Supplement to “Confessions of a Cab Driver”

It arrived this morning and reminded me of another aspect of my journey to Charleston, SC. I received the refund check from the College of Charleston Parking Services department today.

Let me explain:
You remember, I was the driver of a 15-passenger van for several days. You might also remember that I had to make a run to get some VIPs to the airport for their 0600 departure flights (6 AM). I had gotten up at 0330 (3:30 AM) and gone to the parking garage to retrieve the van.

Flashback:
The parking card I was given for the "card-holder only" gate did not work. When I entered the garage, in order to get in, I had to resort to getting a parking ticket--the kind that is printed with the time you enter. When I left, I showed the cashier my (non-functional) parking card, then turned in the ticket; a little explaining (again) and I didn’t have to pay anything.

That is, until I had to leave at oh-dark-thirty. When I had to make that 0400 pickup, for the 0600 airport delivery, there was no cashier. Instead, there was a machine that required you to deposit your ticket and deposit your cash. I deposited the ticket and I deposited the cash. OK, so I was able to exit. But I was out six bucks!

I had to go back to Parking Services and explain (again!) that the parking card did not work and yadda, yadda, yadda, how do I get my money back?

”If you fill this out, sir, we will mail you a check for the refund amount.”

Yeah, right, OK, whatever....

I got the check today!

Thanks, College of Charleston!

The wind had been fairly light all day as people trickled down the dock, over the gangway, and onto the barge along which AMISTAD was moored. Families, church groups, and the random tourist stood, looked, and gingerly moved forward on the steel surface that gently moved beneath their feet; they were there to see the ship they had heard about in the local news.

Today was the last day and the schedule was shortened to allow the vessel to depart on the turn of the tide. The crew busied themselves removing unwanted gear and securing storage barrels, gangway extensions, and anything else that could come adrift in a seaway.

AMISTAD was heading home today. Fuel was topped off, water was put aboard, and Dani arrived with three dock carts full of fresh provisions. Queen Mother Blakely from Harlem, NY, and Carolyn “Jabulile” White, a Gullah Storyteller from St. John’s Island, waited on the dock until everything was ready to go to sea. Then they came aboard for the Farewell Libation and Blessing. The crew assembled amidship and with honor to the ancestors given, and prayers for a safe voyage rendered, they quietly went about the business of the final touches before leaving the dock. The Sierra Leoneans came aboard to bid good-bye to their shipmates who they would not see again until New Haven, because they were going on their own voyage of discovery of the United States. The East wind began to freshen as Captain John Beebe-Center started the Big Yellow Cats that would move AMISTAD’s long, low hull away from the barge and into the current that caused the multitude of motorboats on the river to slide sideways as if on ice.

The Captain had called for a three o’clock departure and it was now five minutes before the hour. Last-minute hugs and handshakes were exchanged and we all scurried ashore to help tend the lines. With power and helm position deftly applied, AMISTAD swung into the wind and current and was free of the bonds that have kept her from the place where she performs best, the sea.

I must admit, there was a twinge in my heart when I saw the saw the stern reading: “AMISTAD New Haven” grow ever smaller as the vessel headed out towards Sullivan’s Island and Fort Sumter. Soon they were in the channel steaming toward the sea buoy, passing port-to-port with a giant container ship—dwarfed in size but distinctive in silhouette. Soon they were out of sight, and most likely preparing to set sail now that they had sea room. AMISTAD was heading home.  

When I volunteered to accompany the Amistad display materials and merchandise on the drive to Charleston, SC for Harbor Fest 2008 and the Spoleto Festival USA, I did not know that I would continue driving beyond my arrival. I got to the residence at 2000 [8:00 PM], and was asked about my intentions. I said, “I’m in Charleston to help; what’s needed?”

“Will you drive?”

“Sure!”

So, I drove, and I drove, and I drove....

