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Queen Quet:

Angela Barrett – “Well, thank you so much for being with me today. It is such an honor.”

Queen Quet – Glad if they would honor Neil.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I was going to say I probably should have told you. If you’re going to talk, real deep. What I call the the Gullah Geechee. I am probably not going to be able to understand you, which is terrible.”

Queen Quet – “The look. Yeah. And then just like a bunch of people would then sounds I a like, if you don’t even know all of what we the correct me to say. So I mean if on anything like that it. But I just want you to know, I can’t speak your language as well as I can help you up.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, that is one of my questions. I, well, first give you a story, and then I’ll tell you the question. I’ll give you the question. So my second grade kindergarten teacher loved to, speak Geechee. She would read all of our stories. And so the more that you hear it, the more you can understand it. But when you haven’t heard it in a long time.”

Angela Barrett – “And I remember trying to write, she would read Bir rabbit Berber. Okay. And that and I loved it. Absolutely loved it. But so now my question is, how do you learn to understand? Read it. Is there an organization, a place you can go to do that?”

Queen Quet – “Well, first of all, let’s let’s cover this far, okay? Gullah is the language itself, which is what you heard me speaking. Geechee is essentially a pigeon or a dialect of the Gullah language. So that’s why people who speak English and American English in particular, because that’s different all over the world to Englishes. Sure. You may start to feel like you understand it if people speak around, but more often not know if they are fluent in Gullah, that’s not going to just happen.”

Queen Quet – “And so whether it’s Gullah or Geechee, it’s largely oral. So therefore you don’t find a lot of it in writing unless there’s some academic or usually some non-cognitive person. There’s the they had a hold on it that tried to describe it in a negative way. So speakers could try to access it. But what I found over the years is a lot of that stuff is wrong.”

Queen Quet – “It’s written incorrectly because that’s not how we would say. And we can immediately figure out that, oh, we know whoever wrote this was in Gullah, right? And so so we say, yeah, yeah, because we would have said this or this with this word here doesn’t even exist. Just because they exist in English. So that’s been a thing. But now a lot of what we see, because I know we’re practicing now.”

Queen Quet – “Right. I’m posting on social media the way to try to connect to a lot of native Gullah Geechee, to a lot of them. The younger generations speak Geechee. They don’t speak Gullah because that’s the word they’ve grown up to in. It’s really integrated, and they are more exposed to English most of the time. So it may make more sense if we just put things out there.”

Queen Quet – “So there’s no school. There’s no one organization doing that. There’s no quote unquote standardized way for anybody. Right? There is still an oral language. And so definitely it’s something we take pride in have, and it’s always fun to hear people say to us, they relate to us. Like you mentioned that story and whistling and going, what?”

Angela Barrett – Yeah.

Queen Quet – “So let’s have that. Let me see what you looking at that. Well, read it in the whole intonations and inflections. Everything changes energy.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, yeah. And I don’t know, the book certainly wasn’t written that way. It was just the way she was.”

Queen Quet – Read it.

Angela Barrett – “To us. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. So tell us first. The Gullah Geechee Nation. Tell us about that, because that’s different than the the Gullah. UGC Island coalition, which.”

Queen Quet – “Absolutely. So, yeah, let me tell you. So the delegate to the Island coalition is older than the Gullah Geechee Nation. The Gullah Geechee Coalition actually will be 30 years old next year. They go to see how people listen. I found and it was the first organization, world history to have the word go out and get together in anything.”

Queen Quet – So you went to do any research you would have never found Gullah or something to put a dash. It was never meant to be a dash. Yeah. So this minute I don’t have anything I that barbecue sign to some degree. So I was using the internet before everybody one myself. Next to the government as the government at first.

Queen Quet – “And so they started releasing it so that the general public could use it. I was an early user. So one of the things I wanted to do was to find out what was on this thing. What is this thing? You know, castanets. That my thing, right? I’m Gullah Geechee. So what’s the internet? What are we going to disconnect from?”

Queen Quet – “I wondered, had they caught any ghost stuff? Had they caught any geeky stuff and I had to put those words in separately, like we would say, into the search engine? You’d have if you put those nothing you put, but you’ve got maybe one page you put in gets you, you, you got two case and that was it versus now you could be there for more fun if you put those words separately.”

Queen Quet – “And so the galaxy Owl mission was a vision that because there was so much this place of native languages have happened from the CIA between Jacksonville, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida. So so I said, well, I got to do something about this. So I talked to elders that brought together the conference on my home island and Saint Helena Island, two stories.”

Queen Quet – “And they it was amazing because they got people from Florida and North Carolina and South Carolina and then working in zoom. And I’m thinking, I need to introduce these elders. And they’re working and going, They’re doing what I wanted to do. And I’m like, wait a minute, they know each other. And they looked and they largely had known each other from the civil rights movement and, yeah.”

