Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
The Building Business podcast provides compelling stories of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce's journey, its steadfast commitment to the local community, and its forward-thinking approach to addressing the needs of businesses in an ever-changing landscape. It stands as an invitation to listeners to become part of a movement that values growth, connection, and the collective progress of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina community.
Be prepared to be inspired, informed, and motivated, as we provide a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the dynamic interplay of business and personal growth right here, in our own backyard.
Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
John Wright: Preserving African American Heritage and Community Empowerment in Mount Pleasant
John Wright, the iconic President of The African American Historic Settlement Commission in Mount Pleasant, takes us on a captivating journey through his life and career, sharing stories from his childhood in Mount Pleasant to his 23 years of service in the United States Army. As he recalls his upbringing, working on Shem Creek, and the tight-knit community that shaped him, John reveals how embracing both his birth name, John Fitzgerald, and his cherished nickname, Johnny, honors his roots. He also discusses his ongoing projects that spotlight the rich history and culture of African American communities in Mount Pleasant, ensuring their stories are celebrated and preserved for future generations.
In a profound conversation about community engagement and historical preservation, John recounts his remarkable walk from Mount Pleasant to Columbia, a personal mission to raise awareness about obesity that strengthened his bonds with the community upon his return. His work with the Charleston County Historic Preservation Commission and the inaugural Black History Month program at Boone Hall Plantation underscores his commitment to celebrating the past while fostering progress. With notable figures like Major Abraham Turner, the program highlights the achievements of descendants from post-Reconstruction settlement communities, exemplifying the enduring spirit of these vibrant neighborhoods.
The episode also unveils inspiring efforts to preserve and restore Mount Pleasant's historical gems, like the 1904 schoolhouse being transformed into the Long Point Museum and Cultural Education Center. Guided by the vision of Thomasina Stokes Marshall and supported by former students now serving as general contractors, this project highlights the power of community and history. John's initiatives, including a successful water drive for Flint, Michigan, and his radio show advocacy, showcase his dedication to making a difference. Finally, the episode celebrates Mount Pleasant's unique culture and hospitality, honoring the achievements of the Gullah and Geechee communities and the prestigious Pineapple Award-winning Black History Month event at Boone Hall Plantation.
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Foundation Chair
John Carroll | Co-host | Member at Large
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Scott Labarowski | Co-host | Membership Chair
Jennifer Maxwell | Co-host | Immediate Past President
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
Well, hello and welcome to the Building Business Podcast powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We're recording with our friends in the Charleston Radio Group Studios, who are, of course, a huge supporter of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. Brian, we love being here with you. Thank you for everything. Kathy Herman, here, I am your current president of the chamber and I am also the marketing director at Mount Pleasant Town Center. Thank you all so much for joining us listeners. President of the chamber, and I am also the marketing director at mount pleasant town center. Thank you all so much for joining us listeners, and I have a special co-host today my friend mike compton, mike compton's back.
Speaker 1:Mike is president of rumbo advertising and the current marketing committee chair for the mount pleasant chamber. Mike, thank you for coming back and hanging out with me again of course, course, no problem.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm very, very excited about today's episode.
Speaker 1:I am too. But before we get to our special guest, Mike, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:You just did. You did a great job.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't Tell them yeah.
Speaker 2:President, co-founder of Roomba Advertising Right. We help brands find their soul. And then the marketing chair for the chamber Also. What am I doing? I'm incoming president at this point for the American Marketing Association.
Speaker 1:Well see, that's all, and you just wanted me to skip over that.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:That's really big stuff. I'm a membership director right now.
Speaker 2:We're having a good time. We also have a podcast, the Charleston Marketing Podcast. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Anyways, focus on this podcast right now. Oh, my bad, my bad, my bad, you left it open. I know I did.
Speaker 1:Thank you for all that great information, but really now I want to get to our very special guest.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I'm very excited.
Speaker 1:Because I am so honored that he is here with us today. He is the president of the African American history in Mount Pleasant. I am so excited to hear about all these special projects.
Speaker 2:Please welcome, really, John Wright we are so excited that you're here with us today, Ladies and gentlemen the applause.
Speaker 3:Yeah, here we go, thank you, thank you. Thank you for having me and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this amazing podcast and this opportunity today. I think this is good for all of Mount Pleasant you know that we share information about the great work that we're doing here in Mount Pleasant, so thank you both All right.
Speaker 1:So we're going to start off, john, just if you could tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, how you began your mission, and then we'll go into a lot of the other great things that you're doing. But just give our listeners a little background about yourself.
Speaker 3:A little bit about John Wright.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:That I have to call myself Johnny, because growing up here in Mount Pleasant I was Johnny. I came back home almost shy of 11 years ago and I was using my real name, john Wright, and people here were baffled. They did not like it, they could not understand it. I had a coach that coached me as a kid playing Little League baseball here, by the name of Billy Swales, former mayor, former mayor yes, Former mayor.
Speaker 3:I spent many nights at Billy's house because I was always the best on the team and he wanted to make sure I was at the game, so he'd make me spend the night at his house. But uh, me and his son, little Billy, we grew up together and uh, so Billy hated the fact that I was using the name John and anytime he talked to somebody, if they says John, he would say his name is Johnny, not John so it's been tough being home 11 years, almost 11 years, and trying to be somebody that my mom originally named me.
Speaker 3:My mom gave me the name John Fitzgerald, which I hated growing up because I thought John Fitzgerald, why am I, john Fitzgerald, solid?
Speaker 2:name, Solid name. I came to realize that right and then.
Speaker 3:So now I'm being back home, 11 years later. Oftentimes you hear me, some people refer to me as johnny, some people refer to me as john um, but it's I'm. I'm johnny from mount pleasant, born and raised here. Okay, spent 29 years away from home, but 23 years, eight months and 13 days of those serving the United States Army, oh.
Speaker 1:Retired. Thank you for your service, John.
Speaker 3:I'm a kid that grew up on Shem Creek. My stepdad had a shrimp boat.
Speaker 2:Oh, what I love this On.
Speaker 3:Shem Creek. So I grew up on Shem Creek and my first job was probably about seven, eight years old was heading shrimp in what is now the Mount Pleasant Seafood.
Speaker 1:Market, oh goodness.
Speaker 3:That's where we would. That was the job growing up here is to head shrimp from the shrimp boats that came in every day. I was in there competing with women in their 40s and 50s to try to get 10 pounds of shrimp. So I could get $50 for the week or what have you. So I grew up on Shrimp Creek.
Speaker 2:How old were you doing that?
Speaker 3:I was six, seven years old.
Speaker 2:Come on, eight years old.