The organization rented a 15-passenger van; four rows of seats behind the driver. I needed to transfer the crew from the vessel, remotely located at Cooper River Marina, to their George Street Residence at the College of Charleston, a twenty-minute, eight-mile drive. I needed to pick up VIPs, crew, and board members from the airport. I needed to take them back. I needed to transfer staff, crew, and VIPs from one activity venue to another. At the end of the day, I needed to park the van in the garage. Right: I needed to get the van out of the garage each morning. I spent a lot of time in that van....

I got up at least a half-hour before my first pickup. I washed my face to wake up. Then there was the ten-minute walk to the garage; get the van out; then get to the location. Naturally, the automatic gate-opening card did not work, so I had to wait in the cashier line; then explain, once again, that the card didn’t work, which was why I had the ticket; and, yes, I will check with Parking Services to get it fixed; and thank you.

I did check with Parking Services; they dis-activated the card, then re-activated it. "It should be all right now," I was told. It wasn’t. The second day I returned to that office (and explained the situation to a second clerk [“Oh, but this card is active!” “Right, but it doesn’t work!”]) and they gave me a different card. This one worked.

After three, nineteen-hour days, plus a ten-hour shift the fourth day (including one 3:30 AM awakening to take three to the airport for an 0600 [6 AM] flight), I took an evening off. I gave the van key to a colleague, told him where the van was parked, and said, “I have a six-thirty pickup in the morning; leave me a note with the van’s parking spot. See ya!” I had a wonderful evening: dining fancy and chatting with some friends.

I returned the van to the Charleston airport rental agency when I departed on Monday, 19 May. I was given cash to pay the bill: ten, one hundred dollar bills. The agent asked if I wanted to keep the charge on the card that was used when the van was picked up.

“No, I’m paying cash.”

“Do you want to put it on a different card?” I was asked, as though I hadn’t replied.

“No, I’m paying cash!”

Rental car companies will tell you they do not accept cash; they do not like to accept cash is more like it. I was able to complete the transaction, but only by paying with exact change. Try changing a twenty at the airport, without making a purchase!

I found a sympathetic vendor, who not only changed a twenty, but changed one of the fives she had given me, then changed a one to quarters, then a quarter to two dimes and a nickel. The rental cost: $1,064.86; fortunately, I already had the penny!

A flight to LaGuardia, a van ride to New Haven, then I had to "taxi" myself from New Haven to Mystic (I had left my ride at a colleague's house). Lots of driving, lots of exploring, lots of hours awake, but I would do it again. It helped the crew, it helped the organization, I toured Charleston, and I enjoyed meeting new crew and others assisting our effort. 

The mammoth container ship disappeared under the Ravenel Bridge. The thrill-boat ride shot away. The sun sank into clouds and the mists came up. And out of the mist came the tall sails. It looked like something from another time.

"Sweet," said Logan Johnsen, first mate of the Amistad, as he got his first glimpse of the Spirit of South Carolina heeling by. "The trim, the sails, the way she's cutting through the wake. She's just a nice sight."  Around him the crew members from Sierra Leone took up the ship's Creole song, dancing and pattering the beat on deck barrels.

Charleston Harbor Fest 2008 opened Thursday evening with the Spirit, the Lowcountry's own tall ship, the Schooner Virginia and the Corwith Cramer ceremonially escorting the Freedom Schooner Amistad into port. The spectacle told a sea tale, one that carried centuries of significance, not only for the port city that made its name with sailing ships but also for the freedom ship and the Gullah nation performing a sacred libation ceremony on Sullivan's Island as it passed.

Freedom Schooner Amistad, will arrive in Charleston for Harbor Fest and Spoleto Festival USA on May 15th. Charleston, SC will be the first US port called by the ship since her departure from New England in June 2007. Since then, Amistad visited many ports during her Atlantic Freedom Tour, allowing many communities to interpret the Tour's motto : "Confronting The Past - Transforming  The Future".

