Charleston Currents #13.45 | Sept. 27, 2021
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS. Hats off and hip, hip, hooray for the Charleston RiverDogs, which won its first minor league baseball title in 99 years on Sunday Night. More below. See something you think our readers would enjoy? Snap a shot and send it along. Photo provided.
FOCUS: RiverDogs win first minor league title in 99 years
COMMENTARY, Brack: Congress must help Lejeune toxic water victims
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
NEWS BRIEFS: Thousands take part in Saturday’s Cooper River Bridge Run
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: A brick folly?
CALENDAR: Jazz group to kick off season 14 in February
Champions!
RiverDogs win first minor league title in 99 years
Provided
By Samantha Connors | The Charleston RiverDogs defeated North Carolina’s Down East Wood Ducks and secured the Low-A East Championship Series Sunday night at The Joe. It’s a franchise first for the RiverDogs and the city’s first minor league baseball title in nearly a century.
After winning the first two games and dropping the next two in the best-of-five series, the RiverDogs knocked the deciding fifth game of the series out of the park with a 9-2 win.
The RiverDogs led for the first eight innings, jumping out to a 7-0 lead by the fifth inning. The Wood Ducks were able to add two to avoid a shutout in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough.
And Sunday’s victory was no small feat.
This is the first time a Charleston minor league team has taken home a minor league championship since 1922 when the Charleston Pals secured the South Atlantic League title.
The RiverDogs had a record-breaking year, boasting the most wins of all minor league baseball teams in the 2021 season and outperforming the previous 1988 Charleston Rainbows’ winning percentage record. The team amassed 82 victories with just 38 losses ( a .683 winning percentage) in the regular season.
The extended season means there are only a few short months until the RiverDogs return in spring 2022. More info.
This story first appeared in the Charleston City Paper.
Congress must help Lejeune toxic water victims
Partain, being held by his mother on the day he was born at Camp Lejeune. Water bottle in bottom left. Provided.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | They drank the water. And it’s been killing them.
Retired Navy Chaplain Bruce Hill of Lakeland, Fla., had five years of treatment before his leukemia went into remission. His wife died of breast cancer. His daughter suffers from an inflammatory bowel disease that compromises her body’s immune system. They all drank the water.
On the day that Mike Partain of Winter Haven, Fla., was born in a base hospital at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, he, too, drank the water. You can see a baby bottle half-filled with water in the foreground of a picture in my office that shows Mike’s mother holding him hours after he was born.
Hill and his late wife.
“If it hadn’t been for a fortunate hug, I’d probably be dead now,” Mike said earlier this year. “I had breast cancer. I’m one of 125 men who had the unique commonality of exposure to the contaminated water at the base and male breast cancer.
“I do not drink. I do not have the BRCA 1 and 2 mutations for breast cancer…. I don’t do drugs. There’s no history of breast cancer in my family. But yet, I get a rare disease but it’s tied to these chemicals.”
From 1953 to 1987, more than 900,000 Marines, their families and civilian employees at Camp Lejeune drank water contaminated by toxic chemicals like gasoline and jet fuel that leaked into wells around the base. Across the country, 273,433 people have registered with the Marine Corps to receive notifications about the poisonous drinking water at Camp Lejeune. More than 7,600 live in South Carolina.
In the 1960s and 1970s at the base, “levels of certain cancer-causing chemicals were among the highest ever recorded in a public drinking water supply,” according to a 2013 Associated Press story.
Partain
People like Bruce and Mike got sick. Too many died from diseases like leukemia and cancer — rectal cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, brain cancer, kidney cancer. Often, it took years for devastating diseases to manifest.
What makes the whole mess even sadder is that the military knew about it for years, but did nothing. All the while, Marines protecting their country had no idea they were battling an invisible enemy — an enemy in the water underneath the homes in which they lived, the offices where they worked, the fields in which they trained.
By 2012, Congress passed a measure to provide limited health care relief for Camp Lejeune veterans, but the law didn’t provide substantial and equitable relief or reimbursement for military dependents and civilian employees who suffered from drinking the polluted water. In other words, some health treatments were covered, but not claims for other damages from victims. Why? Because of a quirk in North Carolina’s law that courts said must be applied before cases could be brought. That limitation has kept those affected by the water from having their day in court.
The only way that’s left to deal with this aberration in North Carolina’s law is for Congress to pass a special bill, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. If passed, the measure would allow Marines, their families and civilian workers at Camp Lejeune who either consumed or bathed in toxic water for at least 30 days between August 1953 and December 1987 to seek damages and, if denied, to file a lawsuit.
More than 50 members of Congress currently co-sponsor the legislation, but it’s been crawling at a snail’s pace.