Queen Quet – “And hadn’t seen each other since that time frame. And now we’re into the early 90s. So now I’m saying, well, wait a minute, we need to teach everybody that because now there’s that much more pressure to hold onto our culture, hold on to our land. They were like, oh my God, do that. And you go for the organization and we’ll just support what you’re doing.”

Queen Quet – “And I’m looking like, well, I wanted you all to be part of. Me y’all my elders, right? So I went on and established a delegate to Sea Island Coalition. And interestingly enough, Angela, I got more people across the United States and the world that got so excited about this organization and something that was going to help them learn about what that is.”

Queen Quet – “One of them had heard about we had a language and they didn’t really understand it. Like you mentioned, or someone read them something, they were like, where’d you get it from? And they’re like, I gotta be somewhere in South Carolina. They were like, where does this come from? So now every day of my life since I founded the organization, I get online and I post things to educate people about our culture.”

Queen Quet – “So one of the things they continued was the land displacement. So educating people that we don’t have the land, we won’t have the culture as our stuff for the land. And we and we did land and family and what were the big bloodline and things like that. And so with the waters being our bloodline and this land being our family, we have to say you don’t want it destroyed.”

Queen Quet – “And so that led to me being invited to the United Nations and that connection going to the United Nations is where I started being taught by the International Human Rights Association for American Minorities about human rights law. I didn’t know also, there were all these elders that now we’re trying to figure out a way to bring all these Gullah Geechee people together to hold on to their land and to continue to teach their cultural heritage to the children.”

Queen Quet – “And here, I mean, who is that? The College of Charleston, she contacted me and me, Doctor Yusef and God bless dad, who is a law professor but a native of South Carolina. All right. Right now there’s Canada. And they’re saying with what you’re doing with the U.N., you do realize you all have your human right to self-determination. You can stand on that.”

Queen Quet – “So the Cali Town Gullah Geechee People Foundation led a petition and a follow up that took place for one whole year from 1999, the first time I went to the United Nations and made world history again as the first delegates to ever speak before the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. They were quoting as I was heading over there, and they had this will go on all the way until July 2nd, 2000, when I was still then elected as a head for body delegate nation.”

Queen Quet – “So I’m the official head of state for the delegates, making the first person to do that. So the nation is our own nation, like the United States is a nation, but in the nation we have numerous organizations. So going to Seattle and Coalition now, be it that it’s older than the nation, it actually is an organization in the nation, just like the Golgotha Angel necklace, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Community Trust that’s down in Florida.”

Queen Quet – “There are plethora of them. And so even pensando that happened is a nonprofit. It’s an organization, although it’s a historic site. So there are a lot of organizations in the nation. But the Gulf nation is amazing. And I’m the head of state. We have a Wisdom Circle Council of Elders, which is kind of my cabinet, and I call it my right hand.”

Queen Quet – “And they have an Assembly of Representatives. That’s why I left that. And I always say this, they can you if you want to try to think of it in the US, you might say, oh, they’re like the Congress. But I always say, but they behave better.”

Angela Barrett – “I love it. Absolutely. Let’s back this up for one second. Less what? I’m gonna let you explain the difference. And and where Gullah came from and where Geechee, I mean, because they are two different things, as you said. Tell everybody what it is. I know, other than a language who speaks it where it’s from and and from both of those.”

Queen Quet – “Yes. So a lot of times when people are coming down here and saying, like I did, it sounds like it now and again, if people like this show that a first time, they say, what a right, and we say it’s Gullah and they’re like, then what is that? Well, Gullah, like you said, is not only a language, it’s the people and the people who speak that language.”

Queen Quet – “And that language came into existence because of the enslavement of numerous African ethnic groups during chattel enslavement. So, yeah, yeah, it can come a link it usually by go like guys maybe, maybe numerous others who they brought together. They amalgamated their languages into what is now known as the Gullah language. And you got the word Gullah because at first, the Africans that were being kidnaped and brought to the region that we call the Lowcountry and the delegation nation were from Angola.”

Queen Quet – “So when they were sold at auctions, their name got bastardized into Gullah. It just got cut off. You know, our Southerners will cut it off and give you a nickname and all that. So they cut off Angola and would say, we have a cargo Gullah for sale. That word started being used over here because of that. And then when they started realizing that those folks were always in the uprisings, somehow they were always engaged.”

Queen Quet – “They said, oh, now we’re going to ban the importation of those, and they start shipping in another group whose name was Gullah Golla from the Windward Coast Rice coastal region, which is why in this area we are so connected and Gullah is so connected to rice, because that was the rice growing region. So in that region where the kids, the people or the GZ people, which is where the G.G. comes from.”

Queen Quet – “So when I heard those uprisings, when you think about 1739 and the Stonewall rebellion happened just down here on the coast between John’s Island and then going over to what’s now Hollywood Ravenel, where there was a store called the Hutchison Store right there. And there’s a marker a South Carolina state marker exists right now, hopefully now about this rebellion, this uprising.”

