Boone Hall Plantation - Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Before he was Dalton and before he stated that no one would place Baby into the vicinity of the intersection of two walls and also before he died, Patrick Swayze was Orry Main in North and South, a mini-series that was a pretty big deal in the early 80s.  In the story, Orry falls in love, makes friends with a Yankee, fights in the Mexican-American War, and eventually fights the Damn Yankees in the Civil War.  If you want a better synopsis, go to IMDB, the Official Movie Database of Pics of Me in Front of Stuff.  I have never seen the mini-series because I was only 3 or 4 when it was aired and I can't say I have a burning desire to see Patrick Swayze in a gray woolen uniform.  My favorite Swayze movie (Swoozie?) had to be Roadhouse partially because it was awesome, partially because I vaguely remember there being exposed boobs, and partially because there was a monster truck.  My second favorite Swoozie was Point Break with Keanu Reeves because Keanu plays Johnny Utah, a former college football star, setting the stage for his appearance in The Replacements.  Also, Gary Busey plays Keanu's partner and Mr. Busey brings a certain level of believable craziness to everything he does.  If you have not seen him on Celebrity Fit Club I suggest you track it down on DVD ASAP.
But this blog is not supposed to be Patrick Swayze's filmography or an ode to Gary Busey being Gary Busey, I did not pay $10 for the domain name of my blog to be Me Talking About Pics of Patrick Swayze.  Nope, this is Pics of Me in Front of Stuff and this time the Stuff is the location of Orry Main's fictional home, Boone Hall Plantation.  That is the real place is called Boone Hall, I have no idea if it has a name in the mini-series.

 

Funny thing is, no pictures of me in this entry.

Boone Hall Plantation came into existence in 1681 when Major John Boone was given a land grant by his father-in-law as a wedding gift.  The original house to stand on the land was not built until 1790 and it supposedly resembled a log cabin as opposed to the antebellum plantation pictured above.  But who really wants to go see what life really looked like in the 1800s?  I want the romanticized version of history.  Who wants to hear about what really went on when the glamorized version from Hollywood is SO much better!  I suggest Choke by Chuck Palahniuk if you want to hear a unique interpretation of the historical reenactment business.  The film with Sam Rockwell is pretty good, too.  Pics of Me in Front of Stuff likes its steaks medium rare and its history romanticized.  Luckily, in the early 20th Century, Thomas Stone, a Canadian diplomat, bought the plantation and built the current house as a gift to his wife.  Thank you, Mr. Stone.  The McRae family currently owns the plantation and allows tours of the first floor of the home which they keep a romanticized version of historically furnished.  The McRae family also does not allow pictures of the interrior of their historically furnished home.

Actually the plantation's most striking feature is not the house, but rather the Avenue of Oaks leading up to the gates of the house.

 

 Who gives a shit about the inside?

I feel like the picture above does not do the oaks justice.  It's not easy taking photos while hanging out the window of Pics of Me in Front of Stuff's white rental car.  Going up that driveway felt like going to visit Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind.  The Spanish Moss hanging from the American Oaks made for an image that is what most people think of before they visit a plantation.  Can't South Carolina make that requirement a state law?  First, all plantations should have antebellum mansions.  Second, every antebellum mansion should be required to have an Avenue of Oaks as its driveway.  Third, we should be greeted by an elderly sharecropper singing Zippity Doo Dah or Swing Low Sweet Chariot.  Pics of Me in Front of Stuff may start to petition to the South Carolina legislature so they could take care of that right after the Pennsylvania legislature enacts a law preventing the death of Joe Paterno.  I'll leave out my feelings on state laws regarding Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Loch Ness Monster because I would not want anyone to lose respect for Pics of Me in Front of Stuff based on my beliefs.

Aside from the Avenue of the Oaks, Boone Hall Plantation is also known as one of America's oldest working plantations.   They grow lots of different produce there as well as cotton and Pics of Me in Front of Stuff learned all about it during the plantation grounds tour from the delightful old driver.  What he was driving was hard to describe but that won't stop me from presenting on.  Consider a school bus chassis on top of which was welded a metal platform covered with a tarp and seats for an open-air tour.  It may have been four-wheel drive but I would not have sat down for a ride if I knew we were going off-roading.  Seeing as how the driver sat at what must have been the console may have come from a 1984 Volkswagen Sciroco, this vehicle screamed DIY.  Mostly the ride stuck to the dirt roads that meandered around the property.  There were cotton fields and strawberry fields and just about any type of produce field you can imagine.  Having lived in rural Pennsylvania most of my life, this was just another ride through the countryside but it was certainly superior to the New Jersey landscape to which I have become accustomed.  It's very different from the grounds of Pics of Me in Front of Stuff Manor.

Can you tell which is which?!

 

Our Friendly driver also managed to show us some of the wildlife roaming around Boone Hall Plantation.  A tiny green tree snake managed to fall on top of him and more or less provide a modicum of excitement for all of the visitors to the Plantation that day.  

I do declare, this gave me the vapors!

 

Let's be honest, Boone Hall Plantation is not a place you go for an adrenaline rush.  Pics of Me in Front of Stuff was there with some elderly people and maybe a few foreign tourists on holiday.  Not the kind of group that you would find base jumping or mountain climbing.  Then again, I have not done either so maybe that is the exact type of crowd you find base jumping.  However, for $10 it is not a bad or expensive way to kill a few hours especially on a warm sunny afternoon in December.  If you have never seen agriculture in action, this may just be the tour for you!