Congress, now is the time to get the job done. No more messing around. No more political side steps. Victims and families have suffered for too long. More are dying without relief. Honor the Marines and other sickened victims of this tragic poisoning now by doing the right thing and letting them seek the recovery and peace they deserve.
They protected us. Now let’s do the right thing for them to rectify the toxic wrongs done to them.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Charleston Currents, and publisher of the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Charleston Currents to you at no cost. Today we shine our spotlight on Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, founded in 1676 by the Drayton family.
It has survived the centuries and witnessed the history of our nation unfold before it from the American Revolution through the Civil War and beyond. It is the oldest public tourist site in the Lowcountry and the oldest public gardens in America, opening its doors to visitors in 1870. Open 365 days a year, Magnolia offers its visitors splendid tours of nature and history and the role African-Americans played in the development of its award-winning Romantic-style gardens.
- Visit www.magnoliaplantation.com to learn how you can experience a complete plantation experience.
- Click here to learn about events and what’s new.
- To meet all of our underwriters, click here.
Thousands take part in Saturday’s Cooper River Bridge Run
Steve Aycock Photography.
Staff reports | An estimated 12,000 runners, walkers and wheelchair participants ran over the Ravenel Bridge from Mount Pleasant to Charleston in the 44th annual Cooper River Bridge Run, an event postponed from spring by the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, which traditionally attracts 40,000 entrants, this year was limited.
NCAA champion Edward Cheserek, a Kenyan who now lives in the United States, won overall with a 28:28, a pace of 4:34 minutes per mile. The top women’s runner was Nell Rojas of Boulder, Colo, whose time was 31:52, a pace of 5.07 minutes per mile. More. The 2022 race, the first since 2019, was the first Charleston race for both winners. In the wheelchair division, Hermin Garic set a record of 22 minutes, 57.63 seconds, while Aerelle Jones won the women’s race. More. The 45th annual Cooper River Bridge Run is slated to be April 2, 2022.
In other recent news:
End of eviction moratorium may hurt thousands in S.C. Housing services, nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups throughout South Carolina say they are dealing with staggering numbers of renters facing potential eviction after the end of a moratorium that had kept thousands safely housed through financial hardships levied by the pandemic. Before the pandemic and subsequent eviction moratorium, South Carolina was already deeply entrenched in a housing crisis — evicting more tenants per capita than any other state from 2000 to 2016, according to a study by Princeton University’s Eviction Lab. And now, landlords have the green light to let off the brakes. Read more.
State high court upholds most of Heritage Act. The S.C. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Heritage Act, which prevents removal or changing of public monuments or names without the legislature’s approval, is legal. However, the same ruling struck down the two-thirds majority needed in the General Assembly to make the removal or name change. More: AP News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, The State, The Orangeburg Times & Democrat.
FEMA changes to spike cost of insuring waterfront homes. New federal flood insurance rates that better reflect the real risks of climate change are coming. For some homeowners, premiums will rise sharply. More: Charleston City Paper; The New York Times.
Cunningham says he has ‘best chance’ of beating McMaster. Former Congressman Joe Cunningham, the Democratic hopeful for South Carolina governor, didn’t waste time Thursday getting to know Chester County voters. More: The State.
Port volumes remain strong for August. The S.C. Ports Authority handled 114,671 import containers in the month of August. That amount represents an 18% year-over-year increase over last year. More: Charleston Regional Business Journal.
Send us your thoughts by email
We love hearing from readers. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information. Send your letters to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com. | Read our feedback policy.
A brick folly?
Here’s a brick structure sent in by a reader. What is it? Where is it? Send your best guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live. And if you’ve got a clever mystery photo for our readers, send it to the same address (Try to stump us!)
Our previous Mystery Photo
In our most recent mystery, “A real mystery” we asked readers to find out the story behind a sign along Folly Road in Charleston that asked for thieves to return some stolen jewelry. Only veteran sleuth George Graf of Palmyra, Va., got the story, much like an intrepid reporter who won’t give up. He shared:
“A nearby home was burglarized of a jar of cash and a box of heirloom jewelry during the day back on June 29. A police report was filed and is still under active investigation by the Charleston Police Department. The woman who was robbed put up the poster on the fence in hopes that the burglar(s) return the family jewelry that cannot be replaced.”
A police report confirmed the details. While Graf got the true story right, three readers — John Hart and Bud Ferillo, both of Columbia, and Marian Greely of Charleston — sent in fictional solutions to the photo. The winner is Greely, who offered the following;
“Francis X. Dewlap presented his fiancee, DelMarVa Pen, with his great-grandmother’s engagement ring after a brief courtship. In hindsight, Mr. Dewlap admits that he was hasty in proposing. ‘It was love at first sight. Her photo in the back of the City Paper was stunning, our phone conversations were titillating but deep (her computer was being repaired).’ They were unable to meet, according to Mr. Dewlap, due to a bee sting on Ms DelMarVa’s lip. ‘She wanted to be as pretty as her picture when we finally met.’