Queen Quet – “Right. And people call it Cato’s rebellion. Cato’s uprising. Those were Angolan leaders. A man at that, renamed Jimmy was Cato. And when he laid these men to leave John’s Island with our motto votes and roll across the highway 17, which was called the King’s Highway there. And they broke in that store. They got guns and armaments, and they’ve already made swords and things, and they were blacksmiths and they were blown up.”

Queen Quet – “Some of them ended up down a grassy yard. There’s Santa Teresa de Marseilles or Fort Mill, say, all the way in Florida. So got killed along the way. Some didn’t make it, but the result of the action became the slave roads that got that said, no black people were to read or write, no black people to own land, no black people were to play the drums or any of that.”

Queen Quet – “The Africans. Right. And no three or more Africans were to gather together without an overseer present. An overseer had to be a Anglo person, a white person. So if we’re not writing legally from 1740 until the end of the Civil War, it’s not legal for black people to read and write. Then when you start to write something like gold, it changes from gold la to g u la h over here.”

Queen Quet – “If you were to write guides, you don’t write g dci, you don’t write x e, you write g, g, g, e, c, h, e, and look, you’re on until the end. And no, I get for the week. Okay, that’s oh right. With the I know as a person there are no I’s in the spelling of G2 either. So you end up with people who are gullible or geeky people, or gullible people.”

Queen Quet – “And the reason that God showed me that when I founded the Golden Coalition and I wrote anything, promoted anything, put the words together, is because social anthropologist had divided it. So we needed to show our unity. So as computer scientists, that this land is something we work with as a mathematician, that that looks like a minus sign. Too much have been taken away from us already.”

Queen Quet – “So I knew don’t use a dead that use the slash because of the unified delegates. But now that handles the social media, I just I don’t need to slash it anyway. Right? So that’s how the origin of those came to be. But it goes fast and geeky. All the people. And then Gullah by self is a language, and kitchen by itself is a dialect of pidgin of the Gullah language.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, thank you for that because, it is and it can be, I tried reading as much as I could, but it you can get very bogged down in it because it goes back so far. Yeah. The history is like us. I’m confused now. I have to do this again another day and read it again, because it goes back a long way, a.”

Queen Quet – “Long way, and on a long distance in terms of miles. Because when we talk about between Jacksonville, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Florida, and then all the city and in 30, 35 miles in to the mainland to the Saint Johns River, you have a massive barrier that things have been written out yourself from the 15, 16, 17, 1800 up to today.”

Queen Quet – “So like you said, yeah, you can be there all day and it doesn’t and for a lifetime and still learn more. And then it doesn’t help that these guys many times teach creative writing things where we have like Port Royal as a town and it sits on Fort Royal and we have Beaufort, South Carolina, and we got Beaufort, North Carolina.”

Queen Quet – That smell smells just right.

Angela Barrett – That’s absolutely.

Queen Quet – So that kind of doesn’t help sometimes when you’re trying to read the historical documents.

Angela Barrett – “That’s right, that’s right. So now, the you have a 25th anniversary coming up, some of the Gullah nation, right?”

Queen Quet – Yes. That’s correct.

Angela Barrett – Yes. So there are going to be y’all are going to have some big events. Tell us about that and what’s coming up.

Queen Quet – “Well, actually we already kicked it off.”

Angela Barrett – Oh did you. Good.

Queen Quet – “The open Black History Month on February 1st. We got everybody to come on down to Saint Helena Island to our reconstruction area, National Historical Park. So we will in the building, which is part of the historic and National Landmark story district. And we had people come from all over the place. We had people from all 40 states we’ve been talking about, and a lot of people, of course, in South Carolina.”

Queen Quet – “So we had a number of counties represented, and we had had a create art showcase. And so people had African American calligraphy artists like Marine Debris and turned into artwork. And so that’s the first case of where I have no, no one is going to be in Conway. 1st February 22nd March 2019. We’ll be in North Charleston, will actually be at the North Charleston Library.”

Queen Quet – “And so so I’m looking forward to seeing what the audience is. A lot like that because so many, many people loved art. All right. And so that’s up on in and of itself. So but yeah, we have a number of other fun things to do. So I’m a self-taught I love maybe you know I sing and so we could not do this without a celebration of Gullah Geechee art and artistry.”

Queen Quet – “Absolutely. Yeah. So for the first time, we’re going to go to Myrtle Beach to a black owned theater called Astor Theater, and we’ll be there the first weekend of April with a Gullah Geechee growing folk getaway, we call it, for the whole weekend. And that.”

Angela Barrett – That that sounds like fun.

Queen Quet – “It’s going to be fun. And that Saturday, from 11 to 2, we’re going to be at the Ashley Theater with Celebration Party for Sweetgrass Quilting. My mom and I so, so close to my hand, and there’s going to be a lot of music, so you got to have some soul. You’re going to have to have the Palm Beach thing on some of the markers, and you’re going to have some on and the for the fun of it band.”

