Palmetto Pride

We South Carolinians are proud of our palmetto trees. So proud, in fact, that we call ourselves the “Palmetto State.”

Not only are our palmettos beautiful, but they also saved us during the Revolutionary War. Fort Moultrie wasn’t quite finished, you see, so palmetto logs were used to complete construction. The logs were so spongy that they absorbed the British cannonballs, allowing the fort to remain standing under heavy barrage from British warships.

In South Carolina, you will see images of palmetto trees on everything. And here in the neighborhood, one of our favorite ways to display our pride is with … mailbox stands.

To my knowledge, a British warship has never fired on our mailboxes. But if that ever happened, I bet our mailboxes would still stand.