‘Keep Beaufort Beaufort' is a reminder and a rallying cry for us all
'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.'
What beautiful marching orders from Cynthia Jenkins, who stepped down this month as the director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation after a-14 year tenure there.
You'd think this is a group that looks back in time, sometimes to an aggravating degree, and it does. But since 1947, it has looked forward by doing its best to keep Beaufort Beaufort.
I hope the foundation is the first one to capitalize on the 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort' T-shirts, if they haven't done so already.
But really, that is the cry of our times all over the South Carolina Lowcountry — 'Save us, dear God, from ourselves.'
And we're not the only ones in the fight.
The most famous municipal rallying cry is probably 'Keep Austin Weird' in Texas, but it's easy to imagine a lot of T-shirt wishes closer to home.
Keep Bluffton Eccentric.
Keep St. Helena Gullah.
Keep Hilton Head Over There.
Keep Columbia Hot.
Keep Myrtle Beach Kitschy.
Keep Charleston From Sinking.
A real one today is 'Keep Chelsea Rural,' a grassroots reaction to the kudzu vine of growth that is now reaching beyond Bluffton and Hardeeville to overtake Highway 462 in rural Jasper County.
A similar new plea is 'Save the Euhaw.'
As Hilton Head Island has grown from a few thousand residents to around 40,000 while luring 3.5 million visitors a year, some people even marched in the streets trying to 'save' things.
We've had:
Save Our Trees.
Save the Sea Pines Deer.
Save the Forest Beach Chickens.
Save the Tiki Hut.
Have all these people over all this time been asking too much?
Cynthia Jenkins was in the best position to know what it means, and understand what it will take, to keep Beaufort Beaufort.
All of these grassroots wishes implore us to know who we are.
What is our soul?
And why would we sell it to the devil?
What is our birthright?
And why would we sell it for a bowl of lentil stew?
'Keeping' and 'saving' our soul implores us to know who it is that is defining who or what we are. Is it the travel brochure or the poet? The Big Mac or the shrimp burger? Trader Joe's or Harold's Country Club?
Beaufort can tell her own story, if we'll but have the sense to listen.
It is older than the United States of America itself, and has somehow rolled with the tides and the times under six different flags.
It serves today a feast of flavor brought by the Africans, Huguenots, Spanish, English, Scots, and, yes, plenty of damn Yankees.
Best-selling author Pat Conroy, who was adopted by the people of Beaufort when he was just a sniveling Marine Corps dependent, came as close as anyone to capturing the allure of Beaufort in mere words.
In 'The Prince of Tides,' Conroy wrote, 'To describe our growing up in the low country of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open you an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.''
Countless others have savored it over 400 years.
We can thank Cynthia Jenkins for her years of attention to every detail of her unique home town.
But we can also thank her for reminding us how important it is to 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.'
David Lauderdale may be reached at lauderdalecolumn@gmail.com.
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