Queen Quet – “And so fun you can Gullah. We have, Brittany Frazier out of Bluffton. She’s going to be there with Gullah Geechee food. We have Fried Daddy out of Charleston. He’s going to Elijah food. So all that’s going to go on so you can look at like a brunch, lunch, celebration. And then that’s going to be a big kind of keystone go, vine version.”

Queen Quet – “And then that evening at seven will be the Motown show. So people will have time between the two shows to kind of go outdoors. A lot of things go refresh themselves, relax at the hotel, and then come on back. And then the other big thing we do every year is going to Nation Appreciation Week. So we will launch it the last Saturday, July at Historic Center at noon.”

Queen Quet – “And then we usually say advertise noon to three. We have been able to get them people out of there at 3:00, okay. Because everybody’s they’re having so much fun. It it’s Gullah Geechee family the weekend that happens every week and it launches go to Nation Appreciation Week, which goes through to the last Sunday. And we have had on down the coast that that week, every, every I mean it’s just in person.”

Queen Quet – “So so we have have people events folks who want to keep up. They can get nation.com. There’s going to be email down there and then it always get up. And then if there’s social media people like I said on Instagram and contact still for a minute, as have I think that we’re going each nation on TikTok and we’re going each nation on Facebook.”

Queen Quet – And so they follow the with all the other events that happen at all in between. So we can all have a good time.

Angela Barrett – “Oh yeah. That does sound like a lot of fun. Absolutely. Now, if people would be more involved and, or get involved, how do they do that?”

Queen Quet – “I would love for them to become members of the election coalition. And like I said in the beginning, you do not have to be a native Gullah Geechee. You can just be someone who loves this culture, wants to see it thrive, who wants to see the cultural heritage continue if they go to yeah, they you’re on there and then become a member of that way you are involved with all kinds of activities when we’re doing these marine debris cleanups, we’re having just fun, and then we’re having a lot of educational sessions as well.”

Queen Quet – “You get that information before other people even do, and we’re always posting to you to get engaged and really be a part of all the civic work that we do as well. There’s a lot of environmental meetings we hold every year. We have our coastal cultural conference every year, he on Saint Helena, and this year we’re even going over to.”

Queen Quet – And so I live in LA. So there’s a lot of things that the members participating and they’re all over the world. We have members throughout the nation and supporters that all over the world. And that’s been the case for 29 years that we’re coming up on now.

Angela Barrett – “You’ve written several books. Let’s talk about those. You’ve got the, African seeds in In Winds in the wind. Tell me about that.”

Queen Quet – “So it was interesting. The first book that I ever published was a book, but it came about because first of all, I did plays and I did a play called a Get to Your Desk, and it was about the Underground Railroad, but how it all started in South and then people. Right. And it never just started in Canada or in the north.”

Queen Quet – “It started here. So we would educate people about the culture, and part of it was drama, and the other part was a lecture. So people would come to this and I brought it to pence. And this Heritage Day one time sold out the show, full House, Cedric Baptist Church. And so love them for like they love this video.”

Queen Quet – “But people asked why do you a history book from you and I was so other people’s history books, but they were like, this is not your book, I need a book from you. Right? So I was like, okay, but I’m also a poet. So my brother and I put together a book called Brother and Sister Heart to Heart.”

Queen Quet – “So the first year that I did this play at Penn Center, I had a line of people that wanted to leave the church for all my power because order was book. But this is a book, and I would write a poem based on their name right there, and then sign in my brother’s sign and take them so people on the line would see them say, oh, let me show you me.”

Queen Quet – “Hey, they I love this book. Book. I was like, all right, so you don’t want to buy this book now, but that book. But what a hits looking book, right? Okay. That’ll take a little longer. Right.”

Angela Barrett – Write.

Queen Quet – “So so I was like, okay, God is really pushing me. Go ahead and write my story books. I said, that’s history because I published writing articles. So it was like, okay, great, let’s do the book. So of course, my mother said, Charity begins at home and then goes abroad. So the first in this series, Africa is in winter.”

Queen Quet – “The diaspora is asking us so, so each year it’s about history. So one tells you about Saint Helena Island to God, that’s Baba and we. It’s about you for county. And so then we go into cotton rice indigo from we sold to the soil. And then I did a compilation of things called three 6566. So you could learn a little bit of history every day of the year.”

Queen Quet – “And I have Charleston, and Alex tells you about Boston County, and then also have, for place, which is telling me about the four operated areas throughout the nation. And then I thought we be Gullah Geechee, the legacy of people, land, and so forth. But that series of books tells you the perspective on the history here in the nation.”

