Tired from last night's midnight mama turtle siting, we boarded our 9AM bus to tour Jekyll Island.
The grandparents exited the bus to board a Trolley tour of the Island of the rich and turn-of -the -century (20th)-famous. The grandchildren continued on with AnneMarie, the exuberant naturalist in charge of teaching us all she could about turtles and beaches. They were on Boneyard beach ( Many felled trees fallen on the beach...look like big bones) She is the patient, firm voice that guided them through the "boneyard" of trees and rock climbing and a revisit of the now marked turtle nest of last night. Victoria bonded with her AND she had the credit card for the possibility of pre-lunch ice cream.
As we waited for our Trolley Guide one grandparent ( a retired teacher) was heard to comment"It sort of feels like we've been let out of school..."
The island was found, a Club formed, and populated by the early Rockefellers, Morgans, and others "of their class"...the big names in finance and industry...before income taxes. The mansion we toured was not considered elegant or expensive, but spacious and--most important--away from the city stresses of the men. According to our guide these were sort of the fish camps of the day. Pretty nice roughing it.
They claim that the Club participants represented 1/6th of the wealth of the world at the time. It was a lovely place-BUT- at least one of the wives refused to go there. I think I know why, and I am empathetic...BUGS. I would not have wanted to be there either : not JUST the bugs, but the diseases they carried...yellow fever , malaria --yuck.
Local transportMira Rockefellar made it work. For her this place gathered family and love, God bless her.
The State of Georgia bought the Island for 600 K in 1947 and made it a State Park. If you want to help It gain a Coca Cola grand prize $100K award for being a favorite State Park go on line and vote for it. It really IS worth it . Vote often, competition ends July 15...I say "go for it"!
The evening provided wonderful entertainment from Gullah/Geechee Ring Throwers. This group of Sapelo Islanders is intent of keeping the language and traditions of the former slave occupants of this island alive and they ROCKED...kept the attention of kids and GPs !
Road Scholars JOIN IN!
W completed this day with a "walk"---which ended up being an hour and a half through the salt marshes, the charmingly old short housed, the sterile appearing bigger new houses...We consulted Tom's iPhone compass ...RE-found the golf course path...learned a new skill: how to evade the first path of a sprinkler, cross at the middle and walk on. I'm not saying we were lost....
All are asleep. I write in the bathroom and will put it on computer...whenever I can, I guess.
No comments:
Post a Comment