Speaker 3:Seriously, and the sad part about it is I asked someone that's related to the family that owns the business. I was like you know, I did not know that they were taking taxes out of me. What? At age seven, until later on in life, but yeah, at age seven.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on, they weren't just giving you a couple dollar bills under the table.
Speaker 3:Well, no, they would give you a brown envelope on Wednesdays, but it was taxed.
Speaker 1:Later on, when I get my.
Speaker 3:Social Security. I'm looking and I'm like I didn't have a job in 73. But evidently I did. But it was amazing growing up there. The Sh is where is the only swimming pool we had in mount pleasant, oh okay the bridge was the only diving board.
Speaker 3:So that's what we would. We would dive off the board as kids and then um. Originally, my family is from the old village. My mom in 1972 moved us to the remus point community and when she did that, um, it's a little different, because we went from living in the old village and um and the projects to now having a house that me and my brothers and sisters can live in.
Speaker 3:And so a couple years after living in Remembrance Point, I started delivering newspaper and I delivered the newspaper to all 133 houses in that neighborhood. And so I did that for almost five years. And in doing it at the time I would collect $1.35 a week for the seven days of delivering the newspaper to the neighbors. And on Sunday mornings all I wanted was my $1.35. When I knocked on that door, but in that community was a lot of school teachers, and those teachers would often say to me Johnny, do better than just deliver the paper, read it, get to know what's in it. And I had no interest in the newspaper, I only wanted that $1.35. And then at some point I started reading it. What?
Speaker 1:was the paper.
Speaker 3:It was then called not the Post and Query, it was called the News and Query. I believe Ah.
Speaker 2:And how old are you at this point?
Speaker 3:Now, at this point, I'm 11, 12 years old.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 3:What are you doing?
Speaker 3:you at this point now at this point I'm 11, 12 years old, come on right and so, and so I'm reading the newspaper. And as I read the newspaper, then I then find myself later in life realizing that it started my trend in world affairs of you know things that were going on in other cities, in other states, and so as I traveled um in the, I found myself getting involved in cities and states where I had no right to be in their business, but because of the newspaper I would read it, and then I kind of got involved, you know pretty much everywhere I went.
Speaker 3:So I thank my upbringing here in Mount Pleasant. I think it's been one that has awarded me a chance to get some exposure and some experience away from home. But what I often tell people is I took my Southern charm and good looks on the road and I brought it back. And I brought it back a little more experience and a little more exposure A little worldly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, certainly that's cool. What was your job in the military?
Speaker 3:I was a combat engineer, so what we did was we blew up bridges and we built them. So I use that as my model to engage. Life is I can build the bridge, but I can also destroy it, but it's easier to build bridges and close gaps is what I ultimately try to use. That experience as a combat engineer and my daily model as how I operate with citizens and with others is build bridges, close gaps that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:I know we should just stop the interview right now.
Speaker 2:That's it, we're good that's amazing.
Speaker 1:So, like when you, when you traveled um in the service, john, I mean there's certain places that you, you know what. What were those experiences, life in that culture? Because you had such a strong culture growing up, obviously, and the love of that culture Did that kind of make you the man you are today.
Speaker 3:It really did. I think, of all the places that I've been in my travels, spending eight years in Europe was an eye-opener Because there was a whole different way of living for me. I missed 7-Eleven and I missed the opportunity to go to a convenience store at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night, and then I realized that the things that we have here in America they simply did not have in 86 and 87. But another city I think that had a real impact on my travels was Louisiana.
Speaker 3:When I was stationed in Louisiana on my travels was Louisiana, when I was stationed in Louisiana, just to realize that the level of, I guess, impoverished people that were still living in 1990 and the conditions and where they lived, but very humble, loving spirit people and they were happy with their lifestyles. But I find them to be a little different and I thought it would be different. But I think louisiana, that culture, kind of reminded me so much of charleston, okay, and so I I really um in that two years there I I um learned to, to really enjoy the people and the culture. So when, when the hurricane hit, they had the devastation, it was so important for me to go back and help out, because you know, I knew the culture and the people, so so yeah, louisiana, they had a huge impact like I great food.
Speaker 1:I mean, we think awesome yeah. I didn't want to mention that oh, you can, that's okay, because I believe we can't be number one In everything you know.
Speaker 3:Because I believe. Here In Charleston, mount Pleasant, where I grew up, we got the best food In the world.
Speaker 1:Except for New Orleans. No, I love it. I'm joking. New Orleans got some Really good food. Well, it also has soul Too, right, absolutely, that's what makes.
Speaker 2:Mount Pleasant. I've never met somebody that has so many generational like yourself. Every now and again I meet somebody from Charleston. I'm from Detroit.
Speaker 1:So I'm a come-ya.
Speaker 3:Am I doing that right there? You're a come-ya, but let me give you a twist to that now, after 29 years away from home. When I came home, I was being told I was a Kamyon.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:But you know, I told them, I said that's not acceptable.
Speaker 2:How old were you when you were Right? That's not acceptable. It's just not acceptable. No, no, no. I was serving your country, helping you Right right.
Speaker 3:I just come back however you want to term it.
Speaker 2:Can you follow your lineage at the International African Museum? Absolutely, I can. That's cool.
Speaker 3:I can, I really can, and I think what's unique for me growing up here and I think in particular and we'll talk about the settlement communities and how that terminology became now something that you're hearing more of that terminology became now something that you're hearing more of is that my grandfather and my grandmother were, respectively, from the Phillip community and the Hamlin community both settlement communities.
Speaker 3:But then my grandfather moved all of us to the old village another settlement community. Then my mom buys a house in Remus Point another settlement community. So, uniquely for me, and tracing my roots back to the 1800s, I can literally go back to the 1800s, 1860s and 18, and identify the folks that right from my family here, right here in Mount Pleasant. And that's why the Boone Hall opportunity was amazing, because it gave us an opportunity to celebrate current descendants of folks that may have lived and worked there.
Speaker 2:I mean that's a good transition. I was going to say, sure, what you're doing today, well before we even get to the schoolhouse because, I'm so excited about that.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the Boone Hall, because we had Jim Westerhold on, who's the general manager of Boone Hall, earlier in the year who recommended you and I was here at the time emailing you.
Speaker 2:While he's here saying about you, john, I mean we're just like, oh, we got to get him on but you, you, you helped him do something very special with the the gin house correct absolutely, so let's tell our listeners about that.
Speaker 1:Well, the gin house at the time House correct Absolutely. So tell our listeners about that.
Speaker 3:Well, the Gin House. At the time when the Gin House was being renovated, I served on the Charleston County Historic Preservations Commission.
Speaker 2:So you just so you came home from the. Army right from the military and just jumped right in the community Embraced my community.