Queen Quet – “So I have another blog of that series coming out this year, and then I have three children’s books that are already out as well. Oh, neat. Oh well, yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Well, that’s a good place to start. I mean, kind of like my question, how do you learn? Not necessarily the language, but I mean the whole history because you sort of gotten it broken down where you don’t go online and go, holy moly. That’s okay. It can be overwhelming.”

Queen Quet – Yes.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So that’s a good place to start. Or you’re the African seeds in the winds, series. That’s a great place to start.”

Queen Quet – “And most people do start there or with the legacy of evil Land. So people are really, really intrigued by the linguistics. Then they’ll get like, see, we volunteer because we do have a section. Well, we have Gullah in the pages. But then in the little margin area on the side, we have facades up and so people love us.”

Queen Quet – “But then my latest book, which is Daily Blessing Fun to See, the children’s book that I thought was for children, for more fun for themselves and for the kids. They love it because I wrote the whole thing and Gullah Geechee the whole thing. And so just like, like, novels that I came up with in 2020, I wrote and and so people love getting it.”

Queen Quet – “And I’ve learned that a lot on the new generation. A younger generation is it’s more accessible for them, because maybe the elders who spoke the language fluently have passed on a worthy to tell them and to teach them, you know, so they didn’t learn it at home the way I did. Like it is something you have to learn to live.”

Queen Quet – “Maybe you have to be there, speaking it, learning it, being a part of it. Similar to how when you were in school and you had those stories read to you, it made you remember that.”

Angela Barrett – Oh yes. Absolutely.

Queen Quet – “Like, yeah. And treasure it and sweat. If nobody does it, then you lose.”

Angela Barrett – “It. That’s right, that’s right. Well, that is fascinating. I think I could probably talk about this all day. Again, it brings just back what you said. Those childhood memories. Second grade. So much. And so when I found out that you had agreed to come on, I was like, yay.”

Queen Quet – “Yay! I said yay! That’s like a line out, like, oh, I want to talk about South Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being with me today. And, I look forward to, keeping up with all the social media platforms that you guys have and, and your website, which is what I’m looking at now, which is where I found all the books and the very lengthy, awards and acclamations and everything that you have.”

Angela Barrett – “Y’all just have to go on yourself and see. It’s it’s a lot. She’s done a lot. And, I am honored that you’re here today.”

Queen Quet – “I’m honored to be here, especially during Black History Month. This is really a treasured time for me, and I appreciate being able to make history by talking, yes, black in the day.”

Angela Barrett – “And so go tell them. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you so much.”

Queen Quet – Thank you.

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Contact Info:

• Tel: (843) 720-8687
• Email: Ghostwalk Trish
• Website: Ghostwalk.net
• Social Tag: @Ghostwalk Charleston

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Hey guys. Thanks for joining me today on top in South Carolina, I have Miss Patricia Goron. She is the owner and operator of Ghost Woke Charleston. Hi, Patricia, thanks for being here.”

Patricia Goron How are you doing? Thank you for having me.

Angela Barrett Absolutely. You’re from South Carolina area?

Patricia Goron “Oh, I’m from Charleston, South Carolina. Born and raised.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Same here. So, I recognized the, the dialect there. So tell me, ghost walk. Charleston. Tell me one what it is.”

Patricia Goron “Well, the official name is the original go to walk of Charleston. And we know that the 1979 and I believe we were the very first ghost tour company, maybe in the United States. And we did ghost tours in the evening. And we also do history tours during the day, but mostly ghost tours at night. And we’re all about all things spiritual.”

Patricia Goron “Paranormal activity, because Charleston is a very haunted city and we delve into that.”

Angela Barrett Right. So have you actually seen Ghost?

Patricia Goron “Well, not on who or I haven’t. People say they’ve seen time, but we definitely do have many unexplainable things happen.”

Angela Barrett Sure. So tell me where these tours take place. Like where in Charleston do you go to?

Patricia Goron “We mainly stay inside of the French Quarter area with. With the. Oh, that should look Charleston. You can walk into. We were at Wild City at one time. That we stay in that area. And it’s about three blocks from the city market where everybody that comes to Charleston, they have to see the city market. That’s a really fun place to go to.”

Patricia Goron Right now we’re only three blocks from there and we venture out in that area.

Angela Barrett “So, so give me some. Just give me some I guess you need events I guess that have taken place on some of your tours where people have had encounters of some sort. On these tours.”

Patricia Goron “Well, how can one me think there are so many. Well, recently, there is the parking garage where a fella, he lived and fell off at the top of the garage. And it’s a recent thing, you know, in the last 20 years. And he Ed King called the garage and he messes with the lights and he only messes with the area in the area that he passed away.”

Patricia Goron “It’s just an order of the garage. Well we’re standing there at the end of the tour and the people on my tour, they go, let’s see if you’ll do something again. Some of them, I said, okay, now. I said, okay, parking garage. Go give it to thorn. You’re here. Well, I started hear a noise and I’m like, y’all hear that?”

