Patrick Properties

Last night, I attended the opening of Civic Action, the Civic Design Center’s new inspiring new exhibit on Charleston grassroots organizations working to better our fair city.

Leaders from Pecha Kucha Charleston, Pour It Now, Charleston Moves, Charleston Arts Coalition, Architecture for Humanity, Fields to Families, Charleston Miracle League, Charleston Horticultural Society, Holy City Bike Co-op, Louie’s Kids and Lowcountry Earth Force were out in force to give us all a taste of what their respective organizations are all about, what their passion is and how we can all get involved.

If you find yourself feeling blue about the state of things here in Charleston, get involved with one of these organizations. They’re all, in their own unique ways, making life as we know it better. And that’s just plain inspiring.

I certainly can’t close this post today without sharing with you that during the Civic Action get together last night, I watched as the news of Michael Jackson’s passing moved through the crowd as phones vibrated with text messages, news updates and phone calls.

It was a pretty surreal moment.

I’m not afraid to tell you that my big sister and I spent a truckload of our childhood hours in her bedroom dancing and singing our hearts out to Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall album.

There’s just no denying his impact on pop culture, in both good times and strange. And don’t even get me started on my love for the early days of the Jackson 5. I’ll just say this.

And, any girl who grew up in the 1970s who doesn’t have some sort of amazing memory of The Charlie’s Angels and by extension, Farrah Fawcett, missed something that would forever inform her existence as a woman.

That is not an understatement. Ask any woman who grew up in the ’70s who were favorite Angel was, and with the answer, you will know just a little bit more about her. (Mine was Sabrina.)

As a marketer but also sort of an arty nerd, I find it interesting to consider the impact our pop culture icons have: the singers, actors and entertainers who fill up our living rooms with music, moments and powerful imagery. 

It’s quite something to remember those moments in my front yard as I hollered, “FREEZE!” to my friend and assumed my best Charlie’s Angel pose, or when I sang breathlessly into my hairbrush in my sister’s room.

The stuff of childhood: to become someone else for an inspiring moment.