Rice Is Nice

What port in the entire world shipped the most rice in the year 1850? Shanghai? Osaka?

But nooooo…..that would be Georgetown, South Carolina,

Georgetown is one of those charming, well-preserved Southern towns that line the Waterway and has gone through yet another rebirth as a tourist destination as technology has reduced the stench of the nearby International Paper mill to nearly nothing. But it’s big claim to fame is rice, and our visit to the Rice Museum was long, informative and entertaining.

The low country is ideal for the kind of traditional rice culture as practiced in Asia: fresh-water rivers to flood the fields, rich soil, hydraulic power provided by the extreme tides and, unfortunately, a steady source of labor, thousands of slaves. When the slaves were freed, the industry simply died and aside from one plantation growing rice for the tourist trade. Any of that “Carolina” rice you see in the store is probably from Texas or Arkansas.

It’s hard to justify a culture based on slavery, but it did produce architecture, furnishings and places like Georgetown that rival the better-known examples from King Cotton.

While in Georgetown, Sparta discovered ducks, and stalked them relentlessly whenever we let her out on the dock. She made the same sound in the back of her throat she uses to attract birds, but never learned to quack.

From Georgetown we made a short stop in Myrtle Beach after coming up the Waccamaw River which many claim to be the most beautiful in America. I’ll give it most beautiful in the Southeast. Then on to Southport, NC, where I am trying to shake off a terrible cold, so probably no report will be forthcoming ot the charms of Southport.

Also, I am reduced to using a tiny netbook computer, since a huge powerboat crashed passed us yesterday in a very skinny spot, and its five-foot wake sent everything flying off the shelves, Sparta flying across the cabin and shattered my Dell’s hard drive. 19 out of 20 powerboaters are polite and pass slowly, but that 20th one can cause some real damage — as our friend Patsy Conrad with a shattered vertebrae can attest.