“I remember walking to school from my house on Gum Tree Road to Pope School, a two-room schoolhouse on Squire Pope Road down there by Benny Hudson’s. We took a shortcut through the woods, carrying our fried bread in paper bags for lunch. That was the route I took from age 6 til they finally got the bus to pick the children up. I remember it being so cold and the rain – you would have icicles hanging from the trees,”
Founder and Executive Director Louise Cohen reminisces about her childhood between hosting tour groups at the non-profit award-winning Gullah Museum of Hilton Head Island which she established in 2006.
Dr. Cohenand her family have dedicated their efforts and resources to the revival and preservation of the Gullah/Geechee Culture. The original home of her ancestors built in 1930 sits on land that has been in her family for many generations, originally purchased by her great-grandfather, William Simmons, born an enslaved person who later served in US Army.
“Our hats need to be off to our elders on this island. As people come to the museum, I encourage them not to stop talking about our elders because those people went through much hardship and they had to have much courage to do what they had to do to survive. Back in the day there was nothing here but farming and the rivers so that means everything was seasonal – you farmed from spring until fall, then it was time to go in the creek. That’s when people went to work in the oyster factories because that’s when they made their living. They had to open those oysters and I never forget going through Momma’s stuff that I found an oyster hammer that she cracked the oyster with for so long that the imprint of her thumb is embedded in that hammer. She did that for me – she was taking care of this child.”
For more info visit: www.gullahmuseumhhi.org