Speaker 3:I jumped you know a little story about how much I wanted to embrace my community. I moved home in 2013. But in 2012, I did a walk from Mount Pleasant to Columbia, to the Statehouse Four days 25 to 28 miles a day for eight hours.
Speaker 2:By yourself.
Speaker 3:Me and about 20, 30 other people Awesome. Each day they walked with me. I started from Mootree Middle School on Friday Okay, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, got to the statehouse and I did it to raise awareness of obesity, but what I ultimately did was I wanted to prepare to come home. So what I did was I came home in 2012, walked to Columbia, got Billy Swales and all those folks here in Mount Pleasant thinking Johnny, I lost his mind.
Speaker 3:And then to prepare for 2013 when I came home. All the great relationships I made in 2012 walk to include several organizations were very instrumental. What's his name? I can't remember his name right now, it's just on my mind, but he's big on obesity here locally and he was Louie there you go, louie's kids, louie's kids, louie's kids.
Speaker 3:Louie was instrumental because I planned this walk from Cincinnati and I was in contact with him here in Mount Pleasant in Charleston. So Louie was instrumental in helping me, making sure I got logistics and people there to help me walk each day. So here's a man I had never met before. He too thought something was wrong with me, but in the end we met and I did the walk and so it kind of helped me prepare for the move home because I started some relationships during that 2012 walk.
Speaker 2:I would never have thought okay, I'm going to move home and just walk.
Speaker 1:You can just stay home and shake hands and say hello to people.
Speaker 3:And the irony of that walk and how it was established was for four years in Cincinnati I walked from Cincinnati to Columbus, ohio, to the Statehouse, doing the exact same walk with a gentleman named Senator Eric Kearney. And Eric Kearney this was his walk and I told Eric. I said, eric, I've got to do that walk when I move home. I want to do it in my state, I don't want to do it on hills and inclement weather.
Speaker 3:I want to do it in my state. Eric came down here in 2012 and walked with me on that Sunday for 28 miles. It turned out really well.
Speaker 2:It takes a different type, man. It takes a different type to be doing stuff like that.
Speaker 3:It was no way to come home and prepare to embrace my community. I love it. It really became the ripple effect. I do this here in 2012. 2013, I move home Right and then I just continue to find ways to get involved and to get engaged.
Speaker 1:Okay, now we can go back to the gym house. I'm done.
Speaker 3:And so I was on the Charleston County Historic Preservation Commission and Jim and I had already had a conversation before in relationships in the past. We and Jim and I had already had a conversation before in relationships in the past when we had met and talked. And he comes into the county meeting and there I am on the board and he's like, wow, I didn't even know you were on this board. And I was like, yeah, I never talked about it. So the remodeling of the gin house was happening and so I said Jim, let's hear some things that I know our organization as a commission, we could help and make sure that this project gets approved. So I worked with him through that, got the project approved.
Speaker 3:The gin house is an amazingly beautiful location. I mean it is a beautiful, beautifully newly renovated, and so you know, right now I think it's now used by all the visitors that go to the Boone Hall. Now they all you know, go through the gin house. Now, awesome, great building, great project. I need to do it Definitely. You got to get by to see it. And I think what really is an awesome relationship is they restored the gin house.
Speaker 2:Jim was talking about that.
Speaker 3:And we were restoring the school.
Speaker 2:That was perfect.
Speaker 3:And so the relationship is just.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Wasn't there a special? I'm sorry, mike, wasn't there a special exhibit there too that you worked with him on?
Speaker 3:Yes, let's talk about that. I'd love to talk about that. And it was amazing because Rick Benthal, jim Westerhold, natalie, katie, sarah all those guys at Boone Hall I worked with them to plan what was the first ever, never done before, black History Month program on Boone Hall Plantation for the entire month of February, entire month of February, and what was amazing about it was number one. Not only has it never been done before, the, the title of it was where are we now celebrating the descendants and and when? That title meant that I wanted to look at all the great things that we had we've accomplished since, you know, the emancipation, and myself and all the guest speakers and everybody pretty much was involved.
Speaker 3:We're all from settlement communities where these settlement communities were established right after the Reconstruction and during Reconstruction, and so the celebrating the descendants was something that typically in my almost 11 years home I don't see Charleston doing and I don't really see the Lowcountry duo in general. So I thought it was a great opportunity for us to celebrate the descendants, talk about where we are now, those of us that have served in the military, those of us that have went on to achieve some great things. Major Abraham Turner was one of my guest speakers throughout that month, and Major Abraham Turner is from the Phillip community but he's a major general and the highway is now named after him. Right right Highway 41 is named after him, and he was the first post commander at Fort Jackson Training Post and right here from our area, and so you know. I think what we did in March, with the support of Boone Hall Plantation, was we celebrated Mount Pleasant in a way that it had never been celebrated before from a Black History Month standpoint.
Speaker 3:We had beautiful displays of the churches that were established.
Speaker 1:We had beautiful displays of the communities that were established and had beautiful displays of the communities that were established.
Speaker 3:And so we hit on the military. You know all those that served in the military dating back to, you know, the beginning of the Civil War and so on and so forth. So it was a great opportunity for us to showcase Mount Pleasant in a positive light, Taking that away from Charleston. But Charleston cannot do what we did in February here in Mount Pleasant, because they can't showcase us in the way in which we did, because they have to stick to their story.
Speaker 2:So that's still happening. Right, the show is still happening.
Speaker 1:No it's not, I'm hoping it's going to repeat itself.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was done in February for Black History Month and it was the first time ever done.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And you know I'd be remiss if I didn't say to either, to both you guys, along with all the great compliments we got about doing that on Boone. Hall Plantation during that month there was also a few negative comments. There's always Right.
Speaker 1:You can't make everybody happy, John. I try, but I can't.
Speaker 3:But I was thrilled to answer them and I was thrilled to jump right in and say look, your question is legitimate, but let's rationalize why we're doing it on Boone Hall Plantation and what other place to do it. Damon Fordham, which one of the local professors. Damon and I grew up in the old village together and Damon is a professor at the Citadel now and Damon was one of our guest speakers during that month, and Damon and I both agree that there was no better place to do this. I agree To do it on Boone Hall Plantation. I did an interview with CNN and the question was why the plantation? Well, I said why not? What greater place and what better way to build our story as to how we've evolved?
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I do hope and hint, hint, I do hope that this continues every February or something like this continues every February.
Speaker 3:I think what we did in February we got a lot of attention and a lot of traction. A lot of people were very excited about the way the month went and after the action review with Boone Hall Plantation staff was let's plan for 2025. Fantastic.
Speaker 1:You tell Jim that you've got our support. We want it to come back in February.
Speaker 3:Jim said, the first thing we met when after the action review was let's talk about 2025.
