Sweet Grass Baskets
On the way home we drove down through the Charleston, SC area on HWY 17 and passed many stands where people were selling hand crafted sweet grass baskets. The roadside stand is a tradition dating back to 1929 when the bridge connecting HWY 17 to downtown Charleston was opened. Lottie “Winnee” Moultrie Swinton had the first stand, of sorts. Now there are several dozen on either side of the road. Most were empty, but we stopped at the the third and last stand open for business that we saw before crossing the bridge into the city. Sweet grass baskets are a tradition of many centuries brought over via the slave trade. Now as many as three hundred women in the area produce a quality handcrafted basket featuring sweet grass and pine needles. Many are sold at the Market in the center of town. I stopped at the stand of Elizabeth Cooper Eady who has been making baskets for fifty years. She learned from her aunt Catherine Cooper Johnso...