We started out this past week in Nassau and then made our way over to Highbourne Cay in the Exumas. The weather and the water in the Exumas was amazing especially compared to the rough travel from the previous week! The waters in the Exumas are what you usually picture when you think of the Bahamas. All different shades of blue and crystal clear. We spent our first night at Highbourne Cay which was vey quiet. We decided to give our kayak a try out (the first time with both of us in it at the same time) and I am quite pleased to report that it did not sink! We made our way over to the beach and enjoyed swimming all by ourselves. The next day, we headed to the Exuma Land and Sea park which is a national park area. The park has a mooring ball field for boats. For those of you not familiar with a mooring ball, it is simply a ball and chain that is anchored to the ocean floor. You are to simply grab the chain (much like jousting), tie your boat to it and you are set for the night…..ah, if only! I was in charge of grabbing the chain with our long deck pole. I grabbed it first try! However, grabbing the chain and having the strength to hoist the chain up 6 feet to grab it from the deck are two very different things! Bill tried to come help but he did not make it before we dropped the deck pole into the water. Bill then jumped overboard to grab the mooring ball and secure the boat. Just as he grabbed the ball, he yelled, “Oh #@%, there is something black in the water over there!” About that time, another boater came over in his dinghy to assist with the chaos and he said, “It’s just a nurse shark” as he casually rescued our boat pole. Much relief from us all! The park was very remote and very beautiful. We saw nurse sharks, barracuda, rays and lots of birds. From the park, we headed south to a town called Black Point. Black Point is evidently a happening place to be during non Covid times. We went ashore and had some delicious conch at one of the two restaurants. We were after their “Bahama’s best pizza” but alas, the supply boat had not come since the shut down so no pizza to be had. The people were great and very happy to see tourists arriving again. We ventured over to the “bread lady” who is this elderly woman who sits on her porch waiting for people to come buy her homemade coconut bread. Needless to say, we were all over that! Next stop to which we were directed was Ida’s Laundromat. We weren’t quite sure why we needed to see Ida’s since we did not have any laundry to do but that mystery was soon solved. Over the years, Ida had figured out anything and everything that boaters could possibly want or need. She had laundry service, golf cart rentals, a general store with everything from souvenir snow globes to boat epoxy, private dock and cabin rentals. It was an amazing exhibition of entrepreneurial spirit! The next day, we set sail….yes! Actual sailing since the wind finally decided to cooperate! We were quite pleased with our first attempt and no one ended up in the water so we called it a success! We are now in Georgetown trying to figure out our next course. We have several options, all with positives and negatives, so we are just debating which route will be best. This next leg of the trip will be the most remote so we want to plan carefully for weather, waves and wind. If you don’t hear from us for a couple of weeks, don’t worry! That just means we are in the boondocks of the Bahamas without any internet! The following is something you may choose or not choose to read. It is something that I have been thinking about for several weeks (I have way too much time to think these days). It is not a political statement. It is just my thoughts. I wrote it mostly for my kids who are struggling to understand the times in which we currently find ourselves. Times when one can be ruined simply from stating an opinion that may disagree with others. If you disagree with me, that is fine. It is just something I had to write.
I am white. I am Southern. Those are two basic facts in life for which I will not apologize. I am proud to be born and raised Southern. There is an abundance of focus on history right now all over the country. I believe that if one was not raised in the South, then one does not truly understand our unique situation. Never in my life have I ever heard anyone say that slavery was right or that we should go back to slavery. We all agree that slavery of any kind is a horrible institution and is a blight on American history that will always remain. We can not erase it. We can not ignore. We can not pretend it did not happen by ruling that things of the past are “banned” or “outlawed”. Slavery did happen. Jim Crow laws did happen. Discrimination does happen. When I was in high school, one of my classmates was the son of the Grand Wizard of the local KKK. I believe the local KKK consisted of around 10 uneducated men whose sole purpose was to pass out propaganda at the town’s one red light every Saturday. The history of the KKK in the South is an awful one and the fact that it was the 1980s and these guys still felt the need to spread their sick agenda was appalling to us. The great part of this story is that the son of the Grand Wizard had a best friend. They were together all the time and we never saw one without the other. His best friend was black. That is the South that I know. One that is ever changing and ever growing. One that embraces history yet hopes to never repeat it. My grandmother was born of a different time. During her life, “coloreds” were not equals. She used to say things and use words related to race that we would have gotten a spanking for using. My mother explained that my grandmother was simply raised in a different time when those terms were accepted in society and we could only hope that she would grow and change in her opinions over the years. My mother explained that we could not shame her for what she had been taught but we could continue to live our lives in the way that we would hope she would come to embrace. During my grandmother’s final year of life, she continued to live in her own house. My mother hired a caretaker to live with my grandmother to assist with her care when my mother was not available. She found Agnes. Agnes was black and only a bit younger than my grandmother. My grandmother was probably not pleased with the choice of caretaker but she did not argue with my mother. Over the months, we watched my grandmother and Agnes fight like dogs. Agnes would stand up directly to my grandmother and I never saw her buckle. The last time I saw my grandmother, we all went to eat at a local cafeteria. My grandmother had insisted that she get a piece of pie for dessert. Agnes told her that she would never be able to eat all of the food she had taken. At the end of the meal, Grandmama announced she was too full to eat all of her pie. Agnes snorted and stated, “I told you so! You never listen to me!”