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Life on the Water, South Carolina

As told by students from Cape Romain Environmental Education Charter School
McClellanville, South Carolina

Story Narrative:

A man bends down on a dock and empties buckets.

In collaboration with McClellanville Arts Council in McClellanville, South Carolina, students at Cape Romain Environmental Education Charter School prepared this story about water as part of the region's presentation of "Water/Ways," an exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program. Student producers included Addison Harrelson, Hugh DuPre, Cole Hogge, Jude Johnson, and Brodie Peterson. 

Speaker 1 (00:11): What is your name?

Peter (00:12): My name's Peter William Kornack.

Speaker 1 (00:14): Where do you live?

Peter (00:15): McClellanville, South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (00:18): Is it special to you?

Peter (00:18): It's a great little spot. It's a small village, right on the intercostal waterway. When you pull off the highway, you know your home. When I first got here, I moved here from California to do soft shell crabs with the crew guys I was talking about. And we did that for a season and I crabbed a little bit and oystered and clammed. And eventually I met my future wife and we ended up buying T.W. Graham's, the country store at that point and converted it into a restaurant. We did that for 13 years, and after we sold the restaurant, went back to the Creek.

Julie (00:51): Julie McClellan. I'm a clam farmer, but I do oystering too and we have two leases here off of McClellanville and Buck Hall. I had a stingray barb, one time about this long stuck into my arm. And a stingray barb, if you've ever looked at one, they're like an arrow. It has little jagged teeth, so they don't pull out. So I grabbed it and yanked on it real hard and it didn't come out. So my partner Irvin Ashley came over to where I was and he kind of looked at me and he took it and yanked it out, but that was quite painful.

Speaker 1 (01:34): What is your name?

Caesar (01:35): Caesar Graham.

Speaker 1 (01:37): Can you spell that for me?

Caesar (01:38): C-A-E-S-A-R.

Speaker 1 (01:42): What is your profession?

Caesar (01:43): Working on the dock. And after they get tired roughing on the shrimp, well, then they come here. It really is fun, but you don't last long. That's something I think you won't do.

Kim (01:56): Hi.

Speaker 1 (01:58): What is your name?

Kim (02:00): Kim Livingston.

Jeff  (02:01): I'm Jeff Massey.

Kim (02:03): So, I'm a librarian and I work at this, our dock.

Jeff (02:08): I'm a commercial fisherman, we run the dock here. We had some crabbers who were out one day and there's a really bad lightning storm. And I was in here running things and all of a sudden the store comes open and this guy in, and he's breathing real heavy and he stands right in front of my window. And he looks at me through the window and he just goes, "Ahhh!" I'm like, "Are you okay?" And he said, "We were coming back in the boat, and it got struck by lightning." And it knocked the fellow driving the boat unconscious, and he was totally out. And the guy in the front got knocked out for about 10 seconds and he woke up and the boat was still running full speed.

Chip (02:52): Chip Racine

Speaker 1 (02:53): So, you are a shrimper?

Chip (02:57): Yeah. So this is the craziest year I ever remember. I never seen anything like this.

Speaker 1 (03:04): Why?

Chip (03:04): Because there was no shrimp when we usually catch shrimp. And at the end it turned on shrimp coming down the beach from way up north. If it wasn't for those shrimp, we wouldn't have done anything.

Georgia (03:20): Georgia Tisdale. We shrimped. First year we went out, we finally had the boat ready and we wanted to go. And we didn't have a whole lot of experience, didn't have all this equipment. So there were three boats, we being one of them that were going out and going rock shrimping offshore. Well, so that was our introduction. And so we took... I don't know how long it took us to get out there, but soon as we got out there, we realized we were in a depression, which was coming and we didn't know it. Now, you know everything that goes on, but back then it wasn't quite that much information out there. And so soon as we got out there, we anchored up and the line broke and then we anchored again and oh, it was a mess. So we spent the night doing this, going up and down. Three boats were out there, we being one of them.

Georgia (04:11): And so, we came back the next day. We came back. It took forever. When we would turn in to shore, the three of us would do like this. And you see these outriggers, when one boat would go down, you couldn't see the outriggers, the waves were that high. And so then we turned, I mean, it took us 24 hours to get back to Charleston. So my venture in shrimping, all I could see was double. When I got home, I went home I said, "I'm never getting on that boat again."

Kinzie (04:39): My occupation is a dock worker. I unload shrimp boats, oyster boats. We go out and collect clams. Well, they're out there, that's their home. We're invading their place. It's like going to somebody's house, we're in the sharks house. So, you have to be careful with the sharks. The octopus are out there. Crabs are out there, they'll take your finger off. You see the stone crab right, they got the big claws, they can you snap your finger. It's a fun job. Makes you not want to work in the water. Well, that's not what it's supposed to do. You're supposed to be enjoying this weather. This is what happens in McClellanville.


Asset ID: 2022.16.01
Themes: Water, waterways, work, shrimp, fishing, boating, crabs, oysters, clams, business, restaurants, libraries, commercial fishing, hurricanes, weather, sharks
Date recorded: 2020
Length of recording: 05:45 m
File Type: Video
Related traveling exhibition: Water/Ways
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Cape Romain Environmental Education Charter School students, in collaboration with McClellanville Arts Council, South Carolina
More informationhttps://schumanities.org/news/smithsonian-exhibit-water-ways-opens-at-the-mcclellanville-arts-council/

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