Speaker 2:That's amazing and I want the chamber to help in any way we can. Good. Very good, so don't be afraid to reach out to Kathy. That's right.
Speaker 1:That's right, I'm here for you, john, and that's right, that's right. I'm here for you, John, I'm here for you, and we are proud members of the chamber as well.
Speaker 3:Awesome.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable. I do have a question, so I just want to make sure people are clear, especially for the cameos Is that what they're called? Yeah, okay, that's what you're called.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm called too. Yeah, I've only been a little bit, but obviously you know a lot more and it's just explaining to people.
Speaker 1:You see signs driving down 41. You'll see, phillips, you know a settlement, nice, new signs. What exactly are they? When did they start? What's the history of them?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, settlement communities are communities that were established right after Reconstruction, during Reconstruction, and most of them were established right around 1865, 1866, up to 1870. And they were communities that were established very close to proximity to where the plantation was and these were communities that were. The land that these communities you find them in is very unique because a lot of them are very close to the water. The land was at the time, in 1860s, when these lands, when these communities were being established, those lands that they were able to buy at $10, a lot, was really less than desirable land because of the close proximity to the water and the mosquitoes and things such as that. So those lands weren't less than desirable and that's why they were sold and given, you know, sold to them, not given, sold to them, you know, at $10 for an acre and things such as that, less than desirable land. But what became of that is the resources that the location gave to, gave to the residents of the sediment communities. They allow them to fish. It allowed them to hunt, allowed them to all the food resources came because of the location and where they lived. Um, so today, right here in mount pleasant, there's not even a 13, a 12 year old that do not eat fish and shrimp. Right, why? Because their grandmamas and granddaddies and everybody has this. That's been a staple here. So, um, what became? Land that was less than desirable in the 1800s are not waterfront property today? And, uh, uniquely, um, those that purchased those, uh, those properties way back then, um, they're now worth a whole lot of money now, yeah.
Speaker 3:And so, um, what, ultimately, I think, started out as settlement communities where, you know, predominantly folks that were enslaved, you know, moved, moved in these communities and they did all those things. They built schools, they built churches, they built all these things. So we displayed all that during Black History Month, because every community had its own school, okay, and so we displayed all that. But again, the settlement communities are unique because, in 2012, when I came home, one of the things that I wanted to do, in particular, kathy, was to change the narrative, because when I came home, these communities were being termed, and they were being termed as unincorporated and donut holes. I'd be in a county meeting, I'd be in a town meeting and they'd say, well, that's an unincorporated donut hole area, and I'm like wait a minute, what?
Speaker 3:does that even mean?
Speaker 2:What does?
Speaker 3:that mean I said that is so unfair because those communities are give those communities their historic significance. Yes, of course.
Speaker 3:And so I told them that they are settlement communities and look them up, that's what they are. So we've got to change the narrative because if you don't, then the historic significance of those communities will be lost and the term like unincorporated I don't know. So a long fight, you know. Now we are in 2016,. Charleston County did a survey and they identified these communities as settlement communities. A 375 page survey, awesome survey. I think it was one of the things that made me very, very proud of when I got back and being back home was that 2016 survey from a 2013 conversation that created these settlement communities to be what they are now. And so now, today, in 2024, there is you hear the term settlement community and now we're embracing them. Yeah, because we now know that communities that were less than desirable still exist. Oldest communities in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3:Yeah so these communities pred Mount Pleasant, so these communities predate waterworks. So before there was waterworks, there was these communities. And now, in 2024, I'm thrilled and I'm delighted when I hear the word settlement.
Speaker 1:Well, now I know how to make sure that I say that correctly and they're protected.
Speaker 3:And some of them are and some of them are not, and particularly in the case of Phillip, phillip Community is one of the first settlement communities that now has a historic designation from historic places. So that's one, and then you know. None of the others necessarily have them, but one of the things I think that's important for us as the Settlement Community Commission is that each of these communities are so unique and they're different, so what we ultimately hope to do is to create overlay zonings that would protect these communities, because that's ultimately what's needed.
Speaker 2:Yeah oh, it's not there right now, then that's not in place at the moment.
Speaker 3:there is some there, there's some some zoning, but there needs to be an overlay zone in that that complements that particular community based on the way it was built and in a way, because ultimately in most of the settlement communities and you won't find that not ultimately in most of the settlement communities and you won't find that necessarily in most of Mount Pleasant that on settlement communities you find where they don't have parcels. We have acres in settlement communities, so what you'll find on an acre, you may find five family members living on that one acre of land. Well, that's unique. And so that's when I say overlay zoning the zoning has to complement the lifestyle, it's already there, and that is what you know.
Speaker 3:Again, we don't have parcels, we have acres, and that kind of makes us very attractive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm at Plannerter's point, just moved there in 2019. That neighborhood was built in what 2003? I think something like that um there's so much crazy development going around the phillips community. Love the fact you're fighting a fight who else would be doing it. That's right, I mean the fact that you're taking it on your shoulders and in your heart like it's amazing, I'm on the side of. I work from home, so the traffic doesn't bother me, you know.
Speaker 2:And I don't want a four-lane highway leading to my house. I like our. It took me a while. You know what it did my story real quick. Dr Tanya did my story real quick. Dr tanya matthews. We interviewed her on the charleston marketing podcast. Um, but on the way to the interview, on the way here, I stopped at the international african american museum because I'm like I'm an idiot if I don't go to the museum and see her place before I talk to her. That's right, and I was blown away. And one of the videos I watched was about the phillips community and and what is the term?
Speaker 2:settlement, settlement yeah, settlement communities and their story about never selling the properties, like always holding on to the properties. That's what we have, you know, I mean, and it's listening and hearing like well, shoot, I want to keep it the way it is you know, I'm sold, you know. I mean like, if you're going to move and just disrupt humans and lives and cultures, we can wait a few minutes, as far as I'm concerned, concerned.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, I'm over there too, you know, and I do drive to work, yeah, and I don't care about traffic, I care more about the community.
Speaker 2:That's because you're listening to our podcast. When you're driving to work, I'm listening to the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce podcast. Yes, called Building Business.
Speaker 1:But it means a lot to me. I mean, when I moved down here, I wanted to make sure. One of the things I loved about the entire area was the history and the culture. So I will never be one of those people that comes down and goes. You know I need more McDonald's. I mean I want. I've fallen in love with this town because of what it has given me and I am not. I do not want it to be taken away from anyone who was here before me.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. You know what's unique about what you both are saying and you both are not new here essentially is that we live in a very beautiful place and a place where millions of people, if they come to visit, they're going to find themselves wanting to live here because it's such a beautiful place to live. I told my wife and my daughter in 2011,. I said let's plan to move back home because I want to go back to Mount Pleasant. It's safe, it's a beautiful place to live. It has changed a lot, and change can be good. Right, it has changed a lot in my 29 years away, but what I don't want to see us lose is our character right, yeah, character, I think character is important that character and that charm and the beauty, um, that we have here.
