbing, but all the waste got sent out into the street. That’s why there were so many fragrant gardens in the back yards and perfume was really popular then! Yikes!
Fortunes were made by selling gold rice or fertilizer. The wealthy people’s children were taken care of by the Africans. The Africans taught the children about African folklore. The children started to believe in ghosts and the houses were painted with blue haunt paint. Blue haunt paint was supposed to trick the ghosts into thinking it was water, which the ghosts couldn’t cross. Andrew told us about the lady who is pretty in the day but steals skin at night. After looking this up, I learned those ghosts are called Boo Hags. You can read more about Boo Hags here.
We learned about prohibition and the speakeasies. There were bars called “blind tigers,” which is where liquor was sold illegally. The bars were disguised as establishments that sold tickets to see a wild tiger show, except the people never saw the tiger. The “audience” got “free drinks” but they got away with it because they bought tickets for a show, not for alcohol. This scheme helped the establishments evade the Prohibition laws.
After the tour, we walked to White Point Garden, which is located on the peninsula. The park was originally called South Bay and then was known as Oyster Point. It was known as Oyster Point because many oyster shells were there that were bleached white from the sun. The shells have been replaced with grass.
to White Point Garden.
beautiful homes.
Author, Journalist, Historian – 1806-1870
I was expecting to see a beautiful garden of flowers at this park, but these were the only flowers we spotted. Can you find the monarch butterfly in the blue flowers?
After our walk, we had lunch at a restaurant called the Blind Tiger! We went back to our hotel until it was time to go to the airport. Even though this trip wasn’t quite over, we talked about where we might want to go to next. On the way to the airport, the driver asked if we saw the Angel Oak Tree, which is supposed to be the oldest living tree in the country. We hadn’t, but maybe some other time?
Happiness is planning a trip to somewhere new, with someone you love. ~Marie Cribaillet
My Reality Show 
Roger is a strong horse and beautiful too! That is some history lesson. It sounds like a wonderful visit.
Thanks, Mary! We had a very nice time and learned a lot too.