. My grandmother simply smiled and handed Agnes a spoon. My grandmother and Agnes then shared that pie together. I went home that day and sobbed. I could not believe my grandmother shared a piece of pie with a black woman. It was then that I realized that my grandmother did not share a piece of pie with a black woman. She shared a piece of pie with a friend. No federal law changed my grandmother. No desegregation policies changed my grandmother. The only change that will ever take place will be one on one change. We, as individuals, control that change. Lately, I have seen a few try to speak for the many. “They” want things banned, outlawed, destroyed. “They” want people like my grandmother persecuted for their past lives and things that were said instead of recognizing that people change and grow daily. Things that someone may have said years ago, they would never say today. But that fact does not matter to “They”. Netflix recently removed the movie, “Gone with the Wind” from their platform. Yes, the movie was about the old South during the Civil War. However, the most stunning performance of the movie was given by Hattie McDaniel who played Mammy. Anyone who has ever read the book or seen the movie realizes that while Mammy was a slave, she was the only person in the story with any real sense. Hattie McDaniel was the first black person to ever receive an Academy Award. The year was 1939. Hattie was not allowed to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because she was black and the Lowe’s Grand theatre did not have a “colored section” for seating. Today, we can not even imagine such a thing! Hattie broke down barriers with her award-winning performance and it saddens me that “They” refuse to embrace that history is history. We should not erase it. We should embrace it, learn from it and move forward. Disney has just announced that it will be changing the Splash Mountain ride from the Uncle Remus story-based theme to the Princess and the Frog. “They” has spoken for all of us once again. Joel Chandler Harris was an Irish born writer who based his Uncle Remus stories on stories told to him by slaves. He had apprenticed on a plantation and had preferred to spend his time in the slave quarters listening to their stories. He created some of the most iconic characters in American literature based on the stories he heard. For most of my life, the Uncle Remus stories and the Disney movie based on these characters have been “banned” because the stories were written in slave dialect. Yes, they were written by a white man in slave dialect but they are stories that were forever saved because he wrote them. These stories should be embraced. Not forgotten. On our boat, our GPS system is so old that the maps can not be updated. The maps are from the 1980s. One day, as we were moving through Georgia, I saw “Runaway Slave Creek” listed on the map. I thought to myself….surely they have changed the name of that creek by now! I looked online and saw it had been changed to “Freedom Creek” in the 1990s. At first, I was glad of the change but the more I pondered the name change, the sadder I became. The name, “Freedom Creek”, while politically correct, does not reflect the courage and determination and heritage of the slaves that escaped from slavery along that creek. Their memory has been erased…..all from a “simple” name change. As I watch the current happenings and listen to “They” in the news, I have decided that like my grandmother, change will only occur on a personal level. Marches and protests serve one purpose, but real change can only occur from within each one of us. I have decided that I am going to strive to change my descriptions I give of people. I have noticed that when I describe someone who is white, I never say, “She is the white woman standing on the corner”. I would say, “She is the blond woman wearing the red dress”. However, any other culture, I identify them by their race….”she is the black woman on the corner in the red dress” or “she is the Indian woman on the corner in the red dress.” I do not think my children ever describe someone by race. Once again, generational changes that will continue to move us all in the right direction. Not by the passing of laws or the banning of history but by making small changes daily. Toward a common goal. In order to achieve change, we must keep our history. All of it. Celebrate the good and embrace that which we most want to forget so that we never forget.
5 Comments
Rebecca Smith
6/28/2020 05:15:04 pm
Hey friend! So good to hear from you and thank you for giving us a heads up we might not hear from you for a few weeks. I'll be sad to not receive your updates but at least won't worry <3. Love you and miss you lots! Wes and his new partner (the papers were signed last Thursday for the intent to sell!) are looking at places to get together where they are both allowed to travel. I was pushing for the Caribbean thinking we might be able to catch up with each other (Aruba being one destination) but it appears as though they're heading to Greece. Until next time! Y'all be safe!
Reply
Chris
6/30/2020 03:01:35 am
So glad you are enjoying your journey! Love reading about it. Thanks for the heads up in case it’s a few weeks for your next blog post. Found your thoughts on ‘They’ interesting and will share with my kids. Stay safe. Aloha
Reply
Meredith
7/1/2020 01:40:11 pm
So great to read about your adventures. I think of you often sailing in blue water. Glad you are finally there and exploring!!! What an amazing adventure. You always have such a great way with words. Enjoyed reading your comments on "They". You picked the perfect time to sail away lol. Enjoy your next adventure. Wishing you calm seas and great breeze. Be safe.
Reply
Patti
7/1/2020 09:16:45 pm
Enjoyed reading of your adventures. Wish the nation could read your thoughts on “They”...so well written!!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|