Speaker 3:That is what I don't want to see us lose, and because when you lose character, you lose, lose everything, yeah, and so you know these communities are so important to the character of Mount. Pleasant. So that's what the fight is for to keep the character, because you lose character, you lose everything.
Speaker 1:Boy. They're very lucky to have you, john. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2:Well, I think the mayor is doing a good job, intentionally growing the town, which is really a city the town of Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, st.
Speaker 2:City, the town.
Speaker 1:That's right, the town. I say it all the time Do the math. That's all.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to be mad at you all the time because I often say I moved back home to my new big city. Yeah, you know it's no longer the town of Mount Pleasant because as a kid I can walk. I'd have a baseball game at Mount Pleasant Academy, okay, and then I would walk from Mount Pleasant Academy to Remus Point where I lived, and that was through the old village and all the way, but back then through the groves, right Back then it was such an easy walk.
Speaker 1:There was no 17,. Right yeah, we played football in the middle of 17. From time to time I read great stories about that.
Speaker 3:And you know uniquely too, is growing up here. We did not have North Mount Pleasant. There was no such a term. Mount Pleasant ended on Bowman Road, anything beyond Bowman Road. You were in the country, and so coming back home and hearing the term North Mount Pleasant, I'm like where am I? I never in my life knew that we existed.
Speaker 1:The funny part is the mayor will tell you there is no such thing as North Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 2:I'll stop saying that no it's, we're all Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3:One. Mount Pleasant is a great concept and I know that's something that they promote, and I have you both know that in 2016 and all the things I've been engaged in, one of those I also took on was I wanted to change our local government okay here in mount pleasant from our current at-law system to districts.
Speaker 3:So I put on a pretty good fight to get the question on a ballot in 2016 and um, and I did it primarily with a group of folks and, uh, we got 8600 signatures but we needed 9200 oh, to get the question about. So we came came like 600 um signature shot. But what I realized and what I found out about my beautiful hometown then was that in talking with people to get signatures signed, have them sign that ballot was.
Speaker 3:A lot of them thought that our community was already districts. They thought that we were large enough to be districts already, but we're an at-large system. So I understand the mayor's idea of the one Mount Pleasant, but it's um, we have a lot of newcomers here that don't know that our local government is an at-large system. So I think you know that was something that that took on with a few people in 2016 you explain that at-large system?
Speaker 3:well, at large, what it means is that currently, where we have a proximity, almost a hundred thousand people here in Mount Pleasant, so 100,000 people vote for nine council members and that's an they vote. It doesn't matter if you live in Carolina Park or if you live in.
Speaker 3:Old Village or Tupelo, it doesn't matter where you live. You vote for nine council members that represent all of Mount Pleasant, I see. But in a district format what you would have is you'd have nine council members that would serve nine different districts. So it puts you closer to the community and closer to the local government. So the breakdown was roughly about 10,000 people per district.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So if you had a district representative on council then I thought it would be far easier to approach your current issues in your community whether it's traffic or whether it's development, and through your representative. But a lot of people did not want that and I got a lot of kickback from a lot of people that knew me from being a little kid.
Speaker 1:They said Johnny, what are you doing?
Speaker 3:You're coming home and you're causing problems. We like it the way it is, and I'm like well, me too, but I'm finding that we have a lot of newcomers and they don't understand our current makeup of local government. So what I had a problem with is that we were only turning out about nine to ten thousand people for elections in some cases, seven thousand and so I knew that we did not have an equal voice. Um so, and primarily, that seven thousand came from the south the south end of town and um so what.
Speaker 3:What I thought would be in the best interest of the town was to create a district format where we would have more voices but then have more people involved. So that was something I hope would have happened, and I'm always looking for the year that Will you try again. Well, what I'm looking for now is I'm looking for our council to put the question on the ballot themselves.
Speaker 3:Because the goal behind it, those that were upset with me. As I told them, this wasn't about me. This was about the people deciding. Sure, I thought it was in the best interest of the people to decide how our government would be moving forward. So a little confusion. I thought I was trying to change things.
Speaker 1:A little change, but I wanted to change things.
Speaker 3:I wanted people to get involved and I thought that was the right thing to do, and so what I'm hoping today is, along with the advocacy and all the other things I might be involved in, the day when our local council just puts that question on the ballot.
Speaker 2:Well, why don't you become mayor to do that?
Speaker 1:John for mayor.
Speaker 3:You don't have enough going on right now right well, why don't I just keep on, keep a great relationship with the mayors and all those council guys and encourage them? You don't want me out there collecting signatures. I'm out here making trouble so just let's just put the question on the ballot.
Speaker 2:You heard it here first folks.
Speaker 1:You did. And then I want to talk a little bit about your very special project, which was one of the first ways I heard about you, which is the Long Point Road Schoolhouse 1904. John, I'm amazed. Like I said, I love history and I've followed this and I've seen the pictures. For those of our listeners who have not heard about this amazing schoolhouse, please let them know how this project started and where we are with it.
Speaker 3:It's the address where the school is located. Now Its permanent location is 1578 Snowden Road. This school project was one that, as organization, we did not. It was not on our radar, it was not something that we even envisioned we would ever be a part of. In 2017, Thomasina Stokes, Marshall, then councilwoman, she was on council the only black that ever served on council. When I first came home, Coach Swells I call him Coach because I don't he may be the mayor but he's coach to me, right.
Speaker 3:Coach Swells said Johnny, you need to meet Tomasina, and I had only been home two days. I said, well, coach, can I unpack? He said no, you need to meet her immediately. So, four days into being home, I Her entire life. I literally was there to bury her when she passed away several years ago. And Thomasina Stokes Marshall was a very special woman Born and raised here too, like me, but went to New York and spent her life there. So she served on council and in 2017, mark Roberts one of the guys with Mount Pleasant Historic Commission, a staffer with Mount Pleasant the town, a staffer with Mount Pleasant the town told Tom Messina about this building that was going to be demolished because someone had bought the property, and Mark Roberts found out that at one point it served as a school.
Speaker 3:He didn't have the history on it, but he did know that at one point it served as a school. So he then called Tom Messina Stokes Marshall because it's in the Stoughton, then called thomasina stokes marshall because it's in the stown community where thomasina is from. Well, come to find out. Thomasina went there for the first grade, come on. So here we are in mount pleasant with a 1904 school that ended. It stopped serving the community in 1953 when equalization came about, and the only black to have ever served on Mount Pleasant Council went there for the first grade.
