We got downstairs to breakfast at about 9:20 to be berated by the owner for being late. I did not understand that when he said, “Breakfast is at 9:00,” he really meant at 9:00. I thought he meant it started at 9:00. I’m such a bad customer.
The other two guests (two couples: Bob & Steve, from Atlanta I believe they said, and Beth & Lori, who were from none other than Durham, mere streets away from Robert’s place) were already seated, and into their breakfast. We were served shortly after that: banana nut pancakes and bacon — delicious!
Martina & Gabby calmed down after a while, and got “some lovin” around the table:
Tina is the gray one, and she’s seventeen years old!
Back in the room, we showered and MMMMMMMMMMMMed, and before we left for the day, Steve called to alert me to a most astounding obituary in Saturday’s News & Observer. The fact that the opening mentions her “two favorite children” and the second paragraph starts with, “The mother of four children…” is some serious foreshadowing.
ON JUNE 3, 2005 at 10:45 p.m. in Memphis, Tennessee, Dorothy Gibson Cully, 86, died peacefully, while in the loving care of her two favorite children, Barbara and David. All of her breath leaked out.
The mother of four children, grandmother to 11, great-grandmother to nine, devoted wife for 56 years to the late Ralph Chester Cully and a true friend to many, Dot had been active as a volunteer in the Catholic Church and other community charities for much of the past 25 years.
She was born the second child of six in 1919 as Frances Dorothy Gibson, daughter to Kathleen Heard Gibson and Calvin Hooper Gibson, an inventor best known as the first person since the Middle Ages to calculate the arcane lead-to-gold formula. Unable to actually prove this complex theory scientifically, and frustrated by the cruel conspiracy of the so-called “scientific community” working against his efforts, he ultimately stuck his head in a heated gas oven with a golden delicious apple propped in his mouth. Miraculously, the apple was saved for the evening dessert. Calvin was not.
Native Marylanders and long time Baltimore, Kent Island and Ocean City residents, Ralph and Dot later resided in Lakeland, Florida and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Several years after Ralph’s death, Dot moved to Raleigh in 2001, where she lived with her son, David.
At the time of her death, Dot was visiting her daughter, Carol in Memphis. Carol and her husband, Ron, away from home attending a “very important conference” at a posh Florida resort, rushed home 10 days later after learning of the death. Dot’s other children, dutifully at their mother’s side helping with the normal last minute arrangements – hospice notification, funeral parlor notice, revising the last will, etc. – happily picked up the considerable slack of the absent former heiress.
Dot is warmly remembered as a generous, spiritually strong, resourceful, tolerant and smart woman, who was always ready to help and never judged others or their shortcomings. Dot always found time to knit sweaters, sew quilts and send written notes to the family children, all while working a full time job, volunteering as Girl Scout leader and donating considerable time to local charities and the neighborhood Catholic Church.
Dot graduated from Eastern High School at 15, worked in Baltimore full time from 1934 to 1979, beginning as a factory worker at Cross & Blackwell and retiring after 30 years as property manager and controller for a Baltimore conglomerate, Housing Engineering Company, all while raising four children, two of who are fairly normal.
An Irishwoman proud of and curious about her heritage, she was a voracious reader of historical novels, particularly those about the glories and trials of Ireland. Dot also loved to travel, her favorite destination being Eire’s auld sod, where she dreamed of the magic, mystery and legend of the Emerald Isle.
Dot Cully is survived by her sisters, Ginny Torrico in Virginia, Marian Lee in Florida and Eileen Adams in Baltimore; her brother, Russell Gibson of Fallston, Maryland; her children, Barbara Frost of Ocean City, Maryland, Carol Meroney of Memphis, Tennessee, David Cully of Raleigh, North Carolina and Stephen Cully of Baltimore, Maryland.
Contributions to the Wake County (NC) Hospice Services are welcomed. Opinions about the details of this obit are not, since Mom would have liked it this way.
We took a walk around the Historic Charleston area, which was right outside the door of our B&B. We walked out to a pier, and then up and down East Bay Street, checking out restaurants, and their menus, in anticipation of lunch.