“Mr. Dewlap did have some concerns though: Ms. DelMarVa hadn’t been vaccinated. A ‘personal freedom issue.’ she claimed. He respected her decision but insisted they wear masks. They arranged to meet at the Early Bird Diner. As they stood in line, Mr. Dewlap professed his love and showed Ms. DelMarVa the family ring. ‘When she put the ring on her finger she cried with happiness. She told me that I was the man of her dreams. Then she excused herself to ‘freshen up’ and that’s the last I saw of her.’ Mr. Dewlap sobbed, saying that they never even got in the door.
“Even though Mr. Dewlap is willing to let Ms. DelMarVa keep the ring — ‘She will always think of me when she wears it’ — his family is enraged. The Dewlap family contend that Francis is a hopeless romantic and the ring was not his to give. Please contact the family with leads to Ms DelMarVa’s whereabouts. “’We just want the ring back.’”
- Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Jazz group to kick off season 14 in February
Ernie Watts plays with the Charleston Jazz Orchestra at the Charleston Music Hall in Charleston, S.C. Provided.
Staff reports | Charleston Jazz Orchestra will kick off season 14 in February 2022 with singer/saxophonist Camille Thurman, a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in New York City. Other performances will include a Marh big band show, a May tribute to Chick Corea, a September 2022 Cuban carnival and an October 2022 tribute to Miles Davis. More.
Also on the calendar:
Bruce Hornsby: 7:30 p.m., Sept. 29, Charleston Gaillard Center, Charleston. Pianist Bruce Hornsby with his band, the Noisemakers, will be in town to push a new selection of songs that explore a broad range of themes — from civil rights to computer hackers. Tickets start at $35. COVID-19 protocols are in place.
October at the Terrace. Check out Horror weekends at the Terrace Theater on James Island: The theater will offer weekends featuring slasher, vampire, classic and comedy films.
Gershwin shows: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Oct. 1, and 2 p.m. Oct. 2, Forte Jazz Club, 477 King St., Charleston. Brad and Jennifer Moranz present “The Glory of Gershwin,” a 90-minute musical celebration of the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. Starring an all-professional cast from Broadway and beyond, the show features such classics as “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Our Love is Here to Stay,” “Strike Up the Band,” “S’Wonderful / Rhapsody in Blue” and more. Tickets are $35 to $50. For ticket information, visit bradandjennifermoranz.com.
Evening of Remembrance: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Oct. 3, McLeod Plantation Historic Site, James Island. This fundraiser to benefit the McLeod Project will feature drinks, heavy hors d’oeuvres prepared by Chef BJ Dennis, and a performance by a brass quintet from the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Tickets are $75 per person. The McLeod Project supports cultural and historical education opportunities that foster a more equitable society, by expressing a unified narrative of African American history, culture, heritage and art. The event is being put on by the Charleston County Parks Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission.
Latin American Festival: Noon to 5 p.m., Oct. 10, Wannamaker County Park, North Charleston. There will be music, dancing and food from Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Admission is $10. More info.
Ongoing
Sisters Across the sea: Through Sept. 30, Park Circle Gallery, North Charleston. A free reception will be held at the gallery 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 10 to celebrate the exhibit of art quilts by local artist Torreah “Cookie” Washington and Ghanaian artist Eunice Maku Aiyku-Nartey. Admission is free and free street parking is available on Jenkins Avenue. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information about PCG, call 843-637-3565 or email culturalarts@northcharleston.org.
Maintenance of Way exhibit: Through Oct. 30, Redux Contemporary Art Center, 1056 King St., Charleston. Redux and Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenwill are presenting this exhibition of work by Hannah Barnes and Gyun Hur. They = create work that considers place as a mental and physical construct built by layers of time, a collection of striations. Barnes and Gyun explore the idea of maintenance in their practices as a physical and emotional pursuit, connected both to one’s private self and a broader public society. Their work invites the viewer to share in the collective experience of being private selves in public spaces.
Reviving photos. Through Oct. 31, Charleston Museum, Meeting Street. The museum is exhibiting The Lowcountry in Living Color: Making Historical Photographs Come to Life as the latest offering in its Lowcountry Image Gallery. Colorizing black and white pictures allows viewers to see components that otherwise might be overlooked. Buy tickets.