Patricia Goron “And they’re like, no. I’m like, what then? And then I had a bulging feeling on my backside and it was my own. My own stage of the whole tour. It’s not on. I turn it off. Not the power, but it’s off. You know, I tell them, well, you have to have faith that day, right? The doorbell, was on YouTube playing a song.”

Patricia Goron “I’m like, that’s gotta be a sign. It’s like the song put in and it’s called Hello by Tune, and I’d never heard of that band. And it’s a really good song. And I’m right here saying hello.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, my God.”

Patricia Goron “We couldn’t believe that. And I said, well, hello to you and the out side light on the garage.”

Angela Barrett “You, you bright.”

Patricia Goron “And the little bow fell out. And I’m like, that had never been very active that we end up going up on top of the garage after all of this and and we were on the garage. The picture that I have of them, they were taking pictures by word started flying all around and, they caught it, but they haven’t given me the picture yet.”

Patricia Goron What I wish they would.

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Patricia Goron So we do have quite unique thing that can happen. And I just can’t explain that.

Angela Barrett “Right? Right, right. You, have to get with the, the South Carolina paranormal investigators and have them come join y’all one time on one of your tours.”

Patricia Goron Apathy. I would I would enjoy them that they would do that.

Angela Barrett Yeah. So as a tour you’ve been a tour guide now for how long?

Patricia Goron Legally for 34 years.

Angela Barrett “Right. And when you say legally, there is a licensing for tour guides, although I don’t think the, the laws now require you to, but probably better to go with a license tour guide, right? Yes.”

Patricia Goron “Okay. Yes, ma’am. You always had to have a license, though. When people come to the city and they take a tour, they know that the person, given their tour has credentials and it’s been licensed and studied real hard and taken the test of the hit free at Charleston. However, not long ago, just a few years ago, there was a person that could not pass the test and they said, this is the freedom of speech.”

Patricia Goron “And it ended up going to the Supreme Court. And now you do not have to have a license, meaning anybody coming into the city can give a tour. They can stand on the corner and start a tour from a corner or from anyplace that is in, you know, brick and mortar and come on a tour with me. And they do not have a license.”

Patricia Goron And they the etiquette is not a thing anymore with tours because it’s just something else. I don’t I’m can’t get any more into it all right.

Angela Barrett “Sure you don’t want to get in trouble? That’s for sure. And not only that. Thank you. Yeah. That’s, But now, before you, I guess, open this business. I mean, you are working already downtown, in Charleston light with that, the Old Town Carriage Company, right?”

Patricia Goron “Yeah. Actually, I didn’t open the business route. Miller. He opened the business.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, okay.”

Patricia Goron “And they. I wasn’t old enough to you. I was on my bicycle downtown playing, and they opened the go to. Wow. Well, yeah. When I got old, I did the. So I was the first girl. Rachel, driver and Charles. Then I went, oh, we hung out with.”

Angela Barrett “Tell everybody what a rickshaw is, because unless you’re from the Irish. Yeah.”

Patricia Goron “Yeah, a rickshaw is a bicycle taxi. And it’s a three will bike with a carriage in the back and, you tote people around and I’ll hung out with the carriages to get rides. And I enjoyed so much talking with the tour guides because I learned so much. Right. And Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, and it stopped everything.”

Patricia Goron “Well, when everything started reopening the carriage company, they said, you have to come and draw the carriages for us. And I did, and I studied real hard and I passed the test. Then it was the most. And that carriage that is so much fun. And the horses are very well taken care of. And then I got older and realized I think I better, you know, walk.”

Patricia Goron “So, I was it I inherited ghost walk.”

Angela Barrett Oh. Nice.

Patricia Goron “Because. Yeah. Because the lady that owned it bought it with Anna Bligh, and she bought it from anyway, and black owned it at that point. And she said, you are the very best tour that Charleston has ever had. You have got to do the ghost tour. You’re the best at it. I can’t continue this. I’m getting older and I’m giving this to you.”

Patricia Goron And it was a big black tree.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, well, well, there is a lot of interesting, history down in Charleston. And there is, from what I’m told, a lot of, paranormal activity in Charleston. So, that has to be when you can combine the two. That has to be, a great, I would say, job, career, great business. Because it is it’s it’s one of those fun things if you’re from South Carolina, if you’re from Charleston, you got to at least do that.”

Angela Barrett “The ghost, and the carriage ride, the ghost walks and. Right, right. Absolutely. So tell me.”

Patricia Goron It is a lot of fun.

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Patricia Goron So tell me the ones that don’t work.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, absolutely. And Gilda tours seven days a week.”

Patricia Goron “You know, we were at their fun day for the Holy Ghost.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, that’s for that ghost. That’s right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.”

Patricia Goron Fred.

Angela Barrett “So you, six days a week, you do ghost tours, you can go on your website. I think it’s ghost walk now, that is.”

Patricia Goron Do you know.