Speaker 3:Right. So she finds out about the school and she calls me immediately. It's like 6.15 in the morning and she's like I've been waiting all night to call you. There is a school that we could potentially save and, um, and I said, well, is that on our radar? Is that something that that's that a part of our mission statement? And she was like, well, no, but, johnny, I think we need to get and get some information about this. So thomasina started this ball rolling and it was very exciting for me to be a part of it because I'll be honest, in this project is I've served my country in two capacities, two wars, and I thought those were big. Those were serving my country and those wars were big. This renovating the school project is probably one of the biggest things I've ever been a part of. Why? Because I never thought I would be a part of a restoration preservation, in particular, back here at home. So there is about 20 members of this mountain community that is currently still alive that went to that school, of the Snodden community that is currently still alive, that went to that school.
Speaker 3:The unique dynamics in October 13th of 2021, we moved that school One, two miles down the road and it took about two and a half hours to move it. I coined that day as moving history. How we identified the school to have a historic significance is the college of charleston students and grant gilmore did the first archaeology study, not archaeology architectural review, I'm sorry. They did an architectural review of the school. They identified that that the school was. A lot of the material was from the 1800s. So we then knew that we had a museum. Yeah, so what, what? What? That? What those students review did was validated that we had material from the 1800s that predated brown versus board of education, it predated the rosenwald system and it was built and served during the height of the Jim Crow era. So that schoolhouse is very special to me, as well as it is to Mount Pleasant and our community, because we're now restoring that schoolhouse to become the Long Point Museum and Cultural Education Center.
Speaker 1:I'd love that Sweet. I can't wait.
Speaker 2:So, what we. So what does that entail then?
Speaker 3:What we visualize and you know I like oftentimes I'm the visionary, you know, behind this stuff because you know I've had the chance to do some other things and know what we could do. What we did in February on Boone Hall Plantation is exactly what we anticipate you will see for 365 days a year in that public youth facility that we're creating, okay, okay.
Speaker 3:What we did in February was we displayed Mount Pleasant exclusively the churches, the schools, the communities, the military. We did that in February on Boone Hall Plantation for 30 days, but it was just a way to segue into what we knew we were going to do with that school. When you open that door every day for a tour, you would see things relevant to Mount Pleasant, exclusively Mount Pleasant, and then the cultural education part. It gives us a chance to share. You know the stories about the communities and the students that would have went to that school and how it was formed. But more importantly, I think this project, the saving and restoring our job and this has been to make sure that the integrity, the culture, I mean the historic integrity of the building be saved so that when the story is being told, it's being told, it's being told from the perspective of how it used to be a school built in the 1800s by former slaves.
Speaker 1:So is it going when it's? I love looking at things that are restored but look exactly like they did back in the day. I know it's so hard to do. Who are you working with on this restoration?
Speaker 3:Well, this is one of my favorite subjects when I talk about the restoration project.
Speaker 1:Well then, I asked a good question, didn't I?
Speaker 3:That's an awesome question, because this project to me is so beautiful simply because there are two students, respectively 77 and 83 years old, that are the general contractors Come on On this project, and they both went to this school.
Speaker 1:No, I can't.
Speaker 3:They both went to this school. Henry Palmer has been building houses brick houses in Mount Pleasant for over 40, 50 years. Well, henry built the foundation under the school. Henry and Joe built the foundation that's under the school right now, currently, as it stands, all brick. Both of these guys are the general contractors on the school and they both attended the school. Joe attended in the first grade, henry did first through fifth.
Speaker 2:Did you know that, like you, brought all these people together? I?
Speaker 3:knew that because Joe serves on our board. Yeah, and then I knew his brother, Henry, was a professional brick mason guy because when I took a brick masonry in Wando High School and he came out of school when I was a kid to kind of give us pointers about giving us an opportunity to say, well, look, if you've finished this course you can come work for me as a brick mason. So the idea that this project is being restored and preserved by those two gentlemen that went to the school, it means the world to this project. Why? Because they're restoring the school that they went to so they know what it looks like.
Speaker 2:That's a movie. What are we doing? I know really what are we doing.
Speaker 3:I know really what are we doing here. It's an untold story that at some point I would love to see on TV somewhere. You know, in a movie somewhere, because it's very rare, very rare that you would find a project like this. But, more importantly, the people that are orchestrating and putting it together went to that school, so this is their love and their passion for this project. It's amazing. It makes it easy for me to advocate for it, so talk about the radio show talking about a way for you to advocate which is where you are now.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some years ago I started talking and somehow or another I was told I was pretty good at it.
Speaker 2:You got a smooth voice. I'm not going to lie to you, Brian. Is he all right At some?
Speaker 3:point I started talking, I was pretty good at it and then you know, I kind of got a little bit in politics and then you know I was told, oh yeah, you're really good at it now because you know you're a little versed, a little worst, and so I'm now the host of the Jay Wright show on Sunday mornings on WJ and I 106.3. And I talk strictly social civics. One of my biggest things I promote is voting Perfect.
Speaker 2:And participation.
Speaker 3:Every Sunday morning on my show I say the following words no vote, no voice. And ultimately it's my way to. I'm so excited about it because when I'm being back home and having the opportunity to do this in other cities, it's a big deal. But when you're back home and the people that know you and that's been around all your life, and when you see them and they say, oh, I listened to you on Sunday mornings, it's a joy because it's like you know me. You know me all my life. I'm Johnny to you.
Speaker 3:I'm that kid that grew up here and that went away and then came back and now having these impacts. So the great thing about the show is the show gives me a chance to talk about that amazing 1904 school 1904 school. It kind of gives me a chance to make sure people understand um, promote it and to advertise events and certain things that we're having. So on sunday mornings I make sure that if it's something special we're doing, that I get that in on my radio show, because that's the greatest way to make people aware of what we're doing is through formats like that and that, that, that platform. But I, I enjoyed it, um, it's, it's great to be back home and to have a radio show after uh, 29 years away. And to come back home and now I can be seen in the community but then heard on the radio on Sunday morning Very cool.
Speaker 2:29 years away and how long back.
Speaker 3:I've been back home now, august, 29 years away, and how long back. I've been back home. Now August will be 11 years. That's not a long time. It has not been a long time. It's been a lot. And you know. I tell you what, and I know we didn't mention this, but you know, and I think, again, 2016 it was during the Flint water crisis.
Speaker 2:Okay, you said you were from.
Speaker 3:Detroit Yep, water crisis. Okay right, you said you were from detroit. Yep, I um. I collected over 40 000 gallons of water in mount pleasant, where our headquarters for the african-american settlement commission is, at 440 venning street in the old village.
