Another Thanksgiving has come and gone in the Carolina Lowcountry. Turkey breast sandwiches complete with white gummy bread smothered in real mayonnaise are the order of the day and long walks on isolated beaches once inhabited by visiting family members awaken and nourish the soul. It's on these walks when one has time to reflect on another passing holiday ......gone seemingly with the blink of an eye.
My Bride and I spent this one, like most, together in the cozy confines of the Historic Bloody Point Lighthouse. Mary's turkey was succulent, the cranberry sauce perfect and the dressing just right. But unlike years past I simply wasn't as hungry as normal. Now don't tell Mary, but I had been a "bad boy" just a few hours earlier, and its all because of a Daufuskie fire.
Now this fire wasn't any old fire and no-one disturbed our three (3) man fire department from an early afternoon nap.....it was my fire and mine alone. Earlier that morning I decided that after one hundred and fifteen (115) years without a fire pit the old Silver Dew Winery deserved one. I knew that Lighthouse Keeper Papy Burn had a wood stove inside the Winery evidenced by a round gaping hole in the thick wall but a fire pit had never graced its presence. But that would change....and change it did. Bricks from the old Haig Point Mansion given to me by Frank Burn, Papy's Son, were rescued from their "hidings" under an Historic live oak tree and Walahhhh....a fine fire pit.....an upstanding fire pit.....a grand fire pit...... that Papy would have been proud of graced the grounds of the picturesque brick structure.
So now if ya got a fire pit you need wood for the fire. Well it just so happens one of Papy's fine pear trees that he alone planted met its demise this Summer and crashed into the side of the Lighthouse. I didn't have the heart to dispose if it in a normal way simply to decay in a Daufuskie ditch, so I set it aside. But now was its time to re-emerge with dignity. So with saw in hand select branches and limbs were trimmed and soon a crackling fire never seen before graced the Winery....What I felt quite strange, is that its smoke mysteriously rode the light winds and floated South towards the Lighthouse even though the prevailing winds were out of the West.
OK....here comes the part where Mary wonders why I didn't have that normal second helping of my favorite dressing. Well it has to do with the idea that ...if ya got a fire one should cook something on a fire....sounds logical right, but considering the fact that the nearest grocery store is accessible only by ferry I opted to improvise....to do what the Indians would have done... hunt up a passel of clams and oysters on the Bloody Point beach and marsh. With bushel basket in hand and after immersing myself in saltwater the ocean gratefully gave up its bounty. It was as if the Coosawhatchie Indians were saying "its your turn Joe" and soon these fine crustaceans were steaming over an old cast iron stove door that seemed perfect for the purpose. Pat Conroy once quoted now passed Local Jake Washington in a recent book that "eating a Daufuskie oyster was like tasting the tide". Was he ever right.
So the next time you are on the Island please stop by and check out my 'Daufuskie Fire". You can bring some hot dogs if you like or maybe some marshmallows for "the kid in us". You will go home smelling like smoke and probably not yearning for dinner but I promise to fulfill you with a welcoming smile, pleasant conversation and a passing farewell.
See ya on the high tide....LCJoe
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