Angela Barrett “And sign up for tours now? These tours, how many do you take at one time?”

Patricia Goron “Well, we can legally you you can only take 20 people per tour. And usually we have anywhere from 12 and under that want to go and on the weekends and you know tourist season like June, July and August when it is busy. Everyone has 20 people on the tour but we do offer private tours. If you wanted to take a smaller group out, you can do that and not go with the public, right?”

Angela Barrett “So,”

Angela Barrett The history tours during the day. Tell me a little bit about that. And where are you going?

Patricia Goron “Well, we do two of them a day in the morning, like 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and I take you wherever you want to go on the tour. And I’ve been I grew up here and I don’t really know the history and what I think is very interesting is what I tell the people, and they really have a good time.”

Patricia Goron “Usually they’re quite a few people that I know that still live in the area, and they’ll see me come in. And my friend that feature, they trust that you want to come out. Y’all come on in and have some, wine and cheese and I’ll like. Well, sure. And we’ll go and visit somebody and then we’ll continue the tour.”

Patricia Goron “But we take you, we start at Tommy Condon’s where the. That’s where the tour begins. And it’s one block from the city market. And it’s about a mile and a half to two miles just to put it in. And it takes a good two hours. And we end up going to the battery where everybody, White Point Gardens, it’s a beautiful place and we weave in and out of the street going south to get to the battery.”

Patricia Goron “And when we get to the battery, when we come back, we weave in and out. So we go down multiple three and it’s just a fun time. And I try to keep within the shade and away from noise in the big street. And we did go through, one secret passageway that no one knows about except for me.”

Patricia Goron It’s really a cool little thing. People don’t want to leave that section.

Angela Barrett “And so you see the tours during the day there, about two hours long. What about the ghost tours? How long were those? I’ve got this.”

Patricia Goron “Well, it is designed to last to one hour and you get about 6 to 8 stories. However, 99% of the time everybody wants it to go a little bit longer because strange things happen. Sure, they know it. Usually I’ll go over anywhere from ten minutes, sometimes 30, but that, you know, that we went up on the parking garage on that one.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. So it.

Patricia Goron Made it prominent.

Angela Barrett Right. So would you say that was probably the strangest thing that you’ve ever had happen on one of these tours? Or can you think of the owner owner? Give me some examples. Yeah.

Patricia Goron “Well, I’ve given many tours and, Demi Lovato, she think heart attack. They were here with Sam and Cal and Randy, and then what’s the name of the house? God. America’s got talent. It they were here. And, farming. Cal called in a private tour beforehand. It ended up being me, Demi Lovato, her bodyguard, her hairdresser, and her best friend.”

Patricia Goron “And when they would go private, you know, and we had the same birthday. I don’t know why kind of the weather wasn’t that great, right? Either way. And it was a totally different tour than the public because we went inside of homes. But we did go to where everyone goes. What is the circular Congregational Church? Yeah. And we get there and I’m telling them everything about, you know, the goal, then everything.”

Patricia Goron “And she just up and said, if anyone is here, give us a sign. Everywhere. The light went out over the whole entire graveyard.”

Angela Barrett Are you kidding?

Patricia Goron “No. And within 30s this huge black SUV, we could hear it coming. And it did a 360 in the parking lot. They threw us in this big SUV, and we took off.”

Angela Barrett

Patricia Goron “And her bodyguard, he said I did not see anyone. How anyone could have done that. I mean, they had people in the parking garage watching us. Sure. He had bodyguards and it was quiet. I was like, that has never happened. So.”

Angela Barrett “Well, that pretty cool. You had the whole experience. I mean.”

Patricia Goron “Yeah, and yeah, I had Andy Warhol, great nephew on the tour. And two years ago and I showed a picture and I said it was taken right here in the white where it was taken, started blinking on and off. And I started talking to it, asking it yes, no question, saying blink once or twice or no. And it did.”

Patricia Goron “And I’m just I don’t understand that. I don’t think it’s an electrical issue. Right. Glass not mature. I had the people at the same spot and I said whenever I blew that picture up, the lights started blinking on that particular tour. And when I blew the picture up and said that the light was off and it turned on.”

Patricia Goron And yeah.

Angela Barrett It’s a pretty.

Patricia Goron Picture.

Angela Barrett “So how did that I mean, other than getting, just kind of growing up working, you know, down there near the tour guides and things. How did you get interested in the ghost part?”

Patricia Goron “I was forced to do it. I never wanted to do it. And I’d say, you’re the best tour guide. I know they would love your ghost tour. I’m like, I don’t want to tell, but don’t worry, that’s too hard. And I started telling them and it was. It’s the getting a ghost tour. Telling the story is extremely hard.”

Patricia Goron “You have to keep people’s attention span, you know, and you’re you’re it’s very hard. Right. And I did a great job at it. And after doing it, but so many years at people were saying, you’ve been out here your whole life. I think they go kind of like you and they want to perform for you. Maybe that. Yeah, I don’t know.”