We stopped in a coffee shop to see if they had wireless access. They used to, but had just discontinued it, according to the manager. One of the employees thought they still had it. They suggested I try the local library, or the Starbucks, both of which were a little too far to walk with the excessive heat and humidity, but probably more so, due to my back pains.
We had lunch at Cafe Blossom:
where I enjoyed a “Pimento Cheese Patty Melt,” and Robert had the “Lump Crabmeat Crabcake.” We had an appetizer of “Sweet Breads.” It was all quite yum!
From there, we walked over to the outdoor bazaar, and right at the beginning of the very long market area, we ran into “the wedding party,” including Bryan and Jen. How fortuitous.
Robert bought a basket for his mother there, and I bought some postcards, and later a refrigerator magnet for my collection in a little shop on the way back. Also on the walk back, we stopped to book The Dark Side of Charleston Walking Tour:
Take an uncensored look at Charleston’s true history – a history full of brothels, prostitutes, corruption, crime, scandal and sordid affairs. Find out what really goes on in the streets of this Holy City. From hundreds of years ago to present day, Charleston has been a place where high society life is shadowed by scandals, temptations and unruly behavior.
Join us for this exclusive and UNCENSORED tour of Charleston’s treacherous past. Our licensed and experienced tour guides will take you on a 1½ hour walking tour of the DARK SIDE OF CHARLESTON.
Tours: 8pm & 10pm Nightly
Where: 40 North Market St. (Rainbow Market)
Cost: $15 per person w/ Website Discount
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
We had dinner at Hyman’s Seafood, which was delicious.
We had to wait about a half-hour or so for a table, during which time it started raining, and then shortly after Robert left to check to see if the tour would go on in the rain, and if so, run back to the B&B to fetch our umbrellas, it started pouring.
He returned about 15 minutes later, soaked, with my umbrella. I was immediately reminded of the preacher’s sermon about love being action. What a dear, dear man he is.
For the reminder of the wait, we took a seat at the bar:
so Robert could cool down and dry off. Our name was eventually called, with 30 minutes total time to order and eat and head to the tour meeting spot. We ended up with a great waiter who accommodated our very limited time in order to make the 10:00 tour. And he was hot, to boot. We left him a 30% tip.
Our tour guide was just super. And cute, to boot. But, again, I digress. It was really cool as we walked through the old city, in the thunder and lightening, and hearing sordid stories of life gone by in Charleston. Just very well done, and next to the wedding, the highlight of our visit to Charleston.
At the end of the tour, the guide took out some keys to an old cemetery in the middle of town, and opened the big, black wrought iron gate. He pointed out the church, which was built round because “the devil hides in corners.” He talked about one mass grave, which was built extra deep — a layer of bodies, a layer of oyster shells, which contain a lot of lime, which decomposes bodies faster, and then a layer of dirt before starting the next row of bodies.
“Well, this concludes our tour. Feel free to creep yourselves out and walk around the cemetery for a few minutes, but if you’re not back to the gate in a reasonable time, you’ll be locked in here.”
From there, we took a cab to Ann Street, where to our surprise we were let out at Dudley’s — one of the two bars we wanted to go to, but had found the phone number we had for it disconnected earlier in the day. And just a short way down on the same street was Club Pantheon, the other bar we wanted to go to.
We had a drink in Dudley’s and then went to Pantheon’s, where we watched their Sunday Night Drag Show. One of the performers did Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” and near the end, she pulled a vial out from her cleavage, turned her back to the audience, and pretended to snort out of it. The crowd went wild. She then turned back around, and with the hankie in her hand, wiped her nose. Audience craze.
After the show, two guys danced on the bar with just their underwear on. Both skinny. Both hairless. Neither did anything for me.
We got a cab back to 4 Unity Alley to end our “play day” in Charleston.
This is what my Arbitron diary consisted of today:
| 12:00 | 12:45 | 45 mins | WEZL | 103.5 | X | X | ||||
| 20:20 | 20:50 | 30 mins | WEZL | 103.5 | X | X |