September 13

There Is a City That Speaks to Me

Meeting Street, King Street, Broad Street, The Battery

Photo by Leonel Heisenberg on Unsplash

Prompt — What is your favorite city in the whole world? Describe it to us.

Charleston, South Carolina

The prompt is a bit daunting, as I haven’t explored the “whole world” — my favorite city might be one I have never visited!

I am not a Southern girl and would never have thought that a city in the South would become a favorite. We moved to the Lowcountry in 2006 for my husband’s work. We lived for nine years in a small suburban city called Goose Creek, about 20 miles from downtown Charleston. The best way to describe Charleston is to list the unique qualities that set it apart from any other city I’ve visited or lived in.

If you are from the South, many of the items will be familiar — if you aren’t, you may be scratching your head. In no particular order, here you go —

• Sweet tea
• Boiled peanuts
• The Holy City
• Shrimp and Grits
• Waffle House
• Fort Sumter and “the late unpleasantness”
• Shopping on King Street
• The Piggly Wiggly