Patricia Goron “But many things that happen that I don’t have to tell book stories anymore. And I’m very happy because people can go get a book and read them tours or. Yeah, people offer tours, book tours, you know, and you can read the book.”

Angela Barrett That’s right.

Patricia Goron Something different and new. Now that’s what I did.

Angela Barrett “So tell me and I’m going to mutilate this name. Miss Virginia, is it Garrity? Garrity? Okay. Yeah, I would have me like that. And she wrote a book. And tell me about that book.”

Patricia Goron “Well, he’s written. Well, I know he he wrote gala for unknown.”

Angela Barrett Right.

Patricia Goron “And he has a go at dictionary, and he was my librarian and school. I would study hall. I’d stay with Miss Garrity the whole time. Everybody loved their seats from, Well, Manuel, young and well, while she lived here, and she spoke the Gallo language.”

Angela Barrett That is very hard.

Patricia Goron “If you grow up here, it’s not a problem. But. Yeah, well, I don’t know that I’m fluent in Goa, and, Yeah. So there you go with that.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. So a lot of people don’t know what Gullah is. So tell I got that.

Patricia Goron “Well, it’s a it’s a actually an accent. It’s a language. Right. African Americans, when they came here, it’s it’s like it’s just an accent. It is English. Yes, but, oh. Ma in means woman or man and it phrases like up the. When the means open the window. Great. Good means. Oh, Lord. Right there. Did. Yeah.”

Patricia Goron “It’s it’s it’s an accent, really. And there’s pizza as well. And it’s pretty much the same thing. Right. Guy was just flying. More flying, I would say.”

Angela Barrett “So if anybody has ever had anyone read Baraka that Berber in the way it was originally written, which would be get Gullah down, right. Yeah. And if you it it’s very and it’s a it’s but it’s fast talking. So like you and I are very southern so we’re slow talkers, but when I have heard people who still speak, Gullah or Geechee, it’s it’s a fast, very fast form and you have to listen really hard.”

Angela Barrett Or at least I did.

Patricia Goron “Yeah. It is a. Well, I want to say it. You too fast so that you can be better.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Right. Right, right.”

Patricia Goron “If you don’t understand it, you’ll think it’s there.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, maybe. Maybe that’s it. I just wasn’t understanding. But I had a teacher once who, could speak it as well, and she was fluent, and she would always read us, you know, the stories, in that language. And you. I mean, you couldn’t help. Oh, yes. Be enthralled in it, but. Yes. Yeah. All right, so tell me, buddy, how to get in touch with you.”

Angela Barrett “And, Oh. And you need to sign up for tour.”

Patricia Goron “Okay, you can go on the internet and type in, go to Dot net or Ghost Walk. Dot a I we are, in that mode, too. Okay. And you can click to call or you can call us directly at eight, four, three, 7208687. And that spells tour. Yeah. And there are a lot of the older tour companies.”

Patricia Goron “Bob. He oh you are or they’re on last four digits okay. And. Yeah. And the area code for Charleston is 843. So make sure you know that when you’re book and tour you don’t want to book a tour that’s from some other state. You make sure you get it up, get a local when you do your tour in Charleston.”

Patricia Goron Right. You he lived here.

Angela Barrett And you got a Facebook page.

Patricia Goron Right? Yeah.

Angela Barrett “And people can go online and kind of get an idea is, guy smoke Charleston is the Facebook page. Yeah. And again, like you said, people should probably pay attention to their getting for their tours, make sure they’re licensed and, at least, you know, like yourself grew up there, and you’re gonna know a lot more than anybody else.”

Angela Barrett So.

Patricia Goron “Yeah, they should avoid what you need to avoid and, give me a when you do Google anything, the first thing is it pop up are sponsored ads, and those are the people who are trying to get ahead of the good guys.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. And the one I’ve been doing a.

Patricia Goron Little good garage. Right. So cause we don’t I don’t partake in Google AdWords because it is a lot of money and I don’t want to up my price to compensate for that. And that’s exactly what’s going on.

Angela Barrett “Sure, sure.”

Patricia Goron “And also, you see like TripAdvisor, if you did TripAdvisor, just go to the company itself and directly book from the company and not TripAdvisor.”

Angela Barrett “So yes, I gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Well, thanks for all that advice and thanks for the stories. I’m going to have to come up there and, take one of your tours and see if I take tops.”

Patricia Goron “Guys, we got one that night at 830. If you want to go that well.”

Angela Barrett “It’s a little far drive for me right now, but I’ll call you when, I’m. I am that way. It won’t be long, I’m sure.”

Patricia Goron “Yeah, definitely. Do you have a good time? I promise you that. Absolutely something. Great.”

Angela Barrett “That’s right. Well, thank you so much. And I appreciate you being with us today.”

Patricia Goron All right. Thank you.

Angela Barrett All right.