September 12 to 15, 2023
We drove north and south from each direction and stayed in 3 bedroom/3 bathroom condo on a golf course
Jane from the north and Joy and I from the south. THANK YOU, JOY, who picked me up and did all the driving.
It was great for the three of us to get together again after our trip to Thailand last February.
Our first tour was the Kazoobie Kazoo Factory. But first we drove through Starbuck’s. Jane was the manager of one of them in California and South Carolina for 27 years. My head exploded when I saw the bill for 2 coffees!! $12.11.
I remember when a coffee was ten cents!!!! Of course it wasn’t a tall blonde in a venti cup with hot water, double expresso, cappuccino, half caf, half latte, caramel macchiato, white mocha, pumpkin spice, with two shots, a sprinkle of cinnamon and peppermint covered with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
(I may be exaggerating a little.)
The factory tour was just FUN!! The entire factory isn’t any bigger than my house and they only have 4 employees, all cross-trained and can do all the work required.
The two plastic parts are manufactured in a city in South Carolina north of them.
They sell over a million kazoos every year!!
I think this is an apt description of the sound of a kazoo.
No lessons are needed to play one. You just need to know how to hum.
During Covid down time the employees had some time on their hands and they created this ‘flag’ out of kazoos.
This is really all the space you need to assemble these kazoos. They punched out a little plastic disk that vibrates, put it inside the kazoo, put on a cap, put into a machine that squashes it together and it’s done.
Then they add a printed name, which can be custom ordered and put it into single plastic bags or bags of 25. They do not destroy malformed kazoos. They send them to school children around the world and one employee makes kazoo people out of them where they appear randomly on their Face Book page.
The map indicates where in the world kazoos can be found. Do I see a Go-Gator Kazoo on that shelf?? Blue and orange.
We got to make our own and the guide hid the ONE purple kazoo for me when I said I wanted that color. WELL! The woman in the purple top was looking through the bowl for purple because her mother had just died, purple was her favorite color and it was her mother’s birthday! UUGGHH! How could I NOT give her my purple kazoo!!
We couldn’t leave until the five of us had a ‘concert’. OF COURSE we chose Happy Birthday….for her mom.
Non-spender me, didn’t get out of the factory until I had spent $32 of kazoo stuff!!! Those two girls are bad for my pocketbook to hang with.
This is the sound of a kazoo slider that I couldn’t get out of the factory without buying. Jane and Joy both bought one too!! (I will eventually figure out how to do an audio file without using video and aiming at the counter!!)
We took a golf cart movie tour. Hilton Head has been the site for several movies and Pat Conroy was a local and an author many people know. These are just a few of the beautiful antebellum homes on the island. Note the South Carolina flag. I think it’s one of the prettiest ones I’ve seen. A palm tree and a moon.
Pat Conroy wrote PRINCE OF TIDES. And then Barbra Streisand produced the movie with Nick Nolte. There is a Marine Base on the island next door, Parris Island.
Barbra had the nerve to call the head guy of the marines (General?) and ask if they could curtail their training for awhile since the sound of their jets made it difficult for her production company, while trying to make a movie. He asked which house she was staying in. And then, of course, at 6 AM the next morning 2 jets flew as low as legally possible right over her rental house. They are VERY loud.
Pat Conroy wrote THE GREAT SANTINI, with Robert Duvall in the movie, that was about Pat’s father. It was also filmed on Hilton Head Island. Parts of FORREST GUMP were filmed, and Sally Field stayed in one of the houses. Also GLORY was filmed here, with Denzel Washington. Pat Conroy also wrote THE WATER IS WIDE about the neighboring island, Daufuskie Island, which we toured the next day. (You can refer to the map, above.)
The national cemetery is filling up very fast. They added many acres recently and it is almost already filled. Each shaped head stone means something. The confederate soldiers have a pointed head stone, so that the Union people could never sit on their graves.
Some veteran cemeteries allow the spouses to be buried with the soldier. The last to die gets buried over the first spouse to die. But the soldier’s name is listed first on the head stone. If BOTH spouses were in the military — whose name is listed first? Man? Woman? The first one to die? Nope — the one with the higher military rank, of course.
Hilton Head is a huge tourist place and there were many, many wonderful restaurants — and we certainly partook!!.
I had 3 sides and corn bread at the Low Country Backyard Restaurant – a side salad, apple cole slaw, mac and cheese.
I had Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil at the Hearth restaurant before our Movie Tour.
Had a delicious smoked salmon salad with mixed greens, blueberries, grapes at the Sandbar.
And another great Orchard salad with grilled shrimp, apples, grapes, candied pecans and bleu cheese at the Jane Bistro. Jane was the owner’s name, but her daughter was Anne, HER daughter was Nancy and HER daughter (the great-grandchild) was Elizabeth — which spelled out J-A-N-E. Cool!
We ate leftovers and snacks for our last dinner but then had a great skillet breakfast of egg, onion, mushrooms and cheese for our last breakfast before we headed home.
There is one more day of this blog, which will not get written until I get back from 6 days in Houston to visit friends and do more fun stuff!!!
As always, you can leave me a comment — I am the only one who sees it!!
Safe Travels!!
Linda Jeanne