WHAT WE LOVE: Floating and fishing on the Edisto

Hanahan photographer Chuck Boyd has a memory from his boyhood that he cherishes:

“I helped my granddad build a small square floating cabin on the Edisto River when I was a teenager in the late 1940s. It sat it on four empty 55-gallon drums and we floated and fished for catfish.

“He was a ‘squatter.’ I learned later that he did not own any land there and the owners must not have cared. The first night he woke me shouting, ‘Get up, boy, we’re sinkin’!’  Sure enough, the room was canted to one side and water was lapping at our feet. Later, when he fixed the leaks, we were afloat again and laughing together. Great memory!

“Grandad was a retired railroad man from Yemassee and eventually added more linked cabins but all were up on stilts, not bobbing on empty drums.  He even rented out rowboats after a while.

“One day, my older brother and I ran up the dock yelling we had seen a moccasin coming upriver. Grandad ran down and fired off both barrels of his shotgun! He killed the snake and blew the bottom out of one of his rowboats.”

Tell us what you love about the Lowcountry.  Send a short comment – 100 words to 150 words – that describes something you really enjoy about the Lowcountry.  It can be big or small.  It can be a place, a thing or something you see.  It might the bakery where you get a morning croissant or a business or government entity doing a good job.  We’ll highlight your entry in a coming issue of Charleston Currents.  We look forward to hearing from you.

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