~ ~

Chapter 2. Brother Gator and His Friends

 

“Mrs. Chandler! Miss Dusenbury!” called the workman, rushing up the brick steps into the Museum almost out of breath. The Hostesses and I had just finished unlocking the post card display cases and the cash register to begin another day of welcoming visitors to Brookgreen Gardens.

 

“There’s a six-foot alligator in the ladies’ restroom! Don’t go in there until we can get him out. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s safe!”

 

The workman hurried back to his task. I jumped up to follow him, as this sounded like the most exciting event of the summer!

 

Somehow, the two elderly Hostesses did not share my enthusiasm for alligator chasing however, and I was quickly recalled to the safety of the Museum. Perhaps in compensation, or to distract me from further attempts to “help,” Miss Genevieve began telling me stories of Brother Gator and his fellow inhabitants of the nearby Waccamaw swamps.

 

Miss Genevieve learned these stories from local people who lived on Sandy Island and along the seashore here at Brookgreen. Cousin Corrie and my own grandmother had heard similar stories as young children from family servants who told the stories in Gullah, a creole language of former slaves living along the South Carolina coast. Miss Genevieve collected these stories from the local people during the Depression as part of the federal government’s WPA Writers’ Project.

 

So that morning as I looked longingly through the open Museum window toward the ivy-covered wall that shaded the walkway to the ladies’ restroom, Miss Genevieve told me how Brother Gator learned there was Trouble in the world . . .