Speaker 2:I collected over 40 000 gallons of water and walked it, you walked it, you walked it to the point.
Speaker 3:Negative I had it. I had it driven with the support of the local ILA and some folks. I had the water transported out there on an 18-wheeler. But I flew out there to meet the water and to meet the mayor and to meet the folks in Flint because I felt like what we were doing by collecting all that water over those five days here in Mount Pleasant. I had already made contact with the folks in Flint and let them know what we were doing because I knew a lot of them from when I lived in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, right, so I had a relationship with them then.
Speaker 3:And so one of the ladies in Flint told me I was here at home and she said, johnny, you're in South Carolina now, now that you're not in Cincinnati, you're not going to help us. I'm like, yeah, I guess I have to now, right, right. So for five days I staged a water drive man and we collected over 40,000 gallons of water and had that water taken out to Flint. I got out there, I met the mayor and I met with the water officials out there and kind of understood their problem. But what was important about doing that was it was a way to temporarily assist them in their issue, which was a permanent issue. They got a permanent issue, so all we did was temporarily took some water out there from Mount Pleasant. But it was just, you know, again, another way and opportunity for me to come back home but then at the same time realize the value and the things that I can and have the ability to maneuver and help others.
Speaker 2:What can't you do?
Speaker 1:John, I'm trying to figure this out right now. I was just going to ask the same thing, what sport did you play.
Speaker 3:Is there something?
Speaker 1:you don't love.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I box man.
Speaker 1:I was like oh, I can see that I can see that Look out now.
Speaker 3:So you know I mean I played baseball and basketball.
Speaker 1:I'm on your team.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but boxing was one of my things. I loved it. I mean, I was always told that. You know, my coach said Johnny, you've never seen a chin that lift weights. So I was sad. That became my motto.
Speaker 1:Well, you're so helpful to everybody else. What can we as a chamber, as local businesses or just listeners do to help you?
Speaker 3:Well, we are currently in this endeavor and we are going to see this through because we know that when this building becomes available for public use, we already have an amazing relationship with Boone Hall. Boone Hall has given us over $225,000 currently in this renovation, this restoration project. Why? Because Boone Hall is directly linked to the school, of course, and if you go to the gin house the newly beautifully renovated gin house you'll find a picture of the 1904 school on the first floor, so it's on display every day. So the relationship is that once the school is renovated and we're ready and we open as a public use facility, as a museum and cultural education center, boone Hall will then transport people from Boone Hall to the school, because we're less than a mile away, wow. And so not only will Boone Hall do that, but then we're also working closely with the African American Museum to have traffic brought to the school from there as well as Charleston County School District. So we're making all the right connections because we're very proud to have a public use facility in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3:One of the things I've learned to my 11 years here at Almost Home is that, mount Pleasant, we do a great job of preserving things in the old village Houses. But we have not done a great job of preserving any public use structures and so this gives us that chance to preserve a public use structure in mount pleasant. That'll be good for the entire low country, the state of south carolina, in the nation. We really, really believe that that in the end, that's the kind of impact this will eventually have, and how do our listeners donate, John?
Speaker 3:So, if you want to donate, if you want to make a donation, if you go to A-A-S-C-H-C. Our website, there's a donate button, or just Google Long Point School and there's a page there, a GoFundMe page there. So contributions are going to be critical, but let me make sure it's. I also share with you that several months ago I submitted a request to the statehouse through our district representative Kathy Landon in District 80, for fundings to finalize the school Well we was awarded $150,000 from the Statehouse through the Ways and Means Committee.
Speaker 2:Asking you shall not receive. Asking you shall receive.
Speaker 3:To finalize it. So Kathy gave me a call. She is the district representative and she gave me a call a couple weeks ago to tell me that we were awarded $150,000 to complete the school. So we're excited now that we now have that additional funding to take us right on through the end of this project. But you know, it's been amazing because we spent essentially almost $60,000 just to move the school.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Just to move it from.
Speaker 2:Two miles, two miles.
Speaker 1:Could, you imagine picking up a structure that was built in 1904 and trying to move.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know that cost itself. A lot of people don't realize how expensive that was, just to move itself. So we got a lot invested in here, but we're going to see this project right on through. And, with your help, the chamber we could move this right on to finalization and, you know, have something that we in mount pleasant can be very proud of.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah very proud absolutely well, before we let you go john, let's talk about one more question for you, because of your love for mount pleasant right, that's right I love it go ahead. No, you want to go. Do you want to do yours?
Speaker 3:that's right same.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I want to talk about the pineapple award. Oh, I was going to just talk about you.
Speaker 3:Go first I already did you already did pineapple award just yesterday man I got a phone call about, I got an email, sorry um, about the black history month event that we did on boone hall plantation and how it was so well received.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what was that event? Was it a show? Was it a play? What was that event? No, what it was.
Speaker 3:it was a month-long self-guided tour of. We had displays of the churches, schools, military, so we had displays that you can literally go up and read and information I mean information dating from 1619 all the way to today about Mount Pleasant, significant points, things that happened. So it was on display the entire month. But on the weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, I had a speaker series. So I brought in speakers that are all from Mount Pleasant Perfect. Lynette Love was a speaker. Lynette Love's son, reggie Love, played basketball at Duke, won a national championship at Duke and then went on to become President Obama's personal aide. She was a guest speaker. Lorna Bell Coakley, which created and started the Declaration Day at Hampton Park, she was a guest speaker. So we had all guest speakers. That were all from Mount Pleasant. So the displays were all self-guided tours. So none of us had to be there for you to become familiar with Mount Pleasant. But on the weekends, when we were there, it gave us a chance to interact.
Speaker 3:So it went extremely well. So, as a result of that, the Charleston Vis bureau and also along with that during that month, we planned I planned with charleston visitors bureau to have somebody from our organization at the visitor center every friday oh good, from noon to four to promote what we were doing on the weekends.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3:So from noon to 4 every Friday during the month of February, two representatives from our organization was there to greet the people and to give them information about what we were doing on the weekends. So that worked out really well. So the result of that I got an email yesterday that I won a pineapple.
Speaker 2:Yay so what does that mean?
Speaker 1:It's a big award.
Speaker 3:I don't know anything about it. I mean, you probably know more than I do.
Speaker 1:I go every year to the luncheon. Oh, really Okay good, good.
Speaker 3:So there's the people that are pineapples yeah, very important people. So I have a really yeah, the pineapple is a very.
Speaker 1:It's obviously the symbol of hospitality.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And a huge symbol of Charleston. Of course that's right, and so it's a very you should be honored. It's a very important award. I'm really looking forward to it now, yeah, it's awesome and, of course, Explore Charleston. For those it's the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. It's a huge organization that we do a lot with too, with the chamber and things. So, I'm excited for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. So well-deserved Thank you. I'm looking forward to getting that award, I think. When I got the email yesterday I was like, wow, this is another way to validate what we did in February.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. Sorry, I got one more.
