Accents
Bluffton: a historic riverfront community
How does it feel to be transported to a town with all the accouterments of a century ago? You soak up to the simplicity of the leisurely past, and get so refreshed you didn’t want to go back to the hustle-bustle of the present. May 8, a Saturday, we had a relaxing promenade despite the noonday heat of the approaching summer. We visited Old Town Bluffton to “experience a historic riverfront community offering an eclectic blend of arts, culture and natural beauty,” and found it exactly as the tour brochure would like us to believe.
Baynard Park, where my daughter’s family resides, is part of the municipality of Bluffton, some seven miles away from Old Town Bluffton, but it is so far removed from the ambience of the old section we’ve just visited. Their chosen abode here in Bluffton, South Carolina in the East Coast of continental America, is what our grandkid Danika calls “Lolo and Lola’s home away from home.” It has all the appurtenances of a gated community—guard house, swimming pool, tennis court, a fitness complex, a picnic house with a children’s play yard, and a couple of manmade fountains to boot. From this modern setting of Baynard Park, the trip to Old Town Bluffton was a travel back in time.
In 2005, Bluffton was established as a “Preserve America Community.” The original town boundary was but 1 square mile. It was granted National Historic District Designation in 1996 owing to its many historic structures under the care of the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, a society of home-loving volunteers any town would wish for itself. Foremost of these is the Heyward House, built circa 1840 for a local plantation owner, with its original slave cabin—a remnant of the hurtful slavery era—and summer kitchen. Therein once lived the grandson of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Heyward, Jr. “The house demonstrates a home that has been virtually untouched by time as not much has changed, materially speaking, over the past 120 years.” It is now the official Welcome Center of Bluffton.
One of the town’s historic structures is Pepper’s Porch. Once a “109-year old deer-tongue drying barn,” it stands among the restaurants that enhance South Carolina’s southern living. We got the old-world feel dining there to celebrate the wedding anniversary of my daughter Randy’s parents-in-law. We’ve gone to the town’s Bluffton Oyster Company that sits beside the May River which is 1.5 square miles in length. Other than oysters, “seafood harvested from the pristine waters of the May River” are shrimps, crabs, clams, and fish. We tasted the company’s freshly harvested oysters and bought some.
May 8 was billed as Bluffton Village Festival. I asked as to the village’s patron saint that was to be honored for the day. Well, there was nothing religious, no patron saint, no procession of devotees unlike what we are used to in our barangay fiesta. The only significance was that it was an advance celebration of Mother’s Day, the second Sunday of May designated as such. Just as David, Randy’s husband, has said, “It’s all for trade.” Indeed, to promote one’s products and make a big sale for the day. All the enticements to abet Americans’ consummate consumerism.
We lined up for the Italian Ice, one of the tents where one could have his fill of drinks and delicacies. With the smoothie in hand, we went from stall to stall displaying a variety of arts, antiques, and crafts. What specially caught my attention was the Gallery Without Walls that displayed Folk-Art created from “wood and tin reclaimed from derelict tenant houses in South Carolina. Slaves, Bluemen & Oystermen!” Dwellings of slaves and exploited laborers left to the mercy of the elements.
Why do I suffer you with all these, reader? Because when I go back to Bayan Ko, I’ll dig up the history of Oton, my beloved town by the sea, and initiate the forming of the Oton Historical Preservation Society. Challenging? Yes, why not? I’ll be advocating for the preservation of my town’s historic past, whatever is left of it—from what we have neglected, even destroyed: for instance, the chapel in the cemetery desecrated by its deplorable modernized exterior. And the pulley and the rope inside the chapel used by the Spaniards to hang insurrectos, where are they now? Can the concrete steps on the river bank beside the then Taytay Batiano be restored? Old folks say the place was a busy port for commerce where boats plied the then wide river with their produce.
We’ll let the mansion of the long departed national figure, Jose “Pepe” Zulueta, who became Speaker of the House of Representatives and Secretary of Interior, remain standing. It was in there where my father, former Mayor Simplicio C. Carreon, mustered the courage to speak truth to power thus earning the admiration of his fellow Ogtonganons. We’ll make do with old photos such as that of the majestic Oton Church that the earthquake had turned to rubble, and the Taytay Batiano that was completely replaced by an ugly hunchback; photos of the punot, fish pens forever gone that brought to shore banieras of bilongbilong Oton was famous for; and a mural of palay golden grains, Amorsolo-type rustic sceneries that were replaced by grotesque suburban constructions.
A town museum will display Chinese artifacts unearthed from our grounds instead of being sold somewhere; a framed history of the 1663 Tapar Rebellion, proud reminder of the natives’ resistance against foreign invaders; also the Binalaybay verses that won the hearts of many a country lass preserved in book form; the wise sayings of our ancestors in crisp Ilonggo (love to see these imprinted on fine-grained narra and hung in my living room side by side with Desiderata); and much, much more.
The Oton Historical Preservation Society will be organized and will come up with Oton: a Historic Seafront Community. Coming your way, dear fellow Otonians — soon!
(Email: lagoc@hargray.com)
