Dear L. A. Plume,

 

It's that time of year again and I'm having my annual holiday party. Invitations have been issued and the count of people who will fit into the venue, the amount of food and drink I need, have all been calculated to fit into my budget, when lo and behold, several people have asked if they can bring a friend, a few family members, or some neighbors.

By Margaret Evans, Editor

In April of 1742, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah ignited the stage of Dublin’s Musick Hall, where a record-breaking 700 people had turned out for the superstar composer. (The ladies had been asked by management to wear “dresses without hoops, to make room for more company.”) From the first strains of the tenor’s opening lines – Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God – the massive audience sat spellbound, completely enthralled. The following year, Messiah made its London debut, where legend has it the “Hallelujah” chorus moved King George II to his feet.

Start your holiday celebration with South Carolina’s cultural ambassadors, The Hallelujah Singers, on Saturday, December 5 at 6:30 pm, at Campbell Chapel AME Church, 21 Boundary Street Bluffton.This popular annual tradition is free and open to the public! For more information contact Dr. Marlena Smalls at 843-271-8157 or Campbell Chapel AME at 843-757-3652.

Beaufort County’s ten most important 16^th century documents

Dr. Daryl Ferguson is the Founder of the Santa Elena Foundation. The Spanish town of Santa Elena, located on a remote end of Parris Island, was first discovered in 1979 by Dr. Stan South of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology. Ferguson, under the mentoring of Dr. Larry Rowland , did the research that proved Santa Elena was much more than the Spanish capital of La Florida.