Speaker 1:Okay, one more.
Speaker 2:Kichigala.
Speaker 3:Kich Gala. Wow, unique term, Very unique term. Why it's because, growing up here, born and raised here, I've always known us to be. Gala Gitchi is a new terminology. Okay, I think it resonated somewhere like in the Beaufort area, Seattle area, but it's never been a term that I've always been accustomed to. But it is something that I hear all the time now gala gichi.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, gala has always been associated with Charlestonians and folks from. Mount Pleasant, and it's still our dialect, the language, in some cases even the food. But the gichi part, I think, is new. What does that mean? What does gichi?
Speaker 1:mean. Well, I think, what is new? What does that mean? What does Geechee mean?
Speaker 3:Well, I think what I believe as I've talked to some folks and I've even had this question posed on a radio show was what is? Geechee, and I think it's a people, I think it's a culture, more than it is the people. The Geechee is a culture.
Speaker 2:Okay, and Gullah is the people.
Speaker 1:Gullah is the people.
Speaker 3:Gala is the people copy.
Speaker 1:You know right, because gichi grits, right, that's yeah, okay, because they're not gulla grits, they're gichi grits.
Speaker 3:Right, right, right, right so so yeah, I think when they refer to get you, I think it's more of a culture. Okay, then it is the people, but the gulla is the people of charles and absolutely so so gulla can be um, gulla can be any color. You could talk to a person from mountasant that's been around for a long time and you say, oh well, you're not black, but you're Gullah, you speak Gullah. So Gullah is speak Gullah. Oh yeah, that's right, that's a whole language in itself.
Speaker 1:We had a gentleman well, two of them actually, but one of them just retired so one of our maintenance gentlemen at Mount Pleasant Town Center. He one of our maintenance gentlemen at Mount Pleasantown Center. He worked for us for the 25 years we've been open and he was born and raised here and the first thing I always said was he wore a winter coat in like April because he was cold. Okay, well, we're all in tank tops and stuff because we're so used to the sun, right, but he spoke Gullah, and boy did we have some really interesting conversations. It was such a joy to listen to speak to him because it took a little understanding.
Speaker 1:Don't get me wrong. But it was. And then he and an associate, frank. They both worked at Town Center. You should have heard them going back and forth, and if you didn't know who they were, you'd be like what are they speaking? But I loved listening to them talk.
Speaker 3:Uniquely in all my travels everywhere I've ever been in my life, if there was somebody from Charleston that was speaking and they were across the room as soon as they opened their mouth, my ears, my antennas went up, I'm like I know that person.
Speaker 3:They're from my hometown because the language is so unique and I often in my travels I would tell people that I speak three languages. I speak German and then I can speak broken English and then I speak Gullah, so Gullah's a language, and then you know. So my wife is from Boston and she would always tell me she says you know, you think you speak so intellectual from time to time and then you get around your friends.
Speaker 1:I would love to be a fly on the wall for those conversations she said then you get around your friends and I think who is that?
Speaker 2:Johnny, that's not a whatever you be. You, Johnny, right, You're doing something, right. Thank you for all of it. Yeah, I think that's amazing.
Speaker 1:I mean Mount Pleasant. I just want to talk about Mount Pleasant one more time because this is so special to you. What do you think that makes Mount Pleasant so special? Not just to us who live here and people who visit, but the world. People love coming here.
Speaker 3:You know I think Mount Pleasant is special because geographically where we're located. I often, you know, when I do a radio show in Cincinnati, somewhere else, I often say that I'm calling from the bottom of America. And you know, I think geographically where we live is such a beautiful place we have. We have great food. I mean, I'm great.
Speaker 1:I came home to eat fish and shrimp, man, it's great food.
Speaker 3:So we got great food, we got a great atmosphere. I mean, the climate here is just amazing.
Speaker 3:You can't get this anywhere else in the world in some cases, and so you know we 10 months, almost warm weather. This is the perfect place to live. But again, I embrace everybody that wants to live here. I'm not one of those that feel like, hey, this is my hometown and I don't want nobody else to come here. No, not at all. I embrace everybody. I like diversity. I like to see If this place wasn't so special then people would not want to come here.
Speaker 3:So what we have to do with those of us that are from here is to make them comfortable while they're here. Make them understand. We don't want you to take over, but we want you to be here, we want to comfortably live together. But Mount Pleasant is such a beautiful place it's like no other place I've ever been in my life Comfortably live together.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's another good take. We got to start writing some of this stuff down while we're talking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean because literally I mean we have to. That's the new way of Mount Pleasant. So I love being back home, I love the weather, I love the food, I love the camaraderie, I love that custom that I can get a chance to be myself. But Mount Pleasant is a place that I think is extremely special. I said years ago that Mount Pleasant is Hollywood without the lights the glamour and the glory, it's not any of that Interesting. But it's a great place where people live and are raised by communities.
Speaker 3:So it's just where everything in Hollywood is not.
Speaker 2:I love that. I mean Danny McBride lives here now bill murray's been here like danny mcbride brought his whole crew here, that's right. It's livability here is amazing. That's right.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, that's right, uh well, we're honored to have you, um as back in your hometown. I mean, obviously, because of all these amazing things that you're doing, I want everybody listening to this podcast to go say the website again one more time, john.
Speaker 3:A-A-S-C-H-Ccom or Google. Longpoint 1904, Longpoint School.
Speaker 1:I want all of them. I want the dollars raised after listening to this podcast because I want you all to go and look at what they're doing, the history of this school and all the renovation and just how amazing it's going to be for us who live here and work here in Mount Pleasant. And thank you for your service again, for everything that you've done for this town and I'm kind of lucky that I know you so.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited about that. Well, I'm lucky now too. I know him now. That's right, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Come to your radio show again. Wj and I 106.3. It's the Jay Wright Show and it's every Sunday morning from 9 to 10 am, and I'm talking social civics and if it happens here or anywhere around the world, I might talk to you. Start listening, everybody Thank you so much, john.
Speaker 1:Before we leave, we need to thank our sponsors, of course, charleston Radio Group and our friend Brian Cleary here, and the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. If you want to be a sponsor of our podcast or be a guest on our show, just feel free to reach out to us. Make sure you follow and download. Let's see I'm going to get them right, mike. Spotify, itunes, youtube, instagram, facebook and LinkedIn. Sure, okay, sounds fantastic. We're so excited. Thank you for being with us today. Until next time, mount Pleasant. Until next time, listeners.