Birds of Prey flight demonstrations: 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Thursdays and Saturdays, Center for Birds of Prey, 4719 Highway 17. Awendaw. The center has reopened its doors to visitors after closing due to the COvID-19 pandemic, inviting people to once again come and explore the world of raptors through an outdoor program and flight demonstration. Tickets: . $20/adult; $15/children age 3-17.
Bird-watching at Caw Caw. Every Wednesday and Saturday — particularly through the end of February — you can see a plethora of birds at Caw Caw Interpretive Center in Ravenel as they make their way through the Lowcountry. The two-hour regular walks, which start at 8:30 a.m., are through distinct habitats that allow participants to view and discuss a variety of birds, butterflies, and other organisms. Registration is not required. Participants are encouraged to bring their own binoculars. A paid chaperone is required for participants ages 15 and under. Max. 10 participants. Fee: $9; free for Gold Pass holders. Open to all ages. More: Caw Caw Interpretive Center.
Farmers markets
Closing in October
North Charleston Farmers Market: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., every Thursday, Felix Davis Community Circle in Park Circle. The market offers fresh, locally grown produce as well as arts-and-craft vendors, specialty foods and live music. More. Closes Oct. 28.
Moncks Corner Farmers Market: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., every Thursday, Market Pavilion at the Regional Recreation Complex, 418 E. Main St., Moncks Corner. More. Closes Oct. 28.
Closing in November
Summerville Farmers Market: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., every Saturday, First Citizens Bank parking lot near Town Hall, 200 S. Main Street, Summerville. More. Closes Nov. 20.
Charleston Farmers Market: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., every Saturday, Marion Square, 329 Meeting St., Charleston. More. Tentative closing Nov. 27. Holiday market to open temporarily in December.
Closing in December
Holy City Farmers Market: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., every Wednesday, Holy City Brewing, North Charleston. vendors rotate weekly to provide shoppers with a tiny but mighty shopping experience. vendors will be selling a range of products from specialty foods, home and body care to arts and crafts. More info. Closes Dec. 18 with holiday market.
Open year-round
West Ashley Farmers Market: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., every Wednesday, Ackerman Park, 55 Sycamore Avenue, Charleston. More.
Sunday Brunch Farmers Market: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., every Sunday, Charleston Pour House, 1977 Maybank Highway, James Island. While the market is discouraging people from spending too much time hanging out during the market, everyone is invited to shop their local vendors. More info.
Sea Island Farmers Market: 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., every Saturday. Charleston Collegiate Campus, 2024 Academy Rd., Johns Island. More.
Goose Creek Farmers Market: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., every Saturday, 519 N. Goose Creek Blvd., Goose Creek. More.
- If you have any online events, drop us a line (editor@charlestoncurrents.com) and make sure to put “Online event” in the subject line. Similarly, if you’ve got cool ideas for stuff to do while in isolation at home, send them our way.
- ORDER NOW: Copies of our new book, 350 Facts About Charleston, are in Lowcountry-area bookstores now, but if you can’t swing by, you can order a copy online today.
We encourage you to FORWARD your issue of Charleston Currents to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. It’s got a great price, as you know: Free! And it includes cool stuff about the community that’s hard to find elsewhere. We hope they’ll enjoy our coverage.
- DONATE. Now also would be a great time to contribute as we deal with the crisis. In advance, thank you.
OUR UNDERWRITERS
Charleston Currents is an underwriter-supported weekly online journal of good news about the Charleston area and Lowcountry of South Carolina.
- Meet our underwriters
- To learn more about how your organization or business can benefit, click here to contact us. Or give us a holler on the phone at: 843.670.3996.
OUR TEAM
Charleston Currents offers insightful community comment and good news on events each week. It cuts through the information clutter to offer the best of what’s happening locally.
- Mailing address: P.O. Box 21942, Charleston, SC 29413.
- Phone: 843.670.3996
Charleston Currents is provided to you weekly by:
- Editor and publisher: Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
- Contributing editor, common good, Fred Palm
- Contributing editor, money: Kyra Morris
- Contributing editor, Palmetto Poem: Marjory Wentworth
- Contributing photographer: Rob Byko
- Charleston Currents also uses content from the outstanding staff at the Charleston City Paper, a sister publication.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE
Subscriptions to Charleston Currents are free.
- Click here to subscribe.
- Unsubscribe. We don’t want to lose you as a reader of Charleston Currents, but if you must unsubscribe, you will have to do it through the email edition you receive. Just go to the bottom of any of your weekly newsletters and click the “unsubscribe” function. If that doesn’t work, please send us an email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
- © 2008-2021, City Paper Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Charleston Currents is published every Monday by City Paper Publishing LLC, P.O. Box 21942, Charleston, SC 29413.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Use our feed
Send us your comments
