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What a difference 150 years can make, huh? On Nov. 7, 1861, ships from the United States Navy circled Port Royal Sound, while Confederate soldiers on Hilton Head’s Fort Walker prepared for war. Fast forward to 150 years later and, around Fort Walker, you’re more likely to find a Yankee and a Southerner lobbing tennis balls at one another than cannon balls.
Needless to say, we as a nation have come a long way toward healing those old wounds over the last century or so. Our cover photo was inspired by the upcoming commemoration of the “War of Northern Aggression,” and we’re happy to say all of our re-enactors got along without even once opening fire on one another.
And as much as things have changed since the Battle of Port Royal, it’s amazing how much of that transformation has happened just in these last few years.
If you were to tell me ten years ago that Monthly would one day feature stories on a computer program that helps politicians get elected, and that this program would run on your phone, I’d have thought you were crazy. But here we are with a feature on locally grown app Stumpmate on page 35. Likewise, if you’d told me we were going to profile an islander who’d landed on the New York Times bestsellers list for not actually selling books and an up-and-coming Bluffton musician who was giving away all his music free on the Internet, I wouldn’t have believed it.
But there they are: locals CJ Lyons, page 26, and Trevor Harden, page 124, turning science fiction into reality.
And if you’d told me ten years ago we’d be giving away $100 just so you’d “like” us, well then I wouldn’t know what to believe. I still don’t know all the Facebook ins and outs, to be honest with you, but we’re giving away a $100 gift certificate to Daniel’s to one lucky fan of our Facebook page. We’ve been putting some great stuff on FB, including behind-the-scenes videos, breaking news stories and fun photos from area events, so it’s worth clicking that “like” button anyway. But with $100 from Daniel’s in the offing?
Well I think even ten-years-ago me would understand that’s just a good idea.
Even if present-day me is still trying to figure out how to work my smartphone.
