07 Mar Great Story about Charleston that also took place in Beaufort at end of WWII
An Emotional Event in “The Holy City” Four mayors and a Bob Waggoner from The Kitchen of Chef Bob Waggoner in Charleston.
Last week Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg invited me to a dinner at which the City of Charleston celebrated there years long alliance between Charleston and Flers, a community in the Normandy Region of France, which — during WWII — received a ship load of material support from caring friends in Charleston.
It was a joyous and colorful event at “The Kitchen of Chef Bob Waggoner” in downtown Charleston. The food was the best, the company warm and the connection between those in Charleston and their guests connected, something worth emulating by others at a time when the world order seems so topsy turvy and out of balances.
The biggest surprise for me was when one of the Charleston guests, a College of Charleston history professor, shared with me a newspaper clipping from 1948 which reported that leaders of Beaufort adopted a city called La Lande-Partie to which they also sent shipments of materials goods. The Charleston News and Courier reported that Mayor Angus Fordham, joined by other community leaders including my grandfather and other business and clergymen, asked the public to drop off goods to be sent at the Beaufort Fire House for packaging and shipping to France. Furthermore, Mayor Fordham met with Elementary and High School Students asking them to establish pen pal relationships with students in La Lande-Patrie and to send them goods they might need during the recovery.
At a time when these times seem so jumbled, I think these kind of person to person and humanly connections are important. Anyone interested in organizing a trip to La Lande-Patrie to meet long lost friends?