Skidaway Island State Park, Savannah, Georgia
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever. ~ I Chronicles 16:34 (and lots of other places) 😊
This is me, striving ever closer toward heart-felt thankfulness. We are once again on the mend, and hoping and praying this is the final upturn.
The weather has also turned. Overnight, we went from cloudy, rainy and warm to sunny, windy and cool. And this morning, we took advantage of the sun and took a walk, albeit much slower than normal. I keep having to reign Blaine in. He’s like a racehorse. Ready and raring to go full-out. Or maybe a better analogy of us right now is the tortoise and the hare – at least at the beginning of the story. 😊
After lunch, I decided I was fit enough to give downtown Savannah a try – at least a short exploration. I really wanted to see The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist again. Blaine wanted the Riverfront area. Today was Blaine’s day. We walked around town and ended up down at the Riverfront, but the Cathedral was closed today. ☹
Blaine even fought traffic and weird streets (because they go around the parks) to drive by the Cathedral again before we left – – just in case they’d opened. They didn’t. Bummer! I’m very sad that we were unable to visit this year. It’s truly an awe-inspiring place. You’ll have to revisit last year’s blog post from December 30th for pictures.
The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Established in 1799, built and later burnt to the ground in 1898, rebuilt and dedicated in 1899.
Refurbishment completed in November, 2000.
Just around the corner, we discovered the St. Vincent’s Academy. I don’t know if it’s connected with the Cathedral in any way or not.
St. Vincent’s Academy
Established 1845
Son and daughter of Jefferson Davis attended school here, but these days, it’s an all-girl Catholic school.
On the way to, and down at the Riverfront:
Do you think they chose this location because of the yellow brick? : )
Savannah City Hall
Built 1906
The 23,834-square-foot Congregation B’nai B’rith Synagogue was built in 1909.
However, it’s now the SCAD Student Center.
A View down River Street
Savannah’s famous statue of The Waving Girl
The following essay is by SCAD student Alison Lechner, 2016. (SCAD stands for Savannah College of Arts and Design)
Florence Margaret Martus (1868-1943), known as Savannah’s “Waving Girl,” greeted ships to the city’s port over a period of forty-four years, from 1887-1931. Born in 1868 at the Cockspur Island Lighthouse near Fort Pulaski, Martus eventually settled at the Elba Island Lighthouse with her brother, George Washington Martus, and every day waved to ships as they entered port with a handkerchief and even occasionally by night with a lantern. Her persistent hobby of greeting the vessels made her famous around the world, as her story was carried to ports near and far. The common folklore surrounding Martus was that she was awaiting a long-lost love to return from war on one of the many ships she waived to. This added to the mystery and aura of the “Waving Girl,” and part of her world-wide allure. But in truth, Martus admitted her aims were much simpler:
“I was young, and it was sort of lonely on the Island for a girl, so I started to wave to the ships which passed. They would return the greeting and sometimes salute. Gradually they came to watch for my friendly wave from the shore. We had many friends on the tugboats and among the bar pilots.”
During her forty-four years on the Island, Martus waved to an estimated 50,000 boats. “In the twelve years I was on a yacht, she never failed to come out and wave at us,” wrote New York sailor Rudolph Anger in 1959.
She kept a detailed diary during her forty-four years of greeting, but unfortunately, Martus destroyed it upon her retirement in 1931, so the public may never know the truth behind the “Waving Girl’s” disposition.
FYI – I took the liberty of editing this essay for length and relevance to what I was looking for. Essentially, all I took out were the legends.
Florence Martus
For more than 44 years she never missed a ship, and each ship, as it passed, returned her salute with three blasts of the whistle.
This picture was taken in 1938 – seven years after she’d retired.
I don’t know if it was staged for the picture or not.
We had a good day, even though I had to sit and rest on a park bench at The Waving Girl. Like some old, unfit lady. Hmmm . . . I guess I sort of am. Especially these days.
Someday soon, I expect to get back on my feet and get going! : )