Three Charlestonians Who Put the "Chill" in the Chill Factor...and then some...
1. Born Mary Laurence Hutton in Charleston South Carolina in 1943, the uber cool and ultra beautiful (both inside and out) supermodel Lauren Hutton, not only graced the cover of Vogue Magazine a whopping 26 times throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, but also made her Charleston down-home sensibility synonymous with high fashion. A natural beauty, she refused to wear prosthetics to cover the now famous gap between her teeth, wrestled alligators, and drove a big_a@@ motorcycle across a continent or two. And she looked gorgeous all along the way... Probably the most chill southern belle on the planet, this beautiful lady continues to model and to encourage women 'not to listen to a 2,000-year-old patriarchal society….' in other words, chill out guys, the ladies have it goin' on too...
Seriously now....she got that alligator to CHILL OUT!.....
2. The son of an African American mother and a Russian Jewish father, Reuben Greenberg who passed away in September last year, served as Charleston’s first black police chief. Greenberg took office barely a generation after racial segregation ended; he served from 1982 until his retirement in 2005. Just five years into the job, the KKK petitioned the city of Charleston to allow the infamous hooded brood to march in downtown Charleston…. So how did Chief Greenberg keep the peace amongst the throngs of angry citizens who came out just to oppose their presence? Chief Greenberg read the rules to the Klan for marching in our fair city, and then led the Grand Dragon and his one-hundred hooded cronies down King Street….( talk about keepin’ the peace and getting everyone to “chill out”)…..(The KKK hasn’t been back since.)
The Grand Dragon was all kinds of chilled out in that '87 Charleston march...because Reuben Greenberg, a black-jewish man, put him in his place...(but still honored the KKK's constitutional right to march....) Well played, Chief Greenberg, well played...
3. Although not ‘born and raised here in the Lowcountry,’ Frank Abagnale, the subject of the 2002 box office hit and biographical crime drama Catch Me If You Can, has been a chill resident of Charleston SC since 2010. After serving time in prison, Abagnale turned his life around and even worked for the FBI for more than 30 years as one of the world’s foremost authorities on check fraud, forgery and embezzlement. This now famously chilled out trickster has said about his former life of crime…. “Most people are fascinated by what I did as a teenager, but when I look back at my life, I don't think very much about those years. I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.”
With that kind of personal insight and power to change for the better, the real Abagnale comes across even more chill than his charming and likeable film character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Charleston is home to lots of really chill folks. After all, being chill is a way of life here...especially in the summer months...you know those months when you probaly need to have your air conditioner serviced or repaired.... And Service First Heating and Air? Well, we've been chilling in the Lowcountry for over 20 years... And to this day, we're keeping it cool in the Lowcountry, one A.C. at a time.....
Until next week....
stay chill folks!