Amistad's visit, together with the premiere of a newly-revised version of Anthony Davis' opera "Amistad" at Spoleto Festival USA, will give another chance for Lowcountry and Charleston to confront its history as a slave-trading city in a slave-owning state.

Here are more events related to Amistad, the ship, and "Amistad," the Spoleto opera:

• -- Amistad (the ship) will be anchored off Sullivan's Island during an afternoon remembrance ceremony there May 15. It will then be escorted to Charleston Maritime Center by three tall ships, including Spirit of South Carolina, and will be open for tours May 16-18, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tickets are $5-$15.

• -- Amistad (the ship) will be at dock for the Spoleto opera premiere and remain here until May 27.

• -- Thursday, May 22:  "Amistad" (the opera) composer, Anthony Davis, and director, Sam Helfrich, will talk with College of Charleston music professor, Trevor Weston; 5:30 p.m. Recital Hall, College of Charleston. Free.

• -- Sunday, May 25:  Martha Teichner will interview Davis and "Amistad" librettist, Thulani Davis. 5 p.m. Recital Hall, College of Charleston. Free.

• -- Monday, May 26:  Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis, along with author Josephine Humphreys and historian Bernard Powers, will talk about creating works of art based on historic events; Noon, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, 125 Bull St. Free.

• -- Saturday, May 31:  attorney Robert Rosen will lead a round-table discussion of the Amistad (the ship) court case; 3 p.m. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, 125 Bull St. Free.

• -- Gibbes Museum of Art will mount "Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art."

• -- Saturday, May 24

• -- Saturday, May 31
• -- Monday, June 2
• -- Saturday, June 7

• Tours of the Old Slave Mart Museum and walking tours will be led by historian Harlan Greene at 10 a.m. $10. Call 579-3100.

• -- Charleston County Public Library's Main Library will show a series of films related to Amistad (the ship) on the big screen. Free.

Charleston Maritime Center

Tour Freedom Schooner Amistad

Thursday, May 22 – Monday, May 26, 2008

Currently on an historic 14-month transatlantic voyage

retracing the infamous Atlantic slave trade triangle,

the Freedom Schooner Amistad,

a replica of the original ship, makes its first U.S. stop in Charleston.

General Tours: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm daily

$5 per person includes ship tour and exhibit

Private Tours: Friday & Saturday, May 23 & 24

$50 per person

includes tour, lecture, meet the Captain

To order tickets - 1.866.AMISTAD

A new production of a freshly revised version of composer Anthony Davis's epic work Amistad will headline the 2008 Spoleto Festival USA.  Directed by Sam Helfrich with costumes by Kaye Voyce and an imaginative set by Caleb Wertenbaker, this highly anticipated new production will inaugurate the reopening of Memminger Auditorium, an historic theater in downtown Charleston that has just undergone extensive rehabilitation. 

Composed by Anthony Davis with a libretto by Thulani Davis, Amistad first premiered at Chicago's Lyric Opera in 1997.  The piece had not been performed since the Chicago run until Spoleto Festival USA commissioned Davis to revise the opera to bring this important story alive in a theatrically and musically vital way that would work within Memminger Auditorium.

The city of Charleston itself offers a unique backdrop for Amistad with its long connection to the history of the slave trade.  2008 is a year of particular significance as it marks the bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, providing a particular resonance to the Spoleto production.    

The festival also plans numerous related events including artist talks and roundtables at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture; guided tours of the newly-renovated Old Slave Mart Museum followed by a walking tour of sites related to African-American history in Charleston and screenings of related films. In addition, the Freedom Schooner Amistad – a replica of the slave ship currently on an 18-month transatlantic voyage – will be docked at the Charleston Maritime Center from May 16 through the opening weekend of Spoleto Festival USA.

May 10 – 19, 2008

Charleston was a major US city for the arrival of African slaves. Ports acted as an entry into slave labor as human cargo was auctioned off and then sold to slave owners.