Time stood still under the Old Oak Tree.

Yesterday I wrote about the Campground owner in South Carolina who stopped by our camper in his car and talked a bit about the history of the Camp. Today we were listening to NPR and the topic most heard was about the Charlottesville riots ,where white supremacy and neo nazi groups killed a woman and hurt 19 others. Horrible stories and in light of this, the talk with our Camp owner needs a bit more fleshing out. It was on my mind all day  and making fun of the conversation yesterday was a shock reaction to the unbelievable things we heard him saying. I must have been pretty sheltered and growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in Holland obviously hasn’t  given me any exposure to blatant racism.. Now this man was a perfect gentleman, understood customer service , was funny and entertaining and very very friendly.  But.. as Deidre so eloquently said today, he, like so many people in the sweet south , had a horrible blind spot. The open talk about race and his feeling of being better then , (literally his words , spoken as if the most normal thing in the world), “blackies or Neggers,” was scary to say the least. This feeling of being better or supreme was completely natural and obvious to him. There was just not a grain of doubt in his way of speaking about them “neggers” that they were less human then white folk. His black helper was trusted and let in the house without knocking , proof to him that there were good men of color as well checked by the lip. Very hard to listen to. How will his grandchildren , playing in the lake and fishing from their porch, grow up and see the world . How can this thinking inside the head of an 70 year old man still exist in 2017. How many more generations ?

 

Next morning, early 7:30 Departure uneventful 369 miles to our favorite riverside campground, Yellow Jacket! beautiful spot right on the river, tomorrow we have a boat and exploring time.  Barbecued steak, potatoes and mushrooms tonight. Life is good

South Carolina is fading, still nagging though. Would love to have some comments on others experiences like this. Thanks in advance.

Good Night.